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Google Shopping Feed Optimization: The Complete Guide raccoon.ag/en

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Page 1: Google Shopping Feed Optimization - Raccoon...Shopping results are displayed as cards under “Sponsored” results. These listings are similar to Google Adwords, however are more

Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

raccoon.ag/en

Page 2: Google Shopping Feed Optimization - Raccoon...Shopping results are displayed as cards under “Sponsored” results. These listings are similar to Google Adwords, however are more

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

New to Google Shopping? Start Here!

Setting Up Your Google Merchant & Adwords Account

Creating Your First Feed

Optimizing Your Shopping Feed Content: The Smartest Way

Advanced Shopping Feed Strategies to Outwit Your Competition

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

New to Google Shopping? Start Here!Congratulations on your first steps towards a better search engine experience!

Everyone loves the idea of great search engine rankings, oodles of traffic and the resulting bump in ROI. Yet, that cake can only be had by a chosen few.

The Game of SERPS is something that needs time and patience to master and in this guide, we reveal a step-by-step method to getting the best bang for your buck.

Chapter.1 Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Google offers a variety of services to help bring shoppers and sellers together. While most will be familiar with Adsense and Adwords, Shopping remains the lesser known product offered by Google, although you would have probably seen it.

Shopping results are displayed as cards under “Sponsored” results. These listings are similar to Google Adwords, however are more targeted towards products and display a product photo, title, price and brand name.

For merchants selling physical products such as electronics, Google Shopping is the perfect way to get more eyeballs on their products! Unlike Adwords ads where only a blurb of text is visible, Google Shopping results come complete with pictures and even reviews that drives up click-through rate and conversions.

You start by uploading and organizing your product information in your Merchant account, then advertise them to the rest of the world through Adwords. Google Shopping listing can be broken down into…

So, What is Google Shopping?

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

FEED CREATION BIDDING OPTIMIZING CAMPAIGNSWhere you download the feed file, fill it up with information regarding your products and then upload it back to your Merchant account.

Unlike traditional Adwords campaigns where your ads start showing up the moment you hit “On,” Google Shopping listings are displayed to searchers depending on your feed information, website and bid. In other words, optimizing your content is extremely crucial to ensuring your listings are displayed as many times as possible.

Google Shopping presents exciting possibilities for companies to show-off their products. Read on to find out how you can get started with Shopping in a few simple steps.

On keywords that are relevant to your products. Done through Adwords.

Using performance data from your campaigns to optimize your product information and bidding even further.

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Setting Up Your Google Adwords & Merchant AccountsIf you already have registered with both of these, feel free to move to Chapter 3.

Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete GuideChapter.2

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Adwords is the portal through which you will be advertising the products you upload to Merchant Center.

You will need to sign in to, or create your Google account first. If you don’t have one, just head over to https://accounts.google.com and create it. The email you create here will be used for managing your adwords campaigns.

Now, head on over to https://adwords.google.com and click “Start Now.”

You can either use Google’s “Guided Setup” with which you can start advertising straight away, but we advise that you click on “Skip the guided setup” and enter the information manually.

Details that you will require to fill out are…

1.Your email address

2.Country

3.Time Zone

4.Currency

Click on “Save and Continue” to finish the registration process and you are done.

Creating an Adwords Account

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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Before getting started, decide upon one main email address with which to run your campaigns. Now head on over to https://merchants.google.com/ and click on Signup.

Information you will require to fill out will include your

1.Country

2.Store name (must be the

same as on your website)

3.Website address (must

include the prefix - http/https)

4.Email (same as the one you

will use for Adwords)

Creating a Merchant Center Account

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Before you can proceed to uploading product data, you will need to verify and claim your website. In your Merchant account, click on “Business Information” then “Website.” You will be presented with four methods to choose from...

1.HTML file upload: Upload a file provided by Google to your website server, which is then verified by Google.2.HTML tag: Copy a short line of HTML code to your website home page, which is then verified by Google.3.through Google Analytics: If you are using Google Analytics, you can add your existing code to your Merchant account for verification.4.Google Tag Manager: Install a Google Tag Manager Container to your website.

You can find a complete list of steps for each of these processes here.

Claim the website as yours in the next step by clicking “Verify & Claim” button in the Website tab, and you are ready to begin uploading your products!

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

You will need to add your Adwords account to your Merchant Center in order to run your campaigns. Here’s how…

1.Login to your Merchant Center account and click on the three

dots in the top right hand.

2.From the drop down menu, select “Account Linking.”

3.Add your Adwords account ID in the space provided.

4.Now, login to your Adwords account and click on the little cog

icon in top right hand side.

5.From the drop down menu, select “Linked Accounts,” then

“Merchant Center.”

6.Approve the request and you’re all set!

Linking Your Adwords and Merchant Center Accounts

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Creating Your First Product Feed

Now that your accounts are set, it’s time to get to the meat and potatoes! The whole point behind product feed is to give Google the information it needs to display your products to interested people.

It’s vital that you not only add the right information, but also think of what descriptors would work best to help shoppers relate with what you’re offering.

