Let’s face it—the world of online shopping is fraught with tough competition. The good news is that the presence of multiple online shopping platforms and channels, including Amazon Sponsored Products, can dramatically enhance the visibility of your products.
Products displayed on Google searches can prove to be tremendously beneficial for larger shopping channels like Amazon, as it can actively gather better-quality leads. This raises an important question: Can I use Google Ads for Amazon products? The answer is yes, and this is why you should consider setting up Google Ads for your Amazon products. It’s an effective way to drive traffic, boost sales, and stay ahead in the competitive eCommerce landscape.
It significantly enhances your product’s outreach and helps you gather more information about what your customers are searching for and buying. If you are an Amazon seller and wish to gain higher-quality leads, understand buying intent, and build better brand awareness, knowing how to run Google Ads for Amazon products can help you achieve all of that.
This blog lets you learn how to set up Google ads for Amazon products easily. Using Google search ads, you can tremendously increase your clicks, conversion and revenue.
Table of Contents
- Why Should You Advertise Amazon Products On Google?
- Preparing Your Amazon Inventory For Google Ads
- Setting Up A Google Merchant Center Account
- Creating and Optimizing Product Feeds
- Linking Google Ads with Google Merchant Center
- Quick Bidding Tips for Google Ads
- Monitoring and Optimizing Performance
- Conclusion
- FAQs
Why Should You Advertise Amazon Products On Google?
Amazon and Google are independent platforms built to achieve the same basic purpose: facilitating eCommerce for customers. However, they operate in different modes and generate different engagement.
Amazon is a massive online marketplace with a wide base of sellers and buyers.
Google ads is a PPC (pay-per-click) platform where advertisers bid for different keywords and pay for each click or impression. Integrating the two can bring in great success for your store.
Merchants willing to display their Amazon inventory on Google would need to take a roundabout way, though. Amazon product pages cannot be used as landing pages since they do not meet Google’s policies.
Google ads require that the landing page be owned by the seller (that is, you). You control the content and ensure the user experience aligns with Google’s policies. You might want to check Google’s destination requirements to ensure you do not violate any policies.
This is why it’s recommended that the ‘buy‘ button be activated in case you don’t have a website of your own.
So, how can you tackle this hurdle?
You can create a dedicated website or landing page featuring detailed descriptions of your products. Then, you can provide a link or button redirecting customers to the Amazon product page for checkout. This setup allows you to use Google ads to drive traffic to your website/landing page first, then funnel it to Amazon for the final purchase.
Amazon sellers have a lot to gain from featuring their products on Google:
- Users searching on Google for a specific product or service have high search intent. You can capitalize on this search intent by listing your products on Google search ads.
- You get enhanced visibility for your Amazon products on Google.
- You get actionable insights such as sales performance, assortment, and competitiveness.
Let’s now understand how you can go about connecting the two platforms.
Preparing Your Amazon Inventory For Google Ads
It is important to first prepare your Amazon inventory for the Google ads platform. Follow the steps described below to maintain data consistency and quality across platforms:
1. Product Data Consolidation
The first step is to consolidate all your product data into a single feed file (commonly known as product data feed) that can be easily exported to external platforms (like Google, in this case). This includes gathering all information about the product listing, such as product titles, descriptions, prices, images, SKU details, etc. This ensures all the necessary information will be exported in a single instance.
2. Adjusting Formats
First, you must verify the format of the feed file you submit to Google. This helps with smooth import. Next, ensure that all the required data entered is in the right format, such as GTIN, MPN, etc. This is because unless all the necessary data is provided, Google will disapprove the products.
3. Media Quality Adjustments
It is important to upload high-quality and high-definition images of your products on Google . This is because product images hold a big sway on customers’ purchase decisions.
4. Product Categorization
As a final step, you need to map all your products to the product categories as they appear on Google Ads to ensure they are easily discoverable and classifiable into different categories. This will also help improve search accuracy and customer experience with the platform.
The next step is to set up a Google Merchant Center account – let’s see how you can do that.
Setting Up A Google Merchant Center Account
Follow the steps below to set up your Google Merchant Center account quickly:
- Head to Google. Sign up to create a new Google Merchant Center account.
- While creating your account, select the country, enter your business name, and select the time zone for your business.
- You will then see a “Choose the programs that fit your objectives” screen, where you must select “Surfaces across Google” before clicking Continue.
- Review your information and proceed. Your Google Merchant Center account is now created.
- In the next step, you must sync the Google Merchant Center account with the product feed on your Amazon platform.
- After creating the GMC account, you need to claim your website before you can upload products that can be advertised on Google. This is because Google doesn’t accept Amazon’s listing as a product landing page. Thus, you must create a different website to redirect customers to your Amazon listing.
In the next steps, you need to set up your Amazon inventory on Google Merchant Center:
Open your Amazon account and access the category-specific inventory feed file. Save this file as either CSV or TSV.
Now, open your Google Merchant Centre account, go to Products, and then click on Feeds. You will notice a “+” icon to create a new feed. Click on it.
Fill in the basic information like target country, language, etc. You can also select the channels on which your products will be displayed, like Google Ads, Free listings, Buy On Google, Shopping, etc. Select Google Ads and click Continue.
You will be asked to enter a feed name. Give it any name you prefer.
From the options provided to you under “Choose how to set up your feed…” select “Amazon inventory files.” Upload your file and click on “Create Feed.”
Google may take up to a few hours to process your product feed completely. Once it is done, the Products section will show the status “Complete.”
You can now optimize your primary product feed and do product feed management.
Creating and Optimizing Product Feeds
Creating A Product Feed
To create a primary feed, follow the steps below:
In your Google Merchant Center account, select Products, and then select Feeds.
