Setting Up a Google Shopping Campaign - Beginners Guide

Google Shopping Campaign Set-Up

ad targeting google ads shopping campaigns Dec 07, 2022

If you are selling any products online, your core strategy NEEDS to include Google Shopping campaigns.

But for success with Google Shopping campaigns, you need to make sure that you have correctly set up your campaign, and this is for 2 reasons:

So that you can quickly see what is working & not working in your Google Ads shopping campaign
You can actually optimise your Google Shopping campaign

To be clear, there is now only 1 type of shopping campaign available in Google Ads, which is a standard shopping campaign. Smart shopping campaigns have been replaced by Performance Max campaigns.

👉 Increase Sales With These Shopping Titles!

Before we go through the process of setting up a shopping campaign, there are some important points I need to make:

To complete these steps, you need a Google Merchant centre account & product feed. I have included these steps in the beginner's guide below, and there are links in the YouTube video descriptions below plus, your online store like Shopify & Woocomerce have simple integrations processes and or plugins to complete this for you.
The other thing that you need to understand and consider is that shopping ads are very sensitive to price even if someone was to enter a very specific search term such as "men's Nike air max shoes", all of the ads would clearly show your store's price meaning that you will not get the click if your competitor has a lower price.

This is Good and Bad: Bad because it is very easy for a competitor to undercut you, but Good because if you do get someone to click on your shopping ad, you have already pre-qualified them on your price.

And this is why a correctly structured shopping campaign should have a much lower CTR but a higher conversion rate when compared to traditional search campaigns.

Account Structure

The biggest mistake I see with Google Shopping campaigns is that people DO NOT add in any product segmentation, meaning they just have all of their products in one big shopping Ad Group.

Your shopping campaign should follow the same structure as your search campaigns in that you should have multiple ad groups, which each ad group only targeting related products.

By using this setup, you can:

Quickly see which products are performing well and which products are underperforming and need extra focus for your optimisations
Add individual optimisations to each ad group, such as negative KWs, audiences, demographics & device targeting (once you start to get some initial performance data)

You can follow the link in my YouTube video description below if you want to get a copy of my Google Ads shopping campaign set-up guide.

If you are new to Google Shopping Ads, here is a complete beginner's guide on the setup process.

What are Google Shopping Ads?

Google Shopping ads are a type of advertising offered by Google that allows businesses to promote their products on the Google Search results page, Google Shopping, and other Google properties.

These ads typically consist of a product image, price, and store name, and they are designed to help users quickly find and compare products online. When a user clicks on a Shopping ad, they are taken to the advertiser's website, where they can learn more about the product and make a purchase.

Google Shopping ads have some unique advantages over other types of ads and are a popular way for businesses to drive traffic and sales to their online store.

Why use Google Shopping Ads?

Let's break this into two parts. These are some of the reasons for running Google ads in general:

To reach a large and targeted audience: Google ads allow businesses to reach a wide audience of users who are actively looking for products similar to those offered by the business. This can help businesses increase brand awareness and drive traffic to their website.
To increase sales and revenue: By promoting their products on Google Ads, businesses can increase the visibility of their products and make it easier for users to find and purchase them. This can lead to increased sales and revenue for the business.
To compete with other businesses: Many businesses use Google Shopping ads to compete with other businesses in the same industry. By promoting their products on Google, businesses can gain an advantage over their competitors and attract more customers. You can also use this method to have your own ads appear next to competitors and undercut their prices by a small amount. This could be enough to steal the click from them.
To track and measure performance: Google provides businesses with detailed reports and analytics that allow them to track and measure the performance of their ads. This can help businesses identify which products are performing well and adjust their advertising strategy accordingly.

And here are some of the unique advantages of Shopping Ads compared to other types of Google Ads:

Prime real estate space: Shopping Ads are showing up at the top of the Google search results page before any other ads or organic search results. This alone is a game changer, especially when combined with point number 2, which is:
Visual product representation: I don't think I need to prove how a picture of a product will convert much better than a text describing the same product. A clear, attractive product image will make it easier for users to find what they are looking for and increase the chances of them clicking on your ad.
To improve the user experience: Google Shopping ads provide users with detailed information about products, including images, prices, and store names. This can help users make informed purchasing decisions and improve their overall shopping experience. It also helps to lower your ad costs as visitors have the price displayed right on the ad. If it's too high for them, they will not even click, and you save the cost of a click from a customer that would not have purchased anyway.

Setting up your product feed in Google Merchant Center

Setting up your product feed is crucial to running Google Shopping Ads. This is an XML or text file containing all the important information about your products, such as name, description, image, price, etc.

If your store uses any of the big e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento or WooCommerce, they will have detailed guides you can follow on creating a product feed.

To set up a product feed for Google Shopping Ads, you will need to create a Google Merchant Center account and upload your product data to the platform. You can create a new feed and use the feed specifications provided by Google to structure your data.

