17 Tips for Google Shopping Campaign Optimization

Optimizing a Shopping campaign involves more than adding a product feed to Google Merchant Center. It is about creating SEO-friendly product titles and descriptions, adding high-quality images, making bidding adjustments, adding negative keywords, analyzing the performance, and making further enhancements.

In this blog, we will discuss the abovementioned techniques and many more advanced strategies and optimization tips to help you improve ROAS and ROI.

Let’s get started!

1. Optimize Product Images

Before we discuss optimization techniques for providing high-quality images, let’s first understand Google’s guidelines.

Google Shopping Image Quality Guidelines

The following are the criteria your product image must meet to avoid product disapproval. 

1. Showcase the entire product

• Your main image must display the entire product.
• The product should take up most of the frame without distractions.

2. Display multi-angle packaging

• If you wish to showcase the item in its original packaging, include multiple sides or angles, not just the front-facing side.

3. Show all items in a bundle

• When using the [is_bundle] attribute, the main image must include every item in the bundle.

4. Do not use placeholders or generic images

• Do not use placeholder, stock, logo, or illustration images instead of the original product photo. However, Google allows exceptions for specific categories such as hardware, vehicles, or software, where stylized or logo-based imagery may be permitted as secondary images. 
• Use [additional_image_link] attribute to provide supporting imagery (e.g., lifestyle shots or alternate angles).

5. Avoid single‑color blocks

• Do not use solid-color images (e.g., a colored square) unless the product category is paint or similar consumables, where acceptable.

6. No Overlays or Promotional Content

• Main images must not include:
  
  • Calls to action (e.g., “Buy Now”)
    
  • Promotional language (e.g., “Best,” “Free Shipping,” price)
  • Logos or watermarks
  • Brand or manufacturer names
  • Barcodes
  • Condition labels or compatibility notes (e.g., “New,” “2‑piece”)
    

7. Do not use borders

• Do not use decorative frames or borders. Images should be clean and borderless.

8. Label AI‑created images

• If you used AI to generate an image, it must include metadata indicating it is AI-generated.

9. Size & file limits

• Non-apparel products: The image must be at least 100 × 100 pixels
• Apparel products: The image must be at least 250 × 250 pixels
• Maximum resolution: 64 megapixels
• Maximum file size: 16 MB
• As a best practice, Google advises framing the product so it occupies 75–90% of the image area.

Experimenting with Different Image Types

Trying different types of images for Shopping ads (product listing ads) increases user engagement and encourages clicks. Additionally, you can differentiate your listings where visuals are key to standing out. You can implement either lifestyle images or images showing product variations and more. 

Here are a few ideas:

• A clean product-only image vs. a lifestyle image (product in real use).
• Different angles or zoom levels (front, back, close-up details).
• Packaged vs. unboxed product presentations.
• Color, background, or model variations to showcase context or usage.

Tip: Use A/B testing in Google Ads Experiments to compare lifestyle vs. product-only images. For apparel, provide variant-specific images—show the exact color or size being sold. This reduces returns and improves conversion rate.

Add video assets

While images are essential, video assets can elevate your product presentation. Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns now allow you to include short videos that appear in Display, YouTube, and Discover placements.

Best practices for Shopping ad videos:

• When creating a video, aim for a 15–30 seconds duration.
• Mention the product’s benefits in the first 5 seconds of the video.
• If necessary, make use of captions or text overlays.
• Show real product in use, such as lifestyle clips or hands-on demonstrations.
• Maintain consistent branding with your images for a cohesive look.

2. Optimize Product Titles and Descriptions 

Key Strategies for Product Title Optimization

• Follow Google Shopping product title specifications. Limit your product title to 70 characters. Most Shopping ads only show the first 2 to 4 words of the title. To increase visibility, ensure your keywords are at the beginning of the title. Here is an example of an optimized title.
  • Before: Wireless Bluetooth Headphones – Black
  • After: Sony WH-1000XM5 Noise-Cancelling Wireless Bluetooth Headphones – Black
• Avoid starting titles with generic product terms like “Hair straightener” or “Bathroom Vanity Light.” Start with high-impact keywords like:
  • Brand or designer name
  • Product line
  • Descriptive words like “Luxury” that justify premium pricing
  • Example:
    Original Title: “Bathroom Vanity Light – Brass – Juniper Design”
• Optimized Title: “Juniper Design Luxury Vanity Light – Brass Finish”

• Perform a Google search for your product using terms a customer would use. Pay attention to the top results and identify what stands out. Use this to reverse-engineer your product titles to attract ideal customers.
• While titles are the most important, ensure your feed includes accurate GTIN, material, brand, and price. These attributes help the algorithm further understand and classify your product.

