How Google Shopping Ads Works And How To Optimize It

Google Shopping Ads is an important advertising channel for your eCommerce. It's directly connected to the Google Search Network, which means you can advertise on Google.com and its new search engine: Google Images. Since it's a type of remarketing, you may know it as "Google Product Listing Ads". If you don't get these ads, you're missing out on valuable traffic. This article will teach you what Google Shopping Ads is, how it works and how to optimize it.

What Are Google Shopping Ads?

Imagine you're shopping online for a new pair of shoes. You open your browser and type in "shoes."

You're greeted with a page full of search results.

Some of them are articles, some are blogs, but most of them are ads. In the ad category, there's one type that stands out: the Google Shopping ad.

Google Shopping ads are a type of paid advertising that allows eCommerce retailers to display their products in Google's search results.

As opposed to traditional text-based PPC ads, Google Shopping ads display product images, prices, and other details, along with a link to your online store.

Shopping Ads For Retailers

Shopping ads are a form of paid advertising that allows retailers to showcase their products on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and other Google properties. Shopping ads have become a popular strategy for eCommerce merchants who want to increase their online visibility and attract more qualified leads.

Google Shopping Ads display product images, titles, descriptions, prices, and more, allowing users to easily find information about the items they’re looking for. Rather than paying a flat fee per click like with other types of ads, shopping campaigns require you to pay a certain amount for each ad that is clicked on.

Benefits of Google Shopping Ads

Shopping ads are ideal for marketers because they provide actionable information that attracts customers who are further along in the sales funnel.

When somebody performs a search on Google, certain results will be labeled as “Ads” indicating that they’re paid search results. If you click on one of these “Ads” you’ll be taken directly to the website of the business or product being advertised.

One advantage of Google Shopping Ads is that you only have to pay when someone actually clicks on your ad and visits your website since those people are already interested in what you have to offer.

You are given a lot of control over Google Shopping ads. You get to decide how much you want to spend on your advertising campaign and what keywords should trigger your ad. You also get to choose which products you want to promote.

Here's How it Works: When shoppers search for products on Google, images of available options will appear on the results page. The ads are displayed at the top or side of the page, so they're guaranteed to be the first things people see. If one catches their eye, they can click on it and be taken directly to the product page on your site.

How Do Google Shopping Ads Work

Google Shopping ads are online advertisements that feature product images, pricing information, and a link to the retailer's website. They appear in Google search results pages and on other websites.

Shopping ads differ from regular text ads because they use an image of the product rather than a headline, and they have price information in the ad. This is designed to make them very appealing to consumers.

Shopping ads appear at the top of search results pages, above the organic results, and with a "Sponsored" tag so consumers know it's an ad. They may also display on websites that participate in Google's AdSense program or on some Google Shopping partner websites.

Advertisers place Shopping ads by creating a Merchant Center account (if they don't already have one), and then setting up a campaign for their products in their Google Ads account.

How To Get Started With Google Shopping Ads

Google Shopping Ads are a powerful way for your products to stand out to shoppers who are most likely to buy. They display at the top of search results and display images, pricing, and other pertinent information that customers need to make an informed decision. continue reading to learn how to set up a Google Shopping Campaign, and why it's important for any eCommerce business.

Set Up Your Google Merchant Center

The first thing you'll need to do is create a Google Merchant Center account. This is where you'll upload product feeds of all the items you're selling on your website.

Step One: Set Up Your Account

The first step is to go to the Google Merchants site and click "Get Started." Next, follow the prompts through the sign-up process.

Step Two: Verify Your Website Domain

In order for Google to verify that you are actually an eCommerce store owner, you'll need to verify your domain by adding some code or uploading an HTML file to your website. You can select which method works best for you.

Step Three: Create Your Data Feeds

Now comes the fun part — populating your data feed with product information so that people can find what they're looking for. You can either manually add each product

Setting Up Your Structured Data for Google Shopping Ads

Structured data (also known as schema markup) is a standard way to communicate information about a webpage, a product, or a business. With structured data, you can add information to your pages that help search engines understand the meaning of your content. This improves how your products appear in search results, which can increase your shopping ad CTR."

Structured data is an essential part of setting up Google Shopping ads. It’s basic HTML that communicates directly with Google Merchant Center and tells it what the content on your page means. Google uses this information to know exactly what’s being sold on the page and how it should display in its search engine results.

Connecting your Merchant Center Account with Google AdWords

Google Merchant Center is Google’s platform for shopping advertisers to upload their product data and make it available on Google Shopping and other Google properties. Connecting your Merchant Center account to your AdWords account gives you access to more features in Shopping campaigns, like dynamic remarketing.

To get started, you'll need to be an admin of both the AdWords account and the Merchant Center account. Here's a quick walkthrough of how to link your accounts:

Sign in to AdWords, then click the Campaigns tab at the top.

Click the +Campaign drop-down menu, then select Shopping campaign.

Click Select a Merchant Center account. In the pop-up that appears, select an existing Merchant Center account or sign up for a new one.

If you're linking an existing Merchant Center account, you'll see its name under Select a Merchant Center store ID (required). If you're setting up a new Merchant Center account, you'll need to create a new store by entering details about your business (your URL, country of sale, and currency) before creating a Shopping campaign.

Best Practices For Google Shopping Ads Success

The future of eCommerce is in the hands of small businesses and entrepreneurs, who are the biggest spenders on Google.

This means that we are all in the business of Digital Marketing. But did you know that 97 percent of shoppers research products online before buying? With so much at stake, it's important to have a strategy in place to optimize your marketing campaign and help potential clients make an informed decision.