To create and format a product feed for Google Shopping Ads, you will need to follow these steps:

Create a Google Merchant Center account and sign in.
In the Merchant Center, click on the Products tab and then click on the Feeds option.
Click on the "plus" button to create a new feed.
Select the country where your business is located and the language that you want to use for your product data.
Select the type of feed that you want to create. If you are unsure, you can choose the "Automatic" option, which will create a feed with the recommended attributes for your country.
Enter a name for your feed and click on the "Create" button.
Once your feed has been created, you can use the feed specifications provided by Google to format your product data. This will typically involve creating a spreadsheet or CSV file with your product information, such as the product name, description, price, and image URL.
Use the feed specifications to structure your data and make sure that it is properly formatted. You can find more detailed instructions on how to format your data in the Google Merchant Center Help Center.
Once you have formatted your data, you can upload it to your feed in the Merchant Center by clicking on the "Upload" button and selecting your file.
After your data is uploaded, Google will review it to ensure it meets their guidelines. Once it has been approved, you can use your feed to create Shopping campaigns in your Google Ads account.

How to set up a Google Shopping campaign?

To set up a Google Shopping campaign, you will need to follow these steps:

Sign in to your Google Ads account

The first step to set up a Google Shopping campaign is to sign in to your Google Ads account. If you do not have a Google Ads account, you will need to create one. To sign in to your account, go to the Google Ads website and click on the "Sign in" button in the top right corner. Then, enter your email address and password and click on the "Sign in" button to access your account.

Choose campaign type

Once you are signed in to your Google Ads account, click on the "Campaigns" tab in the main menu. This will take you to the campaigns page, where you can view and manage your existing campaigns. To create a new Shopping campaign, click on the "plus" button and select the "Shopping" option. This will open the campaign setup page, where you can configure your shopping campaign settings.

Select your Merchant Center account

After selecting the "Shopping" option on the campaign setup page, the next step is to enter a name for your Shopping campaign and select the country where your business is located. This information is important because it will determine which product feed and Merchant Center account you can use for your campaign.

Once you have entered a name and selected a country for your Shopping campaign, you can select the Google Merchant Center account you want to use.

Choose your product and campaign type

The next step is choosing the type of product you want to advertise. This will determine which product feed you can use for your campaign. For example, if you are advertising physical products, you will need to use a product feed that contains information about your physical products, such as the product name, description, price, and image URL.

Once you have selected the type of product you want to advertise, you can choose the type of campaign you want to create. Go with a Standard Shopping campaign.

Budget and bidding strategy

When setting up a Google Shopping campaign, it is important to set a budget and bidding strategy that is appropriate for your business.

The budget is the maximum amount that you are willing to spend on your Shopping ads, and it is important to set it carefully so that you do not overspend.

The bidding strategy, on the other hand, determines how you want to bid on keywords or product groups.

There are several different bidding strategies that you can use for Shopping campaigns, including manual bidding, automatic bidding, and target return on ad spend (ROAS) bidding.

Manual bidding allows you to set your own bids for keywords or product groups, which gives you more control over your campaign. This is more suitable for advanced users.

Automatic bidding lets Google automatically adjust your bids based on the performance of your ads. This is the easiest option for beginners, as Google is doing the heavy lifting for you.

Target ROAS bidding is a type of automatic bidding that lets you set a target return on ad spend (ROAS) for your campaign. With target ROAS bidding, Google will automatically adjust your bids to maximize the value of your conversions based on the target ROAS you set. This can be a useful bidding strategy if you want to focus on maximizing the value of your Shopping campaigns rather than just the number of conversions.

When choosing a budget and bidding strategy for your Shopping campaign, it is important to consider your business goals and the competitiveness of your market. You may need to experiment with different strategies and settings to find the combination that works best for your business.

Ad targeting

Targeting works differently in Search ads and Shopping ads. While in Search ads, you choose keywords and other parameters, in Shopping ads, Google uses advanced ad targeting technologies to give you the best opportunities to advertise your products and services.

Through an algorithm, Google Shopping Ads identify what potential customers are likely to search for and then display that product or service in the ads they see when they search Google.

Google can analyze customer behaviour detail, including device type, past searches, shopping cart abandonment, current purchase trends and price comparisons from competitors to get better insights into who and when to target with ads.

With this level of customization, merchants need only invest their budget into optimizing the exact audiences most likely to purchase their products.

Review your settings and start your campaign

Finally, once you have set up your budget, bidding strategy and targeting settings, it is time to review your campaign settings and launch your Shopping campaign.

Make sure that all the details are correct and that you are happy with how everything has been set up. Once everything looks good, click ‘Start’ to launch your Google Shopping campaign.

Now that you have set up your Shopping campaign, it is important to monitor the performance of your ads and adjust your settings accordingly. Keep an eye on the budget, bids, and targeting settings in order to get the best results from your campaigns.

With consistent monitoring, optimization and experimentation, you can ensure that you are getting the most out of your Shopping campaigns.