The pandemic has changed the way online businesses function. Fortunately, it has made improvements for good. And, if you own an eCommerce store, you need to stick to protocols that can take your business a step forward.
One such strategy would be the use of Google Shopping Ads. You might be curious to know how to get more online sales using Google Shopping ads. Well, this is a free platform, and its reach ought to spread across the globe. If you have not tried to use Google Shopping Ads strategies, now would be the best time to leverage its benefits.
What are Google Shopping ads?
Google Shopping Ads are essential for promoting and driving more traffic towards an e-commerce store. Getting Google shopping ads started can be difficult. However, the moment you get started, Google would take care of everything. This is why business owners need to understand and make use of Google Shopping Ads. Google Shopping Ads fall in line with Google Shopping. This is a smart and intuitive shopping engine used by brands worldwide to advertise their products and searches.
In simpler terms, if a potential customer searches for a product, businesses and their respective products will be shown in the Google Shopping Ads.
Why Should You Use Google Shopping Ads?
1. Can get Highly-Targeted Traffic
A significant difference between search ads and Google Shopping Ads would be visibility. The chances of your website are shown on the search results page is higher with Google Shopping Ads. This means your site will receive better traffic.
To be more precise, you will receive traffic from target audiences. These ads offer relevant information, and this will increase the quality of your traffic (leads). Most of the time, shoppers are also looking for relevant information before making a purchase decision.
2. High Potential Customer Reach
With Google Shopping Ads, your products and services will appear in multiple search queries. For instance, if a customer searches for “burt shampoo,” three to four of your products will appear. This is because Google has special algorithms to find all relevant products to the keywords entered.
In traditional advertisements, keywords need to be bid across products separately. However, you don’t have this trouble with Google Shopping Ads. This is why you will reach more customers without much focus on the words you use to describe and identify products.
Google Shopping Ads is currently responsible for more than 65% of the Ads clicks in Google and 89% of the non-branded clicks.
3. High ROAS
ROAS is all about maximizing revenue. From every sale, you need to set a bid that will help you reach the target ROAS. With the help of Google Shopping Ads, you can increase the value of your target ROAS. In the long run, you will be able to see better conversions, even with a higher ROAS.
The increase will be as much as 250% of your existing ROAS. Optimization will further reduce CPCs. This, in return, would improve conversion results with a broader reach and result in optimal ROAS.
4. Can Manage and Optimize easily
For decades, advertising was only interruption-based. But, Google Shopping ads are quite different. It focuses on intentions. This is why managing and optimizing Google Shopping Ads is easy. If you are looking for a way of proving your brand’s meaning and value, this is a great place to begin.
Much of the ads depend on your Product Feed. The feed is designed with details about the products, ranging from title to description to price to image and more. Google relies on the product feed to find and present search results. And, this model makes it simpler to manage and optimize online advertisements.
5. Better Data and Reporting
To set up Google Shopping Ads, you need Google Ads. Google Ads are strongly linked to Google Analytics. With the help of Google analytics, you will track your ad campaigns’ overall performance.
These tools can be used to prepare reports. Consequently, this data can be used as a part of conversion tracking. When you are trying to impact and improve your brand’s conversion – this data is critical. It helps you understand more about the titles, images, descriptions, and even alt texts to add more value to your ads.
How Does Google Shopping Work?
Google Shopping ads depend on a particular file known as the “Google Product Feed.” The product feed has details about every product in your store. Google relies on the Product Feed for identifying products, which match with search queries.
If your business (or product) matches a search query, it will be displayed in the search results. If a potential customer clicks on the advertisement, it will be redirected to your business site. Google charges businesses for each click. Unless a potential customer clicks on a shopping Ad, your business will not be charged.
How to Create a Profitable Google Shopping campaign?
1. Make Product Photos and Listings up to the mark
When you build Google Shopping Campaigns, you need to upload adequate information into the product feeds. This will help in building a stronger campaign. As mentioned previously, Google makes use of the product feeds during searches. And, Google has discreet guidelines on how to display products against searches.
This is why your photographs should not have any logos, watermarks, or borders. And it should not feature multiple products. Likewise, the product photos should not be multicolored, dark, or even captured in backgrounds with patterns.
The photo should be clear and must occupy at least 75% of the space in simple terms.
