{"id":17133,"date":"2020-08-15T18:51:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T18:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kickads.co\/?p=17133"},"modified":"2020-08-15T18:51:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T18:51:17","slug":"the-complete-guide-to-google-shopping-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kickads.co\/en\/the-complete-guide-to-google-shopping-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Guide to Google Shopping Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Complete Guide to Google Shopping Ads<\/h1>\n

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In recent years, with the popularity of online shopping, more and more online stores have been established. Many physical stores have also launched online platforms for customers to purchase, such as PARKnSHOP, HKTV mall, Adidas, etc., and the consumption patterns of customers are also changed. Due to the epidemic situation, they are more keen to buy products online. Online shopping has undoubtedly become the current market trend and competition among stores has become increasingly fierce. Online stores are using a variety of advertising formats to help promote sales and Google Shopping Ads is definitely one of the most popular advertising formats among it.<\/p>\n

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What is Google Shopping Ads?<\/b><\/h2>\n

When users are searching for products they are interested in such as Adidas NMD (as shown below), Google Shopping ads will appear on the search results page.<\/p>\n

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Each Google Shopping Ad includes an image, product title, price, name of the retailer and sometimes some retailer-specific information like shipping costs or reviews. It allows the audience to compare and shop for products across different retailers who have advertised their products on it. <\/span><\/p>\n

The best thing for E-commerce stores is the audiences will be directed to that product page right after they click on the Shopping Ads. It could help increase the conversion rate since it shortens the customer journey by landing audiences to the specific product page, instead\u00a0of home page or category page that audience needs more time to play around the website, where it lowers the conversion rate likely.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Where do the Shopping ads appear?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Google shopping ads will be shown on top of or next to the search result (separate from text ads) and the google image.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It will also appear in Google Search Partner websites and The Google Display Network, which includes YouTube, Gmail, and Google Discover.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why use Google Shopping Ads?<\/b><\/h2>\n

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1. Eye-catching position in search results<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Google Shopping Ads appear at the top of the search engine result pages (SERP), above search ads and organic results. This visual format can attract most of the clicks which help to boost the traffic and drive the audience to purchase your products. It is a good way for you to increase brand exposure as the online visibility of your brand increases.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. Reach the potential customers precisely<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Google Shopping Ads will be shown based on the audience\u2019s search terms which means your products will be displayed to the audience who are already interested or familiar with what you sell. Thus, their purchase intention is relatively higher. When they click the ads, they will reach the product page directly and this can facilitate the shopping process. This also provides a chance for them to explore your website and become a repeat customer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. More visual touch than text ads<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Shopping ads show the product image, title, price, brand name and even a short description of your products. These ads give the audience a strong sense of the product you are selling before they click the ad, they’re less likely to bounce. Shoppers who don’t recognize your brand name are still likely to click your ad based on the image, rating, and price. This can help acquire new customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. Broader reach with Google Shopping Ads<\/strong><\/h3>\n

More than one of your Shopping ads can appear for a given user search. Also, Shopping ads can appear at the same time as text ads if the keywords are relevant. It could provide access to the audience to browse a full variety of products that match their search such as ads for sports shoes and text ads for sports equipment. This means your reach with shoppers for a single search could be doubled.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Google Shopping Ads Setup<\/b><\/h2>\n

Step 1: Create a Google Merchant Center (GMC)<\/b><\/h3>\n

The first thing we have to do is to create a Google Merchant Center. Fill up the basic information that it requires you to do so. Verify the GMC according to the methods provided. Google Merchant Center is a Google’s platform that gets your store and products available to the shoppers online when they search on Google properties. It is a total free tool and easy to use. Follow our steps and you will get it done without hassle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Step 2: Create a Product Feed on Google Merchant Center<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Once we have verified the domain and gotten everything set up, the next step is to upload products to Google Merchant Center. There are 2 ways to upload products to GMC and they are automatic upload and manual upload. Literally we can use API to automatically upload and update products to GMC from the website, OR we manually upload and update products in bulk using an excel sheet<\/span><\/p>\n

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Click on Products, then choose feeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Select the country of sale. If your shopping campaign targets Hong Kong, then you may select Hong Kong in the Country of sale. If you target Malaysia, then select Malaysia. Bear in mind that your products have to be available to ship to the whole country, or else your GMC account will be disabled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Language, just select the language of your product feed. If you have an English product, then you may select English. Language mismatch of the feed and language chosen here may lead to disapproval.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here is the step 2 of creating and uploading the product feed. There are several ways to upload the product feed to GMC. Mainly we will be demonstrating Google Sheets and Scheduled Fetch. Google Sheets is served as manual upload and scheduled fetch is automatic upload. Firstly, Key in the primary feed name: \u201cAll products – English\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Manual Upload: Google Sheets<\/b><\/h4>\n

