How to boost your performance with Shopping ads on Google
With the shop integration of Shopping ads on Google, you gain access the latest technology in online marketing, which is time saving and beneficial for both beginners and ambitious online merchants. We present all important features of the tool and show you how your online marketing can be easily optimised across channel with Google’s new Performance Max campaigns*.
With shopping ads, Google has launched a new goal-based campaign type, Performance Max. The tool allows advertisers to access all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign. This makes it easier than ever for you as a merchant to place ads for your products directly from your shop and be visible for potential customers online. Save time and resources thanks to the automatic placement and optimization that Google Ads makes to achieve the goals of your campaigns. With the seamless connection of Shopping ads on Google to your online shop, you can get started right away and promote your products across various Google channels to find new customers.
How do Shopping ads on Google work?
Imagine the following: As a shop owner, you want as many people as possible to hear about your products and buy from you. To achieve this, you could go from door to door, ring the doorbell and offer your products. However, only a fraction will actively need or search for your product at that time. It is way more efficient to set up on the right place at the right time, where you can reach the most prospects.
This mechanism is implemented automatically via Google’s new Performance Max campaigns: you can intercept your clientele with Shopping Ads exactly where they are searching online for products like yours. This works with existing product data and Google’s new algorithm. Once the campaign is up and running after a learning phase of up to 4 weeks, users who have a high purchase intention to buy your products are targeted. The placement is a win-win situation, because the customer gets the right result and your products are placed with the right target group. In the process, Google optimises your ad at the best possible click price so that many relevant visitors click on your ad.
What is a click price?
The click price or CPC (cost per click) describes the average price for a click on an ad. The click price depends on the quality of the ad, time, relevance or competitors. If you want to be placed on a particularly popular ad space, the click price increases. In the case of Shopping ads, Google’s algorithm takes care of these bids for the best possible placement.
What are the advantages of Shopping ads on Google for my online shop?
Automatic optimisation for maximum conversions
With Shopping ads, you launch Performance Max campaigns that continuously optimise themselves through a data-driven algorithm. For newcomers to online marketing, automated ads are worthwhile because, unlike traditional online advertising campaigns, Performance Max campaigns invest in regular optimization of locations or target groups, keyword research and other tasks which result in increasing customer conversion, gaining new customers and allowing you to get better insights. When starting your campaign with Shopping ads on Google, you only need to set a daily budget.
Attract more customers across all Google Ads channels
Shopping Ads campaigns serve directly through all of Google’s channels to gain better insights and generate even more customers – including the Display Network, YouTube, Google Search, Gmail or Maps. If the data shows that your potential customers for instance spend a lot of time on YouTube, campaigns will be placed more on this channel.
Maximum conversion with a flexible budget
Determine the daily budget for your advertising campaigns individually and adjust it at any time. Google’s recommendation is to start with a daily budget of 13-14 € in order to thoroughly test your campaigns. After the test phase, you should find out which of the campaigns worked best and focus them further. To find out more about Performance Max campaigns, see the Google Help Centre.
How do I set up Shopping ads on Google through my online shop?
Setting up product feed & shopping ads on Google in your administration area
Setting up your product feed and Shopping ads on Google to your online shop, you synchronise your product data with Google. This saves you a lot of time in manual maintenance, as this data is the fundament for your advertising campaigns. Further settings can be made directly via your administration area.
Activate Performance-Max campaigns in three steps:
- Set up Google account. Connect your Google account and activate the Google Merchant Center as well as Google Ads via your shop.
- Upload products. Upload all important product data via the shop directly into the Google Merchant Center to create campaigns for your online shop.
- Launch a Performance Max campaign. Define the goals of your campaign. The algorithm plays out your ads to relevant customers and continuously optimises the campaign based on your goals.
What you should keep in mind after launching your Performance Max campaign
You can set several campaign types for your Shopping ads on Google with Performance Max. In the beginning, we recommend starting with 2-3 campaigns and test them for at least four weeks for the learning progress of the algorithm. You can find detailed step-by-step instructions for the above activation in our Help Centre. We wish you a successful start in Shopping ads on Google with Performance Max!
Special offer for new customers: Spend 400€ and get 400€ ads budget on top!
Millions of shoppers are searching for products like yours. Now it’s time to reach them and get your products discovered online with Google.
With the usage of Shopping ads on Google, new Google Ads customers can now enjoy an additional €400 in advertising budget. The prerequisite for this is a new Google Ads account. To receive the credit, invest at least €400 (excluding taxes and fees) of advertising budget within 60 days. No voucher code is required.
*In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Performance Max campaigns can be used with any Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) you work with. The ads will be displayed on general search results pages and on any other interface that the CSS has opted in to.
Nils Kitzmann ist Online Marketing Manager bei ePages.