We will discuss this in greater detail in the next chapter, for now, let’s get you a basic understanding of what a feed is and how you should fill it up.

Chapter.3

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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A product feed is essentially a Spreadsheet with columns for all the information that Google needs to advertise your products. This will include product ID, title, product description, condition, price, availability etc.

Think of your product feed as your command center from where you control all your campaigns. Once you have a feed setup, you can update it and Google will automatically extract information from it at preset time intervals.

What is a Product Feed?

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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Creating a Product Feed

1. Login to your Merchant account and click on “Products” > “Feeds” then click on the large “+” button under “Primary Feeds.”

2. Select your “Country of Sale,” which is the country you intend to sell products in (and not the origin of the products). You can create multiple lists for multiple countries, too.

3. Select the “Language” your products will be displayed under and keep click “Continue.”

4. Enter the Feed Name. You will then be asked to choose from one of four options. We recommend you go with “Google Sheets” as it allows multiple users to make any number of changes to the product listings.

5. Click “Continue” to be taken to your product feed.

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

With a product feed created, you should now see a file listed under your “Feeds” tab in Merchant Center.

Double click on the file to be taken to a Google Spreadsheet that looks something like this..

Don’t let the number of options overwhelm you! Only a few are really required and it’s best if you focussed on the primary ones which are…

Adding Product Information

Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

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1.Product ID: Preferably same as what you use in your product catalogue.

2.Title: Product title preferably the same as what you use on the product landing page.

3.Description: You have 5,000 characters to play with here, so think of the easiest way to describe

your products.

4.Condition: New/Old

5.Price: Should be in the currency of the country you are displaying the products in.

6.Availability: In stock/Out of Stock.

7.Link: The URL of your product page.

8.Image Link: URL of the product image.

9.Brand: Your brand name.

10.Google Product Category: Select one category from this list.

Other information such as GTIN and MPN can be added if you want too. Google will automatically check for updates made to your feed every day.

Now that you know how to setup a feed, let’s look at some ways to create your feed content that will

get your products more views and clicks.

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Optimizing Your Shopping Feed Content: The Smartest WayIt’s easy to start filling up product information as you would like to in the product feed. However, Google offers lots of information on how to create and organize your feed content that has the best chances of success. Let’s begin!

Chapter.4

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The Complete Guide

There’s a lot of information that you will need to stay on top of, which is why you need to begin by organizing all your information first. Consider the following:

1.Since having different formats can be mentally taxing, it would be best if you used Google’s feed format to organize your information in your own system backend as well.2.Use Google’s product data guidelines to create your feed and website content. Doing so will help you avoid getting your products disapproved.3.Create a schedule to update product information, both in your system back end and Google Shopping feed.4.Avoid product disapprovals by using Google’s country specific data requirements. 5.Provide high quality, updated data. Ideally, you should update your Google Shopping feed right after product information has been updated on your website. Here is a complete list of things to do when submitting your data.

Organize Your Content Properly

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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Each column in a product feed has its own quips and quirks that need to be mastered. Here’s a rundown on the best practices you should follow for the four primary ones i.e. titles, descriptions, pictures and categories:

Product TitlesArguably the most important part of a product listing, product titles are best written according to the following:

1. Shopping titles are 1-150 characters long. Think of the best way to describe your products within this range (hop over to Twitter, and try to create a title that can fit in a tweet).

2. Titles for electronic items should include the following information:a. Brandb. Product type (LED TV, CPU, monitor, etc)c. Attributesd. Model number

3. The recommended title structure as per Google is... Brand + Product type + Product attributeYou can add more attributes such as size, color and product number to it as well.

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

4. Add keywords that searchers are using to find your products. You can find them through Adwords Keyword Planner. Keywords your website is already ranking for are best used first.

5. While titles can be 150 characters long, users on mobile phones will only see 40, so lead with the information you think they will find most interesting.

6. If yours is a high value brand that’s well recognized in the market, then consider leading with it.

7. Alternatively, if you sell a generic item, then adding product attributes and other USPs will help get more clicks.

For more information on how to optimize your titles, refer to this guide.

Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are not shown in the SERP listings, but will when someone clicks on them.

A Salsify study found that 88% shoppers considered product content to be extremely or very important to their buying decision. Also, 94% abandoned a purchase if the content didn’t provide them with the information they were looking for.

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

In other words, your product descriptions can make or break a sale. Here’s how to craft the perfect one:

1. While Google allows descriptions to be 5,000 characters long, it is best to restrict yours to within 1,000 as most readers won’t try and read that much.

2. Much like your product titles, product descriptions should follow a hierarchy. The following should always be included:

a. Brandb. Product typec. Main attributesd. Dimensionse. Weightf. Who’s it for (age range, gender, etc)g. Main keywords

3. A few things to avoid in product descriptions:a. Promotional text (Hurry! offer closing, free shipping, etc)b. ALL CAPSc. Comparisons to competitors

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The Complete Guide

d. Billing and/or payment informatione. Emotional descriptions, i.e. “this product will delight you…”

4. Always use correct punctuation and keep your descriptions as to the point as possible.

5. Add bullet points to your description, the more scannable your text is, the easier it will be for your readers to interpret it.

