Google Archives | Suvae.org Mon, 25 Mar 2024 16:12:59 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://Suvae.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/highstreet-io-site-icon-512.png Google Archives | Suvae.org 32 32 Google Ad campaign guide for growing eCommerce brands https://Suvae.org/google-ads-campaign-guide/ Mon, 25 Mar 2024 14:56:18 +0000 https://Suvae.org/?p=17907 The most successful ads don’t feel like marketing. They’re so relevant to your interests and aspirations you welcome the value they provide. Unlike traditional banner ads and pop-ups that consumers might scroll past on a website, Google Ad campaigns have proven effective in helping brands show up in the right place at the right time. […]

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The most successful ads don’t feel like marketing. They’re so relevant to your interests and aspirations you welcome the value they provide.

Unlike traditional banner ads and pop-ups that consumers might scroll past on a website, Google Ad campaigns have proven effective in helping brands show up in the right place at the right time.

When someone types into its search engine, for example, they’re hoping to find a list of links that will take them where they want to go. Google Ad campaigns go beyond these basic search results by showcasing brands that relate to each query. If you’re serious about selling online, they’re a critical tool.

Google Ads: What they are and how campaigns work

Originally launched as Google AdWords, Google Ads is the search engine company’s platform for powering online advertising across its flagship site, partner sites and YouTube. It offers ads in a variety of formats depending on a brand’s needs such as text, video, display and banner ads.

Google also offers some proprietary options such as Google Shopping Ads, Performance Max ads and Responsive Search ads.

Launching Google Ad campaigns requires bidding for placement based on keywords and the search volume they get, when the ads will run and the expected reach.

Before getting into the details of bidding and running your ads, however, you’ll have to set up a Google Ads account first.

How to create an account in Google ads

You’ll need a regular Google account for your business to set up an account in Google Ads. You might have a personal Gmail account already, but for marketing purposes start by visiting Accounts.Google.com and choose the option “to manage my business” when you’re asked why you’re signing up.

Once that’s done and you’re logged in, visit Ads.Google.com. You’ll be asked to create a Google Ad campaign right away, but look towards the bottom the screen and click on “Switch to expert mode.” This gives you more time to find your way around the Google Ad Manager dashboard, learn about developing a successful campaign and other Google Ads best practices.

How to create a campaign in Google Ad Manager: 5 steps to follow

With the right planning, you can use your Google Ad Manager to get your products seen by more people who are ready to make a purchase:

1. Enter the Google Ad Manager Dashboard

Once you’re inside Google Ad Manager, you’ll see a link that says “Create New Campaign” on your dashboard.

2. Choose your marketing objective and campaign type

Some brands use Google Ads to encourage e-mail signups, initiate phone calls or live chats and download other forms of content. If your focus is on eCommerce, you should select “purchases” as your campaign goal.

From there, you’ll select the type of campaigns that put you in the best position to reach your goal. Familiarize yourself with as many kinds as possible. There are details on some of the most common ad formats in the next section below.

3.  Choose your Google Ad bidding strategy

Remember that running a Google Ad campaign means you’re competing with others brands that might be interested in targeting the same kinds of customers. That means you’ll have to determine what kind of budget you’ll allocate towards bidding and whether the money will be spent on how many people see your ad vs. how many people click on it. We’ll delve into the pros and cons of each choice later in this guide. Google can help optimize much of the bidding process if you’re new to these campaigns.

4. Set up your Google Ad target audience

Precision marketing is all about serving ads to the most appropriate people. Google Ad Manager https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/6022732?hl=en offers many ways to get granular in how you set up target segments. You can focus specifically for those searching for women’s apparel, for instance, as well as country-specific locations like Italy or the U.S. and language. Make sure not to set your parameters too narrowly until you’ve gotten more experience with these campaigns.

5. Develop an ad that converts

You’ll drive more purchases using Google Ads when you have compelling content that creatively combines text and images. Take advantage of freely available generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist with writing strong titles, body copy and optimizing product and lifestyle imagery. Once you’re done, your Google Ad campaign can begin.

Types of Google ads campaigns

People consume information in a variety of formats, so think about A/B testing with a couple of different approaches depending on what you’re selling and what your audience needs to see in order to move forward:

Display

Google has an extensive network of partner sites where it can run display ads that predominantly feature images or videos. This can be a good option for when you’re trying to build initial brand awareness and introduce your company and its products to the market.

Shopping

Customers want the basics before they buy. This includes the product name, the price and the seller, all of which are presented through Google Shopping Ads. Having product feeds that can send data directly from your product catalog are essential in order to have Google Shopping Ads perform as expected.

App

This is only so much space on a smartphone screen, which means consumers are becoming more discerning about what they install. Google app ads can use a mix of images, video and text to get the downloads you need to grow your business, especially if your app makes it easy for customers to place and track their orders.

Local Inventory Ads

One of the biggest opportunities in eCommerce is to market products based on where customers can easily go and pick them up in person. Local inventory ads (LIAs) ensure you only promote what’s in stock near your audience’s current location. A strong product feed management solution is critical here, too.

How much does Google ads cost? Find out the minimum budget to launch your campaign

The budget you’ll need to run a Google Ad campaign will vary depending on the industry you’re targeting, average search volume and many other factors. These costs will change over time, but as of early 2024 the average cost per click for a category such as fashion retail, for instance, was US$1.42.

CPC or CPM?

Paying on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis means your budget is going directly towards driving activity to your product pages and eCommerce engine. This can be a sound strategy when you’re focused on short-term revenue goals. In other cases, paying on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis can allow you to build your reputation among your audience, which can be important for bigger-ticket items that have a longer buying cycle.

What is Google Ads Keyword Planner and how to choose the most effective keywords

Google recognizes that not everyone is highly versed in running online ad campaigns. Its Keyword Planner is a tool that provides rich data such as search volume for particular combinations of words, forecasts and much more.

You can look up individual words or upload a CSV file with all the relevant keywords in your industry to identify what you’ll use in your Google Ads.

Choosing the most effective keyword is really a process of putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and imagining what they would type into a search engine when they’re looking for their next purchase.

Managing Google Ad campaigns: the Suvae.org solution

Running Google Ads can involve meeting highly specific requirements, which is not something you’ll want to manage on your own.

Suvae.org’s product feed management platform makes it easy to tailor your product data to whatever channel you’re using for marketing purposes. This includes a range of Google Ad formats such as Google Shopping Ads, local inventory ads and more.

Working with Suvae.org means you can not only tackle product listing ad feed management but set up ad retargeting feeds that increase your conversations and get more return on investment (ROI) from your campaigns.

Mastering Google Ad campaigns happens a lot faster when you partner with the experts. Book a demo with Suvae.org and let us show you how to save time, reach more customers and sell more online and in-store.

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Connected TV ads: Using Google Promotions for Local Reach https://Suvae.org/connected-tv-advertising/ Wed, 20 Dec 2023 16:00:21 +0000 https://Suvae.org/?p=16967 Savvy shoppers are always keeping an eye out for their next purchase, whether it’s scrolling through social media or visiting their favorite online marketplaces. Growing your eCommerce requires being equally vigilant about all the most promising sales and marketing channels as they emerge. Connected TV advertising is a great example, especially when you combine it […]

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Savvy shoppers are always keeping an eye out for their next purchase, whether it’s scrolling through social media or visiting their favorite online marketplaces. Growing your eCommerce requires being equally vigilant about all the most promising sales and marketing channels as they emerge. Connected TV advertising is a great example, especially when you combine it with the power of Google Promotions.

Why connected TV advertising? Let’s start with the fact that it’s where a growing number of consumers are choosing to spend their leisure time.  According to data from ComScore, for example, connected TV viewing rose 21% in May of 2023 compared with the same period the year before.

As a result, the competition for viewers’ attention is also on the rise. One forecast suggests that CTV ad spending will grow more than 10% between now and 2028. It’s not just the large numbers of people watching. Connected TV ads are reaching a highly engaged audience that can be targeted in increasingly sophisticated ways.

