A brief guide to Shopping 2 What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping is a service used by online retailers to promote their products. Google Shopping results appear on results pages and on selected Google Search Partner websites such as YouTube and Amazon.com.

Once a free-to-list service, Google Shopping now operates a pay-per-click model, with retailers advertising their products on Google Shopping via Google’s AdWords advertising platform. A brief guide to Google Shopping 3

A quick history

2002 2007 Google releases Froogle, a Froogle is renamed Google Product Search, and product listings standalone product search start appearing alongside regular Google search results. Retailers engine which allows retailers gain the ability to promote their product listings via Google to list their products for free. AdWords on a pay-per-click basis

2016 2012 Google Shopping is now used by over 25,000 Google Product Search is rebranded as businesses worldwide. With over 1 billion Google Shopping, and transitions to a pay- products listed, it is considered a must-have to-play model; retailers must now pay per element of any eCommerce marketing strategy. click in order to list their products. A brief guide to Google Shopping 4

Key Google Shopping facts

1 2 3 Generates more There has been a OpinionsMore than on 100link than £3.5 billion 200% increase in qualitybillion searchesdiffer from are in revenue each Google Shopping personmade onto personGoogle and tend to be year clicks basedevery on month gut feel

4 5 6 15% of daily Google Shopping OpinionsMore than on link1 searches are new is now utilised in qualitybillion differ products from searches 23 countries personare tolisted person and tend to be globally based on gut feel A brief guide to Google Shopping 5

Understanding the jargon

Google Shopping Generally used as an over-arching term to describe all elements of the Google Shopping service, including campaigns, product feeds, and ads. Also used to refer to the Google Shopping search page.

Google Merchant Center All products are added to Google Shopping via a Google Merchant Center account. The Google Merchant Center account is then linked with Google AdWords, where Google Shopping advertising campaigns are managed.

Product Feed Products can be added to Google Merchant Center via automated feeds or manual spreadsheet uploads. For simplicity, we refer to both of these as product feeds.

Google AdWords & Google AdWords is Google’s online advertising platform. All Google Shopping advertising campaigns are Shopping Campaigns managed within Google AdWords. An AdWords Google Shopping campaign is required to promote products on Google Shopping.

Google Shopping Ad The actual advert in Google AdWords. Google Shopping Ads are technically referred to as Product Listing Ads in the AdWords interface, but we refer to them colloquially as Google Shopping Ads. A (Product Listing Ad) Product Listing Ad can include a promotional text snippet, and can be applied to multiple products.

Search Term The actual text that the user searched for on Google. Search Term reports contain search terms that an ad appeared for, and can be found in the keywords section of Google AdWords. A brief guide to Google Shopping 6

Why online retailers should use Google Shopping

1. Higher click quality – maximise sales Only pay for ad clicks from users who have: Ads contain more product information than a traditional search ad, are displayed alongside similar products from other retailers and operate on a cost- • Shown intent to buy per-click basis. They are therefore much more likely to convert into sales than • Seen the price traditional Google Search text ads. No other Google Search ad format provides • Seen a product image • Compared your product this type of highly-qualified ad click. with other retailers

2. Dynamic targeting – advertise entire catalogue effectively Google Shopping campaigns do not require keywords. Instead, the system automatically serves an ad when it determines that a user’s search is relevant to a listed product. This allows you to easily advertise your entire product range, maximising reach and visibility.

3. Powerful reporting and competitive data – track profitability See how your products are performing at any level of granularity eg. how many clicks were achieved for a product category, a specific brand, or even a specific product. When used in conjunction with eCommerce tracking, you can measure return on ad spend to ensure that your Google Shopping ad campaigns are profitable. A brief guide to Google Shopping 7

3 tips for Google Shopping campaigns A brief guide to Google Shopping 8 1

Optimise your product feed

Google Shopping products are added and managed via the Google Merchant Center. Products can either be uploaded manually via a spreadsheet, or automatically from your website via a feed.

To ensure success, keep your feed up to date and always address errors and optimisation suggestions which can be found in the Data Quality tab in the Merchant Center. A brief guide to Google Shopping 9 2

Add promo text

Google Shopping ads appear in Google AdWords as product listing ads. Each product listing ad has an optional field for ‘promotion’, in which you can highlight your unique offerings and key selling points. This is a feature that is often overlooked by Google Shopping advertisers, and can help set your ads apart from the rest. A brief guide to Google Shopping 10 3

Audit your search terms

Google’s systems automatically decide when to serve an ad, and can sometimes serve ads for search terms that are irrelevant or low quality. Regularly check your search term reports and add negative keywords to prevent your products from showing for irrelevant or poorly performing searches. Maximise your Google Shopping

If you’re new to Google Shopping or want to get more from your campaigns, speak to our experts today on 0845 123 2753 or email [email protected]

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