Google Shopping Ads – An Ultimate Guide to Boost Your Online Sales (2022)

How much does Google Shopping Ads Cost?

Similar to regular search ads Google Shopping Ads are paid per click. But it is clear that for online stores the cost per click for Google Shopping Ads is quite lower than in search ads.

Although the results may vary particularly in the initial time where the ads are not perfectly optimized. Unoptimized ads may result in higher costs. But with proper data analysis and feed optimization, the cost of Google Shopping Ads can be reduced along with reaching out to the targetted traffic.

If your online setup is perfectly fine it will not increase the cost of labor that may be a factor initially. But with automation, the cost of labor will go down and it will act as an automatic advertising tool for your online store.

You can set a higher max bid for better control over the cost. But if you set your max bid too low it may adversely affect your campaign results because Google will not show your ad enough.

So it is always the right strategy, to begin with, a small budget and keep control over your budgets more firmly. You have an option to increase your budget and bids based on the data you receive for the winning products and campaigns.

You can keep track of your sales conversions to check the effectiveness of the ads since traffic alone is not enough in Google Shopping ads.

It is equally useful for all e-commerce store either big or small but if you are running low with the budgets Google Shopping Ads offer a method of online advertising which has a successful track record.

How to Set up Google Shopping Ads?

You need to Sign up for Shopping ads by selecting it when you sign up for Google Merchant Center or click Growth in the left navigation menu, then Manage programs. Choose Shopping ads from the list of available programs.

At any point, you can stop and start setup. Once you’ve started setup, Shopping ads will automatically be added to your list of pending tasks on the “Overview” page.

Make sure your Merchant Center account has the below-mentioned product data entered when you set up Google Shopping Ads”

Once you have successfully signed up and created a campaign, you can manage your campaign and view metrics on your Merchant Center homepage by clicking Marketing and then Shopping Ads.

How to Create a Campaign in Google Shopping Ads?

Follow the below-mentioned steps for creating a Shopping campaign:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. Click Campaigns in the page menu along the left.
3. Click the plus button , then click New campaign.
4. To choose “Campaign type,” select Shopping and click Next.
5. Select the Merchant Centre Account and Country.
6. Select from Standard and Smart Campaign where a smart campaign gives you an option to run a display ad along with a shopping ad.
7. Now you will choose your advertising preferences:
   • Campaign name. Enter a name for the campaign. This name is used to find the campaign later. The name of the campaign can be changed after the campaign has been created.
   • Merchant. Select the Merchant Center account that contains the products you want to promote. If you do not see any accounts here, you need to link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts first. You will not be able to change the merchant after you create the campaign. Learn how to Link Merchant Center and Google Ads.
   • Country of sale. Now choose the country where you will sell and ship your products. Ads will be shown only to people from the country you select. Make sure that product data in the selected Merchant Center account is there for the country you select. In the absence of product data, you won’t be able to advertise the products till the addition of products. Make sure you can’t change the country of sale once you have created the campaign. Learn how to Use the right language and currency.
   • Inventory filter. This feature can be used when you want to limit the number of products used in your ad campaign. For this, you need to choose the product criteria that must meet to be advertised. Only those products will be added to your campaign that matches all the criteria. This setting can be changed after the campaign creation.
   • Bidding. In this head, you can select the type of bidding to use in your ad campaign. This setting can be changed after the campaign creation. Learn how to Determine a bid strategy based on your goals.
   • Daily budget. Here you need to select your daily budget i.e. how much you are willing to spend on this ad campaign. Learn how to Set a budget for your campaign.
   • Campaign priority. This setting is needed when you are advertising the same product in multiple campaigns for the same country of sale. This feature determines the campaign budget when there is product overlap in your campaigns.
   • Networks. It is by default Google shopping campaigns show ads in different places. Due to this setting, you can drive traffic to your products and increase conversions. You can uncheck the box for the network that you want to limit your ads to appear.
   • Learn more About Shopping campaigns and Shopping ads
     • Google Search Network
     • Google search partners
     • YouTube, Gmail, and Google Discover on the Display Network
   • Devices. It is a default setting that shows ads on any device including a laptop, desktop, or mobile device. You can change this setting once the campaign has been created.
   • Locations. This setting is used to restrict where your ads show to specific locations. You can change this setting after the campaign creation.
   • Local inventory ads. This setting is used to advertise local products. You need to set this only if you want your Shopping campaign to include products sold in local stores. To do this you need to submit product data in Merchant Center and check the box for “Enable ads for products in local stores.” Learn how to Use a Shopping campaign to promote local inventory.
8. Now click Save and continue.
9. Now you are ready to create your first ad group by entering some necessary information. Your ad group will include individual product ads that are created automatically using information from your Merchant Center account.
   • Ad group name. Put 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.
10. Click Save.
11. You’ll be directed to the product groups page, where you’ll notice one product group “All products” that includes 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.

How to Achieve Success with Google Shopping Ads?

To accomplish what I described above, you need two essential resources: monitoring and an advertising budget.

You need proper knowledge to set up Google Shopping (turning your products into product ads) and to maintain and optimize your Shopping campaigns.

And remember, the more granular you make your campaigns, the more time you’ll need to spend managing them.

As we mentioned earlier, Google Shopping costs money. So you should have some money available for placing Shopping ads. If you are working with Google Shopping for the first time, you should budget at least $300-$500  or Rs.300- Rs. 500 as a learning budget.

With this money, you can learn how Google ads work and see what Google Shopping visitors do on your website.

How to Master Google Shopping Ads?

With this article, I wanted to give you a detailed overview of what Google Shopping Ads are and what you need to do to make them work for your business.

If you know how Google Shopping Ads work, how to set them & optimize them, you have taken the first step to launch your product ads.

However, your Shopping journey does not have to end here.

I have listed more resources for all the major areas of Google Shopping ads in this article that you can use to learn more about each topic.

If you want to learn even more, check out our video playlist on YouTube 

In a series of video lessons, the course walks you through the exact steps you need to create a Shopping campaign from scratch and make your first sale through product ads.

Our main goal with the course is to answer not only the “what” and “how” questions, but also the “why” by explaining the real reasons behind each step you need to take on your Google Shopping journey.

And if you have an online store or e-commerce portal and want to set up Google Merchant Center for your store to increase your sales you can opt for our Google Merchant Center Management Services.

FAQ on Google Shopping Ads

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping is a Google service that allows businesses selling online to advertise their products when potential buyers search for specific keywords and product attributes.

How does Google Shopping Work?

Google Shopping links directly with your product feed (submitted to the Google Merchant Center) and your advertising campaigns (managed through Google Ads) to display ads to potential buyers.

Is Google Shopping free to use?

Google Shopping is FREE with a free listing on Google shopping through Google’s shopping results. But if you want your product to be listed on top results then Google Ads need to be run through the Google Shopping platform. Google Shopping ads are run for better response and conversion and the cost to run ads is the same as Google charges for its other Ads.

How can I add products to Google Shopping?

You can add products to Google Shopping via Google Merchant Center account. Go to go to Products > Feeds, and click the blue “+” icon. In the next window, you’ll be able to submit an existing product spreadsheet or create a new Google Sheet mentioning your product information.

How do I launch a Google Shopping Campaign?

This can be done from the Google Ads platform along with Google Merchant Center (click the tools icon and select Account linking > Create Shopping Campaign) or from Google Ads (navigate to the Campaigns tab and select New Campaign).