You can't be everywhere at once, so focus on these four best practices to get started:

1. Set up a Landing Page. Create a unique landing page for each product you sell. This will help customers find exactly what they're looking for quickly and easily.

2. Use Keywords That Drive Action. If you want more sales, use search terms that encourage buying behaviors, such as "buy," "shop now," or "purchase."

3. Determine Your Target Audience. Targeting segments is key when getting started with Google Shopping Ads, whether it's age, gender, or even what device they're using to browse.

4. Optimize Your Ad Copy. Remember that your headline and description will show up on Google search results pages too—so make sure these are relevant and descriptive!

Types of Google Shopping Ads

Google Shopping Ads can be used in two ways: as part of your standard search network, or as part of Google's shopping network. Which one you choose really depends on how much inventory you want to advertise and how much traffic you are looking for.

Google Shopping Tools

The power behind Google Shopping lies in its tools. There is a good chance that your inventory feed has already been added to their system so updating it is pretty easy. To make the most out of it, learn about campaign structure and optimization. You will also want to know where your product is showing up when someone searches and what factors affect the bids that your ads receive. Also, don't forget to check out the section on reporting, which is where you will find everything from keyword data to sales information.

Utilize Your Website Data

If you already have a shopping cart on your website, then it is most likely collecting data.

Data Feed Quality - What's in Your Feed?

Your Google Shopping Ads data feed is the information that you provide to Google about your products. If you are using a shopping feed management platform, it will take care of the data feed, and you don't need to worry about it. However, if you're managing your own feed, make sure you understand what goes into that data feed. This is crucial to ensure that your ads are as targeted as possible.

The key thing to remember here is that Google wants to know everything about each product you want to advertise through Shopping Ads.

This includes:

Unique Product Identifiers

Let's start with product identifiers. You might already know these as UPCs (Universal Product Codes), EANs (European Article Numbers), and ISBNs (International Standard Book Number). These identify the products themselves, so they have to be exact and accurate. If they don't match with the product advertised, shoppers won't get what they expect when they click your link. That will kill your conversion rate!

These product IDs should be provided for every product in your data feed. There could be a problem if one of them isn't available for a particular item, but this should be quite rare nowadays.

Shopping Ads Analysis

The quality of your data feeds is the single most important factor in how well your product listings perform on Google Shopping. I’m sure you’ve heard that before, but it takes on a whole different meaning when you look at the data behind those words.

I analyzed the performance data for over 20 billion Google Shopping ad impressions, from over 400 million product listings across multiple categories and countries. With this anonymized dataset we were able to conduct a thorough analysis of how every possible attribute in a product listing impacts CPCs and CTRs – or if there’s even any correlation at all.

Let’s start with some basics:

The average CTR for Shopping ads is 1.77%

The average CPC is $0.72

As you probably know, CTR and CPC are directly related. If you have a higher CTR but not much competition, your CPC will be relatively low. On the other hand, if your clicks are rare and hard-won because of stiff competition, your CPC will be higher.

So we need another metric to measure the relative effect that each attribute has on cost per click (CPC) and click-through rate (CTR), independent of other attributes in a listing.

Optimize your Google Shopping Campaigns

Once you have your Google Merchant Center set up, it's time to start making sure your products are appearing in the right places. Having an active and optimized Google Shopping campaign is key to driving traffic to your website. Below are some tips for you to optimize your campaigns, which will help you increase your sales!

Tagging Your Products:

All of the information that Google needs in order to display your products is contained within the XML feed that you upload into Google Merchant Center. However, it still takes a human being to verify where each product should be placed and how they should be displayed. Because of this, it is important that you provide as much information as possible about each product so that this verification process can go smoothly.

When you tag your products, make sure that the only variation within a single product listing is the color. Each variation of color should be listed separately. For example, if you sell t-shirts in white, black, and red then list each variation separately.

Example 1: T-Shirt (Black) T-Shirt (White) T-Shirt (Red)

Example 2: T-Shirt - Black T-Shirt - White T-Shirt - R

Make sure your ads are running at all times of the day. This is important because it allows you to reach potential customers who might not be online at certain hours or during certain days. Otherwise, your product could be advertised but no one will see it.

Don't just rely on broad searches like "women's shoes." Be specific about age, brand, and style so that you have a higher likelihood of showing up when someone does search for exactly what you're selling.

A/B Testing With Google Shopping Ads

A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a page or ad to see which performs better against a key metric, such as clicks or conversions. The goal is to maximize the performance of your PPC ads and campaigns by focusing on what works best.

Google Ads allows you to create variations of existing ads and campaigns in order to test new copy, keywords, images, and more. With A/B testing, you can determine what elements of your campaigns are most effective and make changes accordingly.

The benefits of A/B testing with Google Ads include:

You can identify what elements (images, headlines, call-to-action) resonate best with your audience

You can test whether certain keywords or ads perform better than others

You can use A/B testing to reduce the cost per click (CPC) and cost per acquisition (CPA) for your campaigns

You can optimize your ROI and revenue by improving overall campaign performance

In-store traffic is a challenge for most advertisers. The good news is that 97% of consumers are still using Google to find out information about products before they go shopping, which means you have an opportunity to compete for this highly coveted traffic.

To make a Google Shopping Campaign the best it can be, it takes someone that knows what they are doing. Since setting up a Google Shopping Campaign is very easy, it is important to know how to monitor the PPC campaign and how to optimize each ad group. This will save both time and money in the long run.