Tip: Include high-intent modifiers like ‘Buy,’ ‘Official,’ or ‘New Model’ only if they match the landing page intent. This step ensures titles are natural yet optimized for searches.

Tips to Create Descriptions that Convert 

Product descriptions help the Google algorithm understand the product. It gives Google additional context about what the product is. You can include secondary keywords that don’t fit in the product title. 

Examples of a product description before and after optimizing it for Shopping ads.

• Before: Wooden dining table with 6 chairs, brown finish.
• After: This solid oak 6-seater dining table features a rich walnut finish, tapered legs, and a durable scratch-resistant surface. This table is perfect for family dinners or entertaining guests.

Here’s what to include in product descriptions:

• Limit product descriptions to 5000 characters.
• Core product features, such as size, material, dimensions, and design style.
• Include use cases, such as intended rooms or environments, typical user needs, or occasions.
• Include unique selling points, luxury components, brand history, craftsmanship, or exclusivity.
• Use relevant keywords, including search phrases your customers might use.
• Place important information and keywords at the beginning of the description. 
• Product descriptions should align with the product title and other attributes, such as:
  • Brand
  • Material
  • Condition
  • GTIN
• In addition to descriptions, ensure your product feed includes well-structured values for: material, style, condition, and GTIN or MPN. 

3. Use Negative Keywords

A list of negative keywords is important to minimize your wasted ad spend and increase the likelihood of conversions. 

Here are a few optimization techniques to follow when implementing negative keywords for your Shopping ads:-

Use the Right Match Types

You can add negative keywords using three match types: Broad, Phrase, and Exact. Using these match types strategically lets you filter unqualified traffic. 

Use Account-Level Negative Keywords

Negative keywords at the account level apply across every campaign in your Google Ads account. If you add a keyword at an account level, your campaigns do not show ads for any search queries that include those terms.

Why add negative keywords at the account level?

• This is useful for eliminating search terms irrelevant to your business or product catalog.
• For example, if you do not sell toy versions of your kitchen products, adding “toy” as an account-level negative keyword ensures you’re not wasting ad spend on irrelevant traffic.

Use Campaign or Ad Group-Level Negative Keywords

Adding negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level is helpful when:

• Keywords are only relevant to certain products.
• You want to fine-tune traffic to a particular ad group to ensure it only appears for qualified, high-intent search queries.

For example, let’s say you’re advertising a mild toddler toothpaste strawberry flavour. And your search term report shows that your ads appear for searches like “strawberry flavored gums”, indicating users are likely looking for gums and not a toothpaste. You could block “gums” using a ‘phrase match’ at the ad group level so it only affects that specific product group.

Monitor and Update Negative Keywords

Analyze the search terms report to understand what people search for when your ad appears.

How to check?

To access the report, in your Google Ads account >> go to Campaigns >> click Insights and reports >> click Search terms.

• Look for terms that are too broad and do not align with the type of product you’re selling.

For example, if you’re selling a product like “wooden chairs,” and your ad shows up for searches like “metal folding chairs,” you can identify those terms and add them as negatives to prevent wasting clicks.

Create a List of Common Negative Keywords

The following are terms that indicate low purchase intent, especially in e-commerce. You can add these as negative keywords:-

• free
• DIY
• how to
• review
• near me
• cheap

Create a negative keyword list and use it in all your campaigns. This strategy saves time and helps filter out low-intent purchase traffic.

Tip: Review your search term report weekly to identify irrelevant queries. For example, if you sell luxury watches and you notice your ads appear for ‘cheap watches,’ add ‘cheap’ as a negative keyword to protect your CPC efficiency.

4. Analyze Shopping Ads Performance

Google gives you two platforms to track Shopping ads performance: one is through Google Merchant Center, and the other is Google Ads. Compared to GMC, Google Ads offers you in-depth insights into product performance.

