When a user enters a query into Google, the search engine gives him a list of relevant links to pages with the information he needs. However, in most cases, this information is described only by a Title and a short Description, which is not very informative. But with the help of Google Shopping you can show in the search results not only text descriptions, but also photos with additional information.

Thus, the user even before going to the website can see your assortment with photos and prices. This means that it is easier for him to choose the product of interest and place an order. You, respectively, can thus increase sales and profits. We would like to tell you what Google Shopping is and how to set it up correctly.

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping (GS) — is a type of advertising campaign that allows an advertiser to show their products on Google’s search engine based on a user’s query.

It looks like the following:

• At the top of the search results, items from Google Shopping are displayed with a photo, price, rating, and store name.
• Below the Google Shopping results are advertising links.
• Even lower down are the organic results.

So GS allows you to be above not only “organics”, but also Google contextual advertising. And this is a really important advantage.

The user can also go to the “Shopping” tab in the search window to explore additional assortment, filter products by a number of specifications, and compare them among themselves

How does Google Shopping work?

To summarize the way GS works very briefly, it boils down to six components:

1. Online retailers upload their product catalogs to the platform via Merchant Center, then Google indexes this data to informatively but concisely display it in search results.
2. Users enter queries in a Google search or directly on the Google Shopping platform, and the service displays the most relevant products taken from different online stores.
3. Additionally, users can filter the results by different parameters such as price, brand, rating and others. Here it is also possible to compare the prices of the same product from different online stores.
4. Buyers can view reviews and ratings of other members, which helps to make the final decision and make the right choice.
5. Online store owners can create additional paid RCs to improve the visibility of their products in GS. It is these offers that then appear at the top of the search results.
6. After selecting a product, the user is redirected to the merchant’s website to finalize the purchase.

In this way, Google Shopping helps shoppers to find products that are relevant to them, and helps businesses to more effectively promote and advertise their products on Google Search.

Advantages and disadvantages of Google Shopping

There is no such thing as a perfect advertising platform. And Google Shopping is no exception. It has both clear advantages and quite obvious disadvantages, which we have to tell you about.

Advantages of Google Shopping

The main strengths of the service include the following:

• Broader Reach. You, as a seller, have access to a large audience of Google users and can more effectively reach new customers both domestically and around the world.
• Increased visibility. GS allows you to increase the visibility of your products in search results, and even on the first lines.
• User-friendly product management interface. Merchant Center allows you to conveniently add new products and manage your own catalog. And built-in analytical tools allow you to constantly monitor the productivity of campaigns.

Other benefits include extensive options for customizing targeted advertising and integration with other Google tools, particularly Google Analytics.

Disadvantages of Google Shopping

If we talk about disadvantages, the GS has them too:

• High competition. If you offer popular products, be prepared for very high competition for a place in the search results.
• Advertising costs. Paid advertising campaigns can be quite expensive. For small businesses, the costs are sometimes unreasonable.
• Some complexities of customization. It takes some knowledge and skills to accurately and correctly customize product feeds in Google Shopping. It is also necessary to regularly monitor and improve ads to get the best results for the same budget.

In many cases, these shortcomings are not critical to a business. However, you should be aware of them if you plan to use Google Shopping as an additional tool for advertising and increasing sales.

Site requirements for Google Shopping connection

For a complete list of the rules for using Merchant Center and Google Shopping, please see Google Help. It contains all the information you need. We’ll focus on a few of the most important requirements:

1. You can only advertise products that you actually sell.
2. Product information should only be placed in supported languages. The language of the description must correspond to the language of the landing page. Posting in several languages is allowed, but make sure that it matches the language of the page.
3. Information about return and refund policies should be added.
4. You need to ensure security when collecting and storing data. Confidential information can only be collected on pages with SSL protocol, and it is forbidden to use it in any way without the customer’s consent.
5. In order to use Google Shopping, you must confirm ownership of the website by claiming ownership of the website in Search Console.

Additional site requirements also apply:

• accuracy of contact information;
• the security of the purchase process;
• indication of available payment methods;
• clear and fully working process of making a purchase.

Google recommends that you log in to your Merchant Center account at least once every 14 months. Otherwise, the platform will assume that your product information is no longer up to date.

Setting up Google Shopping

The first setup for beginners can really cause some difficulties. It takes a little practice, preferably under the guidance of a more experienced professional, and you will be able to perform this customization without much difficulty yourself. Or you can delegate this task to third-party specialists. We will tell you at a basic level how you can configure everything yourself.

