Google Shopping campaigns are a great tool to promote your inventory, boost traffic to your website or local store, and find better-qualified leads.
About Shopping Campaigns and Shopping Ads
The product data you submit through Google's Merchant Center contains details about the products you sell. Shopping ads use this data to decide how and where to show your ads.
You can manage your Shopping ads in Google Ads using Shopping campaigns. It's a simple and flexible way to organize and promote your product inventory.
Shopping ads and free listings are currently available in over 40 countries!
Requirements for Shopping Campaigns
There are a few requirements you'll need to meet to be able to set up a Shopping campaign and create Shopping ads:
Google accounts: you'll need to set up accounts with Google Merchant Center and Google Ads and link them
Policies: your content for Shopping campaigns and Shopping ads needs to comply with the Shopping ads policies
Product data: you'll need to send Google up-to-date product data at least every 30 days; the standards for submitting your product data are in the product data specification; you'll use Merchant Center to submit your product data regularly
Cost
Shopping ads participate in an ad auction. You're charged using cost-per-click (CPC), which is when someone clicks your ad. So, you’re charged only when someone clicks an ad that leads to the landing page on your website.
When you're creating your Shopping campaign, you'll decide how much you're willing to pay for each click. You'll only pay the minimum amount necessary to rank higher than the advertiser immediately below you, and you'll often pay less than your maximum bid.
Where Do Your Ads Appear?
Here's where you might see your Shopping ads and free listings across the web:
The Shopping tab on Google Search (in selected countries)
Google Search, next to search results, and Google Images
Google Search Partner websites (if your campaign is set to include search partners)
Create a Shopping campaign
Shopping campaigns help you promote your products by giving users detailed information about what you're selling before they even click your ad.
Here are step-by-step instructions for creating a Shopping campaign:
1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. In the page menu along the left, click Campaigns.
3. Click the plus button, then click New campaign.
4. For “Campaign type,” select Shopping and click Next.
5. Choose your advertising preferences:
Campaign name | Enter a name for the campaign. You'll use this name to find the campaign later. You can change the name after the campaign has been created. |
Merchant | Select the Merchant Center account that has the products you want to advertise. If you don't view any accounts here, you'll need to link your Merchant Center and Google Ads account first. You can't change the merchant after you've created the campaign.
Learn how to link Merchant Center and Google Ads. |
Country of sale | Select the country where your products will be sold and shipped to. Ads will only be shown to people from the country you select. To advertise, you'll need to make sure that product data in the selected Merchant Center account is available for the country you select. You can't change the country of sale after you've created the campaign. |
Inventory filter | You only need to adjust this setting if you want to limit the number of products used in your campaign. To do so, choose the criteria a product must meet in order to be advertised. Only products that match all the requirements you select will be added to your campaign. You can change this setting after the campaign has been created. |
Bidding | Select which type of bidding to use in your campaign. You can change this setting after the campaign has been created.
Learn how to determine a bid strategy based on your goals. |
Daily budget | Select how much you're willing to spend on this campaign.
Learn how to set a budget for your campaign. |
Campaign priority | You only need to adjust this setting if you're advertising the same product in multiple campaigns for the same country of sale. |
Networks | By default, Shopping campaigns show ads in a few places. The default setting can help you drive traffic to your products and increase conversions. If you want to limit where your ads can appear, uncheck the box for any networks you want to exclude. |
Devices | By default, ads can appear on any device, including computers and mobile devices. You can change this setting after the campaign has been created. |
Locations | You can use this setting to limit where your ads show to specific locations. You can change this setting after the campaign has been created. |
Local inventory ads | You only need to adjust this setting if you want your Shopping campaign to include products sold in local stores. To advertise local products, you'll need to submit local product data to Merchant Center. Then, check the box for “Enable ads for products sold in local stores.”
Learn how to use a Shopping campaign to promote local inventory. |
6. Click Save and continue.
7. Create your first ad group by entering a few pieces of information. Your ad group will include individual product ads that are created automatically using information from your Merchant Center account.
Ad group name:
Enter a name for the ad group
You'll use this name to find the ad group later
You can change the name after the campaign has been created
Bid:
Enter the bid for the ad group
After you create the ad group, this bid will be applied to the first product group in the ad group: “All products”
You can change the bid on the product group after the campaign has been created
8. Click Save.
9. You'll be taken to the product groups page, where you'll notice one product group “All products” that contains all products in the campaign. Create more product groups using subdivisions to make bidding more specific. Learn how to manage a Shopping campaign with product groups.
Congratulations, you've now successfully created a shopping campaign!