However, Google recommends using GMC to track unpaid traffic (free product listings) and Google Ads to track paid traffic. You can also use a web analytics tool like Google Analytics to track traffic from Shopping ads. 

Important: To successfully track key metrics such as clicks and conversions, you should use conversion pixel. Additionally, you should use tracking templates or auto-tagging in Google Ads to track conversions.

Key Performance Metrics to Monitor

Metric	Definition	Becnchmark (E-commerce)
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	CTR indicates how often people click on your ad.	1.5% – 2.5%
Conversion Rate (CVR)	Percentage of clicks resulting in a purchase.	1.4% – 2.9%
Cost‑Per‑Click (CPC)	Average amount you pay for each click	$0.50 – $1.20
Cost‑Per‑Acquisition (CPA)	CPA measures the average cost to secure a sale.	$30 – $60
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)	ROAS indicates how much revenue you earn for every dollar spent on ads.	400% – 800%
Impression Share (IS)	How often your ads appear relative to how usually they could have, based on your eligibility and budget.	60% – 80% for top performers
Product Feed Health & Approval Rate	This metric shows the percentage of your approved products that are live in Google Merchant Center.	NA
Average Order Value (AOV)	Average purchase amount per order.	$70 – $120 (Varies by product category)
Bounce Rate	Bounce rate shows the percentage of visitors who leave your page without further interaction.	40% – 60%
Quality Score (QS)	Google Ads doesn’t display a traditional Quality Score for Shopping campaigns like it does for Search campaigns. Google uses a combination of feed quality, landing page experience, product relevance, and historical performance to determine ad eligibility and CPC in auctions.	— (Google system score)
Search Impression Share / Auction Insights	These show how your ads perform against competitors in impressions and auction placement.	Aim for >60% for branded products; >40% for generic categories

Tip: Always review metrics concerning business goals, not just clicks. A product with fewer clicks but higher ROAS often deserves more budget than one driving low-value traffic.

5. Tools for Monitoring Shopping Campaigns

In this section, we have listed tools for tracking and analyzing the performance of Shopping campaigns.

Google Ads 

You can track Google Shopping campaigns’ performance in the following areas in Google Ads:

1. Product groups page

You can track product groups’ performance in the Google Ads product groups page.

Here’s how to access it:

• In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon >> click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu >> click Campaigns >> click the campaign you wish to run a report on >> click an ad group in the campaign. From the page menu on the left, click Product groups.

Ensure the table displays all the columns you may want to edit. Then, click the download button.

The following are the key metrics available on the page:

• Maximum cost-per-click (max. CPC)
• Impressions
• Clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Conversion metrics
• Benchmark clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Benchmark maximum cost-per-click (max. CPC)
• Impression share and more

2. Use the products page (Shopping only)

This page enables you to check the performance of individual products alone. To access products, click campaigns >> click products >> products.

You can track the following metrics:

• Item ID
• Title
• Channel
• Channel exclusivity
• Merchant id
• Brand
• Price
• Condition
• Language
• Product type
• Category
• Custom label
• Product status
• Impressions
• Clicks
• Average cost-per-click
• Effective maximum cost-per-click (effective max. CPC)
• Conversion metrics
• Absolute top impression share

3. Predefined Reports page

The predefined reports page offers detailed insights into product performance by allowing you to choose across dimensions, such as:

• Category
• Product type
• Item ID
• Brand
• Merchant Center ID
• Store ID
• Channel and more

To access predefined reports: Go to your Google Ads account >> click Campaigns >> click Insights and reports dropdown >> click Report editor >> click View all in the predefined reports >> choose the ‘Shopping’ section and select the dimension to track your performance data.

4. Auction Insights Report for Shopping Campaigns

The Auction Insights report for Shopping campaigns reveals three key performance metrics: 

• Impression share
• Overlap rate, and 
• Outranking share. 

You can generate this report for one or more ad groups or campaigns, provided they meet the minimum activity threshold for the selected time frame. You can further break down the results by time and device.

5. Bid Simulator

The Bid Simulator gathers and analyzes data from ad auctions over the past seven days, including factors like ad quality, competitor bids, and product information. It then uses that data to estimate how different bid adjustments affected metrics such as clicks, cost, impressions, and conversions.

