by Google Shopping is an online advertising platform that allows you to advertise your products in the Google search results.
It has increasingly become a popular channel for e-commerce retailers as it is a great way to generate more and more sales.
The Google Shopping ads appear above or to the right-hand side of the organic results.
Similar to other AdWords ad formats, Google Shopping also works on a Cost per Click basis, meaning that you will only be charged when a user clicks on your ad.
Google Shopping ads are relatively more attractive to users as they show abundant information about product name, image, pricing, promotional texts, special offers and much more.
Thus, making the purchasing process fast and simple for the customers.
However, Google Shopping Campaigns can be a daunting task for new and even experienced e-commerce retailers.
There are a lot of traps into which you can fall if you are not careful enough.
Even the smallest mistake can result in a costly and underperforming shopping campaigns and it is much obvious that nobody wants it.
Perhaps, there is no need for you to lose hope as there is always room for improvement.
In our previous blog, we’ve mentioned some tips to optimize Google Shopping Campaigns.
And now we will focus on some common Google Shopping Mistakes and how to recover from them.
8 most common Google Shopping Mistakes
1. Inaccuracies in Unique Product Identifier
The most important element in the product feed of a Google Shopping Campaign is the Unique Product Identifier (UPI) such as Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) and Manufacturer Part Number (MPN).
The Unique Product Identifiers help Google in knowing exactly what the product is and then Google matches your product with the search queries and also compares it with the same products of other retailers on Google Shopping.
Since the UPI makes your ads richer and easier for users to find them so inaccuracies or incompleteness in your Merchant Product Feeds related to UPI can really damage your ads.
[bctt tweet=”If you provide a UPI that is not correct, Google might just disapprove that product. ” username=”adstriangle”]
There might also be a probability that Google matches your product incorrectly with other products.
Therefore, to avoid the chances of being wrongly listed or not getting listed at all, make sure you are accurate with the UPI in the Merchant Product Feed.
2. Not Optimizing the Product Titles and Descriptions
The second most important thing after the UPI are the product titles and descriptions.
The initial keywords in the product titles and descriptions bears utter importance when Google matches the search queries and decides the ad position.
It can be a common mistake to lead the product title or description with a brand name as the brand name might not be one of the top performing keywords for you.
Providing too much information and overloading the product title is a common mistake that advertisers make.
[bctt tweet=”Add the most important information of the product in the title first.” username=”adstriangle”]
Provide precise, accurate and relevant titles and descriptions so that your search ability can be maximized.
Also, do not include promotional or marketing text, excessive punctuation, and symbols in your title.
It is recommended to include attributes such as color, size or brand in your title so that your product can be differentiated from others.
Including long tail keywords in your description is a good idea to increase your searchability.
Do not just throw any title or description on your ads, optimize the product titles and descriptions so that your ad visibility and CTR are enhanced.
3. Not Checking the Search Term Reports and Adding Negative Keywords
Google Shopping Campaigns operate differently than the Search Campaigns as they do not use keywords.
While in Search Campaigns, your ad will only show up for search queries when you add keywords.
Whereas, in Shopping Campaigns, your ads show up for any search query that matches a product you sell.
Therefore, with this rule of thumb that keywords are not used in Shopping Campaigns, many retailers do not search their search term reports thinking it to be unimportant.
So, irrespective of the fact that Shopping Campaigns do not use keywords, you should check the search term reports to recognize the terms that are matching your product.
By accessing the search term reports, you can check whether your ads have been showing up for the right moment or not.
The knowledge that you gain through Search Term Reports can guide you in making productive changes in the campaign structure.
Along with not checking the search term reports, marketers commit another mistake of not adding negative keywords to their Shopping Campaigns.
You should use negative keywords to prevent your ads from being shown to any irrelevant search terms.
Furthermore, negative keywords will ensure that your ads reach out to the most relevant customers and prevents clicks from those who are looking for something that you don’t sell.
[bctt tweet=”With negative keywords, you will be able to reduce your overall costs and increase the ROI.” username=”adstriangle”]
4. Do Not Compete Against Yourself
In Shopping Campaigns, you can use “Product Groups” to divide your products into smaller segments.
By product grouping, you can use choose similar items, products to exclude, set specific bids for certain products.
Marketers make a mistake here by thinking that the product groups are similar to the keywords. Perhaps, these two perform differently.
Just like a common problem of duplicate keywords in Search Campaigns, an equivalent problem of can also occur in Shopping Campaigns where it becomes difficult to predict which search ads will show up for a particular search and which bids will be used.
This problem basically occurs when a single product remains in multiple product groups and the overlap takes place easily.
For example, you are selling electronics like Samsung Televisions.
