Google Shopping: what it is and how to use it. Prohibited products What can you buy on Google

Etsy made some minor changes on October 4th with a new Google Advertising tool. There was no letter about this news; the admins reported this only in the Announcements section of the forum.

This is what the ads look like:

And here’s what this item looks like in our Etsy account:

The point of the innovations, it seems to me, is to increase the amount of advertising on the site at the expense of sellers. Now Etsy also advertises themselves and us sellers on Google, but at their own expense. This feature is called Shopping Engine Ads. You've probably seen conversions from Google ads in your store statistics; they are designated as Google Shopping

But as you can see, there are not so many of these transitions; I have only had 4 of them recently.

Accordingly, we can now attract not only those buyers who are already on Etsy (using Promoted Listings), but also those who are Googling something, but maybe don’t even know about Etsy.

How to enable an advertising campaign

You need to go to the menu item “Your shop>Promote>Try advertising on Etsy” and click on the “Start Advertising on Google” button

• Daily budget (minimum $1)
• Country of users to whom the ad will be shown (currently you can select one of the countries - USA, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany)
• Should I add all new listings to my ad?

All settings new Google Shopping settings are almost identical to Promoted Listings settings. The only thing is that we cannot choose the cost of the bet, i.e. how much will it cost to click on our ad. Etsy calculates this value themselves.

Features of Google Shopping

Your daily budget can vary within 20% of the value you set in the settings. But in total you won’t spend more in a month than you plan. For example, Etsy counts a month as 30.4 days. Accordingly, with a daily budget of $1, you will spend no more than $30.40.

The default maximum daily budget is $10.00. But as your advertising campaign progresses, this value may change. The more you spend on advertising, the higher your maximum budget will be.

It will take at least a week for you to notice conversions for the created campaign in the statistics. Also, this period may be affected by frequent changes in the daily budget and country. As Etsy themselves say, this is explained by the peculiarity of the Google advertising platform.

I also want to note that as soon as an advertising campaign on Google Shopping is turned on, the Shopping Engine Ads tool will be automatically turned off. When you turn off or stop a campaign, Shopping Engine Ads will turn on again.

Conclusion

By the way, the Promoted Listings tool has changed its interface. The essence remains the same, but at first glance it seems that you can get confused. If you need a separate article, please let me know.

Tickets for transport or upcoming entertainment events.

• Examples: Concert tickets, airline tickets, bus reservation tickets

Products related to financial management, financial assets, investments, securities and insurance.

• Examples: Stocks, bonds, investment products, insurance policies, credit cards, money orders, cashiers checks

Instruments of account whose price is determined in the foreign exchange market, including currencies offered at a discount, currencies traded for exchange, and currencies backed by precious materials.

• Examples: Gold bullion, precious metals, local currency, virtual currency

Prepaid gift cards that are issued by the credit card issuer.

• Examples: gift cards from Mastercard, Visa and American Express systems.

Work, time, effort, knowledge and actions that do not result in the production of a physical product. This category also includes services sold in combination with physical goods.

• Examples: Maintenance or repair services, accounting services, financial planning services, streaming content, online gaming currency, car repair services sold bundled with purchase of tires
• Exception to the rule: It is allowed to sell mobile phones and tablets together with contracts for the provision of services from telecom operators. Read about how to indicate prices for such products.

Payment methods that allow users to pay for purchased goods in regular payments on an ongoing basis over an indefinite period.

• Examples: security or medical surveillance systems with recurring subscription payments; digital content subscription with recurring payments.
• Exceptions to the rule:
  1. Subscription to newspapers and magazines.
  2. Cell phones and tablets. List of countries where sales are permitted mobile devices according to the contract for the provision of services of telecom operators, you can see. You can sell tablets and smartphones in installments only in Brazil, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the USA and South Korea, as well as in France.
  3. Prepaid software subscriptions that automatically renew after a year.
  4. In Brazil, the sale of goods with regular payments is fully permitted.
  It is written about how to indicate the price for such goods.

Digital goods and services that require the installation of additional software to purchase.

• Examples: Photo albums that are sold only after installing additional software.

What can be done

Below is more information about the types of violations and what to do if you receive a violation notice or have your Merchant Center account suspended.

Account blocking

Account blocking

Typically we send the user email with a description of the violations and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your address. Email. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have configured automatic download scheduled, update the data manually or wait for automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

Account blocking

Typically, we will send the user an email describing the violation and give seven days to correct the data feed. To resolve the issue, follow these directions:

1. Please read the terms of service carefully to understand what we consider a violation.
2. Remove data about products that violate our rules. We have sent detailed descriptions and examples of violations to your email address. If you have other products that violate our rules, they must also be removed.
3. Update product data in Google Merchant Center.
   • If you have set up an automatic download on a schedule, update the data manually or wait for the automatic update.
   • Data uploaded in test mode will not be published.
4. Submit a request for account verification.
   • If you receive a notification, your account will be reviewed automatically after the correction period has passed. You only need to fix the violation.
   • If your account is suspended, you must contact us by submitting an account verification request.