You can apply the bid simulator to a specific product group or subdivided groups within it, allowing you to test bid changes individually or proportionately across entire segments.

Google Merchant Center

This platform offers insights into paid and free Shopping listings, showing how products perform across Google surfaces.

Product Feed Health and Diagnostics

You can access this under Products >> Diagnostics in your Merchant Center account.
This report highlights all issues affecting your product feed, including disapprovals, warnings, and limited visibility errors. It also shows which specific attributes, for example, gtin, price, or availability need fixing.

Regularly checking this section ensures that your listings remain active and eligible.

For instance, if a high-selling item is disapproved due to an image or pricing mismatch, correcting it immediately can restore impressions and sales within hours.

Tip: Review the Diagnostics tab at least once a week. Fix feed issues early to maintain a high approval rate and maximize your product visibility across Shopping ads and free listings.

Other tools for analyzing the performance of shopping campaigns include Performance Planner, Looker Studio, and Google Analytics.

How to Use These Metrics for Optimization?

Once you’ve reviewed your reports, use insights to make data-driven changes:

• If CTR is low, update titles, use more descriptive images, or test promotional tags like “Free Shipping.”
• If CVR is low, improve landing page load speed, simplify checkout, or show clear trust signals.
• If ROAS drops, move budget to high-margin products or reduce bids for low converters.
• If Impression Share is low, increase bids or adjust campaign priority levels to capture more visibility.
• If Feed Health reports show errors, fix missing GTINs or mismatched data to prevent disapprovals.

Monitoring these tools weekly helps you stay ahead of performance changes, catch feed issues early, and continuously optimize your Shopping campaigns for better reach and profitability.

6. Bidding Strategies

Google’s smart bidding uses machine learning to optimize your bids in real time for every auction. It considers a wide range of signals to predict the likelihood of a conversion. 

Optimization Tips:

• Three main bidding strategies for Google Shopping campaigns are Target ROAS, Maximize Clicks, and Manual CPC.
• Use Target ROAS when you have a strong history of at least 50–100 conversions per month to ensure the algorithm has enough data to optimize effectively.
• Do not adjust your Target ROAS goal before peak shopping events, as it can send the campaign into “learning mode” and lead to a drop in performance.
• Start your campaigns with Manual CPC to build enough conversion data before switching to Target ROAS for better optimization.
• Do not start new campaigns with Maximize Clicks.
• Use Manual CPC for new campaigns with no historical data, as it gives you complete control over your maximum cost per click at the campaign, ad group, or product group level. Manual CPC allows you to prioritize high-margin or high-priority products based on your business goals.

Tip 1: Begin new campaigns with Manual CPC or eCPC until you collect at least 30–50 conversions. Then move to Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value for efficiency.”

Tip 2: Structure bids by product value. For example, bid higher on premium or high-margin products and set lower bids for low-value accessories.

7. Google Merchant Promotions

Google Merchant promotions is a Shopping ad extension that allows merchants to showcase offers and deals for their products directly on Google Shopping ads. To get maximum benefits, the merchant should:

• Use the Merchant Center Promotions add‑on with the promotion builder tool or a promotions data feed to submit your offers accurately and efficiently.
• Craft titles that are short and easy to understand.
• Tag promotional products with a custom label attribute to effectively analyze the performance of your promotions.
• Remove outdated promotions and only keep new offers to avoid exceeding active promotion limits. 
• Do not create duplicate promotions for the same offer. If one promotion applies across products, use the promotion ID to map them efficiently.
• Offer valuable promotions, such as discounts, gifts, buy‑one‑get‑one offers, or free shipping, and ensure they meet Google’s minimum requirement of at least 5% off.

8. Google Shopping Campaign Structure

One of the advantages of following a proper campaign structure is that it allows you to allocate budget and bids precisely, enabling you to scale high-performing products and limit spending on less profitable ones. 