6. Use the more relevant and attractive product attributes towards the beginning of the description.

7. Only use attributes that the shoppers are likely to search for. For instance, if you sell LED TVs, then the most searched attributes will be dimension, resolution, internet enabled, color, contrast ratio, etc.

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Product PicturesAfter the product title, it’s picture is what will do the selling. Here are a few best practices to help you get the most out of your product photos:

1. Use the best quality pictures of your photographs. The recommended resolution for an image is 800X600 pixels.2. You can use additional product images to provide more information to the client.3. White backgrounds are best used to highlight your products. 4. Salsify suggests that you add at least 3 pictures of each product.

For more information on what Google looks for in a Shopping description, check out this guide.

Product CategoriesHow you organize your products in the Shopping feed helps Google ascertain when it should display a listing. Consequently, the more granular your product categories become, better are the chances that it will be shown to the right people. Here’s how:

1. Your product listings need to follow Google’s Product Taxonomy.

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2. So, let’s say you sell USB adapters. The correct category you should include in your Shopping feed will be - “Electronics > Electronics Accessories > Adapters > USB Adapters” without the quotes.

3. If your items fall into multiple categories, choose the most relevant one.

4. Make sure that you are submitting the complete category path and not just the highest or lowest levels of one in the shopping feed.

5. You really need to go to three levels deep into a category. Further levels can be added for more accurate bidding.

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Advanced Google Shopping Strategies to Outwit Your CompetitionSo, you have worked hard to get all the information in place as Google likes it. But let’s face it, probably every last one of your competitors is also doing the same. After all, who wouldn’t want to rank well and get more sales?

To give your products the edge, you will need to go the extra mile and do stuff your competition probably wouldn’t. Here are a few ideas to consider…

Chapter.5

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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Google gives merchants the ability to showcase any offers they might be running. A “special offer” tag shows up under a product in a search result when implemented. To enable a special offer, you will first need to fill out a merchant promotional interest form, or speak with an adwords representative.

Once your site has been whitelisted, you can create promotions from the “Promotions tool” in your merchant center account. If you wish to create a large number of promotions, then merchant center also provides the option to create a promotional feed from Products > Feeds > + > Promotions.

Once implemented, all products with promotions will come with a “Special offer” link which will showcase your offer every time someone hovers their mouse cursor over it.

Use Special Offers

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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Product ratings are a great way to stand out from the crowd. A review by BrightLocal discovered that 79% consumers trust product reviews as much as a recommendation from a friend.

To get started, fill out Google’s product ratings interest form. You should hear from Google within 10-15 days with the next steps for getting your product ratings featured on their SERPs.

You will need to use a Google approved review aggregator. For a list of all the steps you will need to complete in order to get ratings featured, refer to this guide.

Show Product Ratings

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Apart from Merchant Center promotions, you can append your ads with promotional material, too. Unlike Special Offers, Adwords promotions appear when a cursor is hovered over anywhere on your ad. Also, a promotional text can only be added to an ad group and not specific products.

To create promotional text, click on your Shopping Campaign in Adwords. Next, go to the Ad group you want to create the promotion for. Now click on the name of the Ad and add your promotional text in the box provided. Save and you’re done!

Show Promotional Text through Adwords

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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Electronics are already some of the most competed product types out there. As shoppers often use Google Shopping primarily to compare different prices, the search engine has a bias towards best prices. PPC agency Clicteq also found that competitive pricing generates a greater CTR.

Use Competitive Pricing

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

The Complete Guide

Custom labels allow you to get more granular with reporting and targeting in Google Shopping. You can use custom to highlight whether an item is on clearance sale, seasonal, best seller etc.

Each product can have up to 5 custom labels ranging from 0-4, and each of the labels can only have one value. An example of how this might work is…

Use Custom Labels

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You can now assign each product a value like so…

Read more on custom tags here.

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Remarketing allows you to target prospects who had previously visited your site and customize your bids and promotions specific to them. RLSA is particularly useful for helping you get in touch with people who have abandoned a purchase and moved to other sites. This is particularly important as 96% of visitors of your site won’t make a purchase on their first visit.

Use RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) to Home in On the Ideal Customers

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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To start, you will need to apply the Google remarketing tag across your entire desktop and mobile site. A tag is a small piece of code that you have to add to your site’s main header or footer.

You can use Google Tag Manager container tag if you’re doing it for the first time. Alternatively, if you already have Google Analytics integrated with your site, you can add its own tags to your remarketing campaigns as well. You can find a complete list of steps on how to implement a remarketing campaign on Google here.

Once implemented, Google will show products a searcher had checked out on when they are on a site with Google Adsense.

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Google Shopping Feed Optimization:

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While the strategies mentioned above will get you started, optimising for Google Shopping is an ongoing process. Every brand needs a tailor-made strategy that takes into account its strengths, weaknesses and business goals. Not to mention, Google and all the other search engines are constantly changing which brings new opportunities to the table, too.

We at Raccoon live and breathe digital market! If you are interested in taking your search engine advertising results to the next level, give us a shout out, we will be happy to help you take your results to the next level.

Winding it All Up

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