How to Optimize Google Merchant Center Next and Boost Your Shopping Feed for Google Ads Success

In the ever-evolving world of digital advertising, keeping up with Google’s latest updates is crucial. One of the most recent changes is the introduction of Google Merchant Center Next, a significant update to the original Merchant Center interface.

If you're running Google Shopping Ads, understanding how these changes impact your shopping feed and knowing how to optimize it can directly improve your ad performance and increase your ROI.

In this post, we'll break down the updates in Google Merchant Center Next, highlight common mistakes businesses make with their shopping feed optimizations, and provide actionable tips for improving your Google Ads campaign performance.

What’s New with Google Merchant Center Next?

One of the most noticeable changes in Google Merchant Center Next is its revamped user interface. Google has introduced a cleaner, more intuitive design, but with it comes the removal or renaming of certain features. For example, the classic 30-day product activity graph is currently unavailable, making it harder to visualize product performance at a glance.

Additionally, "feeds" are now referred to as "data sources," signaling Google's push toward an automated future where more product information will be pulled directly from your website. While this shift isn't fully functional yet, it's essential to stay prepared for a time when structured markup will play an even bigger role.

Key Takeaway: Adapt to the UI changes, but focus on your core shopping feed optimizations to ensure your ads perform effectively in this new environment.

Key Optimizations for Google Shopping Feeds

Optimizing your Google Shopping feed is critical to ensuring Google can accurately match your products with relevant customer searches. Below are some areas to focus on to improve your feed and campaign results:

1. Optimize Product Titles for SEO and Conversion

Your product title is arguably the most important element of your shopping feed. It needs to be both keyword-optimized for Google's algorithm and descriptive enough to appeal to potential customers.

Best Practices for Product Titles:

• Include high-traffic, long-tail keywords that accurately describe your product.
• For high-intent searches (e.g., specific parts or SKUs), make sure the title reflects those details upfront.
• For general products (e.g., apparel), focus on descriptors like color, size, and brand.

Example:
Instead of just using "Men’s Jacket," try something more specific like "Men’s Waterproof Hiking Jacket – Black, Size L."

2. Enhance Product Descriptions

While product titles are critical for visibility, descriptions give Google more context and can improve product ranking in the Shopping tab. Write clear, concise descriptions that include secondary keywords and highlight the product’s key features.

Pro Tip: Keep descriptions natural and avoid keyword stuffing. Balance keyword optimization with readability to ensure customers find your product descriptions useful.

3. Use High-Quality Images

Images play a significant role in conversions. Ensure that your images are high-resolution, accurately represent your product, and follow Google's image guidelines. Avoid using placeholder or watermarked images, as these can lead to lower ad performance.

4. Leverage Pricing and Promotions

While Google has not confirmed that pricing directly impacts rankings, lower prices often result in better click-through rates (CTR) and conversions. If you're running promotions, make sure to highlight them in your feed to attract more clicks.

Performance Max Campaigns: Optimizing for Success

Google’s Performance Max campaigns are designed to drive results across all of Google’s channels, including Search, YouTube, and Display Network. However, many advertisers struggle to get the most out of these campaigns because they aren’t leveraging their shopping feed data properly.

1. Use Both Standard Shopping and Performance Max

Although Performance Max campaigns are effective, it’s still a good idea to run standard shopping campaigns in parallel. Performance Max is not as precise, so standard shopping allows you to target high-intent queries more effectively.

2. Segment Your Campaigns

When setting up Performance Max, it’s essential to segment campaigns based on budget, geography, and return on ad spend (ROAS) goals. This allows you to fine-tune performance across different product categories and audiences.

Pro Tip: Use search terms and customer behavior data from your standard shopping campaigns to optimize your Performance Max campaigns further. This ensures you’re reaching the right audiences with relevant products.

Avoid Common Pitfalls: Excluding Products from Your Feed

Many advertisers make the mistake of excluding products from their feed too quickly. Here are some rules to follow when considering product exclusions:

• Out-of-stock products: Always exclude these to avoid wasted clicks, but make sure your feed remains clean and up-to-date.
• Low-margin products: Don’t be too quick to exclude these, as they can act as gateway products to higher-value purchases.

Pro Tip: If a product isn't performing well, instead of excluding it right away, try segmenting it into a lower-budget campaign with a higher ROAS target to see if it can still generate some sales at a lower cost.

 👉🏻 Setting Up Performance Max Campaigns For E-Commerce

Conclusion

Optimizing your Google Merchant Center Next and shopping feed can be a game changer for your Google Ads campaigns. By focusing on key areas like product titles, descriptions, images, and pricing strategies, you’ll be better positioned to increase visibility, clicks, and conversions.

Finally, don’t forget to leverage the power of Performance Max campaigns to reach new customers while maintaining control over your budget and audience targeting. Stay flexible, keep testing, and adapt to the changes as Google continues to evolve its platform.