Key strategies for optimizing Google Shopping campaign structure:

• You can set up Google Shopping campaigns in several methods, here are a few:
  • One campaign, one ad, and product group: Ideal for merchants with a single product
  • One campaign, multiple ads, and product groups: Ideal for brands with one product line
  • Two or three campaigns using campaign priorities such as high, medium, and low: ideal for merchants to gain control over budget allocation
  • Multiple campaigns, multiple ads, and product groups with query sculpting – This campaign setup is ideal for merchants with a variety of products and brands
  • Performance-based approach: This type of campaign setup allows you to allocate budget and bids based on product performance
  • Groups of individual products (GRIP): Suitable for merchants with single-digit SKUs.
• Organize product groups based on attributes or your product line’s categories, subcategories, or group products with similar margins.
• Structure your campaigns based on your budget. For example, it is not a good idea to set a minimal budget across multiple campaigns and ads. 
• Choose bidding strategies based on your business needs. Understand whether you are looking for profits or generating leads, and then pick your strategy.
• Set up conversion tracking accurately to track key events like add to cart, purchase, etc.
• Use negative keywords within campaigns and ad groups to prevent irrelevant searches from triggering ads and wasting budget. 
• Create detailed product groups within each ad group using attributes like item ID, brand, custom labels, or product type to fine-tune bidding per segment and improve granular insights.
• If you’re a beginner, start with a simpler structure like a single campaign and ad group.
• Review campaign performance regularly to refine your segmentation, priorities, and bid allocations.

Tip: Segment campaigns by product performance, create separate campaigns for high-margin, best-selling, and clearance items. This lets you control bidding precision and ROI. Use custom labels such as ‘High_Margin,’ ‘Seasonal,’ or ‘Clearance’ to tag products for easier reporting and bid adjustments. Keep your top performers in isolated campaigns. This ensures they receive adequate budget and visibility during peak shopping periods.

How to segment products for Shopping ads?

In your Google Ads account >> click Campaigns >> click Campaigns >> Ad groups >> select product groups tab >> click on ‘+’ sign of a product group >> create subdivisions using attributes. Select any of the attributes, add values, and save it.

9. Dynamic Remarketing

Dynamic remarketing is a campaign in Google Shopping that lets you deliver personalized ads to specific users based on their behavior on your website. These include page views, add to cart, etc.

To implement dynamic remarketing for Google Shopping:

• Ensure your Google Merchant Center feed is optimized and linked to your Google Ads account. Next, implement the Google remarketing tag on your website. 
• To create dynamic remarketing campaigns in Google Ads, choose the correct campaign type and link it to your product feed. 
• Based on user behavior, Google displays dynamic ads by pulling information from the product feed.

Important: Before adding dynamic remarketing to your campaign, ensure your website is tagged for dynamic remarketing. Once the tagging setup is complete and tested, you can add dynamic remarketing to your campaign, as Google will automatically activate it based on the tags and product feed data.

Optimization Tips

• Provide up-to-date and SEO-optimized product titles, descriptions, high-quality images, and more. Accurate product feed is important in creating dynamic remarketing campaigns, as they rely on product feed.
• Before creating remarketing lists, segment your audience based on their actions, such as page views, add-to-carts, initiating checkout, and purchases.
• Take advantage of an automated bidding strategy like Target ROAS and increase bids for audiences most likely to lead to conversions.
• Remember to check your Google Ads account for any alerts or troubleshoot issues that impact Shopping ads performance. 
• Monitor audience segment performance regularly. Increase bids for users who added products to cart but didn’t purchase—they are your highest-value audience.

Read more: A simple guide to Google remarketing.

10. Geo-Targeting and Location-based Bidding

Unlike traditional search campaigns, where you use location-specific keywords, location targeting for Shopping campaigns is possible through campaign settings and bid adjustments.

A few key strategies to optimize your Shopping campaigns for location targeting are:

• Consider targeting specific states, cities, or even postal codes where your products are popular or where you have physical store locations. 
• The locations option is in the Google Ads account. To configure locations, click campaigns, select a specific Shopping campaign, click ‘campaign settings’ on the page’s top menu, scroll down to find locations, and start adding them.

• Radius targeting is a great option for physical stores running local inventory ads. You can set a radius around your location to show ads only to those nearby. 
• In your campaign’s location options, you can also choose between “Presence or Interest” and “Presence.”
  • Presence or Interest: This option lets you target people physically in your location or who have shown interest in it.
  • Presence: This type of marketing targets people physically in or regularly in your target location. 
• To access location-based performance, click Campaigns >> click Audience, keywords & content >> click Locations.

