Maximise Ad Exposure with Product Listing Ads (Google Shopping)

Written on 09 June, 2015 by Natasha ONeill
Categories PPC

Product Listing Ads are a pay-per-click (PPC) channel that allow online shoppers to view rich images and details of the products you sell in the Google Paid Ad space. You’re only charged if someone clicks on your ad and is directed to your website, and you’ll only pay when Google directs a customer to your store.

For example, if you’re a retailer selling shoes, or electrical goods online, then this would be a great online channel for you to trial to help maximise your ad exposure and dominate the market space.

Below is an example of Product Listing Ads as they appear in the Google search results.

Notice the image, title, price, promotional message, and your store or business name all displayed in the one ad. This is done without the need for you to create unique ads for each product you sell.

The benefits of running PLAs


Increase your traffic – people are more likely to click on an image of what they want if they can see the product before having to click through to the website. The customer is able to make a decision based on the image and description. Businesses have experienced higher click-through-rates (CTR) when running PLAs.
Improved quality of leads – users are able to price compare and see what the products look like before clicking on the ad. Once the user has a good sense of the product and cost, they’re further down the purchasing funnel than the average web user.
Broadened reach – more than one ad (or product) can appear per search, allowing more ad exposure.
Powerful metrics – measure the performance of the campaign through AdWords and track which products are driving a return.

What do you need in order to run PLAs

A user must have a Google AdWords account and Merchant Centre. The Merchant Centre stores all the relevant product information such as all the different item attributes while the AdWords account manages the ads and campaigns (i.e. spend & avg. CPC).
Then you will need to upload your data feed (the feed contains all the relevant product information) into your Merchant Centre Account. Once uploaded, you’ll need to link the Merchant Centre Account to your AdWords account.

How PLAs work


Product Listing Ads use your data feed to determine where and how to display your ads. The data feed contains all the relevant product information such as price, weight and availability of particular items. These attributes match searches on Google to your PLAs.
It is important to keep your product feed up to date – if there is $10 off for a limited time only, make sure this is reflected in your data feed or your ads could be disapproved.

AdWords allows you to organise, promote and bid on the products you want and high end reporting allows you to monitor and optimise performance.

The requirements – shopping policies


Websites have to provide users with clear return and refund policies, as well as complete and correct delivery information and costs. You need to verify and claim your website through Webmaster Tools. To view all the requirements, click here.

That’s it.

Set up Product Listing Ads today with Webcentral to further maximise your ad exposure and dominate the online real estate.

Written by Natasha O’Neil — Senior Performance Media Account Manager at Webcentral.

 

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