I like to joke with clients that I once tried a spoonful of wasabi thinking it was “Japanese mashed potatoes.” As you can probably guess, the spoonful I took was way too large, and was the equivalent of several sticks of dynamite. To others at the table, I must have looked like our friend Jim Carrey from The Mask:
Eventually, I learned the ropes, and became quite the sushi aficionado. I still am to this day. I became so fascinated with sushi that I began seeing my PPC campaigns through the eyes of a sushi enthusiast.
I started thinking of how I would sell sushi supplies to restaurant owners, and it proved to be a very productive thought experiment.
For Ecommerce operations, the Google Shopping platform is my number one choice for selling products to potential customers. I’m not alone in this -- a Sidecar study reports that retailers are spending more on Google Shopping than traditional Search ads (53% vs. 47%) in the US and the UK for the first time in advertising history.
"Even Amazon is doing it. If Amazon is investing in Google PLAs, consider it a giant neon sign suggesting that if you want to be in front of your customers, you need to be focusing on Google Shopping,” explains William Harris, Ecommerce Growth Expert, Elumynt.
Why? Consumers drive the change. According to a PowerReviews study, 35% of all online product searches begin on Google.
Marketers smelled this blood in water, and have made competing in Google Shopping difficult -- very difficult. In using the platform, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with droves and droves of marketers, advertisers, and others who are trying to produce the same results that you are. Some are hardened professionals (hello!), others are only now joining the party. The point is the same -- the competition with other e on Google Shopping campaigns (or any Google platform) is insane.
Product feed management can all seem like too much to take on, but there’s a silver lining -- things can (and will) snap into focus for you if you’re constantly optimizing the right areas of your campaigns. Product Feed is one of those areas.
I will explain why you need to focus on the Product Feed first, and how to optimize it so you can light your Google Shopping campaigns on fire.
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This is where you'll manage your ad campaigns, set budgets, and monitor your performance. You need to create an account with ads.google.com first and set up your billing information before you can start running ads.
This is specifically for uploading and managing your product data. To enable Shopping campaigns, first verify that you own the website, claim your URL, and link this account to your Google Ads account.
You can use Google Sheets if you're working with a smaller inventory. But as your product catalog grows, you need to use a dedicated feed management software, so you can maintain accurate product data and optimizing product catalogs efficiently.
A product feed is “a file made up of a list of products which use groupings of key attributes that define each one of your products in a unique way,” according to Google. Product data feed is a bridge between your product catalog and Google Merchant Center. See an example of what a Google Sheet's based product feed looks like below:
In sushi terms, it’s like a sushi menu, which is made up of various sushi maki rolls.
Your shopping feed is important because it affects two sides of Google Shopping campaigns:
Andrew Warren of Disruptive Advertising agrees, “It might not be fun, but getting your product data feed (the foundation of your online sales platform) set up right is well worth the effort.”
Google’s algorithm seeks to display a product for virtually all of their shopping searches. It’s up to you to structure and prioritize your product feed to get maximum visibility. Pay attention to two areas:
For example, if you are searching for “sushi knives”, here is what the results look like:
The Google Merchant Center is where you tell Google exactly what you're selling, from prices to product details. Without it, you cannot run Shopping ads.
At its core, Google Merchant Center is where you'll upload and manage your product data feed. Your feed will include everything from basic product details to complex attributes that help Google match your products with the relevant results in search.
When you submit your product feed to Google Merchant Center, it will:
Once your feed is approved, Google Merchant Center automatically syncs your product information to your shopping campaigns. So that when someone searches for products like yours, Google uses this data to determine whether to show your ads and what information to display.
Customers want to buy a specific product they want. Your job is to present that exact product when they search online. To do this, your Google Ads account should match the search queries that your customers are looking for with the exact product you want to sell. You also want to stand out from other Ecommerce businesses that are selling the same product.
You do this by providing key details along with relevant information that's optimized to match search queries in your product feed attributes. The more accurate the data, the better product visibility you will have and stand out from other sellers.
No. The same techniques I will share here can be applied to many different sales channels. Google Shopping might be your primary platform, but your optimized feed can be modified for use on other channels like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Wayfair, Target, and other marketplaces. Each platform has its nuances, but the core elements of a well-structured feed stay the same.