If your website is not supporting content API or any plugin (like Shopify or WooCommerce), or you only have a few products that you don\u2019t have to spend too much time on building up a product feed, using Google Sheets to upload manually is your choice!<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you already have built up a product feed, you may choose \u201cSelect an existing Google spreadsheet\u201d.\u00a0 Or if you are completely new, you can \u201cgenerate a new Google spreadsheet from a template\u201d. It will require you to log into your Google Drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You will see your feed is created and we can click on Google Sheets \u201copen\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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After you click on that Google Sheet, you will find out there is an excel sheet that requires us to fill in a bunch of data. These data are the product details that we have to handle. You may follow the instructions to input the required fields. ID is unique for each product and there are 2 important fields that you have to plan carefully and they are title and description. It will affect the ad rank of Google Shopping Ads as these are serving like Ad Relevance in Quality Score.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, you will have to input the google product category correctly to each sku that you have to upload. <\/span>Click here<\/span><\/a> to check all the available product categories. To understand all the attributes on the feed, <\/span>click here<\/span><\/a> to read and check all information you need before you proceed. If there is any product update, ilke in stock \/ price \/ quantity, you will need to update the product feed here and REFETCH again to notify Google Merchant Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Automatic Upload: Google Sheets<\/b><\/h4>\n

Upload manually costs tons of times so we do recommend an automatic upload. If you are using WooCommerce or Shopify (or sitegiant in Malaysia) to build your website, you can manage to upload all your feeds with no hassle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After clicking on \u201cScheduled Fetch\u201d, you will have to set up the details. The best thing of using automatic upload or Scheduled Fetch is the product feed is synchronising with products on the website. If there is any change or edit on the website, we don\u2019t need to update anything on the product feed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I will name File name to \u201cShop Auto Sync\u201d. Fetch frequency is how frequent you want Google Merchant Center to re-fetch your product feed. Normally I will just remain Daily at 12:00am. The most important thing here is to input the FILE URL here. With the help of plugin, we can get a url here and this url contains the whole product feed here. Example below is a Shopify\u2019 case<\/span><\/p>\n

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There are lots of plugins \/ apps that can generate a product feed but personally I think <\/span>Google Shopping Feed<\/span><\/a> is one of the best, easy to use and very reasonable price<\/span><\/p>\n

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After you install the app, click on it and it will direct you to a panel<\/span><\/p>\n

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We are not doing an advanced campaign structure at the moment, but instead we want to build up a simple campaign with all products. You may take a reference of each button in the panel but the most important part is to \u201cSave and Regenerate the Feed\u201d after you do any changes. Then we can copy URL and insert to Google Merchant Center – File URL. Secondly, click on create feed. Finally, you will see a feed is created.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bear in mind that you can click into your feed and click on \u201cFetch Now\u201d. The feed will be run and all you need to do is wait for 1-2 days to get all the products fetched as below.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You will be seeing your products here. All IDs, prices, condition, availability and all other attributes are shown here. If there are any disapproved products, you can check on Diagnostics where you can find any issues of products, feeds and GMC account level.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Writing Powerful Google Shopping Product Titles<\/b><\/h4>\n

For shopping campaigns, the main factors to get a high rank are biddings and keywords. Biddings are very understandable but for keywords, we have to put it nicely into our title and description. There are lots of good guidelines on the internet available. You may check out the optimization tips below<\/span><\/p>\n

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Step 3: Connect Google Merchant Center with Google Ads Account<\/b><\/h3>\n

After you have done your product feeds, the next step is linking up Google Merchant Center with Google Ads Account.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If the GMC email address has a google ads account, then press Create Account. If not, you have to link up a Google Ads account. Key in Google Ads CID after pressing \u201cLink Account\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Do remind you to log into your Google Ads account and approve the GMC link up access. Then the preparation works are all done.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Step 4: Setting up Google Shopping Ads<\/b><\/h3>\n

Here comes to the final part of Google Shopping. You may log in to your Google Ads account first and create a new campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Same as setting up search campaigns, we select \u201cCreate a campaign without a goal\u2019s guidance\u201d and select Shopping campaign. Remember to select the Merchant Center account correctly and select the country where products are sold.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Campaign Type 1: Smart Shopping Campaign<\/b><\/h4>\n

Smart Shopping Campaign is launched in 2019 and Google has utilized all Google channels to show Shopping Ads. You may watch the video below to get a clearer picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

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