• Create a separate campaign for a city or region that is doing well. For example, you could have a campaign for “New York” with a higher budget and aggressive bidding, and a separate campaign for the rest of the country. 
• Use custom labels to create a product feed for a specific region and include location-specific promotions or shipping offers in your product titles or descriptions.
• If you find that a particular city or state has a higher conversion rate, increase your bid adjustment for that location. On the other hand, if a location consistently performs poorly and does not generate conversions, you can completely exclude it from your targeting to prevent wasted ad spend.

Tip: Use performance data by region to refine spend. If New York or California shows higher ROAS, create dedicated campaigns with higher bids and localized messaging.

11. A/B Testing for Google Shopping Ads

Testing and improving Google Shopping elements such as titles, descriptions, images, and landing pages attracts more attention on the search results page, resulting in lower CPCs and increased CTR.

What Shopping ad elements to test? 

You can test titles, descriptions, images, pricing, landing page experience, and bidding strategies.

For example, you can test various images, such as:

• A plain white background image with your product.
• A colored background with your product.
• A lifestyle background that places the product in a relevant setting.
• Optional alternative angles of a product (for example, a side-on angle versus a front-on pack shot).

Optimization tips:

• Set up the tests and run A/B testing for your existing campaigns instead of creating a new campaign to avoid resetting the standard Shopping campaign learning phases.
• You can use the Google Ads experiments option to A/B test your campaigns and analyze results. To access it, go to campaigns >> click campaigns >> click Experiments.

• Prioritize key metrics such as ROAS, CPA, CTR, and conversion rate. Make informed decisions based on conversion-driven metrics. 
• After analyzing the performance, pause the underperformers. Keep the winning image or landing-page variant live, and use it as your new control.
• Limit your tests to one variable at a time, like title format or image style, so you can isolate what actually improves performance.

12. Device Targeting and Mobile Optimization

This section will discuss how you can enhance your Shopping ads with device targeting and mobile optimization techniques.

Device Targeting

Optimizing your Shopping ads for devices can increase return on investment. It allows advertisers to allocate their budget more effectively and reduce wasted spend.

How to set up device targeting?

In your Google Ads account >> select Campaigns >> select a specific Google Shopping campaign >> click settings >> and expand the devices section. There, you will see options to adjust bid adjustments for computers, mobile phones, tablets, and TV screens.

Optimization Tips:

• Increase or decrease bids based on your performance. You can evaluate your performance by navigating to the ‘Insights and reports’ section in Google Ads. 

• Analyze key metrics such as conversions and click-through rates for a significant period and make informed decisions. 
• Based on your findings, make minor, incremental bid adjustments to evaluate the performance.

Mobile Optimization tips for Google Shopping ads

• Aim for load times under 3 seconds on mobile. Use readable font sizes, well-spaced tappable buttons, and optimized code. 
• Optimize titles and images for mobile. Use sharp, tightly cropped, and square product images.
• Segment performance by device type in Google Ads to identify strengths or weaknesses in mobile traffic.
• Adjust creative, landing pages, or bidding based on mobile-specific performance metrics like CTR, conversion rate, ROAS, and CPA.
• Mobile traffic now drives the majority of Shopping clicks, so prioritize mobile-optimized titles, square images, and responsive landing pages to capture intent effectively.
• Use PageSpeed Insights tool to check your store’s performance on mobile.

13. Google Shopping Optimization Software

In this section, we shall discuss the top product feed management software that enables you to optimize and automate the Shopping product feed. 

AdNabu

AdNabu is a built-for-Shopify app that helps merchants like you create, optimize, and manage product feeds. It comes with advanced features such as AI feed optimization, bulk editing, Instant Shopify sync, Shopify headless store support, and multi-currency and multi-language feeds suitable for stores of all sizes.

Pricing: Offers a free plan with a 14-day free trial. The plans include:

• Starter: Free
• Basic: starts at $39.99/month
• Advanced: Cists $99.99/month
• Plus: Costs $249.99/month 

DataFeedWatch

DataFeedWatch is another powerful tool for automating and optimizing your Google Shopping feed. It offers automated mapping, advanced product feed rules, custom labels, and more.

