How to Create Google Shopping Campaigns from A to Z in 2023

As a comparison to standard Search Advertising, using Google Shopping campaigns will help you generate up to 12% more income per click. That’s on top of the fantastic $2 return for every $1 invested that Google PPC currently provides! Follow our comprehensive tutorial, which covers every step required for a profitable Google Shopping campaign.

How do Google Shopping campaigns work?

Google Shopping ads is supported by two platforms: Google Ads and Google Merchant Center. Merchant Center uses your product data to decide how and where to show your ads to Google Shopping ads.

In particular, Google Shopping campaigns assist you in promoting your products. Customers can see precise information about what you’re selling before they click on your ad. This differs from standard Google Ads campaigns, which mainly focus on keywords. When Google matches a user’s search to your ads, they will utilize these specifics to ensure that specific images and information display the most relevant products.

Finally, with Google Shopping campaigns, you can track your products’ performance over time using retail-centric reporting tools.

Next, we will show you the basic requirements and how to manage these ads through Google Shopping campaigns.

Requirements for Shopping campaigns

Account requirements

These are must-have steps before running ads on Google Shopping:

• Create your product feed with basic title, price, and description information.
• Set up Google Merchant Center.
• Link your Google Ads account to the Merchant Center.

Sounds complicated, but with our thorough guide, you can set up your product in Google Merchant Center within a minute.

>>> See more: Google Merchant Center: What is it? How to set it up correctly?

If you still find it difficult to create a GMC account on your own or want to use an agency account for a better experience, feel free to contact Mega Digital. As a leading Google Partner in the APAC region, we provide entrusted Google Ads agency account rental service with the lowest fee in the market. Hit the button below to start running ads on your new premium account!

Policy requirements

Additionally, your Shopping campaigns and advertising content must comply with the Shopping ads policies, which differ from the Google Ads regulations. When you begin advertising, you must ensure that your type of business, items, promotions, and website match the standards for Shopping advertisements.

Google Shopping campaign types

Campaign types

Overall there are two types of Shopping Campaigns: Standard and Performance Max. Here are the differences between these two types of campaigns:

Which type should I use?

We strongly advise beginners to try out Standard campaigns before diving deeper. With Standard Shopping campaigns, you will have better control of the following:

• Keyword adjustment: You can check if those keywords are performing well and tailor your ads to use the right keywords. Also, it’s faster for you to find low search volume keywords as your tracking process gives you a better understanding of your audience.
• Product title optimization: Analyzing the keywords helps you locate your products and see if they might help improve the product title. Furthermore, you can test out the title with multiple keywords to test whether your ad matches exactly your customer’s search query.
• Bidding optimization: It’s easier to adjust how your products perform at any level of detail. Moreover, a Standard campaign allows you to test with a small amount of bidding and optimize your product for better conversion.

Aside from Standard, we will have a different guide for Performance Max campaigns since they can be complex and require many optimizations. You should use Performance Max when:

• Your advertising and conversion objectives are clear (for example, driving online sales, lead generation, and others).
• The channel does not constrain your advertisements to show if you want to maximize the performance of your campaign.
• You want to be able to quickly use a single campaign to access all of Google’s advertising channels.
• Beyond keyword-based Search campaigns, you want to increase your campaigns’ reach and conversion value.

How to set up a Google Shopping campaign 

Standard Shopping campaigns

Set up Objective

• Step 1: Log in to your Google Ads account.
• Step 2: In the “Overview” on the left, click “Campaigns”. Then choose “New campaign”.

• Step 3: Next, pick your campaign’s goal, and click “Sales”.

• Step 4: Choose “Shopping” as your campaign type.

• Step 5: Select the Merchant Center account that has the products you want to advertise. If you can’t see any accounts, ensure you have linked your Merchant Center account to your Google Ads account. 

• Step 6: Select the country where you sold your products. Confirm that it matches the country you specified in your product feed.

• Step 7: Choose your campaign subtype. Click the “Standard Shopping” campaign.

