Google Shopping Ads: The Basics
Shopping Ads are offered through Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) marketing platform, AdWords. They follow a similar format as Search ads in which advertisers pay a small fee whenever someone clicks their ad. Other than that, however, there aren’t many similarities between the two. To trigger impressions for Search ads, you must add keywords to your campaign. For Shopping ads, AdWords automatically selects keywords, thus eliminating this step from the campaign creation process.
You can see an example of Shopping ads by searching for a product or type of product in Google. Searching for “buy fish bowl,” for example, reveals several Shopping Ads for fish bowls at the top of the search results. You can promote your business’s products in this same digital real estate using Shopping ads.
Benefits of Shopping Ads
There are several benefits to using Shopping ads, one of which is increased visibility. You’ll notice that Shopping ads appear before Search ads and even local business listings (if applicable). Therefore, they naturally attract a lot of clicks. For advertisers such as yourself, this means a stronger audience response and more sales or conversions. According to Google, advertisers have experienced up to 300% higher click-through rates (CTRs) when using Shopping ads compared to Search ads.
Shopping ads are also easy to manage. You don’t have to add keywords, nor do you have to create ad copy. This is all done automatically by AdWords, allowing you to focus on other aspects of managing your business.
Tips for Creating Shopping Ads
If you’re going to use Shopping ads to promote your business’s products, make sure your product feed data is up to date and accurate. Using the wrong product price or description means that your ad won’t be accurate. As a result, shoppers will probably back out without purchasing it. Review your product feed on a regular basis to ensure it’s accurate. You should also monitor and optimize the performance of your Shopping ads. If you discover a particular product outperforming your other products, increase its maximum bid.