Typically, verification takes three business days, but sometimes it may take longer. If we are satisfied that you have removed the offending items, the warning will be removed, and if your account has been suspended, we will unblock it.

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How can this article be improved?

Do you want to show your products in search results with a photo and description? Be sure to try creating product campaigns if Google Shopping is available in your country. In this article, I will talk about the settings required to launch shopping campaigns.

Product listings available in Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, UK, Germany, Hong Kong, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Canada, Colombia, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, UAE, Poland , Portugal, Russia, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, Philippines, France, Czech Republic, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa and Japan.

It is not yet possible to launch shopping campaigns in Belarus.

Order promotion from the Netpeak agency - and get more lead generation tools, traffic growth, and the number of orders from your website/online store:

What is Google Shopping?

I will describe three important nuances that are worth paying attention to:

• in the field “What is the name of your store?” do not indicate the legal name of the organization, but rather the name of the store as consumers know it—this data will be used in the ad.
• If you sell adult products, be sure to check the box next to “My site contains adult products.” If, when checking your account, Google specialists discover that you have hidden such information, they will completely block your account.
• All data specified in the Merchant Center interface can be edited later.

1.4. You must verify your website rights, but you can skip this step and complete the necessary steps after creating your Merchant Center account.

1.4.1. If you have access to the site code, download a special HTML file and upload it to the root directory - this will confirm the rights to the site.

1.4.2. The second method is suitable for an agency specialist. If you can't upload the code to the root directory yourself, use Google Tag Manager.

1.5. Go to Merchant Center and review your account structure.

2. Link Google Ads and Merchant Center

2.1. To establish a link between accounts, open the drop-down menu in the upper right corner and select the “Link with other services” field.
2.2. In the new window, click on the blue “+” button.

Next, enter your account ID in Google Ads and click “Submit Account Creation Request.”

If you used the same email to register with Merchant Center and Google Ads, the connection will be established automatically. Otherwise, confirm the account link in the Google Ads interface.

3. Create a data feed

A data feed is a file containing detailed information about your products using special attributes. For example, the name of the product is indicated in the title attribute, the description in description, and the price in price.

Feeds for shopping campaigns can be in several formats:

• TXT - text format;
• XML - Text Document with extension.xml;
• GZ - Gnu zip, compressed text or XML format;
• ZIP - Zip, compressed text or XML format;
• BZ2 - Bzip2, a compressed text or XML format.

I will separately describe some important attributes of the product catalog (you can read the full list

And if you want to sell as many products as possible, then obviously you need to attract more potential customers.

With more and more people shopping online, there's never been a better time to use services like Google Shopping.

Google Shopping is effective method attract more attention to your store and stimulate sales.

How to Use Google Shopping to Generate Leads?

If you want to attract your audience and quickly increase your sales, you can use these 7 strategies to help maximize the benefits of Google Shopping.

1. Correct description of the product

When you are selling a product, it is important to describe it correctly. To do this, it is advisable to do some research on the use keywords and popular search queries and see what other sellers are doing to attract customers.

You can increase sales by targeting customers who actually want to buy what you offer. Avoid having to pay for unnecessary clicks by using negative keywords.

Any descriptions of your products should show them in the best light and attract the attention of buyers.

Tailor your ads to the necessary search queries and make sure that your site correctly converts those visitors who came from advertising.

2. Correct product name

When you create your ad, you want to assure the client that you are offering exactly what they were looking for.

If there is any uncertainty, the buyer is more likely to click on another ad with a clearer title.

Your title should be clear, concise, and relevant to the search query. Use keyword research tools to make sure the customer understands what you have to offer at first glance.

3. Overcoming competition

Google Shopping can be an incredibly effective platform for retailers, but there's no guarantee that it will dramatically increase your sales.

You will still have to compete with other sellers to make the business successful. Think about what would make you choose one ad over another.

Name? Image? Any special offer? Be prepared to make your ad different from all others.

Things to consider:

• Set specific goals – what is your target cost per conversion and average ticket size?
• Get a client or make a sale? There are two types of salespeople: those who want to generate sales and those who want to generate leads.
• Are you using the right tools? Keyword planners: Google, SEMrush, Keywordtool.io
• Keyword Strategy – What do you want to sell? Disposable or consumable products, what is the average price, is the sales margin high, what is the level of competition and demand?

4. Setting the price

We all know what customers love favorable prices. If you are looking for a product and see three identical ads, in which only the prices differ, which ad will you click on? The vast majority of people will click on the lowest price or best offer.

