Fadiyah Sameh / 13 Mins Read
Updated: February 25, 2023
Discover the step-by-step guide to creating effective Google Shopping ads for WooCommerce stores and drive more sales to your store.
Did you know Google Shopping has a staggering 1.2 billion monthly searches and around 85% of all clicks on AdWords and Google Shopping Campaigns are generated by Google Shopping Ads?
Google Shopping Ads have become a popular way for eCommerce stores to reach potential customers. They allow online retailers to showcase their products directly on Google's search results pages, making it easier for users to find and purchase the products they are looking for.
76% of all eCommerce industry search ad spend goes toward shopping ads, indicating that both users and brands are heavily invested in this channel.
If you run a WooCommerce store, you might be wondering how you can get started with creating Google Shopping Ads for your products. This article will guide you through the process of setting up Google Shopping Ads for WooCommerce store, including everything from setting up a Google Merchant Center account to optimizing your product listings for better performance.
Let’s begin.
Google Shopping Ads are a type of online advertising offered by Google that allows eCommerce businesses to showcase their products directly on Google's search results pages. These ads typically feature an image of the product, its title, price, reviews& ratings, and merchant information, making it easy for users to quickly find and purchase the products they are looking for.
In simple words, Google Shopping ads are eCommerce product ads where WooCommerce retailers like you can display some product-specific elements.
Google Shopping Ads can be targeted to specific users based on factors such as their location, search history, and interests, which makes them a highly effective way for online retailers to reach potential customers. When a user clicks on a Google Shopping Ad, they are taken directly to the product page on the merchant's website, making the shopping experience fast and seamless.
Overall, Google Shopping Ads provide a valuable opportunity for eCommerce businesses to increase their visibility, reach, and sales.
Google Shopping Ads and Text Search Ads are two different types of advertising formats offered by Google Ads.
Here's how they differ:
| Google Shopping Ads | Traditional Search Text Ads |
| These ads are product-based and are designed to showcase product images, prices, and other details. | These are the most traditional type of Google Ads, where advertisers bid on keywords and create text-based ads to show up in search results when users search for those keywords. |
| They appear in SERP, Google Shopping tab, and on various websites across the Google network. | They appear in Google search results and on websites across the Google network. |
| They are most effective for advertisers who have an eCommerce store and want to showcase specific products to users searching for similar products on Google. | They are ideal for advertisers who want to drive traffic to their website, increase brand awareness, or generate leads. |
| These ads rely on product data feeds to populate the ad with product information, so it's important to have accurate and up-to-date information in the feed. | They rely on the ad copy and target keywords to determine when and where the ads appear. |
| Needs to go through several platforms and steps to create ads. | Can be created using only a Google Ads account. |
| You can create multiple ads automatically using a feed file. | Have to create them manually. |
Both of these types of ads have their own benefits and suit different business goals and advertising objectives. The choice between the two ultimately depends on the type of product or service you want to advertise, the target audience, and the desired outcome.
You can display your shopping campaign Google ads in the following places,
Note that a WooCommerce Google product feed plugin like the CTX Feed can help you make product feed for Google shopping campaigns effortlessly and just within a few clicks using readymade template. WooCommerce Google product feed plugin
If you are completely new to the idea of Google Shopping ads, then you may confuse Google Shopping tab free listings with Google Shopping ads.
If you search for a product in Google, you will notice an additional Shopping tab appears at the top.
When you click on it, it will take you to a page full of similar product listings. This is the Google Shopping price comparison engine.
Google Shopping is a platform that allows online retailers to list their products and make them discoverable to potential customers on Google. It is a type of comparison shopping service that lets users search for and compare products from various merchants.
Google Shopping integrates with Google's search results, providing users with a seamless shopping experience. When a user conducts a search for a product on Google, Google Shopping results may appear alongside traditional web search results, featuring images, prices, and product details from different merchants.
Users can then compare the products and prices from multiple merchants and make an informed decision about which product to purchase.
For merchants, Google Shopping provides an opportunity to increase their visibility and reach by showcasing their products to a large audience of potential customers. It also allows merchants to gain more control over how their products are represented in search results and provides data on how their products are performing in terms of clicks, impressions, and conversions.
In short, Google Shopping is a powerful tool for both online shoppers and merchants, making it easier for customers to find the products they are looking for and for merchants to reach new customers and drive sales.
We have already mentioned, you can display Google Shopping ads in both SERP (Search engine result pages) and in Google Shopping. However, not all listings in Google Shopping are paid listings or ads.
WooCommerce retailers like you can list your products in Google Shopping for absolutely free. This is called Google Shopping organic listing.