If you’re trying to make some last-minute marketing investments amid the holiday season – or simply trying to sell off excess inventory in January and beyond – using Google Promotions and CTV ads could be a smart idea.

How do Google promotions work with connected TV advertising?

The business case for using Google Promotions has been firmly established by now. It’s an effective way to distribute product offers across multiple Google properties, including the Shopping tab, Chrome and Search. Mastering Google Promotions can allow you to compare multi-screen traffic, increase conversions and boost your marketing campaigns’ click through rate (CTR), all while building your brand.

Google has made it easy to extend your reach with connected TV ads, particularly based on audiences you’ve already developed through visitors to your web site or those who have downloaded your mobile app. The basic process is as follows:

  1.   Log into Google Merchant Center and opt to build a campaign using Display and Video 360.
  2.   Select a first-party data audience list.
  3.   Add the audience list to your insertion order or line item. This may be similar to how you’ve booked campaigns for mobile or the web.

Google will then ensure your ads can reach those consuming content on smart TVs, OTT and other connected TV devices.

Measuring the results of connected TV advertising using Google Promotions

Of course, investing in any emerging digital marketing channel carries with it concerns of whether you’ll achieve your desired goals. If you’re counting on a Google ads promotion to drive sales amid the holidays, for example, you probably can’t afford to make a wrong choice.

Fortunately, Google has continued to introduce new capabilities that help ensure alignment between your eCommerce goals and your campaign effectiveness. These include:

Optimized targeting

Using its own artificial intelligence (AI) applications, Google has said it can help brands not only reach their desired audiences but help them find consumers most likely to respond to CTV ads. This can help strike a balance between precision advertising and not overstepping on consumer privacy or turning to third-party cookies.

Identity reconciliation

Consumers don’t like feeling as though they’re being pursued relentlessly around the web by a brand. Google said it will help avoid this by distinguishing between those who have visited a brand’s site vs. that of a publisher. This will turn connected TV advertising into a more focused channel, where consumers are served a campaign when it’s most relevant.

Reach Planner

Is YouTube your best option for CTV ads? What about Roku, Hulu or one of many other streaming services? Google’s toll allows you to evaluate these publishers based on incremental as well as unique reach. This can build greater confidence in the connected TV advertising decisions you make with Google Promotions.

Unique Reach Overlap

Managing ad frequency is important because it’s easy to unnecessarily duplicate efforts over multiple CTV devices. By offering a greater understanding on where they’re driving the greatest performance with their Google Promotions with connected TV ads, Google is letting you maximize return on investment (ROI).

How does connected TV advertising open up opportunities for localized Google Promotions?

Traditionally, brands have advertised on linear TV by purchasing a spot from a network operator. These spots were then converted into a CPM based on the number of households reached.

CTV ads tend to be purchased a little differently. Brands often buy inventory directly from the publisher, or programmatically using a demand side provider (DMP).

Using Google can offer a more streamlined approach given that many brands are already seeding Google Promotions with ads to run across multiple channels. Google also offers what it calls Deal ID forecasting, which helps advertisers understand how a Preferred Deal or Programmatic Guaranteed deal might perform before it runs.

With a service called Instant Reserve, meanwhile, Google lets you book premium placements on its YouTube connected TV advertising inventory. This includes YouTube TV and YouTube Select.

Regardless of how you book, CTV advertising opens up opportunities to target audiences based on demographics and interests, such as high-income households who are predisposed to fashion and lifestyle content. Connected TV ads also support geotargeting, which allows you narrow campaigns even further to designated neighbourhoods or other areas.

That means consumers watching a fashion show being streamed through a CTV service could also be served local Google Promotions that identify clothing and accessories they could buy at a nearby store. The same tactic could work for eCommerce brands that prioritize fast shipping close to their manufacturing sites.

In this way, pairing Google Promotions and Connected TV advertising could complement the work you’re already doing by running local inventory ads (LIAs) when consumers are searching on the web.

Why successful CTV ads and Google Promotions rely on optimized product feeds

Remember that connected TV advertising tends to focus on the end result: what appears on the screen. To ensure consumers see relevant Google Promotions, you must avoid any errors in how product data feeds from your catalog.

An automated solution supports this by mapping the relevant promotional ID to products within Google Merchant Center that will appeal to the target audience on CTV. This improves campaign planning and goal-setting. Using a platform that allows frequent updates to reflect changes in inventory levels will ensure that CTV ads only showcase Google Promotions for available products, providing peace of mind.

Consider utilizing a product feed management solution as you conduct pilot projects using CTV ads for localized Google ads promotions during peak buying periods like the holidays. Then, based on the results, you can be prepared to scale further as streaming audiences continue to grow

For a close-up look at how Suvae.org can get your product data feeds in a position to make use of connected TV advertising, get in touch and see a demo today.

 

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Google Product Categories: Here’s Why You Should Care https://Suvae.org/google-shopping-optimization-product-category/ Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:00:32 +0000 https://www.Suvae.org/?p=2682 Google Product Categories: Here’s Why You Should Care In the ultra-competitive world of Google Shopping advertising, certain elements of your product data, like your Google Product Category taxonomy, can double or triple your return on ad spend. With Google Shopping ads driving 76.4% of all eCommerce ad spend, Google’s shopping platform generates 85.3% of all […]

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Google Product Categories: Here’s Why You Should Care

In the ultra-competitive world of Google Shopping advertising, certain elements of your product data, like your Google Product Category taxonomy, can double or triple your return on ad spend.

With Google Shopping ads driving 76.4% of all eCommerce ad spend, Google’s shopping platform generates 85.3% of all clicks on Adwords or Google Shopping campaign ads. With statistics like these, it’s worth making use of every attribute of your shopping feed, including the category field, to get the best results out of your ads.

Learn all about how to better structure your campaigns for maximum discoverability by reading the following post.

But first, let’s take a closer look at what Google Shopping Product Categories are, and why you should spend more time optimizing your product’s information.

What is a Google Product Category?

A Google Product Category helps you categorize an item into a specific set of products, which leads to having people easily find your products. It also helps Google to identify the correct category in your shopping feed, to which your products belong to.

The information in your Google Shopping Product Category attribute within your feed is critical to the performance of your Shopping campaigns. Although [google_product_category] is an optional field, if you leave it blank, the data will be automatically populated based on other factors like your GTIN and/or product title.

It’s like leaving the address field blank when you purchase a product online, and you use the autofill function without double-checking that they added your most recent information.

It’s always best to check that the information is correct, or you could have problems. This is why you need to submit a complete product data feed using the most appropriate category for each of your items to the Merchant Center. Otherwise, you leave the decision up to Google’s algorithm.

How Google Product Categories Work

Google Product Categories Optimization

Google Product Categories Optimization

Like optimizing other fields in your feed, such as title, color, and description, you want to choose the best option from Google’s taxonomy that provides your customers with the best results.

The product category field serves a dual purpose.

  1. It helps the platform to match your products with search queries for specific types of items.

The result is an increase in clicks from relevant customer searches.

For example, if someone looks for a particular dress and your category only includes “Clothing & Accessories” instead of “Clothing & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses”  , your ad may not show up for that search which means fewer relevant clicks for that Ad Group.

  1. Your products get better exposure on other shopping channels, like Facebook, that use the same taxonomy. The outcome is a better result from your omnichannel marketing.

When you run a shopping campaign on another platform, like Facebook, you can use the category attribute to segment your ads. This approach allows for different items you sell to be displayed in a single ad unit based on category.

Now that you understand the fundamentals of what Google Merchant Center Product CategoriesGoogle Product Categories are and how they work, let’s take a look at the next part of the process: the implementation.

Why Are Google Product Categories so Important?

Google Product Categories provide an important signal to the platform about how relevant your products are to a category compared to other advertisers’ products. The more applicable your category is to the product you’re advertising, the better your ads will perform. It’s that simple.

Other benefits include:

The correct tax rate is applied to your products because of the category it’s in

The correct advertising policy is applied to your products based on the category

Increased performance based on the relevancy of your ad to the search query

To explain these concepts further, here are two analogies everyone can relate to.

