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How to Set Up Your First eCommerce Store Google Ad in Simple Steps

In today’s digitally-driven world, one of the biggest drivers of internet content is Google. Through Google, you will be able to set up eCommerce stores, sell online, and make profits. There are so many nuances that come with setting up a store and it’s important that you’re aware of them all before you begin. 

Having the right ads are super important, especially if you’re just starting out in a bid to sell online. It will give you the right base on which all your future campaigns are also built around, so you need to be super selective about the content that you put out on Google as well.

Once you’re able to get a gist on how the entire console works, then it becomes easier to go ahead and create better and more effective ads as well for your network.

From leads to competitive data, managing your Google ads account, understanding shopping campaigns, and more, there’s so much you’ll be able to learn from your online campaigns.

So, let’s take you through some of the best practices and techniques to follow in order to be successful in 2020 when it comes to your Google ads:

Setting up first Google Ad for your eCommerce Store

What are Google Shopping Ads?

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Google is the world’s most used search engine. A large number of businesses have their e-commerce stores registered on Google and it can be used to find the right leads. When setting up properly, you will be able to draw a continuous stream of visitors to your page.

As Google evolved, it allowed sellers to use smart tools that could specifically advertise to a user. By doing so, it became easier for everyone to sell their products to the right audience members online.

Google Shopping ads are super-targeted and relevant to those who click it. It gives the seller a higher chance of their products being selected and makes the whole experience even more holistic and easier to manage in general. These ads, also called Shopping ads are placed by Google at different locations where there are chances of potential customers visiting.

These Shopping ads appear in a visual format and apart from a text ad, shopping ads can show more details. These include the product, title, store name, price, etc.

Benefits of Google Shopping ads

1. Better qualified leads. With the right product features, you can improve the quality of your leads as well. As your ads are visual, they give the shopper better information around whether the product is ideal for the. It allows customers to move further down the tunnel faster.

2. Easy retail-centric campaign management. Shopping ads use the power of product attributes to show your products on relevant searches. You can browse the product on the inventory in Google Ads and create specific product groups for them as well. 

3. Broader Presence. Shopping ads can provide multiple answers for a given user search which means that your ads have a chance of attracting more shoppers than usual.

4. Powerful reporting and competitive data. You can always get real-time reports on how products are performing, with super-accurate data. You can see parameters as accurate as to how many clicks a particular brand of shoes got and more. This can be used to properly identify the areas that require growth opportunities.

How do google shopping campaigns work?

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By using product data that is in the existing Merchant Center, these campaigns decide where the ads need to be placed and shown. The product data submitted contains all the details of the products. When a user searches for a query, Google will show the most relevant products to them. 

Google Ads can be used to manage shopping ads that are relevant and flexible to each search.

Requirements for google shopping campaigns

1. Google Accounts

To set up a shopping campaign, you’ll need to create a:

  1. Google Ads account
  2. Google Merchant Center

2. Google Policies

In order to create Shopping Campaigns and ads, you will need to comply with the different:

  1. Google ads Policies
  2. Google Shopping Policies

All the products, promotions, businesses, and websites must meet the requirements of Google Shopping before you begin your advertising campaigns.

3. Product Data

You will need to send up-to-date product data once every 30 days. This needs to meet the data quality standards of Google and they will help with the overall shopping experience as well. Make sure you provide the necessary product data feed.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a Google Shopping campaign

To create a Google Shopping Campaign, you will have to follow a step-by-step instruction set that outlays what you need to do in a clear and concise manner. Here are the steps:

  1. Sign in to the Google Ads account. Once you create the account, you are required to sign-in.
  2. Click on the Campaigns option present in the page menu along the left-side
  3. Click on the “+” button and select the option New Campaign
  4. For the “Campaign Type”, select the Shopping and click on Next
  5. Choose the advertising preferences that you need, including:

a. Campaign Name – Enter the name you want to keep for the campaign for your eCommerce Google ads. You can use the same name when you need to find the campaign later. It can also be changed after you’ve created the campaign.

