Why Do Google Shopping Ads Work?

Google Shopping is a comparison shopping engine, a platform on which e-commerce traders can market their products to sellers visually, alongside competitors. This makes for a quick, comparison-based shopping experience, speeding up the customer journey. 

Google shopping ads display rich product information, including images, price, merchant name, and sometimes even shipping costs and customer reviews. They appear in a number of placements, including the shopping tab of search results, next to search results and on the Google Display Network, in places like Gmail and YouTube.

They come in two different types. These are Product Shopping ads, which are created with product data only, and Local Inventory ads, created from a combo of product data and inventory data.

How Do Google Shopping Ads Work?

Google Shopping ads use data attributes from the info you submit to your Merchant Centre data feed. This decides where your ads are shown, and how they appear. As a result, Google Shopping ads don’t rely on keywords, which helps to make results as relevant as possible to what the user is searching.

The first step is to set up Shopping campaigns. These allow you to manage, organise and optimise your ads, as well as access essential reporting and benchmarking tools to allow for monitoring, the adaptation of strategy, and optimisation of performance. Shopping ads also allow you to customise ad content, as well as control your budgets.

Once all your Shopping campaigns are set up, your ads are entered into an ad auction, just like with other formats. You only get charged when someone clicks on your ad, leading them either to your landing page or a Google-hosted local inventory page. Plus, you’ll often pay less than the maximum bid you set in Merchant Centre, as you only pay the minimum amount needed to rank higher than the advertiser immediately below you.‍

‍Benefits of Google Shopping Ads

There are even more benefits to Google Shopping ads than just control of budgets. Check them out...‍

All Eyes on You 👀

Since Google Shopping ads are visually appealing, so more engaging, they are given pride of place in at the top of results.

Since, they’re deemed more clickable, they’re awarded a premium spot at the top of Google search results. This means your Google Shopping ads are much more likely to be seen than, say, Search ads.

This may be the main reason that advertisers are moving spend away from Search and into Shopping.  According to research done by Merkle, ad spend has increased by 38% on Google Shopping compared to last year, while it decreased by 12% for Search Ads.
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‍Bullseye Targeted 🎯‍

“Smart Shopping campaigns help you put your products in front of the shoppers who are looking for what you offer on Google – whether they're at home, on mobile or in the shop. The best part? You only pay when they click” 

Google For Retail

In other words, because Google shopping ads are located exactly where customers who are looking for your products are, they are an efficient, intent-based form of digital advertising.

A Google user who sees your Shopping ad at the top of their search query results is already looking for what you’re selling, whether they know it word for word or are just shopping around. This complements their user experience, rather than interrupting it like some other ad formats might. In this sense, Google Shopping ads give the consumer the ad experience they want, rather than a disrupted one.‍

Better Leads ➡️‍

Google Shopping ads give you a much clearer picture of specifically a customer is interested in, because they give so much information compared to text-based ad formats.

You can increase the quality of these leads even more by enriching the information displayed with your ads in the Merchant Centre. More information means a more informed purchase-decision for the consumer, making them more likely to choose your product over others advertised. ‍

Simplicity 🤍‍

Once your Google Shopping ads are set up, they’re fairly low maintenance. Data simply pulls through from the Merchant Centre to build each ad and shown it in the relevant places, rather than relying on keywords that require updating.‍

Presence 👣‍

“More than one of your Shopping ads can appear for a given user search and, if relevant, a Shopping ad and a text ad can also appear at the same time. This means that your reach with users for a single search could double.” (Google Support)

Not only could multiple of your products show up in the same search, but they can also be displayed across YouTube, Gmail, and Google Search Partner websites, still in the same more visual format that text-based ads.‍

Easy Monitoring 🕵️‍

Your Shopping ads can be easily monitored, helping to uncover insights and trends to maximise your performance against competing advertisers.

You check in on product performance at a very granular level, observing how many clicks a certain product got. This allows you to identify growth opportunities.

‍Conclusion

‍In the words of Store Growers:‍

“While Shopping Ads can take more time initially (to set up everything), they require a lot less ongoing effort afterward”‍

We couldn’t agree more! The results of Google Shopping ads are well worth the investment. 

If you need the know-how of a top agency to get your Google shopping ads off the ground, look no further than dmt! Our services in PPC, paid social and email marketing are great for maximising your online growth.