Pricing

Offers a free trial for 15 days and comes with four paid plans.

• Shop: Starts at $64/month
• Merchant: $84/month
• Agency: $196/month
• Enterprise: Custom plan

Here are some advanced strategies for optimizing your Shopping campaigns:

ProductsUp

ProductsUp is a Unified Feed Management and syndication platform that offers an AI automapper, dynamic content enrichment, and an image designer. It is a central platform for importing, enriching, and distributing product data across advertising, marketplace, retailer/distributor, and supplier onboarding channels.

Pricing

ProductsUp offers only custom plans. They can help you find a plan suitable for your business needs.

Using Automation Tools for Feed Management

Using the right tools, you can automate the product feed creation and management process. When choosing the automation tools, pick one that uses the Content API method. It offers a powerful and efficient way to manage product feeds, especially for extensive inventories and real-time updates.

Product feed management tools that use the Content API method let you manage a product feed, correct it to align with Google Shopping guidelines, connect a Google Merchant Center account, alert you of potential errors, and assist you in fixing them promptly.

14. PMax Campaigns

Along with standard Shopping campaigns, you can also run Performance Max feed-only campaigns. 

• A feed-only Performance Max campaign focuses entirely on your Google Merchant Center product feed. It does not use creative assets like videos or headlines. This setup tells Google to show your products mainly on the Shopping network and dynamic remarketing placements instead of spreading your budget across YouTube, Display, or Gmail.
• Before launching a PMax feed-only campaign, ensure your product feed is clean and complete. Maintain clear titles and descriptions, add accurate GTINs, use high-quality images, and assign the right categories.
• Next, segment your feed using custom labels such as High Margin, Best Seller, or Clearance. Create separate feed-only PMax campaigns for each group so you can control budget and performance more easily. For instance, you can set a higher ROAS target for high-margin items and a flexible goal for clearance products to move stock faster.
• Start with a small budget and watch how the campaign performs in the first few weeks. Track metrics like impressions, cost, and ROAS. If one product or group uses too much budget or converts poorly, adjust your bids or pause that segment.
• Keep an eye on overlap with Standard Shopping campaigns. When the same products appear in both campaigns, they compete in the auction and raise costs. To avoid this, remove shared products from one campaign or give each campaign a different budget and purpose.
• Even though feed-only campaigns do not use creative assets, you can still add audience signals. Include segments such as cart abandoners or repeat buyers to help Google identify high-intent users. Keep your signals simple so the system focuses on your product data, not audience exploration.
• Review your reports and feed health. In Google Ads, check that most impressions and clicks come from Shopping and remarketing surfaces. In Google Merchant Center, look for feed errors or outdated pricing and fix them quickly.

15. Automated Feed Rules

Use the automated feed rules option in Google Merchant Center to automate your feed optimizations. You can automatically add keywords to titles, add custom labels based on a product’s price or description, or update product types based on a rule.

Follow the path below to use the attribute rules feature in Google Merchant Center Next:

• You must enable the “Advanced data source management” add-on. To log into your Merchant Center account, go to Settings (the gear icon at the top right corner), click Add-ons, find “Advanced data source management,” and click Add to enable it.
• Once the add-on is enabled, return to Settings >> click Data sources >> Find the attribute rules for a specific feed. Under the “Product sources” tab, select the particular product feed you want to edit. You will now see a tab called Attribute rules. Click on it.
• From there, you can click Add attribute rule to create a new one or click on an existing attribute to edit its rules.

16. Google Shopping Ad Extensions

Shopping ad extensions add extra information to your ads, helping shoppers make quicker decisions and improving your click-through rate (CTR). They make your listings more engaging and can increase your ad visibility across Google’s Shopping network. These ad extensions, include:

• Google Merchant Promotions
• Sale price
• Special offers
• Return and refund information
• Shipping details
• In-store availability
• order online and pick up in-store

Start with Merchant Center Promotions. These extensions highlight special offers, discounts, or coupon codes directly within your Shopping ads. For example, adding a “10% off this weekend” tag can attract buyers looking for deals and encourage immediate clicks.

