Google Shopping Guide
This lesson dives into the basics of Google Shopping: what it is, how it works, why you need it for your eCommerce brand, and an introduction to Google Shopping ads.
Yotpo is an eCommerce marketing platform offering the most advanced solutions for reviews, visual marketing, loyalty, referrals, and SMS.
There are more than 3.5 billion searches done on Google every day, and many of those queries are related to products. Listing your inventory on Google Shopping is an effective way to reach your target customers, and there are options for every budget and level of expertise.
Google Shopping is a retail search engine that displays both paid and organic product listings relevant to the user’s search query. It allows consumers to compare and shop for products across different retailers, and offers product recommendations based on both the user’s shopping and search history.
In April 2020, Google made a significant change to the Google Shopping platform, transitioning it from an exclusively paid model to one where brands can list products for free. Now, smaller brands can compete with retail giants for eyeballs — and dollars — on Google Shopping.
Google Shopping works a lot like Google Search. Users search for products, and they are given a results page with sponsored listings at the top and organic results at the bottom. Google Shopping Ads give brands greater visibility in those product results, but higher-ranked organic listings can also boost product discovery.
Each Google Shopping listing (paid or organic) consists of a thumbnail of the product, headline, price, product rating, and brand name. When a user clicks on a sponsored listing, they are sent to that brand’s website to complete the purchase. For organic listings, a click allows the user to learn more about the product, read reviews, and check inventory within Google Shopping. Brands also have the option to sell on the Google Shopping platform through Shopping Actions.
Brands that want to be listed in organic search results can submit product feeds through the surfaces across Google program. These feeds enable price or inventory changes to automatically update on Google Shopping when a change is made on your brand website.
Google Shopping Ads present an engaging photo, customer rating, price, sale price, and more, all at a glance. Not only does this data-rich visual format drive quick decision-making, but it also has a strong influence on consumer behavior.
Other benefits of Google Shopping Ads include:
As mobile eCommerce continues to grow, placement is important. With the sponsored products carousel at the top of the page, you’re more likely to reach mobile shoppers than you’d be if they had to scroll.
Compared to Google Search Ads, Google Shopping Ads get more clicks. In fact, these sponsored product listings account for 60% of all clicks for Google paid advertising. High clickthrough rates mean better ROI.
If you have a large inventory of products, creating campaigns individually can be a time-consuming, painstaking process. Because Google’s platform pulls your existing product information from a feed, it’s easy to choose which products to highlight, and how.
Consumers come to Google shopping to comparison shop when they already know what they’re looking for. This means that when they find it, they are more likely to buy it than someone who is just browsing.
Not only do Google Shopping Ads put your products right at the top of search results, but they are easy to create as well. Here’s how to do it:
As an official Google partner, Yotpo makes it easy to enhance your Google Shopping Ads, by integrating eye-catching star ratings and reviews for your products and displaying Google Seller Ratings to increase brand trust.
To get listed in organic search results, all you need to do is submit one or more product feeds. But if you want to stand out in search results, a Google Shopping Campaign is the way to go.
The benefits of Google Shopping cannot be overstated. It has become a critical eCommerce channel, and brands are responding to this opportunity by shifting their advertising investments from Google Search to Google Shopping.