Scenario 1: No Category

You’re in a hurry, and you need to pick up a golf shirt to wear at a game later that day. You go to a sporting goods store that you know sells golf shirts. When you walk in, you start looking for the clothing section, but instead of sections, everything is everywhere. You scan the store and see golf clubs, shoes, accessories, balls, and clothing mixed together. Where do you start looking for a shirt? How do you find it quickly and then pay to get to your game on time?

Scenario 2: Wrong Category

What if the store had everything categorized logically, but the item you were looking for somehow ended up in the wrong section? The manager saw the item you were looking for was a white golf shirt, but instead of being placed in the men’s section, she placed it in the women’s section. Pretty frustrating from a customer perspective.

These two situations can happen online when you leave Google to guess which category your product is most suited for. At the end of the day, its AI, just like a store employee, isn’t perfect.

This is why it’s so important to place your products in the right category, Think about your customers, and allow them to easily find what they are looking for. The better experience they’ll have with your products and your brand, the more likely they will pursue the purchase, and choose you instead of others.

Google Product Category Taxonomy

To choose the right product category for Google Merchant Center, follow the hierarchy most relevant to your product using Google’s Product Category Taxonomy.

Note: In Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, you can use the [google_product_category] to optimize the searchability of your Shopping campaigns.

For all other countries, use [product_type] to help with search and bidding strategies for your Google Shopping campaigns.

Google Product Category Examples

Here are some examples of how to structure your category for different types of products from Google Merchant Center’s product category best practices.

Apparel

An example of a well-chosen product category for a dress is:

Clothing & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses>

Software

Software > Computer Software > Antivirus & Security Software (ID: 5299)

Mobile Phones

Electronics > Communications > Telephony > Mobile Phones

How to Implement a Google Product Category Taxonomy

To accurately implement Google Product Categories for optimal visibility on Google Shopping, there are certain terms, guidelines and processes you need to understand.

  1. Review Google Shopping’s Product Category Guidelines
    Review their official documentation and resources to understand their product category taxonomy structure.
  2. Understand Google Supported Values
    A Google-supported value for the category attribute in your data feed is simply the acceptable content they will approve. Without the correct content, Merchant Center will give you an “invalid categories” error. Using the correct values for your product categories will help you save time when dealing with Merchant Center errors.
  3. Implementing the Google Supported Values in your product feed
    There are two options for adding the supported values for a category in your feed.

    1. Using the correct Category ID (example: ID: 227)

    OR

    1. Using the full path of the product category for Google Shopping
      Clothing & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses
      Download all of Google’s product categories using the following: Excel sheet (.xls) OR Plain text (.txt)

     

  4. Map Your Products to Appropriate Google Shopping Categories
    Carefully analyze your product inventory and map each product to the most relevant Google Product Category using the correct values. Consider your products’ attributes and intended use to choose the most specific category that accurately represents your product.
  5. Monitor, Test & Optimize Your Google Shopping Product Feed Categories
    As your product catalog evolves or Google introduces changes to its taxonomy, ensure that your category values remain accurate and current.

The Difference Between Product Category and Product Type

Knowing the difference between product category and product type in your Google Shopping feed can help you gain the success of your campaign’s performance

A product category is pulled from Google’s taxonomy. On the other hand, the Product type is taken from how the product is categorized on your eCommerce site.

Using the attribute [product_type] achieves more of a campaign-level optimization. You use this field in your Google Shopping ad campaigns to structure and manage your bidding groupings and reporting. It is another descriptor that Google uses to match your products to what people are searching for.

Remember, a successful Shopping campaign optimizes for both [product_type] and [product_category] in your feed.

How to Deal With Google Merchant Center’s Product Category Mismatch

So far, we’ve touched on the basics of Google Product Categories but to put this knowledge into practice, you need to understand the result of not categorizing your products.

Unlike Google price mismatch, errors or warnings in Merchant Center can appear for products because the category attribute was missing and the algorithm added the wrong category.

Here are the potential outcomes of a mismatched category:

The wrong tax is attributed to a product because the tax was calculated based on the wrong category.

Example error: Missing value [tax]

The requirement for additional fields because of the need for more information related to certain categories

Example error: Missing required attribute [color] because the category added was fashion related

To minimize these errors and warnings in your GMC account you need to devote time to getting them right.

Or, as we explore in our next section, use enhanced product categorization to save time and get the best results.

How Enhanced Product Categorization Boosts your Customer’s Google Shopping Experience

Accurate Google categories generate advertising savings and maximize the number of offers to advertise.

Ensuring your products are properly categorized is vital for your customer’s overall shopping experience. You want them to easily find your products and be delighted when they click on your product landing page.

Using an enhanced product categorization method helps you to create, maintain and adapt your feed to Google’s current taxonomy for all applicable marketing channels.

An optimal categorization of your products allows you to create well-structured product groups in your campaigns based on their product category or type. Within these groups, you can assign a max CPC to the group for a more effective bid strategy and serve the most relevant ads to your customers.

How does this work?

This method uses automated mapping techniques to match the correct Google category to each product. Leveraging this technique, you save time and manual labor costs and achieve better data feed quality. The result is a better customer experience and more bandwidth to focus on Shopping campaign strategies.

If you don’t have the in-house resources to do the mapping, you can enlist a data feed management provider who improves your feed’s performance using several techniques.

Here are a few:

Mapping categories to Google Merchant Center’s’s ever-changing product taxonomy

Automating the updates of categories that may change

Working closely with Google to know what GMC category issues may arise to prevent warnings and errors before they happen

Ensure your products are being mapped to the right categories with Suvae.org. Our experience in product feed management, working with top global eCommerce retailers, helps you by optimizing your product data for maximum discoverability and attraction.

Suvae.org handles your product feeds by optimizing your products’ data for the best results, so you can spend more time focusing on campaign management, and other important things for your business.

Give your Ads a boost to reach the right customers & improve their shopping experience.

Learn more about Suvae.org’s Product Feed Management Solution.

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Drive More Sales with Google Merchant Promotions https://Suvae.org/build-brand-drive-sales-google-merchant-promotions/ Thu, 13 Oct 2022 07:03:01 +0000 https://Suvae.org/?p=13245 In the world of online shopping,the slightest promotional advantage can elevate your products. This edge becomes increasingly pivotal as Black Friday approaches with brands vying for the attention of bargain-hunting customers.If you’re looking for a way to distinguish your ads amidst a multitude of similar product listings, Google Merchant Promotions is a potent and  effective […]

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In the world of online shopping,the slightest promotional advantage can elevate your products. This edge becomes increasingly pivotal as Black Friday approaches with brands vying for the attention of bargain-hunting customers.If you’re looking for a way to distinguish your ads amidst a multitude of similar product listings, Google Merchant Promotions is a potent and  effective marketing tactic applicable to either select products or your entire inventory.

Here are three key benefits of using Google Merchant Promotions:

  • Boost your campaign’s CTR
    Discounts and offers like “Free Shipping” stand out and give shoppers a reason to click on your product.
  • Increase conversions
    When people see your product is on sale for a limited time there is more incentive for them to convert and buy now.
  • Capture multi-screen traffic
    “Special Offer” links are shown on both mobile and desktop platforms for maximum exposure to your promotion.

Curious about the performance boost you could unleash? Dive into the video below, where Google spills the beans! According to their data, ads with promotions have experienced an impressive 28% surge in conversion rates on average.

Dive into the details to understand why incorporating Google Promotions into your strategy is a game-changer for boosting product sales. Let’s take a closer at the step-by-step process of setting up Google Merchant Promotions to elevate your game.

How Google Merchant Promotions work

If you have an active product feed in the Google Merchant Center (GMC) you can create promotions for your shopping campaigns. Even if you’re not an experienced search engine marketer or eCommerce guru, running GMC promotions for your shopping ads is straightforward. All you need to know are the basics to get started.

Google Promotion Requirements

According to Google, there are three requirements for using their Merchant Promotions.