Next, use the Shipping and Returns extensions to provide key details upfront. Displaying information like “Free shipping over $50” or “30-day easy returns” builds trust and helps reduce buyer hesitation before checkout.

If you operate physical stores, enable Local Inventory Ads. These extensions show local stock availability and pickup options, such as “Available for pickup today.”

Another useful option is free product listings. These ads let your products appear in free placements across Google Search and the Shopping tab, increasing visibility without extra cost. Pairing them with paid Shopping ads expands reach and improves overall exposure.

Finally, review your ad extension performance regularly.

By combining different Shopping extensions, you make your ads more informative and appealing, which can lead to higher CTR, stronger brand trust, and better conversion rates.

17. Customer Reviews

Customer reviews play a crucial role in building trust and driving more sales through Shopping ads. Shoppers rely on product ratings and feedback before purchasing, and Google rewards sellers who provide this information by showing star ratings in Shopping results.

Important: To be eligible for showing reviews, you must have 50 product reviews.

If you comply with Google’s product ratings guidelines, you can iterate reviews and show them on your ads. Using a product feed management tool, you can integrate with product review apps to show ratings and reviews directly in your Shopping ads.

If you collect reviews through your website or third-party tools, make sure to submit a product review feed to Google Merchant Center or connect an approved review aggregator. This ensures Google can verify and display your reviews correctly.

Remember to encourage reviews after purchase. Send automated follow-up emails asking customers to rate their products or share feedback.

Use reviews strategically. Tag products with high ratings (4.5★ and above) using custom labels like “Top Rated.” Similarly, identify low-rated products and work on improving their descriptions, images, or value proposition before promoting them.

Remember, Google requires at least 50 reviews for your store to display star ratings in Shopping ads. Regularly monitor your review quality and volume in Google Merchant Center to stay compliant and competitive.

Conclusion

There you have it! Optimizing a Google Shopping campaign involves a strategic approach, from optimizing product feed , adjusting bidding strategies, and analyzing their performance.

Here are a few key takeaways:

• Ensure your product feed is complete, accurate, and compliant with Google’s guidelines.
• Apply negative keywords at the campaign and ad group level to reduce wasted spend.
• Track metrics like CTR, ROAS, CPA, and Impression Share in Google Ads and Merchant Center to keep optimizing your campaigns.
• Run PMax campaigns to maximize conversions, and use automated bidding strategies, customer reviews, and Shopping ad extensions.
• Test regularly, analyze results, and refine campaigns.

FAQs

What should I do if my product feed has errors? 

Check the diagnostics page to understand the errors and affected products. Make changes to your feed and reupload it to see if the corrections take effect and resolve your product feed errors. You can also use automatic feed rules in GMC to correct the issues.

How do I adjust my Google Shopping campaigns for seasonal trends? 

You can add a new seasonality adjustment to your campaign in your Google Ads account. You can do so by navigating to the Tools section >> click Budgets and bidding >> Adjustments.

What are the best practices for using negative keywords? 

Review search term reports regularly to identify irrelevant queries and update your negative keyword list. Experiment with all match types, including broad, phrase, and exact. 

How can I leverage Shopify analytics for Google Shopping campaigns?

Shopify offers analytics and reporting tools, but they cover only the basics. You can connect Google Analytics via the Google and YouTube app for detailed insights.

How to optimize a Google Shopping campaign?

To optimize a Google Shopping campaign, create engaging titles and descriptions, upload high-quality images, use negative keywords, ad extensions, and targeting strategies, optimize for mobile, use tools to track Shopping ads performance, analyze metrics, and apply advanced strategies like automated feed rules and more.

How do you structure a Google Shopping campaign for optimal control and performance?

Define your campaign goal, set average daily budgets, choose an appropriate bidding strategy, use campaign priorities, divide products into logical ad groups, add negative keywords, optimize product feed, and monitor campaign performance.

What are the key elements required to run a Google Shopping campaign?

You require a Google Ads account and a Google Merchant Center together. You will also need an optimized product feed and must comply with Google’s Shopping ad policies.

Check Out These Related Articles:

• Product Type in Google Shopping Feed Explained
• Google Shopping Product Feed Audit Checklist
• Google Shopping feed Optimization Tips
• Google Shopping Feed Requirements
• Google Shopping Feed Automation