In today's era of digital technology and e-commerce development, Google Shopping Ads is an effective tool to help businesses reach target customers and increase sales. To achieve the best results, businesses need to clearly understand how to operate, deploy and optimize effective advertising campaigns. For those who are new to running Google Shopping Ads, they may make some mistakes that cause the campaign to not achieve the desired performance and also waste budget. In this article, let's learn about common mistakes when running Google Shopping with Soc Lua Agency!
Should I run Google Shopping ads?
The most popular form of online advertising on Google today is Google Shopping. It is operated based on Google Merchant Center and Google Ads, allowing businesses to display product information including title, description, price, image, website address, etc. on Google search results when users search for related keywords.
Normally, Google Shopping Ads will be displayed on the first page of search results or on the right side of search results. These results are often accompanied by images and basic information about the product so that users can easily compare, contrast and make decisions to buy the right product. On the other hand, ads can be displayed in the Google Shopping Tab dedicated to shopping products or Google's network of partner websites. Compared to other types of Google ads, shopping ads have outstanding advantages such as:
Wide coverage and increased brand awareness
When deploying a Google Shopping Ads campaign, shopping ads and text ads can be displayed at the same time when users perform a search query. This helps businesses expand their reach to users, increase brand and product coverage on search engines. Regularly seeing your brand and products in many different places on Google will strengthen trust in the brand and products in the minds of target customers.
Reach high-quality potential customers
With Google Shopping Ads, businesses can highlight product information right in the ad, helping users make quick and correct purchasing decisions. Before clicking on the ad, customers already know the information, product images, and prices that are suitable for them and are more likely to buy. Shopping ads are displayed in a visual, vivid and attractive way, helping businesses attract and reach potential customers who are more likely to buy.
Attract more clicks, high conversion rate
If your ad wins the bid when running Google Shopping Ads, Google will display product-related information (price, name, description, image) in a priority position. Ads displayed in visible positions are attractive, creating curiosity for users to click to learn more about the product. With an attractive ad format including images, prices and website addresses, it helps encourage customers to click on the link to visit the website to learn more information.
Google Shopping Ads help businesses increase product visibility and increase conversion rates to sales. Because attractive advertising templates provide full product information such as price, image, title, description will attract users to click on the ad and buy. Combined with the use of Google's targeting options, the ad and the business's products are displayed to the right audience, increasing sales opportunities and improving maximum ROI.
Easy management and optimization
Instead of keywords, shopping ads use product attributes defined in the Merchant Center feed to display ads in relevant search results. Google Shopping operates based on Google Merchant Center and Google Ads, so if you want your advertising campaign to be most effective, you can optimize each part. With Google Merchant Center, you need to update product information completely and accurately, ensuring high-quality and attractive product images. As for Google Ads, you will be able to set up, manage and optimize costs easily to improve campaign performance. By leveraging the power of these two tools, the business's products and advertisements will be displayed to the right target audience with real needs.
Low cost, enhanced competitive advantage
In the form of shopping ads, fees will be charged based on the number of clicks of users. Because Google Shopping Ads are displayed visually and vividly, detailed information about the product will help increase the number of clicks on the ad, optimizing the cost per click. Moreover, advertisers can easily control advertising costs and campaign performance. The available analysis and reporting tools from Google Ads allow businesses to evaluate the performance of the campaign to have a suitable optimization plan to achieve the highest efficiency and save the most costs. Google Shopping Ads is a useful tool to help businesses increase revenue and improve their competitive position.
Common errors when running Google Shopping and how to handle them
During the implementation of the Google Shopping Ads campaign, due to a lack of understanding of how it works and the skills to deploy and optimize ads. Newbies may encounter the following problems when running shopping ads on Google:
Ads not displayed
You have set up an ad for a while and it has been approved by Google, it has been active but has not received any impressions. This error may come from the product data feed (location, time to set up product or ad display, ...). Or it may come from a problem connecting Google Merchant Center and Google Ads, the ad bid is too low or you have scheduled the ad. Bidding exceeding the daily budget or the title and description in the ad not matching the searcher's query are also reasons why the ad does not display.
Depending on the causes of the error, you will have a suitable solution. If the reason is that the data has not been updated, you should update it completely, including the name, description, price, image, location, product display time, and other attributes, etc. accurately. Setting an ad bid that is too low will also cause the ad to lose its ability to compete with other ads to be displayed. Therefore, businesses should consider setting an appropriate bid and optimizing attractive ad content to increase click-through and conversion rates.
