Add Google Shopping Ads to your PPC arsenal, and you can boost clicks and sales. This ad format is highly visual, super engaging, and packs in a ton of information, from product availability to price. Did we mention that Shopping Ads have a 30% higher conversion rate than text ads, and a 17% higher revenue per click?
The point being: there’s no reason not to add your products to Google Shopping. Here’s what you need to do to get started.
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How to Add Products to Google Shopping
Follow these steps to add your products to Google Shopping.
1. Setup a Google Merchant Center account.
Follow this link to get started. Don’t worry. It’s free to create an account, and the process is straightforward.
2. Review your product photos.
Google pulls photos from your website for use in the Google Shopping results. That means you need to make sure that your product photos meet Google’s image requirements, and fix them if they don’t. Specifically, the main product photo you choose for Google Shopping campaigns needs to:
- Have a solid background, ideally white or light gray
- Be the right size (64 megapixels or smaller, 16MB or smaller, 250×250 pixels or larger for apparel images, 100×100 pixels or larger for other products)
- Clearly show the product in its entirety from the front (it should take up the majority of the image)
- Be lit evenly
- Not include other elements, like image borders, other products, lifestyle backgrounds, watermarks, logos, or CTAs
Before uploading your products to Google Shopping, double check your images look good by testing them with Google’s URL Inspection tool.
3. Create your product data feed.
You can add products to Google Shopping one by one, or you can upload multiple at a time by uploading a spreadsheet.
To add them individually:
- Login to your Merchant Center account.
- Select Products > All Products.
- Click the blue plus sign button
- Enter all of the required fields. These include a unique product ID (such as a SKU), product name, description, landing page URL, main image URL, availability, price, product category, and brand. You can view the full list of additional optional fields here.
- Click Save.
Moving forward, you can update your products individually by navigating to Products > All products. Select the product and click the pencil icon. Make your edits, then click Save.
To add your products via a spreadsheet:
- Login to your Merchant Center account.
- Download the free template provided by Google, or create your own. We recommend using their template as it helps you avoid missing any important fields.
- Add each product in a new row, and complete all of the required fields in the appropriate columns.
- When you finish adding your product, upload the spreadsheet to Google.
Moving forward, you can update your products at any time within Google Merchant Center. Go to Products > Feeds > Primary Feeds.
Your products are officially added to Google Shopping! Next up, you’ll need to link your Google Ads and Google Merchant Center accounts. Then you can create your Google Shopping campaigns and get selling! Make sure to follow our Google Shopping campaign best practices.
How to Access Google Shopping List
The Google Shopping universe is much larger than what you see in the search results. Shoppers who have a Google Nest or Google Home speaker can even add items to a virtual shopping list by simply speaking them into existence — as long as they say “OK Google” first. They’ll also need to use Google Assistant and download the Google Home app to their Android or iOS device.
To access a Google Shopping list:
- Open the Google Home app.
- On the home screen, tap the settings gear icon.
- Select Notes & lists. Here, you can choose whether you want to use another app to manage your list, or go straight to the Shopping List that lives in the Google Home app.
- Select Shopping lists to view your list. You can add, remove, or check off items. You can even share their list with another household member.
Get Your Products on Google Shopping
When one of our clients approached us, their Google Shopping campaigns were in the red, at over 50% negative ROI. Within 4 weeks, we brought them back into the black — along with a 10% year-over-year revenue increase and 40% lower CPC.
Interested in what we can do for your campaigns? Contact our digital marketing experts today.
