Google shopping ads for shopify stores: The Ultimate Guide

Google Shopping ads came into existence in 2012 as a paid channel. Since its inception, it has proved to be very beneficial for both the advertisers and the shoppers. These ads are one of the most clicked ads offered by Google. 

These ads account for more than 60 percent of paid clicks for retailers. When any paid channel is considered, it consistently and continuously provides the highest return on ad spend. 

It is important to understand that these Shopping ads is not advertising. In simple words, Google Shopping ads are the best and most appropriate ways for online shoppers to search, browse, and compare products across an extensive array of retailers and brands. 

Using this platform, many startups and entrepreneurs got a chance to showcase their products and services to a targeted customer base. These ads are created to reach the potential customers looking for such products and services to sell. 

This way, these ads prove to be the bridge between the online shoppers’ demands and online retailers’ deliverables in the form of products and services. 

With time, Google shopping ads have steadily improved and evolved. It is easy to set up, smarter to use, and delivers a wider reach. Here, we shall give you a detailed walkthrough of setting up and creating Google Shopping Ads for the Shopify store in this post. 

The post will also discuss how to make the most technical advancements to create profitable Google Shopping Ads for the Shopify Store.

How to Create Google Shopping  for Shopify stores

Requirements for Google Shopping ads

Online retailers need to ensure their online store meeting the requirements of Google Merchant Center. For this purpose, they need a Shopify Online Store and add in Shopify admin a valid payment provider. The retailer also needs to add Terms of Service and Refund Policy to the online store. 

Add contact information, which must be visible to the customers. It is important to meet these requirements when creating Google Shopping Ads on the Shopify Store. Here are the steps to meet these requirements. 

1. Active Google merchant center account linked with Google ads account- The retailer needs to create a Google Ads account, which is then linked with the active Google merchant account to set up the account campaign. Choose your Google ads to account for which the retailer has administrative access. To create a new account, the retailer will need currency and time zone details to be entered as per the country or region was chosen where products would be available for sale. 
2. Make sure you follow Google shopping ads policies and google ads policies- The retailer needs to follow google ad policies and Google Shopping ads policies. These policies cover areas like counterfeit products, prohibited practices, prohibited content, and editorial and technical standards of the content and ad. Failing to meet these policy requirements will make the ad invisible in the maze of ad campaigns running on the Google Shopping Platform. 
3. Up-to-date Product data feed for profitable google shopping campaigns- It is important to have product data feed updated to create profitable and impactful shopping campaigns. There are three options to upload product feed to Google Shopping. These are FTP Upload, Direct Upload, and SFTP Upload. It is important to keep product data-feed up-to-date to receive desired outcomes from the Google Shopping ad campaigns. This shall help in making the campaign more product-focused. 

Step by step process

Here, we share the process of creating a Google Merchant Center Account. You can either create an account manually or use sophisticated platforms like AdNabu to help you in this endeavor. 

Phase one – Set up Part 

1. Create or login to your Google merchant center account- The first step to setting up a Google Merchant Center Account is to create a Google account or Gmail to sign up for the merchant center. Once ready, sign in with the Merchant Center using the Google account. Here, you need to add business information. Add business name and business center. Next, choose the customers’ checkout, third-party platforms, and email preferences. Once these information pieces are entered, move on to the next step. 
2. Add your Tax information- Based on your location, submit your tax information to Google. It can be done through the AdSense account. Sign in to this account, click on payments, manage settings, and click edit next to ‘tax info.’ Lastly, click on update tax information. 
3. Set up Shipping- Depending on how you charge shipping, set up your shipping costs. The costs submitted to the Merchant Center and the costs you charge on your website must match. If unable to match this cost, overestimate shipping costs submitted to the Merchant Centre. New shipping service is created by signing in to your Merchant Center Account. Click on tools, select shipping, and returns and go to the shipping services tab. Select the currency and country where shipping of products is available. 
4. Verify and claim your website Retailers cannot start advertising before verifying and claiming their website. The account is verified by logging in to the Merchant Center account, click on Settings, and select business information. Next, choose the website on the top and click on Verify and Claim. At the same time, also complete the About My Business section. 
5. Link google ads account to your merchant center account- Go to the Merchant Center Account. Here you will see the icon of a tool. Under Settings, you will find linked accounts. Select Google Ads. Now, go to another Google ads account and click on the link account. Here, enter the customer ID of the Google ads with the account you want to link. 
6. Add your products using product data feeds. You can do this with four options -You can add products using product data feeds in the following manner. 

1. Google sheets with your product data- Register your Google sheet with the Merchant Center and set up product data in these sheets for uploading. 
2. Scheduled fetch from your server- You can also add products through scheduled fetch from your server. Sign in to Merchant Account Center. Click on the navigation menu and select products, and then click on feeds. Click the feed you wish to schedule. On the submenu, click on Settings, and choose schedule type from the drop-down menu. Here, retailers can schedule the timing, frequency, and location of the feed. Click update schedule and save your changes. 
3. Upload feed data directly to the merchant center  Upload feed data directly to the merchant center, click on products, and then feed in the navigation menu. Add a new feed by clicking on the plus button. Complete the next steps and click on upload a file now.  
4.  Using any Feed creation apps from the Shopify app store like Adnabu for Google shopping, there are high-end feed creation apps available like AdNabu from the shopify app store. These apps have features that make the process faster and accurate. 