Click the “+” icon and follow the instructions on the screen.
The interface will then ask you to set up a Google spreadsheet for your feed. If you already have a feed file on your computer, you can upload it using the option “Select an existing Google Spreadsheet.”
You need to provide the following information in the product feed:
Product ID
Title
Description
Link
Image link
Availability
Price
Shipping cost
Tax
Condition of the product (new, used, refurbished)
If you are selling clothing, you may need to provide more information about sizing, gender, color, age group, etc.
You can launch your search campaign once your feed is ready.
To ensure that your product feed is effective, you need to optimize it. Conduct a product feed audit to determine the quality of the information in your feed. This will help you identify issues (like missing keywords) that may be affecting product visibility. Optimize product descriptions and other data using relevant and updated keywords and the latest availability information.
| Read Also: A detailed guide on Google Ads Audit. |
Content Optimization
Google has outlined some best practices to follow for SEO of product listings, like the use of well-structured formats and keywords in titles. You may need to optimize your product content and titles to ensure that they can be discovered efficiently on Google’s network, which is crucial to increase sales.
You can also leverage product feed optimization tools to simplify the process of creating and maintaining product feeds.
1. Feeditor
Feeditor is a product feed optimization tool powered by Adcore. It can help you instantly create a product feed and upload it to various channels, such as Google, Facebook Catalog, Microsoft Merchant, etc.
The best part about using Feeditor is that it creates dynamic URLs of feeds instead of static files, which helps keep your ads current and updated.
2. Channable
Using Channable, users can create qualitative product feeds. The tool also allows users to create product categories with filters and other rules using which they can modify individual products as well. It helps to save a tremendous amount of time and effort.
Linking Google Ads with Google Merchant Center
If you don’t have a Google Ads account, you can easily create it by selecting ‘Create a New Google Ads Account’ in the ‘Add Service’ option on the ‘Apps and Services’ tab. Linking Google Ads with Google Merchant Center helps you promote your products with relevant information from your feed.
Merchants can also easily create search campaigns using this integration. Listed below are the steps to link Google Ads with Google Merchant Center:
- Go to Google Merchant Center and click on the Settings and Tools icon.
- Select Apps and Services.
- Under the menu “Google Services,” select Add Service.
- A pop-up window will appear. Select the Google Ads account you wish to connect with Merchant Center in this window.
- Click on the Link to Merchant Center and complete the connection.
Quick Bidding Tips for Google Ads
Google Ads is a competitive space where you need to be on top of your bidding and strategy game. Here are some tips you can use:
- Remember that PPC is not always a “quick win.” It may be quicker than SEO results, but it does need time to start working. Therefore, set realistic goals.
- Your attribution model should be well-aligned to connect campaigns and keywords to conversions.
- It is easier to check performance when your account has a simple structure – you can easily measure the impact of your keyword bidding strategies.
Monitoring and Optimizing Performance
There are several strategies you can use to measure the performance of google ads for amazon products :
| Do note that Google Ads conversion tracking code cannot be added to an Amazon listing page as it requires you to access the backend code. You can however, embed the tracking code on your landing page for accurate measure. |
- Set up conversion tracking to tell you how to adjust bidding strategies based on actual sales.
- Adjust your bids—raise them if the ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) is too low and lower them if it is too high.
- Optimize product content, such as images, listing titles, descriptions, etc., to include the latest and most relevant keywords.
- Place your most relevant keywords first.
Additionally, you can make use of analytics from both Google Analytics and Amazon Brand Analytics to further polish your campaigns:
| Tip: You can utilize Amazon Attribution to track analytics from Google itself. A guide by Karooya has properly explained how you can set Amazon Attribution up manually or use an API to set it up. |
- Google Analytics can be used for:
- Identifying the best channels for your marketing funnels.
- Creating promotional materials that convert.
- Understanding why conversions are low
- Finding best keywords
- Amazon Brand Analytics can be used for:
- Optimizing product listings
- Targeting new keywords
- Understanding purchase behavior
- Improving Amazon ads
It is important to continuously improve and optimize your ad campaigns based on these performance metrics.
Conclusion
Featuring Amazon products on Google is extremely useful for displaying your offering to a wider audience and gaining more leads. It also helps enhance brand awareness to some extent.
Furthermore, the analytics gained from both these platforms target unique metrics that can provide a holistic picture of how your products and ads are performing.
If you are a merchant looking to enhance your customer outreach, you can try linking your Amazon products with Google using the steps mentioned in this blog.
FAQs
Can I directly use my Amazon product feed on Google?
While you can use your Amazon feed formats for certain Google services like Buy on Google, they are not directly usable for Google Ads due to different formats and policy requirements.
What are the requirements for listing Amazon products on Google?
To list products on Google, you must have a payment gateway on your website or use a third-party payment gateway approved by Google. A click on your ad must not redirect the user to another site like Amazon.
How do I optimize my Amazon products for visibility on Google?
Optimize product titles, descriptions, and images to meet Google’s specifications, focusing on SEO best practices to improve visibility and attract clicks.
What are the best practices for syncing Amazon inventory with Google?
Utilize tools or services that allow for real-time inventory updates and ensure that any changes in product availability or pricing on Amazon are immediately reflected on Google to avoid overselling and maintain accurate listings.
Can I manage Google ads for Amazon products from a single dashboard?
Yes, some third-party tools and services integrate both platforms, allowing you to manage ads, analyze performance data, and adjust campaigns from a single dashboard.
What steps should I follow to ensure my Amazon products are successfully listed on Google?
Set up your product feed correctly, ensuring all required Google attributes are filled out accurately. Regularly update and optimize the feed to ensure compliance with Google’s latest guidelines and to improve ad performance.
