New sales channel: creating a Google Shopping Shopping campaign

Since Google Shopping has finally become available in our area, we decided to find out how to work with it, and the guys from Penguin-team shared with us the basic setup algorithm.

Shopping campaigns are created in AdWords for Google Shopping - a marketplace like Yandex.Market. This is a great option for an online store that needs to increase sales without overpaying (the CPC in Shopping is lower than in Search) and expanding the audience of buyers (many people search for products exclusively on marketplaces). You will need an AdWords account plus Google Merchant Center during setup. It is here that the lists of goods are formed, i.e. feeds, in the cat. Google itself searches for what it needs using the keys when it receives the corresponding search request from the user. Now about the procedure:

Step 1. Create a Merchant Center account

First, you need to register an account with the Google Merchant Center - a standard form - and then confirm the site and claim the rights to it. It is important to do this in order to be able to upload product information to the Merchant. The site confirmation ensures that the resource belongs to you, and the statement of rights links it to the account. The algorithm for both procedures is indicated directly in the Merchant Center.

Step 2. Create a feed in the Merchant

A feed is a sign that contains detailed information about the goods being uploaded: name, price, availability in stock, discounts and promotions, and other data.
It can be created from a Google spreadsheet, Excel file on a PC, using automatic data download from the site or via the Content API.
In its finished form, it is added to the Merchant in the "Products" tab → "Feeds" → "+" button . All new lists are moderated from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, and the state of moderation is tracked as follows: "Products" → "Diagnostics" .

Step 3. Merchant Center and AdWords Integration

After preparing the feed, the Merchant Center and the Adwords need to be linked. To do this, in the Merchant, click on the button to the left of the avatar → "Link to other services" :

• if both accounts are linked to the same e-mail, just click "Link account";
• if the mails are different, open AdWords, copy the client id (10-digit code) from the header and enter it in the “ID” field in the Merchant.

Step 4: create an AdWords Shopping campaign

Shopping campaigns are done according to the same principle as search and display networks: in Adwords in the Campaigns tab → + Campaign button → Google Shopping option . In terms of settings, they are similar to the rest of the RC, with the exception of 5 parameters:

1. Merchant ID - if you link Merchant Center accounts of different stores to Adwords, you will have several options to choose from.
2. Country of sale - where the goods will be sold.
3. Campaign priority - if the products are repeated during segmentation in several advertising campaigns, then the campaign with the higher priority will win the auction.
4. Product filter - needed if a group of products should not be shown in ads.
5. ! The "Local" parameter is configurable and works only in these countries: Canada, USA, Australia, Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Brazil.

Optimizing Google Shopping Campaigns

• To increase the efficiency of shopping malls we recommend the following methods:
• Add negative keywords to exclude irrelevant keywords and lower ad costs. You can collect keys and negative keywords using the built-in scheduler , manual analysis of search queries, or special tools . And it will be even safer to combine them.
• Test different bids and stay competitive: with a large lag in bids, in comparison with other online stores, traffic to your site will be significantly less, which means that conversions will be lower.
• Add keywords to headers - this helps to increase traffic.
• Use remarketing to put the squeeze on people who have visited the site and, possibly, remembered the brand. Or those that aim to buy and get stuck at some stage in the funnel.

Want to increase your ROAS - your ROI? Use segmentation, for example, according to the following parameters:

1. Marginality: If a product has high marginality and competition, you won't lose by using higher rates compared to low-margin products.
2. Seasonality: few people buy skis (and not only skis) in the summer, so the rates for the corresponding keys vary from season to season. If the products in your campaigns are divided by season, it will be easier to control bids.
3. Product category: Promote laptops separately from mice.
4. Special shortcuts: Collect together the highest-margin products, with which you can not be afraid of an increase in rates, and the lowest-margin, where you need to be careful, and also divide the assortment according to other criteria.
5. Type of queries: in Google Shopping, branded and non-branded queries work differently, so it is better to create 2 campaigns for them. To non-branded - add branded queries as negative keywords. This way, all branded traffic will go through the branded campaign, which is more convenient for analytics.

4 easy steps - and you have a marketing campaign that will help you increase turnover and sales in your online store!

Remember that these are only basic steps. Those who have not encountered setting up Google services will still have to refer to Help, and more experienced ones will need to test and analyze so that the placement gives the desired results.