You'll have a hard time making a sale if you can't compete on price. Keep comparing your prices to your competitors and keep an eye on your conversion rate.

This infographic shows the impact of product price on conversion rates:

5. Link to landing page

If you have an ad, you want to make sure that the maximum number of people who click on it will make a purchase.

You don't want people to click on your ad and then lose interest at the crucial moment. Make sure your landing pages are compelling, relevant to your ad, and allow your visitor to make a purchase quickly and easily.

The process should be quick and understandable. Research shows that only 34% of ad clicks actually result in a sale, and you can increase your chances of success by simplifying the purchasing process and ensuring your landing pages are relevant to the information in the ad.

6. Selling your product

No matter what kind of business you run or what type of product you offer, it's highly likely that you're going to be competing for a customer's attention.

What can a seller do to make his listing more attractive than competitors' listings?

Your ad is essentially an extension of your business and you need to create the right impression with it.

You can install one of the most low prices among competitors and add a title that is related to popular keywords and also convince the buyer that you are the best and most reliable seller. Include information about reviews and special offers in your ad.

If you offer a 10% discount on the second item or free next day delivery, let potential customers know about it.

If you have a special offer tag at the bottom of your ad, you can provide detailed information if the user hovered over it. If the same page contains the same advertisements, like yours, this technique can make a big difference.

Likewise, if there is a 5 star rating, use that to sell your products. When shopping online, it is important that customers trust the sellers and read reviews from previous customers, which can tip the scales in your favor.

Answering the question what is Google Shopping, it is worth noting that it is trading platform(similar to Yandex.Market), where any seller has the opportunity to display advertisements for goods with photos and prices in Google, and potential buyers can see these goods, find out their characteristics and go to the online store website to purchase.

Google Shopping in Russia began its work in October 2016. And Google Shopping in Ukraine - in the first quarter of 2018. Find out further how to set up Google Shopping for your online store.

The creator of the project is American Craig Neville-Manning. The first version of Google Shopping in 2002 offered only a list of prices for viewing and was monetized through , but since 2012 Google has offered a model for purchasing places, that is, sellers began to pay for advertising their products.

The main task of the service- providing easy search for certain products in online stores, as well as the ability to compare prices.

Operating principle and advantages of the service

Having completed all the necessary settings, the seller will be able to display their products in the form of banners with information. When you hover your cursor over a particular product, additional information about it pops up. If you click on the message, the user will be automatically redirected to the seller’s website.

The service works effectively without keyword processing. AdWords uses all the necessary information from the data feed, which is manually created directly by the seller.

Shopping ads can appear on the side or above the search results.

Thanks to the settings, users can see several products at once or only one (this option is not very popular).

Google Shopping or Shopping Ads have a number of advantages over other online advertising options, most notably price. The cost of one click is significantly less than in the case of search advertising, because the products are reflected immediately in the search results.

Positions stand out favorably among a large flow of information.

Additional plus- advertising of products with photos and prices will be shown on Google only when search query user matches the information from the feed. Thus, advertising will be carried out among the desired target audience, which searches for specific products through search engine Google.

What is needed to work with Google Shopping?

In order to create a Google Shopping campaign, the user must first have an account in the Google service itself. After this, you need to adhere to the following action plan:

• create an account in Merchant Center;
• have an AdWords account;
• provide a connection between two accounts;
• upload product feeds to Merchant Center;
• make settings.

Data feed

You can't create product ads without loading the feed. A feed is a document with data about the products of an online store. Feeds must be dynamically updated so that the banner information is relevant.
When creating a feed, users are allowed to use the following formats:

• text - TXT;
• tabular - XML;
• compressed archive - GZ, BZ2, ZIP.

Each feed, regardless of what product you are advertising, should contain basic information about the product. The following fields are required:

• Identifier of a specific product (abbreviated as ID) - may contain letters, numbers, but no more than 50 characters;
• Title - product name (limited to 150 characters). It will be placed on the landing page, but should not contain promotional phrases;
• Description - “dry” description up to 5000 characters long, without links to the site and explicit advertising texts;
• Link - web link to the site page with the product;
• Image link - web link to the main photo of a specific product;
• Availability - availability of goods in the store;
• Price - current price;
• Brand - brand of the manufacturing company;
• GTN - product marking in international format. Additional information at the link;
• MPN - manufacturer code, which is indicated if GTN is missing.
• Condition is the condition of the product. The seller can choose one of the following options: refurbished - refurbished, new - new, used - used.

For individual products, the service offers to select a category, for example: clothing, household appliances, children's products, and the like.

Additional information on feed attributes can be found here.

Unfortunately, even experienced professionals sometimes make mistakes when creating feeds.

