Google Shopping: Integrating with Merchant Center and Improving Performance

Starting with the basics, what is Google Shopping

Google Shopping's first iteration was called Froogle, a pun on the word “frugal.” Froogle was founded in 2002 by Craig Nevill-Manning. Froogle was a way for consumers to compare features and the best available price, which was not always accurate. If interested, users could click through to the site and learn more. With Froogle, businesses could list products free of charge. Eventually, the platform was renamed Google Products in 2007, as users go to the product section and pick the items they want to compare.

Google Products then evolved into Google Shopping in 2012. Businesses had to pay to be part of the revamped shopping program. However, this included accurate prices and images. Users could skim the products and narrow or widen their search. The power of search pushed Google Shopping to the consumer engine we see today. This is where it's an all-in-one platform to compare multiple results on products. Google Shopping was a tremendous leap forward as it boosted conversion rates by 30% vs traditional text ads.

Today, there are multiple places to show up:

• Google SERPs (search engine results)

• Text Only

• Shopping section: Previously, the Products page as users still preferred to include shopping-only results

The Role of Google Merchant Center

Merchant center allows businesses to upload and advertise their products. Vendors supply information on their eCommerce store, shipping, and taxes, connecting it to Google Ads via Merchant Center. Once the platform is linked, users can create a feed option on how their product feeds and which genre of products to include within shopping ads. Some ways to do this:

• Automated feed: This is via feed management software sent by a third party connecting to your inventory. Essentially gate-keeper approach.

• Direct API Connection: This is linked directly; the four larger platforms are Shopify, Big Commerce, Woo Commerce, and Presta Shop. However, others are still supported outside of these larger ones. If supported, all products are integrated directly into Google Shopping.

• Data Export and Import via manual: This is not recommended due to the inventory's complexity.

Connecting between the Google merchant center and ads is simple:

• Find your Google ads number: the ten-number ID account number number

• In your Merchant Center account, click the tools icon and click “Linked Accounts” under “Settings.” A quick note: You need to link from Merchant Center’s side first.

• Click “Create Account,” follow the guidelines, and link both accounts by entering the ten-number ID number for your Google ads account.

Building Campaigns

Now that you have linked the merchant center interface and Google ads, you can begin building the shopping campaigns. You can choose various objectives, such as custom or sales, but sales will most likely apply here. Choose your placement type from here: you can go the PMAX or Standard Shopping campaign route. I lean more toward PMAX, which uses the full breadth of Google’s platforms and placement: YouTube, search, display, discovery & shopping to market products.

Technically, you can include YouTube shopping ads into a brand and consideration campaign objective as a subtype or as a standard shopping extension via a “search network.” This is similar to search, where you can target search + other partners such as Google display or Youtube.

About two years ago, SMART Shopping campaigns were absorbed into the PMAX campaign type. Standard shopping campaigns are still available, but these are more manual. Standard shopping ads use PLA, aka product listing ads and search. PLA and Google shopping ad types are used interchangeably. For this article, we’re focusing on setting up PMAX Shopping ads.

After choosing the placement type, objective and building the ad set, PMAX will ask to create agnostic copy and link YouTube ads, search copy, and other assets, as it uses dynamic targeting outside of PLA. However, the shopping ads themselves will write themselves. This is via the content supplied by Google Merchant Center. Regarding grouping, our agency works with four fashion brands: we recommend combining clusters such as blouses, dresses, shorts, pants — or shoes and socks. Another example includes separating one product category, such as accessories. This will allow the ad groups to be segmented and controlled.

Bidding and Targeting Options

In terms of buying options, I recommend maximizing conversions. This automates bids to maximize sales with key audiences. Regarding targeting, PMAX works from a seed audience and extrapolates with acquisition audiences. Several years of PMAX and comparison data show PMAX relies heavily on retargeting audiences. Google understands this and provides an option to lean more into acquisition audiences. Unless requested by the client, I recommend including acquisition audiences within the seed/audience signal portion of the buy and monitoring performance. If ROAS is strong at launch but decreases, use this as a possible option to improve performance.

Additional Tips to Improve Performance

• Similar to Google Search campaigns, include negative keywords to improve performance. Examples include “cheap,” “bargain,” or “inexpensive” to filter out audiences with low average order values.

• As an optimization tactic, investigate separating branded and non-branded products. Again similar to search tactics.

• Use automated bidding: Use manual bidding only if you have the time and know how to optimize manual bidding. My advice is to use Google’s billion-dollar algorithm to your advantage.

• Double-check your geo: Note that Google goes as wide as possible with targeting. This includes defaulting to broad wherever possible, so keep checking your settings. Make sure your audience is “regularly in your targeted location.” This is not included with Shopping ads, but make sure the campaigns do not default to Canada + US vs. the United States only. This is something all Google ad buyers should double-check before publishing any campaign.

• Take advantage of retargeting: A Google study shows a candy bar sale takes 20 touchpoints, an e-reader takes 150, and buying an airplane ticket takes roughly 500. The meaning here is frequency = purchases. I’ve gotten into the habit of running a small to moderate retargeting display campaign. This is based on interacting with the product listing/groups or visiting the landing page.

• Special or seasonal discounts can also be incorporated. Especially with the PMAX campaign, as headlines and descriptions can be used, such as “Get Your Black Friday Discount” or “All Shoes $50 Off.” This ties back to grouping shopping products as we want the merchandise aligned with the correct creative.

• Understand your spend-to-conversion ratio. Spending $10 daily but expecting a $1,000 AOV item to convert will lead to frustration. Understanding your first few conversions will be at a loss as machine learning is working to convert visitors. A new campaign is a long-term effort as you build shopping loyalists and funneling them through your ecosystem.

• This above leads to scaling your ads but keeping track of the signals such as ATC (add to cart), IC (instant checkout), landing page views, and submitting information. These all show visitors learning your smart funnel and becoming part of your ecosystem for an eventual purchase. This is especially the case with PMAX shopping campaigns.

• Make sure to set up your abandoned cart emails: this help remind users and build frequency to bring them back to convert.

Lastly, understand benchmarks before you begin and check your campaigns daily. Especially when launching, ensure the pipes are connected, and the signals are within benchmark.

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