To optimize your product data for more sales and targeted traffic, focus on the elements that have the highest effect on your product listing ad. Start with the areas that drive your shop's performance: titles, images, and pricing. Then optimize the rest.
To capture search queries, you need to do your keyword research first. Treat this process similar to the way you would treat paid search strategy and keyword research.
Since you can’t target keywords directly, include them in the product titles. To capture more relevant traffic, add feed attributes, such as product type, brand, color, or size to the titles.
Here are a few examples of how retailers selling sushi leggings to sushi enthusiasts use title and attributes:
Retailer A included the following important attributes in their title:
While Retailer B included only Product Type.
Since titles affect both targeting and relevance, don’t stuff your product titles with keywords. It may help to spread an ad around a little faster, but it’ll be a superficial and uninteresting ad that probably won’t convert.
For example, with the same search for sushi leggings, you can end up with sushi baby pants. Look how long the title is for this product.
By stuffing your titles, you’ll capture irrelevant traffic, and you’ll waste ad spend.
You want people to click on your listing, so relevancy to popular search terms is key. That means you need to write product titles as ads.
Be descriptive, but remember, less is more -- don’t let your title exceed the length of a tweet (130-150 characters is on the high end). If your title is too long, Google will cut it off anyway. See an example below:
Benjamin Spiegel, CEO of MMI Agency, suggests you “write product titles in a way your consumers talk about them; describe your products the way your customers would. Avoid using technical jargon and SKUs.”
Get in touch with your inner photographer -- use the best photos you can muster up.
Why? Your product images are one of the first things a customer will see when searching on Google. Your product image must command attention and describe the product. Images sell.
See an example below:
Which product image stands out to you? To me, it’s the middle one.
If you can't grab attention of your customers, you can expect them to go to your landing page.
Make sure you invest in your product images, because they will be responsible for grabbing the attention of your shoppers, which indicates relevancy to search queries.
Google’s message to us as advertisers is simple -- the more impressions you want, and the higher the quality impressions you want for a certain product, the tighter the balance you have to find between queries and product pricing. In other words, competitive pricing is king.
According to Wesley Parker of Clicteq, "Google’s emphasis on pricing—particularly ensuring that your pricing is competitive relative to other advertisers—is a key component of success: if your goods are overpriced, conversions volume can decrease by over 60%."
Another study, which shows conversion data for 2,000 products before and after undergoing a price hike, reached the same conclusion. A 43% product price increase resulted in Google reducing the impressions by 70%. See below:
Clearly, the lower the product price relative to market value, the higher the odds are that Google will prioritize your ad and serve it to users.
Keep in mind, the advice above might not work for every business—especially if you're dealing with Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies or tight profit margins. Retailers, for example, often struggle to cut prices because of agreements with manufacturers or the need to stay profitable in a competitive market. If that’s the case, focusing on other strategies like boosting product visibility with better ad targeting or running promotional campaigns could be a smarter, more sustainable approach.
Andreas Reiffen suggests that only 34% of conversions match the product that was clicked. Buyer behavior is very peculiar, and many users buy products that weren’t initially advertised to them.
This fact represents an opportunity for you. Since competitive pricing is a factor, you can select a limited number of low-priced products, called “loss leaders,” to drop the price even more.
Remember, your goal is not to make money from these products, but to drive traffic to your Ecommerce platform so you can sell higher price and higher margin items.
Let’s consider our sushi supply business example. Say a sushi rolling mat is your loss leader. As it turns out, there are sushi rolling mats ranging from $0.02 to $978.12. You set the price low on one of the products to be very competitive.
By having an ad for a sushi rolling mat on your site that uses low ball figures, you will earn Google's favor, and your ad will be served competitively, to lots of users.
A sushi rolling mat will not make your company too much money. Don’t worry, you have more expensive sushi knives available on your site. In addition, you can retarget buyers once they are in your online store.
Remember, your goal is to drive traffic. At the end of the day, your sushi rolling mat could be quite the revenue generator.
Once you got the attention of shoppers, product descriptions will help you get customers to your landing page. Product descriptions must follow SEO best practices to rank higher when customers search for products.
Here’s a good example of shopping results for sushi knives:
Look at the third listing, which lists a knife for $14,995. Their description focuses not on the product’s features, but on the history and quality of the knife.
