If you have an online shop then using Google Shopping can really drive traffic to your website. We’ve all seen the ads – you know the ones – they are displayed with images that make a user want to click through as they recognise the product they want to purchase.
So why Google Shopping?
- Like other forms of advertising when users search on either Google.co.uk (or in this case the shopping area) if they type in keywords that are related to your product then your ad will show.
- The Google shopping area uses at least 17% of the real estate used by the Ads – thats a big area that you need to be playing in.
- Not only will they see a picture of your product but also the price and name of your shop. (hugely attractive over just a word advert)
- Just like normal adwords, you only pay when someone clicks through – a clear prospect who is very interested in your product.
To launch a new campaign couldn’t be any easier. Of course you do need to have an adwords account and a merchant centre.
What is a merchant Centre?
Google Merchant Center is the place to upload your store and product data to Google and make it available to Google Shopping and other Google services. The easiest way to get your products into the merchant center is via a RSS feed. You can sign up for this here
What is an Adwords Account?
This is Googles online advertising service that enables you to pay to advertise on their platform (and other websites) You can sign up for this service here
Then its simply a process of linking the two together, by choosing a shopping campaign in your adwords account and hooking it up to your merchant centre. There are a couple of things that you do need to make sure you have so that you adhere to Googles policy, one is that you have an order button on your landing pages (so you do need to be able to sell online) and the second is that you must have a shipping and returns policy (normally found in the footer of the website)
There’s a great video playlist which shows you how to set up your campaign and then optimise the shopping to your benefit – you can see it here