If you create one product group where the product type is Television and another where the brand is Samsung, then Samsung Televisions are included in both the product groups.
[bctt tweet=”To avoid internal competition do not put the same product in different product groups.” username=”adstriangle”]
Because by this, your groups will end up competing against each other.
You have to be aware that it is really important duplication in the product groups as you will end up competing against yourself.
5. Neglecting Google Merchant Promotions
While advertisers underestimate the power of Google Merchant promotions, little do they know that the Merchant Promotions are just like Ace of Spades that might just turn things around according to them.
[bctt tweet=”Merchant Promotions allows you to add a “special offer” tag beneath your product listing ad.” username=”adstriangle”]
The “special offer” makes your product to look more exclusive, limited and appealing to your potential customers.
They possess the power to improve the performance of your products ads greatly and also helps you to optimize the CTR and Cost per Click.
So. do not make this mistake of ignoring the Merchant Promotions and if promotions are available on your Google Merchant Account, Use them.
They also give you an advantage over your competitors who do not use them.
6. Creating Too Many Product Groups
The famous saying, “The More The Merrier” is definitely relevant in many situations but in the case of product groups in Google Shopping, this saying is not applicable.
Many marketers set up a lot of product groups and then fail to manage each of them.
[bctt tweet=”Do not create too many product groups while setting up Shopping Campaigns.” username=”adstriangle”]
For each product group, you will have to set individual bids and that can be pretty time-consuming.
Moreover, it is not important for you to have all the necessary information that you might need to decide bids.
As in Search Campaigns, keywords decided the bidding standards. Where Google automatically defaulted to the ad group bid when no particular criteria were set for a particular keyword.
But Shopping Campaigns work differently, you have to manage each group individually after you have created the product group structure.
So, to avoid this problem it is better, to begin with creating larger product groups and then further divide them only after having complete information about the specific bids.
7. Ignoring The Quality Score
For every product, Google Shopping gives a specific Quality Score that indicates whether the product is an appropriate match for a specific search term or not.
The Quality Score depends on the CTR of your ads, the information in the feed and the relevance of the landing page.
Quality Score also plays a vital role in your Cost per Click that you actually pay to Google.
[bctt tweet=”It is the Quality Score multiplied by the bid that decides your ad position.” username=”adstriangle”]
So, ignoring the Quality Score would be like committing a deadly mistake and putting a The End for your Shopping Campaigns.
As with the other AdWords text ads, you can scan the keywords to see the Quality Score, things are different with Shopping Campaigns.
Google calculates the Quality Score for you after checking the CTR, Ad relevance and landing page relevance.
Therefore, you can improve the Quality Score by researching how your product is performing alongside the competition.
You can also reset the Quality Score of a product that is getting lower CTR by giving it a new identity.
Remember that in Google Shopping the CTR is an early indicator of the Quality Score hence make your product pages as perfect, efficient and functional that the CTR of your ad gets improved.
To know more about how to improve Quality Score and save you money, read our previous blog.
8. Not Using The Right Images
In Google Shopping Campaign, the product image is the first thing that catches the user’s attention.
Hence, Product images are a big deal!!
So big that they have the potential to convert a click into a sale.
And they are so important that Google will not let you list an ad without them.
So, make it a point to optimize the product images to ensure more visibility, clicks, and sales.
[bctt tweet=”Even a small mistake in using the right product image can ruin you ads completely.” username=”adstriangle”]
Some mistakes related to product image:
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Using the Manufacturer’s Image
The very common mistake that advertisers make is that they use images from the user’s official website.
If you want to stand out from the crowd, do not use the same image.
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Invalid URL
Next is that Google uses the field image URL to create a thumbnail image for your ad, so it becomes very important for the URL to be of a valid format.
Make sure that the URL does not have any spaces, slashes or any other characters that may restrict Google to access your ads.
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Watermarks or Promotional Texts
Shopping Campaigns do not allow images that have any kind of watermarks or promotional texts.
So ensure that the images that you are using in your Shopping Campaigns are free any kind of text that violates the “No Watermark or Promotional Text” rule.
Conclusion
Google Shopping Campaigns is a great platform for online advertising.
Setting up the Google Shopping Campaigns can be a complicated process especially for the newbies.
Thus, we have provided you with an outline of the common mistakes that the advertisers make while setting up and managing Google Shopping Campaigns.
As said, “Prevention is better than cure”
We have ensured to give you insights that will help you to prevent the common Google Shopping mistakes.
If you avoid all the mistakes listed above and follow the tips, Shopping Campaigns will become your cup of tea.
Remember, the key to a successful Shopping Campaign is using your creativity and shopping campaign features to achieve an optimized campaign structure that proves to be productive for your business.