Select Campaign settings

Step 1: Choose your advertising preferences

Give your campaign a name to make it easier to find later. You can set names based on the campaign’s characteristics or product features.

(Optional) In additional settings, click on the drop-down to edit these settings:

• Inventory filter: Only if you want to restrict the variety of products used in your advertising campaign. Decide which requirements a product must meet to receive advertising and only add products if they meet every criterion you choose.
• Local products: Allow advertisements for products sold in local businesses. Local inventory advertisements can be used to advertise products sold in physical stores. Make sure you have local product data in the chosen Merchant Center account before incorporating local products.
• Campaign URL options: A tracking template can be created, and a Final URL suffix can be added. You should add custom parameters to your tracking template and final URL.

Step 2: Select your bid

Decide which type of bidding to use in your campaign. You can change this setting after creating the campaign. There are three types of bidding:

1. Manual CPC: You can adjust your bid. There is also the option of “Enhanced CPC,” in which Google will automatically change your bid based on its evaluation. For example: If your bid is $1, but Google thinks your ads have a good chance of leading to sales, it might raise the bid to $2. Moreover, choosing between optimizing for more conversions helps you get as many of your orders as possible while optimizing for conversion value and getting as much revenue for your business as possible.

2. Target ROAS: An automated bid strategy as Google will place a high price on a user search if the bid strategy determines that your ad will likely result in high conversion. In contrast, it will place a low offer if it thinks the search is unlikely to result in a high-value conversion.
3. Maximize clicks: An automated bid strategy as Google will send you as much traffic as possible. If you seek exposure for your site and product, this would be an excellent option for your branding strategy.

We strongly advise beginners to choose manual CPC with enhanced CPC, as your data history tends to lack conversion data. You can be more flexible with this option rather than losing a lot of money with an automated one. When you get used to the system and have 50 to 100 conversions, you can test out a target ROAS strategy for better optimization.

Step 3: Choose your daily budget

Select how much you will spend based on your objectives and chosen campaign. Initially, you can check within 30 to 50 dollars per day, and Google will limit the volume of the daily click. This will make it easier for you to test your campaign while still being profitable, and remember, you can change your budget at any time, so don’t worry.

Step 4: Select a campaign priority

Campaign priority determines the preferred bid for a specific product across different Shopping campaigns in the same nation. Campaign priorities do not impact the relevance of your search results or the likelihood that your goods will appear on Google Shopping.

Only someone with experience with various campaigns on Google Shopping should use this. As a beginner, you shouldn’t test out multi-campaign structures from the start since it can cost you lots of money on different platforms to optimize. It’s safer to start with one campaign, edit everything manually, and get used to each setting before diving into other strategies.

Step 5: Pick your networks

• Search Networks 
• Youtube, Gmail, and Discover

Shopping campaigns automatically display ads on these networks. You may enhance conversions and increase traffic to your products by using the default configuration. 

Most of our expert advertisers recommend unchecking both boxes next to the networks since their performance and results are pretty low.

Ads are automatically displayed on all devices, including computers and mobile phones. After the campaign has been created, you can modify this setting.

Step 6: Set up your locations

You can use this setting to narrow the areas where your advertising appears. There are other location options, but with the target setting, it’s more profitable to select “Presence to people in your targeted locations”.

Step 7: Enter your start and end date

This will be the duration of your ad, with a start and an end. This helps you control short-term ads and spend your budget more wisely.

Select Google Shopping ad format 

Enter a few pieces of data to create your first ad group. Individual product advertising in your ad group will be generated automatically utilizing data from your Merchant Center account.

• Ad group name: Set up a name for your ad group. Remember that at the beginning, all the products accessible to this campaign will automatically be live in this ad group, and you can limit them after creating the campaign.

Note: The structure of your ad groups should reflect how you want to place bids and group your products for campaign features such as negative keywords, bid adjustments, and the search terms report. For example, you could make an ad group for your top brands. This lets you set separate bid adjustments and negative keywords for your top brands. You can also generate a search term report for each ad group.