  1. Products need to be redeemable at checkout or by the time of purchase
  2. The promotion needs to expire within 6 months of the date the promotion starts
  3. Promotions have to comply with Google’s promotions policies and editorial requirements

Google Merchant Promotions are currently available in Australia, France, Germany, India, the UK, Canada, and the US.

Google Promotion Types

Before we get into how the set-up process works, it’s important to know what types of promotions are available and their criteria.

  • Discounts:
    • $ off or % off – Discounts must be at least $5 or 5% off
    • x% off, maximum discount $y
    • $x off $50+, $y off $100, or $z off $150 – Tiered discounts allowed
    • x% to y% off – Floor discounts (like minimum amount or percent saved) must be stated
    • Buy one get one free or buy one get 2nd x% off
    • $x cash back or $x cash rebates – Must be reflected at the cart  or checkout
  • Shipping
    • Free or discounted shipping – Must have a valid redemption code.
    • Exception: No redemption code is necessary when combined with another permissible promotion (for example free shipping + 10% off)
  • Free Gifts
    • Free item – Must clearly describe the gift and the item can’t be samples or trials
    • $x gift card on purchase – The title must clearly state the gift card value and the gift card must be from your own store

Source – Google Merchant Help

Google Promotions set-up

To start your set-up, you must fill out the Google Merchant Promotions interest form. Once you get approval verification after a few days, you’ll see a Promotions tab in your GMC account.
From this point, you have four options to set up your promotions:

Option 1: Use the Promotion Builder (manual route)

If you have a small number of promotions you’re running for a specific period, manually add each item by going to your Merchant Center account, clicking on “Marketing” and then “Promotions”.

Once you’re in the Promotions section, this is what you need to do:

  • Click the blue plus button
  • Choose where you want to run the promotion. You can select more than one.
    • Shopping ads
    • Free listings
    • Buy on Google listings
    • Local inventory ads
  • Select your promotion categories.
  • Follow the prompts and click Save when you’re done.

Get in-depth information on using the promotion builder.

Option 2: Create a Promotions Feed (automated route)

To run a large number of promotions simultaneously go to the Feeds option in your Promotions tab and follow Google’s instructions on how to connect your feed.

Feed set-up options:

  • Use a product feed management solution
    If you don’t have the time or the expertise to create feeds then use a Google Merchant Promotions Feed Service that works with you as a feed management partner for all of your marketing channels.

Option 3: Use the Content API for Promotions

Another way of sharing your promotions with Google Merchant Center is by using the Content API. This feature is only available in English within the United States and Canada.
Learn more about getting started with Content API for Shopping.

Option 4: Use Promotions from Third-Party Partners (the US only)

Product discounts can be shared with Google Merchant Centre through two platforms:

  • Shopify
  • WooCommerce

Configure your discounts on the eCommerce platform and it is shown within your product ads without having to set up the promotion in Google.
Learn more about managing your promotions through third-party partners

How to add one or more Merchant Promotions to a Google Shopping Campaign

Once your promotion is set up and connected to Google Merchant Center, the next step is to map it to either all or specific products in your feed.

NOTE: If you’ve used Google’s Promotion Builder then you’ve already done this step.

All Products
You can apply up to 500 products to a promotion at one time and only have to use one [promotion_id]. Use [all_products] as the value for the product applicability [product_applicability] attribute in your feed.

Specific Products
To create specific promotions choose “Apply promotion to products that meet these conditions” in the promotions builder tool, or work with your feed provider to map them to the [promotion_id] of the corresponding products in your feed.

Once your products are mapped to the correct promotion then all you need to do is register your feed once per target country.

Follow these steps to get registered.

  • Sign in to your Merchant Center account.
  • Click Marketing in the navigation menu.
  • Click Promotions.
  • Click Promotion feeds in the right corner.
  • Click the plus button.
  • Provide the mode, target country, content-language, and name of your feed.
  • Choose an input method:
    • Google Sheets:
      • Select Google Sheets, then click Continue.
      • Select Generate a new Google spreadsheet from a template, or Select an existing Google spreadsheet, then click Continue.
        • If you selected Generate a new Google spreadsheet from a template:
          • Select Promotions, then Feeds.
          • Select your promotions feed.
          • Click the three-dot icon in the upper right-hand corner, then select Access Google Sheet.
          • Enter your data using the generated template.
        • If you selected Select an existing Google spreadsheet:
          • Browse to navigate to the file of the existing Google spreadsheet that you created on your computer and click Select.
          • Select Continue to upload your feed to Merchant Center.
    • Regular upload:
      • Select Upload, then Continue.
      • Enter the name of your feed file.
      • Select Upload a file now.
      • Drag and drop your feed file into the dotted box, or click Browse to navigate to the feed file on your computer, then click Open.
      • Verify that the filename is correct, then click Continue to upload your feed to Merchant Center.

Source – Google Merchant Help

How Data Feed Optimization empowers your Google Merchant Promotions

If you’re using a Google Merchant Center Promotions feed and a Google Shopping feed to advertise your products, consider how your feed is built and updated to get the best results from your ads.

The foundation of your campaign is built upon the structure, content, and synchronization of your product feed. To captivate potential buyers, prompting them to click on your ad and make a purchase, it is essential to showcase accurate product information that is also appropriately formatted.

For the best performance, focus on these Feed Optimizations:

  • Frequent Synchronization: Frequent updates of your feed, can prevent a negative user experience with your ads. If an attribute like inventory, has changed to below 1, a feed updated in real-time can signal to Google Shopping to stop running the ad instead of letting people click on an ad when the product isn’t available.
  • Enticing Content: The location of certain product attributes in your product listing can change the CTR of your shopping ads. We work with you to ensure important content, that gets your products noticed, is placed in the right order using advanced mapping techniques and look-up tables.
  • Well-Structured: Google has specific requirements when it comes to creating feeds for their platform and if you don’t follow them your products will get disapproved in the Merchant Center. Suvae.org is on top of these ever-changing rules to get your products approved at scale.

Create and manage promotions with the Right Technical Partner

If you’re worried that your promotions aren’t being executed the way you want, your products are being disapproved in GMC, or your promotion data isn’t correct; a product feed management solution can help you get on track.

To get your feeds optimized quickly and effectively in time to run your promotions use Suvae.org’s easy onboarding service to create your Google Merchant Promotion Feed.

Get started in three steps:

1. Don’t have a master feed al? Your onboarding specialist works with you to import your product data from one or more sources in multiple formats.

2. Standardize and optimize your product data from your master feed to create a Google Shopping Feed for one or more countries and currencies.

3. By using the Suvae.org feed management platform, you can easily create a Google Merchant Promotion Feed by mapping your [promotion_id] to all or specific products for your promotion in your Google Shopping campaign.

4. Once you create the feed on our platform and submit it to Google Merchant Center, you can quickly make updates within your feed and live on your ads without having to work on your promotions directly in GMC.


Time to enrich your Google Shopping feed with the right promotions. If you have more questions about Google Merchant Promotion Feeds, we are here to help.  Reach out to our team to get started.

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Fix Google Price Mismatch for Effective Google Shopping Ads https://Suvae.org/fix-price-mismatch-google-shopping-ads/ Wed, 01 Jun 2022 13:10:20 +0000 https://Suvae.org/?p=12171 Imagine your disappointment after clicking on a Google Shopping ad for a product you were excited to buy, only to find a different price on the website product page, or even worse, on the checkout page. This is the exact experience Google Shopping aims to prevent. On April 6th, 2021, they took their already strict […]

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Imagine your disappointment after clicking on a Google Shopping ad for a product you were excited to buy, only to find a different price on the website product page, or even worse, on the checkout page.

Mismatched value (page crawl): (price [price])

This is the exact experience Google Shopping aims to prevent. On April 6th, 2021, they took their already strict “Google Price Mismatch” landing page requirements and applied them to eCommerce checkout pages. The error message called “Price Mismatched value (page crawl): (price [price])” is a common issue advertisers encounter in Google Merchant Center (GMC).

