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How to Optimize Google Shopping Ads

Feb 28, 2023 | HOW WE MAKE IT, TIPS & TOOLS

Do you ever search for things to buy online and notice ads showing up with pictures and prices? These are called Google Shopping ads, and they can be an excellent way for businesses to show you their products.

But did you know that there are ways to make these ads even better? By optimizing Google Shopping ads, companies can make sure their products show up when people search for things they want to buy. In this article, we’ll explore some tips and tricks for optimizing these ads to make them more effective and help businesses sell more products.

Start by Optimizing Your Product Feed

Achieving success in Google Shopping campaigns is heavily reliant on optimizing your product feed. Your product feed acts as a repository for all your products, showcasing their attributes in a single-row format with individual information displayed in separate columns.

By optimizing your product feed, you can enhance campaign performance by ensuring it meets platform requirements, looks appealing in search results, and is both accurate and trackable. To use Google Shopping, it’s essential to link your Google Ads account to Google Merchant Center (GMC) and optimize your feed accordingly.

High-performing shopping campaigns necessitate both feed and campaign optimization. Your product feed is akin to SEO, requiring optimization and configuration to exhibit precise and pertinent information. It should include vital product information, such as Product ID, Product Title, Product Price, Product Description, Image, and URL.

Mandatory fields like Availability, Gender, Age Group, Condition, and numerical fields such as Price, UPC, MPN, ISBN, Shipping Weight, and Shipping Cost are also necessary. Category fields can be determined through the category ID or pathway.

Certain channels may require the use of a GTIN, which represents the numerical value of the barcode. The GTIN helps Google match and identify your product. If you lack a GTIN, you can use MPN or UPC as substitutes.

Tracking Metrics and Taking Advantage of Reports

Unlocking the secrets to optimizing your digital marketing campaigns can mean the difference between lackluster results and massive success. One crucial step in achieving the latter is getting familiar with the right metrics and reports. But not just any metrics or reports will do. You need the ones that provide you with the right data to make informed changes. Here are the top four reports you need to know:

First, there’s the Item ID Report. This report provides you with a performance breakdown of each product you’re advertising. You can sort the data by clicks to identify which products are your top performers and which ones are lagging behind. Armed with this information, you can focus on the high performers and remove the low performers to improve your ad spend.

Next, there’s the Device Report. This one tells you which device your ad traffic is coming from. If you notice that a specific product group is performing better on one device than another, you can adjust your ads accordingly to maximize conversions and ROI.

The Search Term Report is another valuable tool for improving your campaigns. Although you don’t use keywords in Shopping campaigns, this report shows you the specific queries that users used to find your ads. By analyzing this data and ordering it by cost, you can identify high-performing search terms and leverage them in your traditional Google search ads.

In addition to these three reports, it’s also crucial to look at your performance metrics, such as click-through rates and conversion rates, to gain a better understanding of how your campaigns are performing. By using the correct reports and metrics, you can make data-driven decisions that help take your campaigns to the next level.

Get More Clicks, and Pay Less For Them!

Optimizing your Google Shopping campaigns requires more than just monitoring your product ads’ performance. To truly improve your return on investment (ROI), you need to exclude low-performing search queries.

Although you don’t bid on keywords for product display ads, Google still uses search queries to determine which products to show. By reviewing which searches trigger your product ads and whether searchers are clicking through, you can filter out underperforming search queries. This process is essential for optimization, as it allows you to make the necessary adjustments for more clicks and better ROI.

To filter these low-performing search queries, you should sort them by cost per conversion. This way, you can determine which searches are costing too much and ultimately driving up your ad spend without generating enough revenue.

For example, if a search query generates 40 clicks but results in only one sale of $100, while another term brings you 60 clicks and four sales of $100, you may be spending more on the first search term, even though your conversion rate is lower. By monitoring these terms regularly, you can ensure that you get the most clicks for your spending and make the necessary adjustments to your Google Shopping campaigns to improve your ROI.

7 Essential Tips for Optimizing Google Shopping Ads

1. Use High-Quality Images

High-quality images can make a huge difference in the performance of your Google Shopping ads. Make sure your product images are clear, high-resolution, and well-lit to capture the attention of potential customers.

2. Optimize Product Titles and Descriptions

Your product titles and descriptions should be clear and informative, including relevant keywords and any unique selling points. Make sure they accurately describe your products and include any necessary details that customers need to know.

3. Use Negative Keywords

Just like with traditional search ads, negative keywords can help you filter out irrelevant searches and save money on ad spend. Make a list of negative keywords to exclude from your campaigns to ensure your ads are only shown to relevant audiences.

4. Monitor Your Competitors

Keep an eye on your competitors’ prices, promotions, and ad copy to ensure you’re staying competitive. You can use tools like Google’s Auction Insights report to see how you’re performing in comparison to other advertisers.

5. Test Different Bid Strategies

Experiment with different bidding strategies to see what works best for your campaigns. You may find that a manual CPC bid strategy gives you more control over your spending, while an automated bid strategy like Target ROAS (return on ad spend) can help you maximize your ROI.

6. Use Seasonal Promotions

Take advantage of seasonal promotions like holiday sales and back-to-school discounts to boost your Google Shopping ad performance. You can also use ad customizers to create dynamic ad content that reflects current promotions or inventory levels.

7. Regularly Review Your Data

Keep a close eye on your Google Shopping campaign data, including metrics like click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and average order value (AOV). Use this data to make informed decisions about your campaigns and make adjustments as needed.

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Post Contributors

Jaclyn Hawtin

Jaclyn Hawtin

Director of Technology

Over a decade of experience in product management, devops, startups, and agile methodologies. Track record of simplifying complex technical processes for cross-functional teams. Proficient in user centered design, UX, IX, UI, IA, user research and data analytics for responsive web, mobile and tablet applications. Incredibly adaptable, fluent with both people and machines.

Mani O'Brien

Mani O'Brien

Director of Marketing

Mani is a senior marketing manager with roots in storytelling. She nerds out on everything data, technology, human behavior and design. Chat with her about UX/UI, marketing funnels, conversion and goal tracking, marketing experimentation and astrology (she’s a Virgo Sun, Aries Rising).

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