Phase two – Campaign Creation part

1. Sign in to your Google ads account- Start by signing in to your Google ads account. 
2. Then click on the Campaigns tab- Here, click on campaigns and the plus sign for a new campaign.
3. Click the plus button, next click  New campaign.
4. For “Campaign type,” select Shopping and click Next.- Select ‘Shopping’ as campaign type and click on next.
5. Choose your advertising preferences:
   1. Enter a name for the campaign- Here, you need to enter a campaign name as it will be used later to look for the campaign. The name of the campaign can be changed even after the creation of the campaign. 
   2. Select the Merchant Center account with the products you want to advertise- Next choose the Merchant Center to account for your products. Link your Google Ads account and Merchant Center to see the accounts here. The merchant cannot be changed after the campaign is created. 
   3. Please select the country where your products will be sold and shipped to-. Next, the retailer needs to choose the country where he plans to sell the products and ship them to. This way, these ads will be visible only to the selected countries. Before the ad is live, the selected country’s product data is ensured in the Merchant Center Account. There will be no products to be advertised in the absence of product data until it is added to the campaign. The country for sale cannot be changed once the ad has been created.  
   4. Select Inventory filter. You need to adjust this setting only if you want to limit the number of products used in your campaign- This setting needs adjusting if the retailer wishes to limit the number of products he wishes to advertise. It can be done by choosing criteria that a product must meet to be eligible for advertising. This way, only those products that meet the requirements of the retailer’s criteria will be shown in the ad. This setting can also be changed once the ad is created. 
   5. Select the type of bidding to use in your campaign- Next decision that a retailer needs to take is regarding the bidding. They need to choose the bidding they would like to use in their campaign. This setting can also be changed after the campaign has been created. 
   6. Select what you’re willing to spend on this campaign- The retailer needs to decide how much money they are willing to spend on the campaign. They can either set a daily budget or a whole budget. 
   7. Campaign priority tells you which campaign’s budget will be used when products overlap in your campaigns- This setting also needs to be adjusted if the same product is advertised for the same country of the sale in multiple campaigns. Setting campaign priority helps determine how the campaign’s budget will be used in case there is product overlapping in the campaigns. 
   8. Select Networks, Devices & Locations where you want your ads to be shown- The retailer now needs to choose the networks, locations, and devices where he wants his ads to be visible. Shopping campaigns are visible by default on certain platforms like Google Search Partners, Google Search Network, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Discover on the display network. Moreover, ads can appear by default on c certain devices, like mobile devices and computers. This setting can also be changed after the campaign has been created. This setting also helps in limiting the visibility of ads in certain locations. Again, this setting can also be modified once the campaign is created. 
   9. Click Save and continue- Once all the settings are finetuned, click on save and continue. 
   10. Then, choose what kind of ad group you want to create- The next decision the retailer needs to take is the kind of ad group he wishes to create. 

There are two major ad groups. These are Product Shopping and Showcase Shopping Ad. 

1. Product Shopping ad- First, product shopping ad. This ad group must be selected if the retailer is a beginner and new to the Google ads campaign. In this ad group, individual product ads are created. These are automatically created using the information gleaned from the Merchant Center account. 
2. Showcase Shopping ad- Second, the Showcase shopping Ad. In this ad group, several products related to each other are grouped in a single bid. In this ad creation process, some additional steps need to be taken. This ad can be created using the Google Ads API and Google Ads. The steps that need to be completed to create such a campaign are meeting the campaign’s requirements and creating a showcase shopping ad group. Sign in to your Google merchant account center. Click on Ad Groups and then on the plus sign. Next, click on Select a campaign where the retailer would like to add his ad group to and search for the campaign names to choose the right one. Once a campaign has been selected, click Create ad group. Next, choose the group settings- ad group type and ad group name. Also, enter the bid for the ad group. It is a cost-per-engagement bid that applies to the Showcase Shopping ad. This bid can be changed or modified at any time. The retailer pays when someone clicks on the product. Select product groups and target the products in such a way that it renders excellent results. Save and Continue. When creating a showcase shopping ad, the retailer needs to enter details like Headline, Description, Final URL, and Display URL. Preview the ad, make changes if required, and save and continue. 
3. Create your first ad group by entering the following information- Work on your first ad group by rendering certain pieces of information. Here are the details of the information required as the next step-

1.  Ad group name- Enter the name of the ad group. Ensure a unique name as it will be used later to look for the campaign. This name can be changed later, even after the campaign is created. 
2. Bid- Next, enter the bid for the ad group created. Once the ad group is created, the bid is applied to the ad group’s first product group. This Ad group is mentioned as ‘All Groups’. This bid can be changed on the product group after the creation of the ad campaign. 
3. Click Save- Once all necessary changes are made and finetuned, click on save. It will keep all the details entered by the retailer saved. 
4. You’ll land on the product groups page, and the product group, “All products,” contains all products in the campaign- Once the campaign has been saved, the retailer is taken to the product groups page, where one product ad group, namely ‘All Products’ is seen. It has all the products that are included in the campaign. More product groups can be created using sub-divisions. It will help in making the bid more focused and specific. 

Conclusion

With the eCommerce industry growing by leaps and bounds fueled by the recent upheavals in the world, many economic ramifications have been felt. The time has come to pick the threads and gear up to rise and continue to rise with Google shopping for Shopify. 

With Google experiencing billions of searches every day, it is the best time for eCommerce retailers. The online shoppers look for the products on these search engines and discover and find the products or services they want to use. They need to grab the online shoppers’ attention, and create Google shopping ads for Shopify stores is the correct way to go about it. 

This post shows the step-by-step process to create successful ad campaigns and how it can help the eCommerce retailers meet the online shoppers’ demands through a crisp and impressive ad campaign. Check and follow these steps to come up with an outstanding and impactful ad campaign.