How to Create Google Shopping Feed for Shopify Store?

This article will explain how to create Google Shopping feed for Shopify store so that people can purchase the products directly from your store.

Google shopping feed is a required data source that synchronizes your product feeds and provides product information from your Shopify store to generate product listing Ads so that people searching for a relevant and existing product feed can purchase the product directly from the site. 

Now, this might sound complicated at first sight, but it’s actually simple to understand once you break it down.  In simple words, you provide a Google Ads campaign with relevant information about your product, then Google’s algorithm uses that information to decide what Ad to show to a particular search query placed by a person on Google.    

But, why do we need to do that? Well, when it comes to online marketing-nothing comes close to Google Shopping Ads. Some online marketers have revealed that almost 3/4th of their online clicks were generated via Google Search Ads. 

What does that mean for you? It means you have an amazing tool to optimize your product search and convert those potential buyers into customers. But the entire process can be really lengthy and time-consuming for a new online business or a new marketer. That’s when Shopify comes to your rescue. 

First Things First

To show up in the right search query, you first need to understand how Google’s shopping algorithm functions. Shopify takes care of that by gathering all the necessary information for creating a feed list for your Google Shopping Ads so that Google can take on that data, and match it with a search query placed by a prospective buyer so that they can directly go to the link provided for the website. 

Putting a Google Ad campaign means you need to regularly update your information feeds on the portal so that Google can produce accurate Ads for people. Shopify’s easy-to-use interface tackles that very conveniently.  

Guidelines To Follow

But before you indulge yourself in creating a Google Shopping feed for Shopify store you should read and be aware of certain guidelines created by the Google merchant center for sellers and marketers that need to be followed in order to continue your Google Shopping Ads.  

Some of these guidelines are 

• Only direct purchase products to be promoted: Whatever feed you provide for the Google shopping feed has to divert to your store for purchase. You cannot use this engine to promote a pay-per-click link to products.
  
• Use an official language: All your product data including your website, your data feed, and the selected language while registering the product has to be the official language of the specific country. You are allowed to Advertise in more than one language as long as you provide product data for different languages.
  
• Meet the product specification: In order for the Google algorithm to work, all the data feeds have to be consistent and follow a similar specification. Thus, make sure your products follow the same.
  
• Provide details about refunds and returns: Under the “Misrepresentation of self or product” policy you are required to describe your policy in regards to refunds and returns placed on your website. You need to tell what user when and how you offer a return or refund, a timeframe of acceptance, and the expected timeline for a return.
  
• Collect user information responsibly and securely: Under the “Irresponsible data collection and use” policy your primary purpose should not be to collect customer data. Customer data should not be sold or used in the Ads without their consent.
  
• Website requirements: To check the proper functioning of your site, Google may run your website to check for some basic requirements. You must also claim and verify your website URL by editing some HTML or uploading a file to the server.
  
•  Lastly, follow all the other relevant policies and sign in to update your data regularly and up-to-date.
  

How to Create a Google shopping feed for Shopify store?

Now that you have been through the basics of it, you can move on to learn how to create Google shopping feed for Shopify store. There are typically two ways to create Google shopping feed for Shopify store. 

1.  Create the Feed Manually

If you do not have hundreds and thousands of products to Add to your Shopify product feed then you should get it done manually. To do that you simply have to enter all the product-related details to your Shopify product feeds as per Google’s product specification and that’s all. Shopify will take on from there and create a feed for Google shopping. 

2. Create the Feed Automatically 

Under this method, you use a third-party service or app to run through your Shopify store and do a little “web crawling” to take out all the required information required to fill in the Shopify store feed or to your merchant center. This method comes in handy when one has a plethora of products to feed.  

 

How to create Shopify product data feed Manually? 

When it comes to Google Shopping Ads, everything narrows down to providing the right information for Google’s shopping algorithm. No matter how brilliant your product title or description is, if it’s not getting recognized by the feed algorithm then it’s not going to find a place in those Google touchpoints. 

This is why it is so important and crucial that all the information you provide in the Shopify feed are accurate, relevant, and optimized to increase the chances of getting the front row’s attention by the Google Ad campaign. 

To create a Shopify product data feed manually you need to create a feed template file. It can be tab-delimited text or XML. If you are using Shopify’s Google smart shopping then all you need to do is to fill in the required details in various attributes in the add product tab.  

This information for both, an XML file and a preplanned tab has to be accurate and mapped to your Shopify store. These attributes are basic information about your product on your Shopify store which Google Ads will use to match with any relevant search query to show your product on the Google Shopping Ads. 

Given below are some of the basic product data attributes, in order to get more clicks on Google Shopping Ads, you can optimize the following attributes according to Google product specifications. 

1. Use product variant SKU as “Id” 

In this attribute, you need to fill in the product variant SKU. This id has to use Unicode characters and it must remain the same even when you are selling to different countries. If you have stopped selling a particular product then discard that id and don’t use the same id for a new product. 

2. Use Title  as “Product Title” 

Product title is the most important attribute in creating a feed that works for you. This title is the same as the title on your page. If used correctly, the title attribute can play an important part in search optimization. 