Your competition to attract buyers is increasing and it’s tempting to use tactics like dynamic pricing to increase conversions. Google recommends not changing prices based on cookies, browsers, devices, or any other factors. Instead, they suggest using regional pricing and availability if you only target certain locations within a country.

Fix your price mismatch errors in your GMC account with these easy-to-follow tips and learn more about:

What Causes Price Mismatch Disapprovals and How to Fix Them

A price mismatch disapproval in Google Merchant Center happens when there is an inaccurate price status due to an inconsistency between your Google Shopping feed and the product pricing on your website.

Price Mismatch Google Merchant Center

Example of a Google Merchant Center (GMC) Price Mismatch Error

 

Product pricing best practice involves being consistent across all your selling and advertising channels. This includes your product listings in social commerce, marketplaces, shopping ads, and your website.
Reaching this goal when you have many product listings and ads can be challenging but not impossible.

Possible reasons for a price mismatch error and Google’s suggestions on how to fix it

  • A sale has started or ended but the price in the feed hasn’t been updated; as a result, the sale price effective date is wrong.
    Additionally, ensure the value for the
    sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] attribute is aligned with the timing of changes to your site.
  • Multiple prices on the landing page: Shopping supports two prices, the price and the sale price (which are indicated using the price [price] and sale price [sale_price] attributes).
    If more than one price is present, make sure the lowest price is the most prominent and is listed using the sale price [sale_price] attribute.
  • Use of IP detection and dynamically changing prices: Don’t change the price of your product on your landing page based on a user’s location.
    Additionally, do not change the price based on cookies, browsers, devices, or any other factor. If you only target certain locations within a country, use regional pricing and availability.
  • Outdated microdata or HTML: Check for contradictory information within your site build, and remove it to eliminate crawling issues.
  • Minimum order quantity and bulk products: If the shopper must purchase a minimum number of products, such as 10, list the total price for 10 products.
    Don’t submit the price for a single product if a minimum number of products is required.
  • Title, description, or image mismatch: Make sure that the product featured in your title, description, and image matches the price you submit.
    For example, if the product description mentions “an engraved product” and the image features a customized product with an engraving, make sure the price in the feed includes engraving fees.
  • Variant preselection and price ranges: Ensure each variant in the feed has a URL that loads to a pre-populated page of that variant.
    For example, if you advertise a premium flower bouquet, make sure the price in your feed is for the premium variant and the same premium variant is preselected on the landing page.
  • Handling fees: If you have additional logistical fees, rather than bundling them into the price variant, list them on the site as “shipping”, “delivery”, “handling”, “logistics”, or “carrier” and bundle the cost into the shipping [shipping] attribute.
  • Dynamic population and page load times: If a price is calculated dynamically and then added to the landing page, or if the page has a slow load time, the crawlers may miss the final price. Make sure to load your price on the landing page immediately.

If none of the above scenarios, provided by Google, apply to your price mismatch issue, Google’s more recent advice suggests If the price of a product advertised in a Shopping ad or free product listing is different from the price shown in a customer’s shopping cart, that could create a negative experience for the customer and could result in the loss of a sale.”

Get more details about check-out requirements and best practices on the Google Merchant Center Help page.

Requirements to ensure your product’s price is clear

  • The price of your product should be consistent throughout the checkout process, not just between the product feed and your landing page. The price shouldn’t increase at checkout, but it may be reduced after the product is added to the cart if a promotion is added. 
  • Any additional fees charged during checkout must be disclosed in Merchant Center by bundling them with the applicable shipping costs.
    For example, service fees, handling fees, carrier-related fees, and state fees must be included in the total value submitted in the shipping [shipping] attribute or using the Merchant Center shipping services.
     
  • Many countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, and Italy, require a value-added tax (VAT) which must be included in your price [price] attribute. 
  • For the US, sales tax must be clearly stated in the feed attributes or your account-level settings.
    Overestimating sales tax in Merchant Center is allowed, but taxes can’t be higher at checkout than those listed in Merchant Center.
     
  • Shipping costs are submitted separately, either in your feed or at the account level. Note that feed-level rates will override account-level settings.
    You can overestimate shipping rates in the Merchant Center as long as they’re not higher on your website at checkout.
     
  • If you require a minimum basket amount for a customer to qualify for free shipping, make sure to set up your shipping settings on the account level and use the “free shipping over a certain amount” option. 
  • If you charge a minimum basket amount surcharge on top of the shipping cost, make sure the surcharge is included in your shipping settings. It’s recommended that you use the range-based shipping setup.

More Details on How to Fix Price Mismatch Errors

Once you’ve worked with your product feed provider or troubleshot the issue on your own with the suggestions detailed above, schedule a feed update for Google to re-crawl your website with your updated pricing.

Additional Tips:

  • Apply frequent product feed refreshes
  • Use delta feeds to increase feed update frequencies (delta feeds or APIs)
  • Update promotions with validity dates

If you have reviewed all of the tips to resolve your price mismatch issues and you’re still getting the error, you may need to get a developer to update your website source code for Google to re-crawl the correct price attribute on the page.

Risks of Having Price Mismatch Values

Now that you know the reasons for the error, it’s important to understand the short-term and long-term effects of continual price mismatch values in Google Merchant Center.

  1. The most serious long-term risk of having too many products with incorrect prices is a permanent account suspension. This could happen if you haven’t fixed your price mismatch issue within 28 days from receiving the notification in Google Merchant Center.
  2. Having too many products disapproved may also lead to a reduced number of offers available for a Google Shopping campaign.
  3. A shorter-term risk, but equally as serious as an account suspension, is providing a negative shopping experience to your customers. If Google doesn’t catch mismatched values and a customer sees a different price on a shopping ad compared to your website, this could lead to fewer people clicking on your ads or completing a purchase on your website.

How to Use Google’s Automatic Item Updates to Help Price Mismatch Issues

Google Ad’s Automatic Item Updates are used to improve the quality of your data and provide a good user experience for shoppers. This option is set up by default and must be manually turned off if merchants don’t want their mismatched pricing to be updated automatically.

Best practices Google Ads provides on their Help page to get the most out of their Automatic Item Update feature include:

  • Schedule feed uploads or updates via the Content API immediately after the products have been updated on your website.
    This will help you avoid errors due to the time difference between updates on your website and updates of your Shopping data.
  • If you’re using the sale price [sale_price] attribute, make sure that the period in which the sale is active is specified correctly with the sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] attribute and that the timezone is correct. When a sale is active, the sale price is shown as the current price in Shopping search results.
  • For products sold in bulk quantities, you should submit the total price for the minimum number of products sold.
    Landing pages must list prices in the appropriate currency of the target country and the same currency as submitted in your product data.
  • To detect and update mismatches, Google crawls the landing pages listed in your data feed or provided in the Content API.
    You can increase Google’s crawl rate to allow us to cover more products on your website

Pros of Automatic Item Updates

  • If mismatched prices are fixed automatically, shoppers will enjoy a better experience which means more traffic to your products and higher conversion rates
  • Ads that would have been disapproved can still run
  • Advertisers don’t have to worry about errors as they resolve the price mismatch warnings

Cons of Automatic Item Updates

  • Relying on Google automatically updating your prices isn’t a long-term solution for regularly updating your product data
  • If too many mismatches occur, your automatic item updates will stop working and your account could be at risk of suspension
  • Google’s crawler may not be able to detect the correct prices (often because of price dropdowns for multiple sizes) and apply the wrong prices, even if feed data is correct

Prevent Price Mismatch with the Right Tool

Using the right product feed tool and service can help you avoid ongoing price mismatch errors that affect your marketing performance and put you at risk of account suspension.

GMC-account-warning-feature

Suvae.org GMC Diagnostics Warning/Alert Features

At Suvae.org we provide master feed and channel-specific feed optimization services for channels like Google Shopping.

