:: Objective ::
The aim of this article is to clarify a few points about feed optimization, so that you can adjust it on your website and further increase the performance of your Google Shopping campaigns.
:: Feed Optimization for Google Shopping ::
A well-structured Google Shopping campaign can return twice as much as a poorly structured one. The performance of this structure depends essentially on having attributes such as titles, images, descriptions and categories well configured.
Drawing a parallel with Text ads on the Search Network, Google Shopping ads have a "Quality Score" based on the structure and experience of the landing page. These two elements together will define how much more or less you will pay for each click for the same position in the auction.
So, the better the Product Feed data, the more clicks you'll get and the less you'll pay for them, meaning more performance and ROAS for your campaigns.
Merchant Center
The products that appear on Google Shopping are hosted on the Google platform called Merchant Center. There, Google imports the data for each product from a Product Feed that is usually hosted on the e-commerce site itself.
Within the Merchant Center you can evaluate the quality of the data being imported from the Product Feed, as well as any errors and more serious problems. This platform is owned by the client and it is essential that you monitor notifications from there at least once a week.
Product from the Product Feed
The Product Feed dynamically imports data such as price, image, value and title from the e-commerce itself. Therefore, it is essential to register products carefully so that the quality of the data is always excellent. This ensures not only better SEO for the site, but also more efficient Shopping Campaigns.
The Product Feed is divided into Attributes and Values:
Attributes are each data entry such as [title], [brand], [color] and [price].
Values are the data entered for those attributes such as [Pitch boot], [Nike], [blue] and [100].
How to Optimize Shopping Campaigns
The suggestions below should be worked on within the e-commerce itself. Sometimes you just need to change a few words and insert better photos, while other times you need help with the code.
- As already mentioned, it is essential that you monitor the Merchant Center on a weekly basis to collect the feedback that Google offers on the quality of the data collected. Among the most critical notifications is: suspended products, as these are not being shown in ads and can lead to an Account suspension (see more information about the Merchant Center here);
- It is essential to make the details of each product as complete as possible. Values for optional attributes, such as prints, gender, material, size, etc., greatly increase quality, so they must be complete (see all the attributes that must be filled in here);
- A picture is worth a thousand words. This phrase is law when it comes to Google Shopping. Good photos are not only useful for navigation within e-commerce, but they also guarantee much greater prominence for your ads. So investing in quality photos is just as important as having competitive prices when it comes to Google auctions (see various tips and examples here);
- Title and description values are among the most important, so they should be filled in following Google's best practices and examples. Check if they are too short or too long, if they are not all capitalized and if they describe the "common name + differentiator" of the product (see the recommendations and excellent examples for each title and description). This point in particular is also very important for SEO;
- For promotions, it's super important to put the promotional price in the feed, too. The importance of putting promotional prices is precisely so that you don't fall behind in prices among competitors and marketplaces. In addition, this promotional price will appear in dynamic remarketing ads. It's quite simple, just insert the [sale_price] attribute (the details are here).