When you run a paid campaign in Google Shopping to promote your products at the top of the page then it is called a Google Shopping ad. Google shopping ads for WooCommerce appear at the top of the results in the Google Shopping comparison engine and the organic listings appear underneath them.
Therefore, Google Shopping ads expand your reach within the price comparison tool, which may increase your site's traffic and ultimately your sales.
You can display some additional information about your products in the organic listings such as a product gallery, longer descriptions, special features, reviews, and ratings.
On the other hand, a Google Shopping ad for WooCommerce doesn’t contain any description and directly jumps to your Woo product page when clicked.
You can also choose to accept payments directly in Google Shopping organic listings which are not possible through the ads.
Unlike traditional search ads, you will need to create accounts on multiple platforms and follow multiple steps to create Google shopping ads for WooCommerce products. However, the process is pretty straightforward and easy to follow.
Let us walk you through the step-by-step Google shopping ads tutorial. Here are the most important elements to create a Google shopping ad for WooCommerce stores.
The first step is to create a Google Merchant center account. This account will store your WooCommerce product data.
Go to the Google Merchant Center site and sign up/log in with your Gmail address.
If you are signing up for the first time, you need to agree to the terms first.
Next, you need to complete the following steps for your Merchant Account to work.
Once you complete all the recommended steps, you need to create and upload a product feed file.
In a traditional search ad, you need to research keywords and then manually insert them in the ad along with the ad title and description. You need to repeat this for all your ads.
On the other hand, for Google shopping ads for WooCommerce, all you need is a product feed file. A product feed file contains all your WooCommerce product information including product titles, descriptions, image URLs, prices, stock units, etc.
A product data feed is generally created in CSV or XML format. You can list your products in marketplaces, price comparison engines, and other channels using a product feed within the shortest possible time. It's a method by which online stores like yours can make their stock available on third-party sites and marketplaces.
You can create the product feed manually in a Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel CSV file. Before you can create the feed, you will need to know the necessary Google attributes for Google shopping ads for WooCommerce.
In simple words, attributes in a product feed file are the row headers that describe the feature of the product. For example, title, price, description, etc.
Google Shopping requires certain attributes for a product feed in order to create ads. These attributes are used to identify and display relevant information about the products in your feed.
The required attributes for a Google Shopping product feed are:
ID: A unique identifier for the product.
Title: A brief and descriptive title for the product.
Description: A detailed description of the product, including its features, specifications, and benefits.
Google Product Category: A category that best describes the product according to Google's taxonomy.
Product Type: A more specific category that further defines the product.
Link: The URL of your Woo product's page.
Image Link: The URL of an image of the product.
Availability: Whether the product is in stock and available for purchase.
Price: The cost of the product.
Brand: The brand of the product.
GTIN (Global Trade Item Number): A unique identifier for the product that is recognized internationally.
In addition to these required attributes, Google Shopping also recommends several additional attributes to help improve the quality and relevance of your ads, such as Condition, Custom Label, and Sale Price. However, including these additional attributes is optional.
Now you can create a product feed file using these attributes as row headers in an Excel file and copy and paste your product information underneath them. However, this may take a lot of time and can be a nightmare if you have a large number of products in your WooCommerce store.
CTX Feed is a freemium plugin that can generate product feed files for 100+ channels within the shortest possible time and with just a click of a button. All you need to do is to select the channel template and click the generate button.
CTX Feed already knows what attributes a channel requires. So when you select a channel, the plugin automatically populates all the attributes and collects all your WooCommerce product data, and creates the product feed file.
The best feature of this plugin is, you won’t need to worry about updates. Any changes you make in your WooCommerce store, CTX Feed will fetch those changes and update all the feed files automatically.
First, log in to your WordPress admin panel and go to Plugins>>Add New. Search and find the plugin and install it.
After you activate it, the plugin will create its own dedicated menu.
Click on Make Feed and a new feed window will appear. Now you need to select the Google Shopping template and choose your file type.
Right after you select the template, the plugin will automatically populate all the necessary attributes. All you need to do is click on the Update and Generate Feed button.
CTX Feed will collect your WooCommerce product information and organize them in the product feed file. Now you can upload your file into your Google Merchant Center account.
After creating the file, you can find it in the Manage Feeds. You can set intervals here for the plugin to fetch all your changes in your product pages and update the feed files after that interval.
Google Merchant Center allows you to upload or connect your product feed file in multiple ways. You can create a product feed in Google Sheets manually and connect it to the Merchant center.
You can also download the CTX feed file we just created and upload it to the Merchant Center. However, we want to connect the feed through the Scheduled Fetch option.