b. Merchant – Select the right Merchant Center account that is linked to the products that need to be advertised. If there aren’t any accounts present, link the Merchant Center and Google Ads account first. You won’t be able to change any of the merchant ads once you create the campaigns, so make sure they’re done properly. 

c. Country of sale – You need to select the country where the products are going to be sold or shipped to. The ads will be shown only in those countries that you select and you’ll need to ensure the product data selected in the Merchant Center account is also available for the country selected. If there is no product data available, there won’t be any products available to advertise for the country selected as well. Once you select the country of sale after creating a campaign, you won’t be able to change the same. 

d. Inventory Filter – The inventory filter requires you to adjust the setting only if the number of products to be used in a campaign must be limited. To follow this, you must select criteria for a product to meet if it must be advertised. Products that match these requirements selected will then be added to the campaigns. These settings can be changed after the campaign is created as well.

e. Bidding – The type of bidding needs to be selected for Google Shopping ads. You can choose the type after the campaign has been created as well

f. Daily budget – You need to decide how much money you’re spending on the campaign. Based on that, you can set a proper budget for the campaign as well. 

g. Campaign Priority – This setting needs to be adjusted only if you’re advertising the same product on multiple campaigns within the same country. The campaign priority determines which budget will be used in case the products end up overlapping in your campaigns.

h. Networks – Shopping campaigns end up showing ads in certain places. These can help drive the traffic to the products in your kitty and also increase the conversion rates as well. In case you’d like to limit where ads appear, you can uncheck the box for the networks that need to be excluded.     

A. Google Search Network
B. Google search partners
C. YouTube, Gmail, and Google Discover on the Display Network

i. Devices – Ads can appear across any device, including mobiles and computer screens. You will need to change the setting once a campaign is created based on where you’d like to place them.

j. Locations – You can use the same setting to limit exactly where your ads are being shown to specific locations. This can be changed after the campaigns are created

k. Local inventory ads – This setting needs to be adjusted if you’d want the Shopping campaign for the eCommerce Google ads to include the products that are stored in local stores. In order to advertise the local products, you will have to submit local product data in the Merchant Center and click on the option known as “Enable ads for products sold in local stores”

6.  Click Save and Continue

7.  Next, choose the kind of ad group you’d like to create:

a. Product Shopping Ads – If you’re new to shopping, this is the kind of ads you must put out. They are individual product ads and are created using the information you’ve provided in the Merchant Center Account. In order to create this type of ad, continue to the next step.

b. Showcase Shopping ads – These are the many related products that are grouped together to form a single ad. The process followed to create them requires a few additional steps as well. In order to create this type of ad, click on the option that says “Create a Showcase Shopping ad.”

8. Create your first ad group by entering a little information. This includes:

a. Ad Group name – you can enter the name for a particular ad group. Once you create the name, you can use it to find the group later as well. It can also be changed after the campaign is created, so don’t worry. 

b. Bid – You can enter the bid for an ad group as well. Once the ad group is created, the bid is applied to the first product group present within the ad group called “All Products”. You can also change the bid accordingly once the campaign has been created as well.

9. Click on Save

10. You’ll be taken straight to the product groups page where you can see the product group known as “All Products”. You can then create more product groups using the necessary subdivisions to make the bidding even more specific. You can also learn how to Manage Shopping campaigns with the product groups as well.

Conclusion

Thus, with Google ads, you can set up your eCommerce store online and ensure that everybody is on board with your products. You can smartly select parameters that can be used to target audience members who are most likely to interact with your brand as well.

Make sure you spend enough time learning about the console as it becomes easier to do so after that. Good luck!


Guest Post by AdNabu:

AdNabu helps improve sales in Google Ads for eCommerce companies. If you are running the search, google shopping, or display campaigns in Google Ads, This software will be able to increase your sales.

Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart | Website

Yan Anderson is the Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart with over 10 years of experience in the eCommerce industry. He's passionate about explaining complicated things in simple terms. Yan has expertise in building, running and growing eCommerce marketplaces. He loves to educate people about best practices, new technologies, and trends in the global eCommerce industry.