2. Make sure your store compiles all requirements & Policies for google shopping ads
Building an e-commerce store is not simple. It calls for lots of dedication and the willingness to follow protocols. The store you design has to comply with policies and regional requirements. It should abide by the terms and conditions of Google Shopping Ads.
These regulations and requirements can be learned from the Google policies page. Ensure that you go through the policies page before getting your campaigns online.
Compliance is vital because deviating, even by small amounts, will do more harm than any good. If there are any deviations, you need to reconsider the campaign.
3. Create and Set up Your Google Merchant Center Account
Once the policies are met, you need to create your Google Merchant Center Account. The Google Merchant Center Account plays an integral role in the campaign. This is where all your product feeds and AdWords are entered.
Once Google Merchant is set, you will be able to use Google Tag Manager, add meta descriptions to your site, and even leverage the benefits of Google Analytics.
There are multiple ways of connecting your store to Google Merchant Center. Most of the time, businesses use an API to upload the product feed. However, you can also upload the product feed manually.
4. Create your Product Feeds
As mentioned previously, the product feeds play an important role in Google Shopping Campaigns. These feeds have to be optimized. Else, Google shopping algorithms will reject the product feeds. In the long run, this will cost you the target-driven CPCs. Many times, the product feed depends on the parameters you may never use. Always optimize the product feed. During this process, you will be able to generate results as expected.
Irreplaceable pieces of information in the product feed would be description, title, and price. Generally, you need to find images that match the product too.
5. Link Merchant Center Account to Google Ads
Google Merchant Center Account must be linked with Google Ads if it needs to access the product feeds. Fortunately, it is quite simple to establish this link.
6. Google Shopping Campaign Settings
- Country of Sale: Be aware of the countries you wish to engage in. Once the Google Shopping Campaign is successfully created, you will not change the country of sale.
- Inventory Filter: A significant reason for the popularity of Google Ads would be segmentation. You don’t need to include all your products in the feed. But, you have to focus only on the relevant ones. Always adjust the products entered in your campaign for better results.
- Bidding: You can choose from smart bidding methods like target ROAS, target CPA, and maximize clicks. And, you can also choose from manual or automatic bidding strategies.
- Daily Budget: Businesses can always tell Google how much they are prepared to spend a day. Once the daily budget is reached, the campaign will become ineffective for the day.
- Campaign Priority: Prioritization helps decide how much money and time you are willing to spend on each campaign. This prevents overlaps.
- Networks and Devices: The campaigns can show Google Discovery, Search partners, YouTube, and Search Network. The “Any networks” option will help you limit placements within networks. The same holds good for devices.
- Locations & Local Inventory Ads: Locations are used to limit the regions where Google Ads will be displayed. And, Local Inventory helps businesses decide if products sold in regional stores need to be included in the campaign or not.
7. Success your Google shopping ads are live now
Upon completion of the above steps, your Google Shopping Ads will be up and running. Now, customers will be able to see your brand when relevant searches are executed. However, the final rank of your business is governed by many more factors. The next few lines will help you improve your search results position in Google.
Top Google Shopping Ads strategies to get more sales
1. Optimize Your Product Titles
At all times, your product titles need to be crisp and void of spam. There should be no “errors” in the product title or description. And it must match the product as much as possible. The optimized title will improve your site’s CTR. This is why brands need to spend ample time building their product titles.
When it comes to product title optimization, there are many impressive techniques to choose from. For instance, the product title can include primary and long-tail keywords. This will increase your product’s click-through rate significantly.
Studies reveal that a well-framed product title can improve traffic by nearly 1000% for shopping ads.
2. Optimize Your Product Feed Descriptions & Categories
A similar study revealed the importance of product feed descriptions and categories. During the study, a baseball cap was referred to using party dresses in the description. The above link resulted in zero performance. If you have plenty of time to build product feed descriptions and categories, ensure that you focus on the right methods and words.
Always match the descriptions with your product titles. Ensure that there are no grammar or punctuation mistakes throughout the product description. Also, you need to minimize the use of special characters and exclamation marks.
3. Optimizing Your Product Images
The images used need to be compelling. Always check on the quality of the images. The product images should reflect the specifics of the product and your brand’s personality. Likewise, you need to optimize the images based on the device type. This is where the resolution and size of the image have to be altered.
When you create image links, ensure that they work. Both the image link and the product link should match. Irrespective of the number of products in your store, the images should be shot in a neutral background. And they should be of notable quality.
