After setting up and registering your data feed in Google Merchant Center Account, it is time to setup your Google Shopping Campaign in AdWords interface. To do this, click on the Red “+ Campaign” button, and choose the “Shopping” option. See the below image.
After selecting the option, you’ll see the usual setup options such as “Default bid”, “Daily Budget”, “Location,” etc. Give your Campaign a name, and link the account to your Merchant Center account. Select the “Location”, and your “Campaign” priority. If you are a new E-commerce Merchant, choose “Low” as you are about to roll-out the campaign.
Once the setup has been completed, your products will automatically be placed into one product group called “All products”. Start by dividing “All Product” groups into a subset of product groups. This is because all the items in a group will have the same cost per click, and it would be a bad idea to bid for the same price per click for an Apple I-phone 5s as you would for a cheap pair of wireless headphones.
You can have separate bids for each, and you can create subgroups based on any of a number of attributes those products might share, such as:
- Category
- Brand
- Product type
- Condition
- Item ID
If you have decided to divide the group based on “brand”, you could construct a sub group for every individual brand, and based on the aspects logged in your data feed, Google will find and automatically transfer the appropriate product into each of these new sub groups.
Here’s how you might subdivide a group based.
1. Based on “Category” Attribute
Let’s assume you are the owner of an electronics store, and you got exactly 500 individual items that are available to purchase from your store.
All product (500 items)
You subdivide this group by “Category”. Your store features five different categories of products, each of which, let’s just say contains 100 different items. Keep creating new ad groups based on each category, and subdivide them either using “Item ID” or “Product Type.
All product (500 items)
- Televisions (100 Items)
- Blu-ray players (100 Items)
- Video game consoles (100 Items)
- Sound Systems (100 Items
- Smart Phones (100 Items)
2. Based on “Brand” Attribute
Under this, you subdivide television ad group, by the brand attribute. Your store represents televisions by four different manufactures, each of which has 25 different items in your inventory. So now, you have 5 Ad group – containing 100 products, and one of these subgroups divided into its own set of groups containing 20 items.
All product (500 items)
- Televisions (100 Items)
>> Samsung (20 Items)
>> Philips (20 Items)
>> Sony (20 Items)
>> Toshiba (20 Items)
>> Finlux (20 Items)
Blu-ray players (100 Items)
- Video game consoles (100 Items)
- Sound Systems (100 Items
- Smart Phones (100 Items)
Once you have finished subdividing, you can customize each subgroup, adjusting the maximum CPC for each one, or even excluding particular groups entirely from being advertised.
Tips on Optimizing your Shopping Campaign
- Break Campaigns down into as many individual products, so as to optimize your bidding.
- Use the Return on Ad spend feature to understand your profit
- Check Search Query reports regularly for useful negative keywords to avoid wasting your click spend.
- Use important keywords early and often in titles and description to help Google match your best product to user searches.
- Use Competitive metrics to learn more about your competitors. Metrics such as Benchmark CTR, Benchmark Max CPC, and Impression Share.
This article is written by Subhakanth. You can reach him at Subhakanth@adsonsearches.com