• Bid: Enter the bid based on your goal, the common bid is $1, and through experience, you can slowly increase the bid most suitable for your campaign.

After you’ve created an ad group, you’ll place bids in it using product groups rather than keywords. A product group is a defined subset of your inventory; all products use the same bid. For example, you could create a product group for all your products and bid the same amount on them. On the other hand, smaller product groups can be organized by brand or product category.

→ Click on “Create campaign”, and you are ready to go.

Furthermore, if you already have conversion data of up to 100 and wish to upgrade your ad faster, here is our simple guide for your Performance Max Campaigns.

Performance Max Campaigns

The starting process from step 1 to step 2 is the same as creating a Standard Shopping campaign in which you create a new campaign and select your objective.

Pick your conversion goals to improve your sales.

 After that, choose “Performance Max” as your campaign type.

From here, choose your Merchant Center account and the country or feed label where products are sold.

Finally, enter a campaign name and click on “Continue”.

Set up Budget and Bidding 

1. In the “Budget and bidding” section, enter the average daily amount you wish to spend. You can set it to a small amount to test the campaign conversion first.

Note: Try an average daily budget of at least three times based on your CPA or cost/conversion, and monitor your account daily to see how your campaigns are doing.

2. Choose your bid strategy: 

• Conversions: If you tick the “Set a target cost per action” box, the campaign will strive to reach the Target CPA you provide.
• Conversion Value: If you tick the “Set a target return on ad spend” box, the campaign will strive to reach the Target ROAS you provide.

We recommend using the “Maximize conversion values” bid strategy if you’re tracking values with your conversions. If you are greatly concerned with all of your conversions, we recommend using the “Maximize conversions” bid approach.

>>> Read more: The Best Google Shopping Bid Strategy and Tips to Improve ROAS

After finishing, click on “Next”.

Select Campaign Settings

1. Choose the location to target under “Locations” on the “Campaign settings”.
2. Add another location, input the name of your target location, and then choose Target or Exclude. Choose Nearby and then Target or Exclude sites to target specific areas within a location.

3. Choose the language you want your ads to appear under “Languages.” You can target specific groups of clients by selecting several languages.

Use the “More Settings” tab to configure your ad scheduling, campaign start and finish dates, and URL settings:

• Ad scheduling lets you choose the days and times your ad will appear. You may want your ad to appear just during business hours or when you are accessible to receive client questions.
• We recommend turning this on as it may boost the effectiveness of your campaign. The final URL may be substituted with a more suitable landing page from your final URL domain with a relevant dynamic headline, description, and extra assets based on consumer intent.

Set up Asset Group

Google may develop assets on your behalf, but you can start without supplying assets in the asset category. Listing groups are required and will default to include all items in the Merchant Center account supplied.

1. Enter a unique asset group name on the “Asset group” page. 
2. Validate the campaign’s listing groups. Listing groups enable you to choose which goods appear in the advertising of your Performance Max campaigns.
3. Create your asset group by filling in the information below.

4. This setting can help you speed up and instruct machine learning models on the best approach to improve your campaign.
5. Reflects the relevancy and range of your creative ad content. More relevant and original content can help you get the perfect ad in front of your customers and boost the performance of your ad.
6. You can add extensions to your ad campaigns, such as site links, calls, or other conversion-related kinds.
7. Ad assets enlarge your advertising and give users additional reasons to look at or act on them. Assets provide essential company info such as locations, extra links, pricing, and more underneath your ad.

Finally, a review summary with the specifics of your new campaign will appear before you complete setting up your campaign. Double-check, and to finish, click the “Submit Campaign” button.

END

We hope we have helped you to have explicit knowledge of the Google Shopping campaigns and how to set both types up. Remember that a well-organized campaign will help you improve performance and increase ROI.

If you struggle to set up your Google Shopping campaign and aren’t functioning efficiently, please get in touch with Mega Digital – Google’s official partner. Contact us and increase your revenue immediately with the best Google Shopping Advertising Service from Mega Digital.