Fix price errors in your feeds with:

  • Diagnostics support that notifies customers with reports and alerts about significant numbers of price mismatch errors
  • Optimization techniques that improve your feed data’s structure related to product variants, such as color, size, and minimum order requirements to minimize price mismatches
  • Frequently scheduled and fast feed updates with delta feeds so Google is always matching the correct product data with your website
  • Summary emails of all outstanding issues to customers generated programmatically with our GMC Diagnostics API connection

Part of the optimization process is ensuring that your product information is complete with quality, up-to-date and accurate data. This is especially important to avoid price mismatch issues in your Google Merchant Center (GMC).

Ensure the accuracy of all the data in your product feed. Reach out to our experts and get your product data optimized for Google Merchant Center with Suvae.org.

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How to Optimize Your Google Shopping Campaigns with Analytics https://Suvae.org/google-analytics-shopping-campaigns-optimization/ Mon, 25 Oct 2021 06:26:01 +0000 https://Suvae.org/?p=10615 If you’re an eCommerce marketer running Google Shopping campaigns, you’re probably focused on optimizing your feeds and Google Ads. Despite everything these platforms can do, there is one fatal flaw.  By relying only on these two platforms to inform your online advertising strategies, reported conversions only include sales that resulted from a Google ad click. […]

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If you’re an eCommerce marketer running Google Shopping campaigns, you’re probably focused on optimizing your feeds and Google Ads.
Despite everything these platforms can do, there is one fatal flaw.  By relying only on these two platforms to inform your online advertising strategies, reported conversions only include sales that resulted from a Google ad click. This often results in an incomplete picture of which products are selling across all platforms.

So, one question: Have you tried to optimize your shopping campaigns with data from your Analytics?

Google Analytics data product feeds are the ultimate secret weapon for eCommerce stores. Optimized shopping campaigns can help you run specific strategies. They enable you to meet your business goals by integrating valuable Analytics Data with Google Shopping Campaigns,  forming a comprehensive picture of all the important data generated by your online stores.

Considering 43% of all eCommerce traffic comes from Google searches, leveraging Google Ads to secure prime real estate on search pages is well worth the investment.
Many consumers do view Ads positively, with approximately 54% of consumers exposed to ads that reminded them of something they already wanted, resulting in  20% of purchasers reporting that they considered the Ad helpful.

To fully benefit from the torrent of purchase-ready Google users, you must fully integrate your Google Analytics Data with Google Shopping. This will help you truly understand your customer journey, their behavior, and the overall data narrative.

This practice is useful for eCommerce platforms of all sizes, It’s especially valuable for mid to large-size companies as they can benefit from automated processes that add dynamic data to product feeds, and enable very targeted Shopping Campaigns.

In this post, we’re going to break down how you can extract metrics to create an in-depth view of the data generated by your online store. This will allow you to formulate specific Shopping Strategies that empower you to reach specific goals.

Analytics Data for your Google Shopping Campaign Optimization

Your first step begins with a single question: What are your campaign goals?
This will determine how you apply custom labels to your product feeds before uploading them to Google Shopping. Custom labels are blank attribute slots within the product feed (a .txt or .csv file) that can be used however you desire.

An example: if you want to run ads to boost products that have sold the most in the past 30 days, Google Analytics can help you apply a custom label to these products that can be used within Google Shopping.
Here are some common campaign goals

  • Promote all-time top-selling products
  • Promote less popular products
  • Promote higher-margin products

It’s wise to consider the overall revenue and quantities sold to ensure that you are promoting products with a strong chance of being sold. This data can also be found within Google Analytics.

We’ve mentioned custom labels for Google Shopping a few times. You can create them using any criteria you like. Check out the following common criteria leveraged to create these labels:

  • Channel exclusivity
  • Channel
  • Condition
  • Item ID
  • Category
  • Product type
  • Brand

Custom labels are an essential aspect of creating product segments that can be used to run specific Shopping campaigns. These labels can also be named anything, such as High Margin, and are put to use once your product feed is uploaded.

Setting Up Your Strategy in Google Analytics

Your next step is to go into Google Analytics Query Explorer and identify the products that apply to your specific goal.
For example, if you want to isolate your most popular products or how much money a product earned in a given time frame, there’s a query that will help you identify them.

You may need to combine data from Google Analytics with data from your eCommerce platform, such as determining the highest margin products. Google doesn’t know your margins,
To help you determine the highest-selling products, compare the top-selling report with your platform’s margin report.

Google Analytics updates its interface constantly. Here is a handy guide to general locations to run useful reports:

  • Top selling products: Head to the Product Performance tab under Conversions
  • Google Shopping revenue: Find out how much revenue Shopping campaigns are earning by navigating to the Source/Medium tab under All Traffic
  • Multi-channel conversions: Locate the Multi-Channel Tab under Conversions to identify all of your conversion sources across all channels
  • Site diagnostics: Site speed is vitally important, and a slow site will typically have a high bounce rate and decreased time on site. Determine this information by navigating to the Behavior tab.

Generate all reports that are relevant to your specific goals before moving on to the next step. After you’ve manually experimented with a few campaigns, you can automate your data to automatically add dynamic content to your product feeds used in Google Shopping campaigns. We’ll cover this in more detail in the following section.

Executing Your Strategy in Google Shopping

All of the data that you pull from Google Analytics can be used in the product feeds imported into your Shopping campaigns. If you’re new to creating product feeds and importing them into Google Shopping, review Google’s documentation on the process.

Some data attributes are required, but others are optional. As much as we highly recommend using custom labels, they are not a requirement. However, Custom labels are the backbone of how you can truly optimize your shopping campaigns to best execute your strategy for success.

Your product feed should include:

Once a feed is uploaded and processed, you can then use the data to execute specific Ads using data within the feed.
For example, every product with a custom label of “high margin” can be exclusively promoted in a specific campaign. Set up your Google Ad campaigns to make use of the custom labels that are relevant to your stated goal.

How to Generate Automated Data and Add it to Your Product Feed

Up until now, we’ve only briefly mentioned how to automate this process.
First, you need to understand the entire process before taking an additional step to add dynamic data to your product feeds.

Setting up the automation process begins with Google Analytics Query Explorer. You can simulate queries from your Google Analytics account and use the same queries on API calls to generate the same results.

Define your query based on your customers’ account IDs, analytics results, start date, end date, metrics, and dimensions. You can also sort, use filters, add max results, and more. Metrics such as Item Quantity and Item Revenue are popular queries for eCommerce merchants to add to their product feed.

Product Feed Optimization for your Google Shopping Campaigns

During this whole process, talking to a product feed optimization expert can help you leverage the opportunities given by Google Analytics Data.

Suvae.org’s product feed platform mixes and matches your performance data from Google Analytics (GA) automatically with your catalog content. The technical elements of integrating your GA data with your Google Shopping feed are taken care of so you can focus on using your new feed to improve your campaign results.

We know that it can be challenging and we’re here to help.
Our highly-trained specialists help you integrate all of your data from your Google Analytics with your Google Shopping feed, creating an entirely automated product feed optimization process that allows highly segmented Ad campaigns.

Start making the most of your data. Contact one of our product feed optimization experts today to get started.

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Essential Feed Optimization Techniques for Google Merchant Center https://Suvae.org/google-merchant-center-feed-optimization/ Mon, 17 May 2021 14:14:21 +0000 https://www.Suvae.org/?p=9195 The post Essential Feed Optimization Techniques for Google Merchant Center appeared first on Suvae.org.

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Ecommerce marketing channels are constantly evolving, which means that your product feeds need to be highly responsive and accurate to adhere to the ever-changing standards of different channels.
Without proper validation, optimization, and compliance, you run the risk of having unresolved issues and inaccurate product listings that will ultimately hinder your store’s overall performance and a bad reputation among customers that will ultimately choose your competitors instead of you.

Partnering with a knowledgeable technical partner will provide you with the accuracy and efficiency you are looking for, so your product feeds are compliant and optimized for each platform.
Let’s take a look at how eCommerce Channels stay compliant and get all the tips for enhanced product feeds optimized for success.