4. Use Google Shopping Ad Extensions
Google Shopping Ads makes use of two different types of extensions. The automated extensions include tax and shipping information. On the other hand, the merchant center programs are required for displaying merchant promotions, customer reviews, and product ratings.
Both these extensions are crucial for improving your site’s overall rate of conversion. Businesses need to understand that the Google Merchant Center plays a vital role in setting up ad extensions.
Automated extensions tend to extract information from the product feed. This data can be customized using default templates. If required, the templates can be improved based on brand needs too.
5. Use Products Rating & Review
Ratings and reviews are essential because online customers tend to learn more about products using these pieces of information. Advocating ratings and reviews will increase your odds of gaining new customers. This is why each product needs to feature “Real” reviews and ratings from customers.
Studies reveal that more than 80 percent of online customers trust and buy with the help of reviews. This is mainly because reviews and ratings are equivalent to recommendations. If you build a product page without reviews and ratings – the entire store will remain incomplete.
Meanwhile, be careful with negative reviews. More than 50 percent of customers believe and turn away from products with negative reviews.
6. Implement a Negative Keywords strategy
Negative Keywords tend to have many benefits. First of all, you need negative keywords to reduce the chances of your advertisements being displayed for the wrong and irrelevant searches. As a result, the overall performance of your campaigns can be maintained.
Experts believe that negative keywords have increased ROAS for many brands. It has helped in boosting conversion rates and even CTRs. There are four types of negative keywords: competitor terms, generic terms, products that don’t get sold, and irrelevant keywords. As you find more negative keywords, don’t forget to include them in your Google Shopping campaign.
7. Adjust Bids By Device Performance
The products and services you host within your industry will have target audiences. These audiences will influence every click your advertisement sees. However, the number of clicks will differ from one device to another. This is why the bids have to be modified based on the performance of ads in each device. What kind of devices do the “high priority customers” use?
For instance, if your products attract more mobile users than desktop owners, you should consider increasing the bid by 20%. This means your bid will increase from 1USD to 1.2 USD for mobile users.
8. Optimize by Geo Location
Target audiences play an essential role in any business. These audiences have unique requirements, which will differ from one location to another. Your marketing methods should also be improved based on geolocation. It would be best if you were sensitive to the demands and nature of target audiences in different geolocations. After all, audiences are the heart of any Google Shopping Campaign.
For instance, if geolocation is famous for accepting deals and discounts, you must ensure that the Google Shopping Ads and Campaigns stress periodic deals and discounts. Try to incorporate the “coupons” along with the shopping Ads.
9. Increase bids for High-Performance Products
Undeniably, some products from your catalog will perform better than the rest. These high performers will identify your brand. That is why you need to increase the bid around these products for higher returns. Even as you increase the bid, you are bound to see profits. And, when it happens, it is social proof that your top performer is genuinely a revenue generator.
For instance, if your “Red” dresses sell better than the “Blue” ones, you can increase the bid of your “Red” dresses by 20% or more. Yet, you are likely to see the “Red” dresses selling.
10. Create Remarketing Lists for Shopping Ads
Finally, you need to pull together a remarketing list. In straightforward words, this is all about targeting customers who once visited or bought from your store. There are two different types of remarketing strategies. One, you can opt for dynamic remarketing. This is where you send advertisements based on their previous searches. Google relies on the details you enter in the Merchant Center for building this strategy.
And, Remarketing Lists are much preferred for stores that are built using Shopify. This is not a campaign. Instead, ads are sent to customers based on the products and services they search for in your store.
Conclusion
On the whole, Google Shopping Ads is here to help you promote your online store. This platform is much different from traditional advertisements. Much of the work required is handled by Google and its algorithms when using “Google Shopping Ads and Campaigns.” Amid a pandemic, where more and more users are buying online, you can leverage Google Shopping’s benefits to see some revenue.
Additional resources
- Beginners Guide to Google Shopping Ads
- How to Troubleshoot your google shopping feed?
- What are the Requirements for google shopping Feed?
- Tips to Optimize Your Google Shopping Feed
- Google Shopping Feed Specifications Guide
Guest Post by AdNabu
AdNabu helps improve sales in Google Ads for eCommerce companies. If you are running the search, google shopping, or display campaigns in Google Ads, This software will increase your sales.