The most common problems are:

• automatic rejection;
• out-of-date information about product availability or price;
• violation of the Title structure - ideally it should be like this: Brand - type of product - attributes, and if clothes, shoes are sold, then also gender;
• inattention when filling out the attribute fields;
• problems with using photos - this happens if the photo is of poor quality or the size or format is poorly chosen;
• blocking of goods through a negative response from testing the robots.txt file. - in this case, you need to check the URLs of all products that were rejected; perhaps some of them are blocked due to violation of the rules.

Merchant center account

Google Merchant Center is a tool whose main task is to contain information about the store, brand, products, etc.

To create shopping ads from Google, you need to register in the Merchant Center, and for this you will have to:

• log in to your Google account;
• from there go to the Merchant Center and click the “Register” button;
• indicate the basic information of the contact person and the online store - country of actual location, last name and first name of the owner, name of the store (not legal, but the one that users will know), website address;
• check the box confirming that you have read the rules;
• confirm your decision to create an account.

You also need to confirm the right to use the resource. The best way to accomplish this task is to use Tag Manager. That is, grant access on behalf of the administrator, and only then verify the site through the Merchant Center.
After this, you can log into your account, get acquainted with the structure of this tool, and edit the previously entered data.

Google Adwords Account

It is very easy to create an account in Google Adwords. All the user needs is an email and the company website address. The registration steps are as follows:

• follow the link;
• Enter your email address in the appropriate field;
• indicate the URL of your site;
• Click the active “Continue” button.

Users who are registered with Google can use a Gmail email address.

How to upload a data feed to Merchant center?

Can't configure Google service purchases if the feeds are not properly filled out and loaded. In order for them to appear in the Merchant Center, you need to go to the “Products” section and select the “Feeds” tab to download a pre-prepared file.

After this you need:

In the “Diagnostics” section you can see all feed errors, if any.

How to link your Adwords account and Merchant center?

In order for information about products to be reflected in product advertisements, you should link Accounts AdWords and Merchant Center. To do this, you need to log into your Merchant Center account. Next, open the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Already in it select the item “Link with other services”.

In the window that opens, select the “Adwords” tab, and then click on the “Link account” button.

In the empty field, enter the ID of the person being linked Google account Adwords and click the submit request button.

The last step is to confirm the request in your Adwords account.

Once you know the sequence of actions, setting up a shopping campaign will not be difficult. So, first you need to log into your Adwords account. Then follow these recommendations:

1. Select the “Campaigns” tab. In it, click the plus and select “Trading campaign” from the options offered.
   
2. Next you will be asked to select the promotion goal, Merchant center account number and country of sale. From the entire list of products in the feed, the system itself will determine those that can be sold in the specified country.
   
3. You must specify the maximum price for each click in the “Default bid” field. The “Budget” section offers a choice: an individual option (when the user indicates the amount he is willing to spend on the campaign) or a general one.
   
4. In the “Places” section, you can specify specific cities, regions and regions where the specified product will be advertised.
   

You can also use Extra options to set up product campaigns in Adwords. These include, in particular: the priority of displaying a particular product, display schedule, display methods, filtering in accordance with selected attributes.

Improving the effectiveness of product campaigns

For effective sales, setting up Google Shopping is not enough. The store owner must also take care of:

• high-quality website (must have an attractive design, affordable prices, clear and full information about the product, availability of promotions, etc.);
• the highest quality and correctly filled out feed (selecting accurate categories, following the rules of compilation, monitoring the feed is important);
• optimal structure of advertising campaigns;
• analyzing the company’s performance and adjusting data if necessary;
• optimization of bids taking into account profit and product categories.

Particular attention should be paid to writing names and descriptions of products, because this largely determines whether the user will be interested in the offer. A header that includes the main user queries will be more useful.

At the same time, an excessive amount of them negatively affects advertising, and the advertising offer is perceived as spam. The optimal title length is 50-70 characters.

Product campaign optimization

Optimizing a product campaign allows you to achieve maximum returns at a lower cost.

There are 5 main optimization methods:

1. Budget change. If an advertising campaign is not profitable, of course, costs on it need to be reduced. And vice versa, if it generates income, then investments in it should be large.
2. Bid adjustments for mobile devices. It must be carried out taking into account data from reports.
3. Rate adjustments based on location. It is better to eliminate ineffective locations altogether, or significantly reduce their rate. Companies, as experts recommend, should better segment and use different budgets for them.
4. Scheduling shows. It is better to increase bids on those days and hours of the day when conversion is likely to be higher.
5. Using negative keywords. It is recommended to add them for each campaign.

In addition to the methods mentioned above, experts also recommend using other optimization methods. So, with a small number of impressions, it is recommended to increase bids so as not to miss views due to a low price.

It is useful to experiment with text information. CTR data will show which headline is the most successful.

It is worth analyzing the campaign by attributes. Based on the data obtained, you can adjust rates for different groups of goods.

Still have questions? and we will answer all your questions related to Google settings Shopping.