Use relevant keywords and craft compelling copy to describe the product and its other important features. Don't just copy and paste boilerplate factory descriptions of your products.
You should focus on making sure that data accuracy of your input feed is as clean as it can possibly be. On the surface, it seems a plain old Google sheets file with a bunch of different attributes that no one sees.
The reality is this -- your feed attributes will be included in the product listing ads.
That means no unformatted text, or any tricks -- it’ll only serve to annoy end users and shoppers, which, in turn, will hurt your sales. On top of that your feed will get errors which will prevent your ads from showing in your Google Shopping campaigns.
That said, want to fix your feed errors and keep your feed up to date.
If you are using only the required fields to get an ad surfaced, you are missing out. Here’s an example containing additional fields that were included in the product listing ad.
In addition, if you are selling sushi pants, additional fields can help buyers find your products by certain attributes such as material, brand, or style.
One essential product feed attribute you can’t overlook is the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). A cornerstone of the retail industry, the GTIN serves as a unique identifier for products, simplifying online listings and ensuring accurate recognition across platforms. For retailers, including GTINs in your product listings isn’t just a nice-to-have—many marketplaces require them. Additionally, GTINs play a key role in product reviews. You can learn more about how we use them further below.
Google Product Categories are required for some products, including clothing books and music, but are optional for other product types.
Even if your products don’t require categories, to keep the ads more relevant, you should map the products to the official product categories. You can download a list of close to 5,500 categories.
Here are a few ways to get more specific, according to Google:
Benjamin Spiegel, CEO of MMI Agency agrees, and suggests you “ensure your product is listed in the correct Google Shopping categories. Use the Official Product Categories and get as granular as possible.”
Here‘s how you determine whether or not your competitors use official Google product categories: say your buyers are searching for “sushi rice”. Google gives a list of results, however, there is no “rice” category -- just Shirts & Tops and Rice Cookers.
Custom labels give you more control over how you structure and manage your campaigns. You're able to use up to five custom labels per product. By doing this, it's easier to:
For example, you might label products as "high_margin," "summer_collection," or "best_seller." This segmentation makes it easy to adjust your bids and budgets based on your goals, so you have precise control over your campaign's performance.
I've written a detailed article on Optimizing Your Google Shopping Campaign Structure for Success. Check it out.
If you have a brick-and-mortar location, Local Inventory Ads can help you reach customers who are searching for products in your area. They help you capture buyers who want to see or purchase your products in person. Unlike standard Shopping ads, these show real-time store availability to nearby shoppers.
To set it up, you'll need:
Market trends change but consumers want to see social proof when buying products.
Graham Charlton of Econsultancy states that “61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision, and they are now essential for e-commerce sites.” Reviews are social proof for buyers -- they are extremely helpful in convincing users to trust your brand.
Now, you can have two types of reviews: Seller Ratings and Product Ratings.
Seller Ratings are green stars next to your store name in the search results. You need at least 150 unique seller reviews, each from the past 12 months in order for your green stars to show up. Here is an example of how that should look:
Seller Ratings (via Google)
There are a few ways to collect buyer feedback, but the two most common ways are:
Google Customer Reviews is a new program. You can enroll with just a few clicks in your Google Merchant Center account.
Product Ratings are orange stars next to your products. The requirements are more lenient than Seller Ratings. You need at least 3 or more reviews for the product. Here is an example below:
Product Ratings (via Google)
Product ratings are not tied to your store. Google uses GTINs (Globally Unique Product Identifiers) to match products in your feed to the ratings. If your data feed doesn’t have GTINs, Google will try to use SKU, Brand + MPN pairs, and product URLs to find a match.
This means you should include GTINs for your products in your feed.
Google Shopping is officially one of the most effective means of getting your products in front of the right buyers.
As Google continues to get better at serving relevant products to their users, you similarly have to adapt and align your campaigns with the Shopping platform’s best practices if you want to be competitive. That means feed optimization and improving your product data your product feed.
As you’ve seen, the importance of having a solid understanding of product feed management can’t be overstated. It’s the lineup of products from your store that Google will interact with, and will serve (or not serve, depending on your performance) to their users.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re selling sushi supplies, sushi yoga pants, or any other product under the Sun -- the best practices are all the same. Follow the 9 tips and tricks we’ve just gone over and you will light your advertising campaigns on fire!
