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How to Sell More Products Online with Google Shopping Ads
In the world of Google advertising, there are plenty of opportunities. Surprisingly, very few take advantage of one of the most effective marketing solutions in the Google toolkit — Google Shopping ads. They drive effective traffic, lead to more conversions, and ultimately, bring orders. Shopping ads may well be a winning solution if you’re looking for a way to boost your eCommerce sales and revenue.
Google Shopping Ads 101: What are they and how do they work?
Google Shopping is a service that allows businesses to visually display their items to consumers.
This implies that if anyone searches for an item you offer, Google will display relevant shopping advertising for your items as well as those of your competitors. If the consumer clicks the button on your ad, they will be sent directly to the product page.
Google Shopping is becoming more popular, now accounting for about 75% of the total Search ad budget. There is no doubt that this figure will only continue to grow in the coming years. The user’s intent is a great advantage of Shopping advertisements.
Shopping ads have immense sales potential. Firstly, around 98% of people surveyed worldwide buy things online. Of the vast majority of available ads, Google Shopping Ads account for 85.3% of all paid clicks.
The user notices the goods with all the key information and clicks on the ad. Since the product description is laid out clearly and directly, a click means that there’s a very high probability of conversion. It means that the price and other item characteristics match the user’s needs, or are very close to what a person searches for.
Shopping Ads algorithms will gather data from your business automatically, create ads for your items, and match them with relevant search queries.
Generally, setting up a Shopping Ad would consist of a few simple steps. Let’s imagine that you are selling vacuum cleaners. Here’s what happens:
- You provide your product data to Google in the form of a product feed.
- Someone uses Google is used to search for a “Karcher vacuum cleaner”.
- Google’s algorithms choose the relevant vacuum cleaners from your business, make a shopping ad for then, and present it to the person who wrote the search query alongside other advertisements.
- The person sees the advertisements and selects your product among others.
- Once the person clicks on the ad, he is sent to your product page.
- Google charges you for each click.
The main difference between Shopping Ads and other formats is that Shopping ads may take more time to set up. On the other hand, they require far less continuous effort once you launch them. This is the primary reason why marketers recommend eCommerce stores to start with Google Shopping. Unlike with Search Ads, there is less room for error, which inevitably means more efficient use of your advertising budget.
Are all Shopping Ads Paid? What Is the Average Shopping Ad CPC?
No, not all Google Shopping ads are sponsored campaigns. Many of them are free, organic listings. If your Merchant Center feed is already properly configured, you can qualify for organic listings by opting in or checking to see if you are already opted in to “Surfaces throughout Google” inside your Merchant Center account.
The primary distinction between paid and free Google Shopping advertisements is control. You have no control over where your ad appears or how competitive it is against other shopping listings when you use free listings. In terms of page ranking, free ads are always behind paid ones. The average cost per click of the paid Shopping ad is $0.66, regardless of the industry.
How to Set Up Google Shopping Ads Effectively?
To begin advertising with Google Shopping, convert your store products into Shopping advertisements. You will need:
- An eCommerce store with products in it
- A product feed
- A Google Merchant Center (GMC) account
- A Google Ads Account
Creating a Google Merchant Center Account
The first step in creating your account is to update your business details. This covers things such as how you want your trademark, your main accounts, homepage link, and address to appear to public.
- Verify your website URL and make sure that it complies with the Merchant Center requirements
- Configure your tax and shipping preferences
- To integrate your product feeds into Google Ads, connect your Google Merchant Center account to your Google Ads account.
Once you’ve completed all of your basic Merchant Center tasks, you’re ready to get into the meat of Google Shopping setup: creating your product feed.
Setting up your product feed
A product feed is the core of your item showcase. It contains all the necessary information for Google to convert your store items into Shopping ads. It is important to choose high-quality images, see if your prices are always up to date and check if all the product descriptions are accurate.
Here’s a list of the things that need to be included in the product feed information:
- Product title
- Product description
- Product ID
- Product image
- Product link
- Image link
- Product price
- Shipping price or free shipping
- Product condition
- Tax (applicable only in the US)
For some product groups like Apparel there are some additional requirements set up by Google:
- Age group
- Gender
- Size
- Pattern
- Material
- Quantity (single product or multipack)
- Global Trader Item Number (GTIN)
- Product group ID
Once you’ve collected all the needed information, your product feed should be submitted to the Google Merchant Account. In GMA, there’s an option to use feed rules when feed data is uploaded.it pretty much works as an autofill for the data units you’ve missed, and gives you a possibility to create custom information columns.
Creating a Google Shopping ad in the Google Ad account
Once your products are configured and approved, the next stage is to create the campaign in your Google Ad account. If you already have the account, the algorithm is quite simple: start a new campaign and choose “Shopping” among the campaign types.
Then you’ll be able to choose between Standard and Smart shopping campaigns. The main advantage of a Smart campaign is its wide reach, while the main limitation is that it’s managed automatically with no possibility of further control or optimization.
Once you’ve picked a preferred ad type, finish the ad setup. This includes naming your campaign, setting up a budget (e.g. $10/day), selecting a bid technique like Manual CPC, and choosing the channels where you want your ads to appear.
Conclusion
Google Shopping ads are a great addition to your advertising strategy. Google Shopping advertising is a great option for businesses looking to maximize their ROAS with its capabilities offering all-encompassing data. The ad performance reports from your Google Ads account can help you understand it your ads actually help you reach the KPIs you’ve set.
Shopping ad campaigns can improve your CPC rates, bring your products closer to your potential customers, improve the quality of your leads, and expand your ad outreach. If you’re looking for a professional way to set up Google Shopping ad campaigns and be sure that they will run uninterrupted and drive conversions for your eCommerce store, try Adwisely today.