Nowadays, eCommerce businesses are highly competitive and it is essential to have the latest and most effective tools to promote products and increase sales. Google Shopping Ads is a powerful tool that can help eCommerce businesses achieve these goals. This type of advertising allows businesses to showcase their products on Google Search, Google Images, YouTube, and partner websites. In this blog post, we will dive deep into the process of creating a successful Google Shopping Ads campaign. By the end of this article, you will know exactly how to create and optimize product listing ads.
Google Shopping Ads are a powerful tool for businesses to promote their products. These campaigns involve creating ads that feature a product's image, title, price, and the name of the business. When a user clicks on the ad, they are taken to the retailer's website where they can buy the product. This type of advertising is particularly effective because it allows businesses to showcase their products in a visually appealing way that captures the attention of potential customers.
In addition to the visual appeal, Google Shopping Ads offer businesses a lot of other benefits. For example, they allow businesses to target specific audiences based on s demographics, interests, and search behavior. This means that businesses can reach potential customers who are most likely to be interested in their products.
Another benefit of Shopping Ads is that they provide businesses with detailed analytics that can be used to optimize their campaigns. By analyzing data on factors such as click-through rates and conversion rates, advertisers can make informed decisions about how to improve their ads.
Overall, product listing ads are a highly effective way for businesses to promote their products online. By creating visually appealing ads and targeting specific audiences, businesses can increase their visibility and drive more sales.
Image from: Google Merchant Center
Google Ads Merchant Center is a useful tool for eCommerce businesses that want to create and manage their Shopping Ads campaigns. This tool allows businesses to upload and manage their product data, such as images, pricing, and title, so they can create campaigns that are relevant and effective. The Merchant Center organizes product data in a way that Google can easily understand, so businesses can create highly-relevant campaigns.
The Merchant Center also helps businesses manage and update product data. This means businesses can keep their product listings up to date easily, so their campaigns display the latest information about their products. With the Merchant Center, businesses can easily track sales, manage inventory, and optimize their campaigns.
The Google Ads Merchant Center is an essential tool for businesses that want to create and manage their Shopping Ads campaigns. Whether you're a small business starting with Google Ads or a large eCommerce enterprise optimizing campaigns for maximum success, the Merchant Center is the perfect tool for you.
Setting up a Google Merchant Center account is an important step in creating a Google Shopping Ads campaign. Follow these steps to set up your account:
These are not detailed instructions. We will make a full guide on how to do this in another post.
Now, let’s make a new campaign.
You want to start by hitting the blue button with a white plus sign. That will initiate the campaign creation process.
Now you will see the campaign objectives.
You can find all the details about campaign objectives in our Google Search Ads post.
These options basically adjust the rest of the campaign creation to your particular goal. We often choose to create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.
The next step is picking a campaign type. Since we are creating a Shopping campaign, that's what we will choose. After picking this option, you will be asked to choose a linked Google Merchant account, if you have multiple accounts. If you have only one, it will be automatically selected.
Next up we are going to pick our conversion goals.
You can set these up by going to Tools and Settings and clicking Conversions under Measurement.
While making Product Listing Ads, you will also be asked to pick between Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaign. Google is investing a lot into Performance Max, but we recommend sticking with Standard Shopping campaigns. This will give you more control and transparency in the setup process.
Next step is defining the settings of your campaign.
Give your campaign a name. We recommend using a campaign naming system for easier management.
Here you can also pick the product you want to advertise by filtering based on certain criteria, like brand for example.
Local products allows you to advertise local inventory product feeds that are available in your physical stores.
Campaign URL options allow you to set tracking parameters on the campaign level. You will be able to do this on an ad level as well.
Alright, now it’s time to set the bidding strategy for your product listing campaign.
You have several bidding options you can focus on. You can choose from Target ROAS, Maximize Clicks, and Manual CPC.
Target ROAS is a value-based bidding strategy. It allows you to target a return-on-ad-spend you would like to see on your campaign. To use this bidding strategy you must assign a conversion value to your conversion events.
Maximize clicks is a smart bidding strategy that will focus on delivering the most traffic to your website for the available budget.
You can also set a Manual CPC bid which allows you manual control over how much you want to pay per click on average.
When it comes to setting a budget, there is no right answer. Set an amount you are comfortable spending daily. Note that it sometimes happens that Google overspends. That's why you have to monitor your campaigns regularly.
Now let’s make sure you are using the right targeting options.
When it comes to targeting in Google Shopping Ads, there are a few options. First and foremost, make sure that Include Google search partners is turned OFF. This option will give you a lot of low-quality clicks.
If you have a preference on devices you want to target, you can set it here.
Pick a location based on your ICP. You can target worldwide, pick a country of your location, or manually enter locations you want to target.
You can also set a start and end date of your campaign. We usually never do this, simply because we monitor the campaigns daily. This is very useful if you have a lot of promotions or deals that are lasting only a certain amount of time and you don't want to manually edit them.
Last step is to set your Ad group and bid for it. This is where having multiple product feeds comes in handy.
For example, if you sell both men's shoes and women's shoes, you can separate them in two product feeds. That way you can have one ad group for men's shoes, and one for women's. You can bid differently on each of them, and watch how they perform separately.
Finally, the last step is launching the campaign by pressing the blue "Create Campaign" button.
While Product Listing Ads campaigns are highly effective, it is important to avoid common mistakes that can negatively impact your campaign. Here are some common mistakes to watch out for:
Google Shopping Ads can be a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses to increase sales and drive traffic to their website. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can create a successful Google Shopping Ads campaign. Remember to optimize your product feeds, use high-quality images, and set up proper product listing groups to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign.
Stefan is a marketer with 8 years of experience of working with various B2C and B2B brands.
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