What is Google Shopping?
With the number of businesses starting up, it has become increasingly difficult for new businesses to get their products discovered. And because of this, their sales are taking a hit. As a result, some businesses turn to popular marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, so their products have a higher chance of getting noticed. Unfortunately, marketplaces can be expensive and take over the entire selling process.
So instead, businesses that would like more control over their sales, turn to third-party services that only advertise products. One such service is Google Shopping, which displays your product information every time a relevant Google search is made. Google Shopping not only promotes your business, but also makes it easier for potential customers to search for, research, and compare products. It also allows them to contact the seller.
In this article, we’ll cover how Google Shopping works and how your business can benefit from using it.
How does Google Shopping work?
In order to understand how Google Shopping works, it’s important that you know what platforms it is supported by:
1. Google Ads
Google Ads, formerly called AdWords, is an advertising tool that allows advertisers to bid on keywords so that they can secure a place for their ads on Google’s search results. This tool can also be used to save shopping campaigns, set a budget, handle bids, analyze campaign data, and optimize your marketing efforts accordingly.
2. Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center is an online tool that can be used to upload and update your product feed, which is basically information about their products. This “feed” information consists of your product details, formatted by Google.
Unlike online marketplaces, Google Shopping does not sell products directly from their site. Instead, they promote products sold by online retailers through ads that pop up every time someone searches for a relevant or similar product.
Ecommerce business owners send their product feeds to Google Shopping so they can post ads. This information is updated constantly, so Google Shopping always has access to current prices, sales, offers, and product availability. This helps them come up with accurate ads for your products. Every time someone clicks on an ad or makes a purchase directly from your ecommerce site, you would need to pay a portion of the profit to Google Shopping, sort of like commission.
What can Google Shopping do for your business?
Expand your online presence
The most prominent advantage of using Google Shopping, is Google itself since it is the biggest search engine. By promoting products with Google Shopping Ads, your products will reach a wider audience and attract more customers. It’s also possible for multiple Shopping ads of yours to appear when a related search is made. In some cases, both a Shopping ad and a text ad can show up together, doubling your customer reach.
Improve the quality of your lead
Google Shopping Ads provide prospective customers with relevant and detailed product information that includes a description, pictures, the original price of the product, as well as a list of vendors who are selling this product along with the price they are selling it for. By ensuring this, their objective is to help interested buyers research and make an informed purchase that they are happy with. It also gives them that extra push that they need when contemplating whether or not to make a purchase. This extra push increases the number of leads that will buy from you instead of just looking around.
Get noticed with Google Lens
Google Shopping is integrated with Google Lens, an image recognition app. In general cases, Google Lens is designed to display relevant information about an image. But combined with Google Shopping, Google Lens can scan an object and display a list of different vendors that are selling that product. This increases brand recognition and makes it easier for customers to find and purchase it.
Manage ads easily
With general text ads, you would be required to individually pick out keywords that you would like to target and then bid on them separately. With Google Shopping Ads however, this entire process is simplified because there is no need to select keywords; Google determines relevant keywords automatically using your product information that you’ve defined in your Google Merchant Center data feed, i.e. your product fee. It then uses this intel to display your ads on searches that are relevant to the keywords being searched for.
Generate insightful reports
Google Shopping allows businesses to check up on their product performance with any number of specifications. For instance, an apparel business could see how well all of their scarves are doing for a certain quarter. Then they could also specifically see how their black and white striped silk scarves are doing for a given month. These analytics also help set a certain benchmark for your data so you have goals to work toward.
For businesses that could use a recognition boost but are not so keen on selling on a marketplace, putting out ads using Google Shopping is a great alternative. It allows you to cut down on extra costs and retain control over selling your products. If you feel like your business could benefit from Google Shopping, check it out today!