How Different eCommerce Channels use Compliant & Optimized Product Feeds

Finding a robust platform that streamlines the optimization and compliance process of your product feeds for different channels is a game-changer. Here’s why optimized product feeds are so important for you to be compliant with all channels requirement:

  • Shopping Ads & Remarketing Ads
    When it comes to either shopping ads or remarketing ads, optimized product feeds allow your products to be properly targeted, improving your reach and visibility.
  • Distribution & Retail Channels
    With distribution and retail channels, product feed compliance and optimization means they can quickly update your product listings and start selling new products due to the submission of accurate product information that is ready to market.
  • Marketplaces
    In different marketplaces, producing optimized feeds means always having up-to-date product information without compromise.
  • eCommerce Solutions
    Optimized product feeds are beneficial with other third-party tools for eCommerce, such as built-in site search systems, rate and review systems, and even improving your store’s checkout flow with shopping cart abandonment services.

Manually fetching rich data can be extremely time-consuming. Retailers, distributors, marketplaces, and other eCommerce tools require optimized feeds for the best performance.
The Suvae.org platform gives you the tools to support compliance and optimization efforts, as well as troubleshooting capabilities so you can eliminate the need to manually fix and troubleshoot various issues.

Google Merchant Center Feed: Optimization Techniques & Compliance Rules

Dealing with compliance issues can be a full-time job if you don’t know all of the requirements Google has for both your website and your product feeds.  Moreover, Google Merchant Center has strict requirements for product data feeds, making your job a lot more challenging when it comes to submitting accurate data. They require specific data attributes that help identify the unique characteristics of your products and leave little-to-no room for error or inaccuracies with this data.

A cloud-based feed management tool helps resolve errors that will ultimately lead to disapproved products. On top of that, Highstreet. io-specific integration with Google Merchant Diagnostics API helps you address issues by automatically alerting customers when major issues are found.

Google Merchant Center Feed Compliance

Understanding the rules for each of your product listing channels is essential to preventing disapproved products. This is especially relevant to platforms like Google Merchant Center.

Lesser-known GMC errors that may prevent you from advertising on Google Shopping:

  • Inappropriate Language
    If your product feed mixes languages, then Google Merchant Center will likely flag your feed, which can ultimately lead to account suspension. Avoid mixing languages to avoid the headache altogether.
  • Specific Checkout Requirements
    A bad user experience, specifically at checkout, can not only run the risk of becoming a deterrent for the end-user but will subsequently be flagged by Google Merchant Center as having a poor UX, and therefore will neglect running your ads.
  • Google Bots
    When crawling your webpage, if a bot discovers any sort of error, be it robots.txt, 404, slow renderings/high latency, or any navigational hiccups within your sitemap – Google Merchant Center can and will disapprove your ads.

More popular GMC compliance errors that are easier to fix:

  • Invalid value [availability] /or/ Missing required attribute: [availability]
  • Missing shipping information
  • Limited performance due to missing identifiers [gtin, mpn, brand]
  • Invalid value for category [price]
  • Missing value [description] /or/ Text too short
  • Image too small /or/ Low image quality [image link]

When these errors occur, you run the risk of disapproved products across multiple channels. With a centralized tool at work, these errors and disapproved products are immediately and automatically addressed behind the scenes, avoiding further issues with your product feeds so you can continue selling your products online with ease.

Here’s the full list of Google Merchant Center feed requirements

Google Merchant Center Feed Optimization

Once your campaigns are compliant then it’s time to optimize your product data in a way that will get the most interest from users.

Lesser-known techniques you may want to consider:

  • Product Highlights
    This recent feature is based on short bulleted lists to present the most relevant features of the seller’s products. Follow the rules for max size and max number of bullet points.
  • Use Unit Pricing when appropriate
    It may be useful to define the measurements and dimensions of a product to allow users to understand the exact cost per unit of a product.
  • Optimize for Smart Campaigns:

– Choose landscape images
– Use videos
– Use headlines
– Description text is very important

More popular techniques that should be part of your basic GMC optimization:

  • Monitor the Number of Shopping Offers
    The objective is to monitor the number of shopping offers at different stages.

– submitted offers
– suspended offers because of a suspended account
– pending offers (review state)
– disapproved offers
– out-of-stock offers
– targeted offers because on a shopping campaign
– offers with impressions
– offers with clicks

  • Monitor Duplicate Titles
    Unique titles help consumers identify the product before they click. Duplicate titles indicate that titles are not descriptive enough or are missing important variant attributes.
  • Ensure Product Descriptions are Complete
    Make sure they have enough content and are unique. Incomplete descriptions may have an effect on product keywords that Google Merchant Center extracts from feeds.

Ensure GMC Feed Optimization & Compliance with Suvae.org

You’ve learned how to prevent GMC product disapprovals while staying compliant by following the above Essential Feed Optimization Techniques  In addition to this, you can leverage the Suvae.org platform capabilities as it allows you to:

  • Optimize your product data using rules and look-up tables
  • Consolidate information from multiple sources into one channel-specific feed
  • Validate the feed for compliance before it’s submitted to your marketing channel of choice
  • Use our managed service to proactively prevent ongoing compliance issues before they become problems

Have peace of mind knowing that your product feeds are submitted to your preferred channels following strict requirements, by using the correct formatting to reach the best possible outcome.

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Google Shopping Actions: What Retailers Need To Know https://Suvae.org/google-shopping-actions-what-to-know/ Sat, 02 Jan 2021 03:16:29 +0000 https://www.Suvae.org/?p=5173 For consumers, Google’s trademark search engine has become the most effective means of finding everything from luxury fashion to details about the weather outside. For retailers, Google Shopping Actions can be just as powerful in the ongoing search for new customers. Originally launched in 2018, Google Shopping Actions reflects the fact that the company operates […]

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For consumers, Google’s trademark search engine has become the most effective means of finding everything from luxury fashion to details about the weather outside. For retailers, Google Shopping Actions can be just as powerful in the ongoing search for new customers.

Originally launched in 2018, Google Shopping Actions reflects the fact that the company operates some of the most popular and immersive channels for consumers to discover content they love. This not only includes its desktop web site but its portfolio of mobile apps and even its voice assistant.

Google Shopping Actions is also centered upon the same principle that Google has applied to all of its products and services: that the ideal digital experience should be fast, effortless and that nothing should come between a customer and what they want.

What Are Google Shopping Actions?

Currently restricted to the U.S. and France, Google Shopping Actions provides a mechanism for retailers to advertise their products through Google Shopping Ads, provided they have a Google Merchant Center (GMC) account.

Much in the way consumers might browse through a physical store and ultimately buy something, Google Shopping Actions boosts the visibility of products online to drive eCommerce conversions. Features like a shareable shopping list, a universal shopping cart and saved payment credentials to allow instant checkout make the experience both quick and seamless.

Google Shopping Actions is based on a cost-per-sale (CPS) model because Google only displays ads organically when consumers demonstrate some kind of online behavior that suggests purchase intent. Retailers only pay once customers have made a purchase, in contrast to more typical cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-action (CPA) models. This means you can’t spend more to win additional impressions as you might with traditional Google Shopping ads. However it can provide a clearer return on investment (ROI) as you manage your eCommerce marketing budget.

How Does Google Shopping Actions Work?

Google-Shopping-

Google has made the process of getting products listed in Shopping Actions deliberately simple. You just need to log into your GMC, upload product feed data into your account and choose “Shopping Actions” as you set up a Google Shopping campaign.

Consumers will then be able to discover your products across multiple devices and buy from anywhere, creating a more fluid and flexible customer journey. The associated Google Shopping Actions Marketplace, meanwhile, allows you to sell and even provide customer support and manage returns directly through Google, without forcing customers to interrupt their online experience. This is similar to marketplaces offered by Amazon and others.

While Google keeps some of the technology underpinning Shopping Actions under wraps, it provides retailers with considerable data to manage their campaigns. This includes the ability to track inventory, configure tax and shipping settings as well as download invoices.

Commissions through this service range from 10% to 20%, and depend in part upon your Retailer Standards rating. Scored monthly, you can maintain good standing by having product feed management that ensures you’re not advertising out-of-stock products, which can lead to higher volumes or order cancellations. Shipping items correctly and on time also contributes to your score.

