The best eCommerce brands know that Google Shopping Campaigns cannot be overlooked when it comes to influencing online purchasing behaviour. 

If you're an eCommerce business owner or manager, and you haven't considered the revenue-generating potential of Google Shopping campaigns, it's time to set one up. Google Shopping campaigns are a fantastic way to increase visibility, attract new customers and boost sales. 

Here are some ways to set up a Google Shopping campaign and set your business up for success. 

What are Google Shopping Campaigns?

Whether you're a seasoned salesman or just starting out, you should know about the perks of Google Shopping campaigns for retailers.

You've probably seen a Google Shopping ad when you've performed a Google search for a specific product. These are the ads that often show up across the top of the page when a Google user makes a query for merchandise. For example, a brand like "Prada handbags" or type of product, such as "vacuum cleaners".

These ads are especially effective at grabbing consumers' attention for several reasons, including:

• They're directed at qualified leads (customers looking to purchase your products)

• Google Shopping campaign ads are usually placed at the top of search results (the first thing the user sees)

• These ads include high-quality images, rich descriptions, and prices of featured products (the info that potential customers are typically looking for when they perform a search)

Even if you are a brand new startup that shoppers have never heard of before, you'll be able to compete with more established brands to get traffic driven to your site when you set up a Google Shopping campaign.

This is a huge plus for retailers that rely on the internet for their sales. It's also especially helpful to introduce your business to customers that fall within the category of your target audience.

Benefits of Google Shopping Campaigns

Google Shopping campaigns are available to both eCommerce and brick and mortar retailers. They offer a long list of benefits to local, national, and international sellers alike. The main ones are:

• Added exposure for your products and brand - grabs more attention

• High conversion rates

• Attaining better-qualified leads

• Your ads can appear more than once for a single search query

Unlike PPC ads, Google does most of the work for you when you set up a Google Shopping campaign. You don't need to do any keyword research yourself. The search engine selects keywords for your ad based on your product data feed.

While this makes Google ads a lot easier than PPC management, it's still possible to optimise your data feed for better results. Next, we’ll look at how to do this.

Setting up your Google Shopping Campaign

In order to reap the rewards of a Google Shopping campaign, you must first set up a Google Merchant Center account. 

If you haven't registered for a Google Ads account, you will have to complete this process first. You can do this via your Merchant account page or go directly to Google Ads to register your business, which some users find to be the simpler option.

Next, you'll need to link your Google Ads account with your Google Merchant account. 

From here, you can visit the Google Shopping webpage, which provides detailed instructions to guide you through your next steps. For best results, review the steps before you begin.

You might also look over Google Shopping campaign best practices and benefits to familiarise yourself with how they work before embarking on your own shopping campaign.

Once you enter the requested information you can create a merchant feed using the spreadsheet form provided by Google.

The procedure is a simplified form of Google Ads, based on PPC bidding. The Google Shopping platform explains everything you need to know. So, even if you're a beginner, you'll be able to compete with big-name retailers that sell products similar to yours.

How long before your Campaign goes live?

Your Campaign won't go live immediately because Google need to approve your product feed, which usually days 1-2 days. After your feed is approved, it takes another day before the Campaign goes live. 

If you're in a brand new account, it may take more time to get started because of account verification. 

How to optimise your Google Shopping Campaigns

One way to manipulate which keywords your products will rank for is to add negative keywords to your campaign. These are usually terms that have low buyer intent, like “benefits’’.

When you use this option, your product will not appear in searches using these terms.

You can also get maximum impact from your Google Ads campaigns by limiting the type of products displayed. You do this by going to 'Advanced Shopping’ settings and using the Inventory filter to choose the products displayed in your campaign.

When you’re running more than one campaign, you can also adjust the priority of each one with the ‘campaign priority’ option.  

If you don’t like the results you get from the methods above, the next step is to raise the bid for your ad.

Get started today

Although anyone in the retail industry can set up their own Google Shopping campaigns, the process can get complicated for those without any prior digital marketing experience.

Even retailers with digital marketing skills can get find it overwhelming to run their own campaigns online. If you're anything like many business owners, when you factor in your current duties and responsibilities, finding the time for anything else might feel close to impossible.

If you're short on time, or simply don't have the patience for a do-it-yourself marketing campaign, we can help. Our team takes the stress out of marketing your business.

Curious? Furious? Intrigued? We’re always happy to share our knowledge of digital marketing and have a chat about your business. Come on over, we’ll have coffee.