Creating a Google Shopping advertising campaign

To create your first RC, you need to follow a few mandatory steps:

1. Create a profile in Merchant Center if you don’t already have one.
2. Create a profile in Google Ads and link both accounts (more on this later).
3. Upload a product feed in Merchant Center and set up a new RC in Google Ads, specifying the title, budget and bid.
4. Create ad groups and select products for each individual group.
5. Set up targeting and schedule of ads.
6. Launch the campaign, monitor results and perform optimization to achieve better performance.

Additionally, you can set up remarketing and use smart campaigns in Google Shopping. This helps to automate many settings and reduce your involvement in the customization processes.

Linking Google Ads and Merchant Center

Google Shopping supports many bundles with other Google services. But perhaps the main bundle to start with is Google Ads and Merchant Center.

The easiest way to create such a bundle is as follows:

1. Log into your Merchant Center profile and click “gear” (settings).
2. Go to “Linked Accounts.”
3. Click “Link a Google Ads account.”
4. Click “Create an account” (if you don’t already have one) and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you already have a Google Ads account, you can also link it in your Merchant Center profile. To do this, you need to get a unique customer ID, which is displayed on all Google Ads pages. Next, in the “Linked Accounts” settings item, select Google Ads, enter your ID and submit a linking request. After that, all that’s left to do is confirm the new linking in your Google Ads account.

For more information about linking accounts, see Merchant Center Help.

Creating and loading a commodity feed

A master product feed is the main source of data about your products. To create such a feed, you need to:

• Collect information about products: titles, descriptions, price, images, categories, identifiers, etc.
• Select the feed format: TXT, CSV or XML.
• Create a feed file and make sure that each row represents one product and columns represent product attributes.
• Fill the feed file with mandatory attributes: id, title, description, link, image_link, price, availability.
• Fill in additional attributes to improve visibility: brand, gtin, mpn, condition.
• Check feed file for errors, make sure all data is correct and complies with Google requirements.
• Upload feed file to Merchant Center.

To upload the created feed file you need to log in to your Merchant Center account, go to “Products” and “Feeds” section, click “Add feed”, upload the prepared file and follow the further instructions.

Creating and loading a data feed (mandatory attributes)

A data feed is a file that contains detailed information about your products using special attributes. The file itself can have any of the above formats:

• TXT — is a plain text document.
• XML — text document in .xml format.
• GZ — Gnu zip compressed text format.
• ZIP — compressed text format Zip.
• BZ2 — Bzip2 compressed text format.

In general, you can use any of the above formats. It is much more important to correctly specify the mandatory attributes of the data feed:

• Title — a short but informative product title. It should clearly describe the product and include keywords that users can use to search for your product. For example, “Apple iPhone 15, 128GB, Black”.
• Description — a detailed description of the product, including the main characteristics, advantages and features. The description helps users better understand what they are buying. For example, “A 128GB smartphone with powerful Apple A16 processor and a next-generation 48 MP camera for stunning pictures.”
• Google_product_category — Google’s product category. This attribute helps Google correctly identify which category your product belongs to. Google’s official category taxonomy is used for this purpose. For example, “Electronics > Communications > Telephony > Mobile Phones”.
• Product_type — the product category of your store’s taxonomy. This can be a more detailed or specific category that helps you better organize and manage your products. For example, “Electronics > Smartphones > Apple”.
• Custom_label_0-4 — Custom label fields that you can use to organize and filter products within your ad campaigns. For example, you can use them to label seasonal items, sale items, or high-priority items. For example:
  • Custom_label_0: “Seasonal Sale”
  • Custom_label_1: “High Priority”
  • Custom_label_2: “New Arrivals”
    • Custom_label_3: “Bestsellers”
    • Custom_label_4: “Coming Soon”
• Tax — information about the taxes applicable to the product. This attribute is mandatory, for example, in the USA. It may look like this: tax_rate: 7.5% (the percentage varies depending on the taxation system in the country or region).
• Shipping — information about the cost and conditions of shipping the product. In the attribute you can spell out the cost of shipping, its terms and regions where you can deliver the order. For example:
  • shipping_price: “100 UAH”
  • shipping_region: “Ukraine”
  • shipping_time: “1-3 business days”.

Data feed attributes may seem a bit complicated at first. But they are actually quite simple to work with. With a little practice, you will be able to create such feeds as quickly and accurately as possible, including using your own templates to speed up the process.

Once your data feed is ready, all you have to do is go to Merchant Center, open the Products section and the Feeds tab, click the plus sign and upload the file. If you encounter any difficulties while preparing or adding the feed, you can get more detailed information on the relevant page of the Merchant Center Help.