Google Shopping Actions Signup Criteria

Whether selling in the U.S. or France, retailers interested in the program must be able to fulfill product orders locally, accept and receive payments and meet Google’s standards for returns, delivery requirements, restocking and more. In France, for instance, retailers must be prepared to fulfill orders in five days or less, while those using the program in the U.S. need a local fulfillment and operations center as part of being a locally registered business.

Check with Google for specific guidelines, such as products and services that might be restricted in the U.S. Of course, participating in the program also requires compliance with other Google Shopping and Google Ads policies.

Is Google Shopping Actions Worth It?

Think of Shopping Actions as another pillar in developing an omnichannel shopping strategy to increase brand awareness and drive incremental sales.

The key difference is that selling online through Google doesn’t offer the same direct relationship with your customer. You’ll be limited to shipping information, given that Google’s privacy policy prohibits sharing other contact details, such as e-mail.

Ultimately, using Google Shopping Actions can be a way of running your eCommerce business in a more customer-centric manner. Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices and even smart speakers to browse and make purchases. Successful retailers never overlook opportunities to show up where consumers want to find them, and Google sits at the heart of the digital journeys many of them are taking.

Get a head start on setting up your Google Shopping Actions feed quickly and easily by contacting our team today.

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Tips to Easily Manage Multiple Google Business Listings https://Suvae.org/manage-multiple-google-my-business-listings/ Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:12:50 +0000 https://www.Suvae.org/?p=6993 Are you finding it time-consuming to manage multiple Google My Business listings for all of your store locations? Discover why your Google My Business information should always be up-to-date and learn how to update multiple store listings at once to allow people to find your listings Why you need accurate Google Business Listings Different regions […]

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Are you finding it time-consuming to manage multiple Google My Business listings for all of your store locations?

Discover why your Google My Business information should always be up-to-date and learn how to update multiple store listings at once to allow people to find your listings

Why you need accurate Google Business Listings

Different regions are updating their rules around COVID-19, so your business listings should mirror these rules and highlight how you’re conducting your business.
As your stores reopen, it’s important to have an accurate and optimized Google My Business (GMB) listing for each listing.

Shoppers are looking for valuable information in their listings, such as: ‘in-store purchasing’ and ‘click and collect. This information along with your hours of operation and contact information must be up-to-date.
Now is the time to prioritize frequent updates to all of your Google My Business listings to give shoppers the information they need to make a purchase.

How Customers Find Your Google Business Listings

Google My Business (GMB) helps you reach customers by creating and managing information cards that appear when users enter ‘keywords’ related to your business.
This allows them to easily find you and get in touch with you.

All of your business details such as an address, telephone numbers, opening hours, and links to your website must be up-to-date, correct, and complete. Providing potential customers with relevant and accurate information about your business is an excellent opportunity to give them a reason to do business with you.

Other updates to consider:

– Your business description (named “From the business” in GMB)
– Photos (regularly uploading geotagged photos)
– Ongoing posts and videos (content that will disappear after a certain time)

Google My Business also plays a role in local SEO strategy. According to Think with Google, 3 in 4 people who find local information in search results helpful are more likely to visit stores.

How do you make frequent Google My Business updates across multiple store listings?

There are two ways to handle multiple listings updates:

1. Import your bulk upload spreadsheet

    • Add location information to your bulk upload spreadsheet.
    • Fix duplicate or missing store codes before you upload a spreadsheet. These unique values help to ensure that every change in your file is accurately applied to the locations in your account.
    • Sign in to Google My Business.
    • In the top right corner, click Add location.
    • In the dropdown menu that appears, click Import locations. To import a spreadsheet, click Select file.
      Accepted formats: .xls, .xlsx, .ods, or .csv.
    • Fix column headers, if needed. You’ll see a warning if the headers are duplicated in your spreadsheet, don’t match any header that Google recognizes, or will be ignored when you upload your spreadsheet.
    • To see proposed changes, click Preview changes. You can view the updates to your locations.
      Note: If there are more new locations than you expected, make sure that the correct store codes are included for each location in the spreadsheet

2. Use Google My Business’s API

Using Google My Business’s API effectively requires technical savvy and coding knowledge. With the API, you can manage locations at scale with actions like:

    • Editing location information
    • Reading and responding to customer reviews and Q&A
    • Updating menu details like photos, descriptions, and prices
    • Viewing insights for locations
    • Subscribing to push notifications for new customer reviews
    • Creating and updating posts
    • Adding photos and viewing customer photos and videos
    • Inviting and removing managers
    • Managing service-area businesses
    • Verification on third-party platforms
    • Determining if a location already exists and is claimed
    • Creating user groups and location groups

Reviewing Your Options

We understand that managing these updates yourself can be challenging when you have many stores in different locations.
This is where Highstreet can help. Our platform receives all of your store location business listing data and we connect it to your Google My Business using their APIs.

“We want companies to present themselves at their best by providing them with accurate data that leads to more visibility” – Giovanni Guardalben -CEO, Kipcast Corp.

It’s time to give your business a boost and provide your customers with all of the information they need for an optimal customer experience. Get the most recent updates to all of your listings seamlessly, so changes to your individual location listings are always correct.

Learn more about Suvae.org’s Google My Business listing management service.

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Important MPN & GTIN Google Shopping Rule Changes https://Suvae.org/important-gtin-mpn-google-shopping-rule-changes/ Tue, 30 Jun 2020 02:32:58 +0000 https://www.Suvae.org/?p=5559 In the world of Google Shopping campaigns, Missing GTINs and MPNs in your product feed used to mean mass product disapprovals in your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account. The rules around these Unique Product Identifiers in GMC have changed. Find out which countries are affected, the details of the update, and how Google’s new rules […]

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In the world of Google Shopping campaigns, Missing GTINs and MPNs in your product feed used to mean mass product disapprovals in your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account. The rules around these Unique Product Identifiers in GMC have changed.
Find out which countries are affected, the details of the update, and how Google’s new rules will impact your shopping campaigns.

MPNs and GTINs Google Shopping updates

Google Merchant Centre has updated its policy regarding Unique Product Identifiers (URIs). Common product identifiers include Global Trade International Number (GTIN), Manufacturer Part Number (MPN), and Brand Names are all affected.

How to fix “Limited performance due to missing identifiers including MPN, GTIN, and brand”

Google states in its announcement:
“Items missing required APIs will no longer be disapproved. These items will now be eligible to serve in Shopping ads. However, similar items with correct UPIs will receive higher priority than items that do not have correct UPIs.

All items will continue to serve, but the performance of items without correct UPIs may be limited. Make sure to provide the correct UPIs to maximize the performance of your items. Items for which the idenfitier_exists attribute is incorrectly set to “false” and for which there is evidence that a UPI exists will be disapproved.

If the same GTIN is used across multiple different products, the items will be considered ambiguous and will be disapproved.”

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to troubleshoot this issue: Google Support.

To offload this task to a highly skilled Product Feed Management company contact Suvae.org to manage your product feed and GMC issues.

Countries affected by GTIN & MPN rule change

Google Shopping sellers from the following countries will be affected by this update.

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Czechia
  • India
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Mexico
  • the Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Russia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • the United Kingdom
  • the United States

This is great news for retailers who have trouble sourcing the GTINs or MPNs for the products they sell.
While their Product Listing Ad (PLA) performance may suffer compared to their competitors with the correct GTINs, they won’t be completely locked out of Google Shopping through product disapprovals anymore.

Maximize your product exposure

The advice from Google on including all your Unique Product Identifiers in your product data is very similar to what it was before their latest update.
Google provided the following guidance on how to maximize your product exposure.

“Be sure to submit correct GTINs, MPNs, and corresponding brands for all new in-stock products. This will improve the richness and relevancy of the ads we show to potential customers. Contact your manufacturer to request the correct UPI for your products.”

To learn more on how to optimize your feeds and get more information on GMC product identifiers, contact Suvae.org , and will discuss all the details of how these recent updates can benefit your business.

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