Some of the things that you should not miss to include are: 

1. Use brand attributes upfront
   
2. Name of the product with the most used keywords
   
3. For a product of a particular variant use color, size, model, and specific identification
   
4. And specific identification, if any like.
   
5. Also, avoid using hyphens and pipeline symbols and don’t use superlatives or promotion material in the title.
   

3. Use Description as “Product Description”

As the title attribute, the product description is also a very important attribute, as the keywords you use in your product description help Google to determine what search query will be relevant for that page. 

Though not as important as the title, there are things that should be considered while writing a description to get the best out of Google Shopping Ads: 

1. Describe the product using important information and use keywords in the beginning.
   
2. Keep it brief and descriptive and try not to give the product an entire back-story which is not at all helpful for the buyer.
   
3. Lastly, don’t be vague or a salesman. Only Add accurate information about the product and avoid promotional texts and outside links.
   

3.  Use the product page Link as “Link”  

In this attribute, you put the link on the landing page of your Shopify site. The landing page must be a Google verified domain and must start with either HTTP or HTTPS. Additionally, the link should use an encoded URL that complies with RFC 1738 or RFC 2396  to maintain uniformity. 

4. Use product or variant image URL as “Image link” 

As the name suggests, the image URL or image link is the link to the product or variant image on your Shopify store. This URL should land directly on the variant’s main image. 

Unlike product link, image link has certain minimum requirement like:

1. The image URL must land on the main image of the product, start with HTTP or HTTPS, comply with RFC 2396/RFC 1738, and can be crawled by Google.
   
2. Accurately display the product in compliance with the technical aspect of the image.  
   
3. Shouldn’t have any text or watermark on the image and needs to have a white background behind the image.
   

5. Use Variant Price as “Price” 

In this attribute, you mention the price of a product with currency, rounded off to two decimals. Some markets are more price-sensitive than others, so you’d want to implement some pricing strategy before you finalize your price. Also, make sure the pricing on the feed matches the pricing on the landing page. 

6. Use Vendor as “Brand” 

This is the most important attribute in terms of the identification of a product. In this attribute, you put the vendor’s name. If you are selling your own products then your brand name is to be mentioned in the brand attribute. If you don’t have a seller name or vendor name put in the manufacturer or supplier name. 

7. Use a Variant barcode as “GTIN”

This attribute requires the Global Trade Item Number or GTIN number provided by the manufacturer of the product. This number should exclude dashes and spaces and follow the GS1 guidelines placed by Google.

8. Use Variant SKU as “MPN”

If your new product does not have a valid GTIN then you must mention the Manufacturer’s Part Number or MPN. This is usually the variant SKU. 

9. Availability 

This is to determine if a particular product is available in the inventory so that buyer can make a purchase. If the available quantity is greater than one then you put ‘in stock’, otherwise you mention ‘out of stock. For products available at a later date, you will out ‘preorder’.  

10. Condition 

Here you mention if a product is brand new, refurbished, or used.

Optional Fields

Along with all these basic attributes, there are some optional attributes that you might want to incorporate into your product feed. 

1. Use Product type as  “product category”  

Here you identify the product category that your product defines for your product. When putting in this detail you need to fill in the full product category as your landing page.

2. Color

It has to be the easiest attribute to fill, here you out the primary color of your product. When you have variants, you take the same value as the item group id with a different color. 

3. Item Group Id 

It is used for a group of products that are available in different versions with respect to color, size, pattern, material, age group, and gender. You can use a parent SKU for simplified grouping.

How to create Shopify product data feed automatically? 

If you have thousands of products with a hundred different varieties then forget about putting that all manually in your Shopify product data feed because it will literally take thousands of man-hours that you can spend covering other important aspects of marketing. 

A simple and cost-effective solution to this problem is to sign up for a third-party service provider or install an automatic feed generator app like an easy google shopping feed app from AdNabu. 

The most tried and tested way to go about it is to search for an app or a service provider in the Shopify app store that will automatically generate feeds and handle other necessary aspects of Google Shopping like diagnostics tabs and alternative feeds. 

AdNabu’s easy Google shopping feed app does this better. This app not only creates your feed but also helps you to optimize your feed to succeed in Google shopping Ads. Learn more from the additional resources section below.

This app uses the same website crawl program as a Google merchant center to extract relevant product information from the website to create product feeds. 

To create an automatic Shopify product data feed you need to follow these simple steps:      

1. Sign up & install automatic Shopify feed generation apps like Easy google shopping feed by AdNabu.
   
2. Connect your Shopify store with your Google merchant center.
   
3. Give the necessary permissions to this app to sync your feed data to google merchant center.
   
4. Monitor the results generated by the easy google shopping feed app.
   

Conclusion

To conclude, Google Shopping Ads are truly phenomenal in terms of the wide market they cover with various Google touchpoints for your product. Not using this should be considered an opportunity cost, Specially since online businesses are getting more and more competitive and new players are doing everything they can to market their products to their clientele.  

Shopify powers over 10,00,000 businesses around the globe, they are one of the most trusted online shopping Ad campaign facilitators services with years of expertise in Google Shopping Ads. 

With Shopify, you can manage your Google feeds, add new ones, update old ones, and customize your product feeds and Ad campaigns to the market of your choice. So, if you have a website that sells goods, then you should immediately grab this fantastic opportunity to start a Google Shopping Ad campaign to take your product to the market and turn prospective customers into buyers.