When the shopping ad is not displayed, check the ad schedule to see if you have scheduled it to run on a certain day or time. If the ad is not scheduled correctly, it will not be displayed. Therefore, you should carefully check the ad schedule and set an appropriate bid that should not exceed the daily budget. If the daily budget is set too low, the business's reach to the target audience will be limited.
On the other hand, if there is a problem with the connection between Google Merchant Center and Google Ads, it is also the reason why the ad does not display. To fix the problem, you just need to go to the account link when using the same email address for both accounts. If you see that they are not the same, look for the blue (+) sign in the seller account. Then click on it and enter the Google Ads account ID to link.
Conversion tracking error on Google Shopping
This is one of the common errors when running Google Shopping. This problem occurs with businesses operating in the field of e-commerce when they have built and optimized campaigns to increase quality website traffic but the conversion rate is low, sales are sluggish. This is due to the conversion tracking problem when running Google Shopping ads.
The solution is to use a type of conversion tracking enabled in Google Ads based on the website or Analytics. Install the Universal Analytics tracking code in the correct section on the website by adding the Google Tag Assistant extension to the browser to check. Alternatively, check that your website-based conversion tags and ads are properly set up to track conversion values. Additionally, use static URLs as goal URLs in Google Analytics to easily track the number of sales made within the selected date range.
Rejected Ads
A product running Google Shopping ads may be rejected because the products you advertise do not comply with policies. Your ad or listing redirects users to content that violates policies. The advertised product has no price, the image is blurry and of poor quality and cannot be displayed. The product image cannot be retrieved because it has not been updated on the website.
To handle this, please read and understand Google's advertising policies to choose the right products to run ads. Update your website to meet the requirements and comply with Google's policies. If your product data has a product that violates one or more policies, please remove it from your feed. At the same time, update your product data in Google Merchant Center completely, in detail and accurately before submitting a review request to Google.
Upload clear, realistic product images with the required size to the website. Make sure the landing page directs customers to operate stably, load well, and have clear security, shipping, return, and refund policies. Product prices on Google Merchant Center must be the same as on the website, which is transparently disclosed in the ad.
Google Ads account is suspended
The ad account being disabled during the Google Shopping Ads campaign implementation process can come from violating advertising policies or providing misleading information or statements. There is no online shopping facility such as clear payment methods (bank transfer, Ship Cod), checking the payment process or checking when increasing or decreasing the total amount. Irresponsible collection and use of data, product availability in the Merchant Center feed is not updated accurately. Using a Google Ads account is not to promote products but to facilitate fraudulent and dishonest behavior.
To fix this error, you need to re-read and understand the regulations in Google Shopping's advertising policy. Remove violating products from your feed and update your product data completely and accurately in Merchant Center. Provide a clear means of online shopping, ensure responsible data collection and use, and protect users' personal data. Ads must not facilitate fraudulent or deceptive behavior.
Account has limited product visibility
When there is a problem with your account, the functions in the account are limited, leading to limited product visibility. Google will send an email with a notification of what needs to be done to resolve this error. Therefore, please read the platform's policies and requirements carefully, update your website to meet the requirements, and comply with our policies. Fix other policy violations that have not been resolved in your account. Specifically, if the product is not supported, remove it from your feed.
With the above sharing about common errors when running Google Shopping, you have learned a lot of useful knowledge about Google Ads. From there, deploying Google Shopping Ads campaigns can easily achieve the desired results in terms of conversion rate, increasing sales and sales profits.
Frequently Asked Questions
In this case, the shopping ads are not showing because the product is not ready for distribution. Because it takes about 72 hours when syncing the product to Merchant Center for Google to review the first time and 24 hours for subsequent updates. The product is eligible to run shopping ads when the product status is ready for distribution on Google Ads, and the shopping ads status is Active on Google Merchant Center.
The product is active on Google Merchant Center but is not ready for distribution on Google Ads because the product is out of stock, it will not be ready for distribution. When the product is in stock, remember to update the In stock attribute of the product to show that the product is currently in stock. Shopping ads not showing even though the product is ready to serve can be due to overbid, limited budget, low search demand, etc.
Reasons why Shopping ads are not running or have low traffic include: Account is suspended or has payment issues, Merchant Center account is suspended or the accounts are not linked properly. Furthermore, targeting criteria overlap with accounts, campaigns, ad groups. Products are not eligible to serve, product data is expired, targeting scope is too narrow, etc. Depending on the causes of the error, there will be appropriate solutions.