In this method, you won’t need to download and upload the file. Rather you can connect through the product feed URL. Go back to CTX Feed>>Manage Feeds and copy the product feed file URL.
Now in the Merchant Center, enter your file name and paste the URL. Google will fetch all your WooCommerce product data from the feed URL and forward them to your Google Ads account when you connect them.
We have already mentioned, CTX Feed automatically collects all changes you make in your WooCommerce product pages and updates the feed files after set intervals. When you connect through the Scheduled Fetch method, Google will fetch those changes automatically and update the product information in your Google shopping ads for WooCommerce.
This way you can always display updated and accurate information in your ads.
Go to the Google Ads website and log in or sign up with the same Gmail you used for your Google Merchant Center account.
Set up your Google Ads account following all the prompts.
Now from the top menu, click on Tools and settings and then click on the Linked Accounts option.
Search and find the Google Merchant Center option and link these accounts.
In your Google Ads account, create a new campaign and select Sales as the objective.
In the next window/tab, select Shopping as your campaign type.
After that, Google will automatically choose the associated Google Merchant Center account and pull the product data from the feed. Fill up the rest of the data such as naming your ad group, setting the budget, etc. to create your Google shopping ads campaign.
Here are some best practices for your Google shopping ads for WooCommerce –
When you create a shopping campaign on Google Ads, it only allows you to create one ad group for the campaign. All your products are listed under this ad group.
So when you set a budget for this ad group, all your product ads will have the same CPC value. If you bid $1 on the ad group, for example, then that's how much you'll have to spend on each of your product ads. It’s not a very practical idea because not every product is created equal.
Organizing your products into smaller groups or subcategories can help you manage stock and find the best pricing tiers. It's possible to lower prices for some products while raising prices for others, especially if one product type or one particular product is particularly popular.
The data can also be mined for insights into people's query types. Therefore, you'll be able to make better-informed advertising decisions overall.
A well-optimized product data feed is the foundation of a successful shopping campaign. Make sure that all product information, including titles, descriptions, prices, and images, is complete, accurate, and up-to-date.
This will help your products appear more relevant and trustworthy to potential customers, improving the chances of conversion.
High-quality images are crucial in attracting potential customers to your products. Make sure that all images are clear, visually appealing, and accurately represent your product. It's also important to use multiple images from different angles so that customers can get a good look at the product before making a purchase.
Ad extensions, such as product ratings and promotions, can provide additional information to users and help your ad stand out from the competition. Product ratings can increase trust in your products, while promotions can incentivize users to make a purchase.
Google's advanced targeting options allow you to reach your ideal audience more effectively. Location targeting, for example, can help you reach customers in a specific geographical area, while device targeting can help you reach customers on specific devices, such as mobile phones or computers. Demographic targeting allows you to reach customers based on factors such as age, gender, and interests.
Regularly monitoring your bids and adjusting them based on performance is crucial to the success of your shopping campaign. You may need to increase bids for high-performing products or lower bids for underperforming products. It's also important to track conversion rates and revenue to help inform your bidding decisions.
Testing different ad copy is an effective way to see what resonates best with your target audience. This can help you improve your overall ad performance by attracting more clicks and conversions. Try testing different variations of your product descriptions, images, and call-to-action text to see what works best.
Negative keywords help you exclude irrelevant search queries and ensure that your ads are only displayed for relevant searches. This can help improve your ad's relevance and increase the chances of conversion.
Integrating Google Analytics with your shopping campaign allows you to track key metrics, such as conversion rates and revenue, and make informed decisions about your ad spend. This can help you optimize your shopping campaign and increase your overall return on investment.
It's important to stay up-to-date with Google's advertising policies to ensure that your ads comply with the latest rules and guidelines. Google's policies help ensure that ads are relevant and trustworthy, which can improve the overall user experience.
Staying up-to-date with these policies will also help you avoid any potential issues and maintain your ad's visibility.
Creating Google Shopping Ads for WooCommerce stores can be a powerful tool to reach a wider audience and drive more sales. By optimizing your product listings and targeting the right audience, you can improve your return on investment and get your products in front of the right people.
Additionally, by tracking performance and continually testing and refining your campaigns, you can continuously improve your results and make the most out of your advertising budget. With the right strategy and execution, Google Shopping Ads can be a valuable addition to your overall WooCommerce marketing efforts.
We hope this article was of help to you. Let us know in the comments if you have any comments or suggestions on the topic.
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Fadiyah Sameh is an eCommerce researcher and writer at WebAppick – a reputed WordPress plugin development company. As an eCommerce writer with a strong background in SEO, she has a passion for creating compelling and informative content that helps businesses reach their target audience.
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