>How to Set Up a Google Ads Shopping Campaign

Setting up a Google Ads Shopping campaign is essential if you want to sell your products online. It's a core part of your online marketing strategy. However, for success in your Google Ads Shopping campaigns, you need to make sure that you're using the correct structure.

The reason why structure is important in your Google Ads Shopping campaigns is that it allows you to identify which products are successful and which ones are wasting money. Proper structure also allows you to better optimize your campaigns.

In most cases, only a small portion of your products will be highly profitable. The majority of your products will likely not be profitable in the Google Ads Shopping platform. Therefore, it's crucial to have the correct structure to control budgets, bidding strategies, and optimization targeting for different products.

Let's start with the correct structure for your Google Ads Shopping campaign. I like to separate campaigns based on top-level product categories. Underneath each campaign, there will be different sub-product categories with their own products. This structure allows for better control of spending and optimizations based on product categories and margins.

For example, if you're running an online clothing store, you would have separate campaigns for men's clothes, women's clothes, men's shoes, and women's shoes. Under the men's clothes campaign, you would have ad groups for t-shirts and jeans, and under the women's clothes campaign, you would have ad groups for dresses and skirts.

Now that you understand the importance of structure, let's dive into the step-by-step process of setting up your Google Ads Shopping campaign.

Step 1: Set Up Your Google Merchant Center Account

Before setting up your Google Ads Shopping campaign, you need to have a Google Merchant Center account set up with a shopping feed linked to your Google Ads account. Many online stores like Shopify and WooCommerce have simple one-button integrations to set up your Google Merchant Center. But I'll provide links in the description for tutorials on how to set up your own Google Merchant Center account and integrate it with Shopify or WooCommerce.

Step 2: Create Your Google Ads Shopping Campaign

Once you have your Google Merchant Center account set up, go to ads.google.com to access your Google Ads dashboard. Click on "New Campaign" to start creating your Google Ads Shopping campaign. Choose the "Sales" option to indicate that you're setting up the campaign to drive more sales.

It's important to select the "Sales" option because it sends a strong signal to Google that your campaign's goal is to generate sales. This is crucial for the algorithm to optimize your campaign effectively.

Next, choose the "Shopping" option and continue with the setup. Make sure your Google Merchant Center is linked to your campaign.

Step 3: Set Up Campaign Details

Now it's time to set up the details of your campaign. Choose a clear and relevant campaign name for internal use. Select "No filter" for filtered products for now, as it's easier to do this after the campaign is published.

Decide whether you want to set your bidding strategy as manual CPC or target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). If your products have similar pricing, optimizing for conversions is recommended. Set your daily budget, keeping in mind that it's averaged out over the month.

In the campaign priority section, leave it at "Low" unless you have conflicting campaigns targeting the same products. You can turn off search partners, as they often do not provide good results for most advertisers.

Choose your target location and consider selecting the "Presence" option to target people who are regularly in your targeted location. This reduces the chances of targeting people who may be searching your product in your location but live elsewhere.

Set your campaign start and end dates, and keep in mind that it may take up to 72 hours for your ads to start appearing after you publish the campaign. Avoid any potential delays by checking the approval status a few days before the launch date.

Step 4: Create Ad Groups and Product Segmentation

In this step, you'll create ad groups and segment your products based on your desired structure. Within your campaign, set up ad groups for different product categories. For example, if you're selling baby and kids headphones, create separate ad groups for "Baby headphones" and "Kids headphones."

When setting the bid for each ad group, consider setting it slightly higher than the average cost per click (CPC) for your range of products. This allows you to be competitive in the bidding process.

Within each ad group, add product segmentation by going into "Add subdivision" and selecting the relevant product categories. This ensures that your ads are displayed for specific products within the ad group.

Step 5: Save and Review

Once you've set up your ad groups and product segmentation, save your campaign and review all the details. Make sure everything is accurate before publishing the campaign.

Congratulations! You've successfully set up your Google Ads Shopping campaign with the correct structure and product segmentation. Now you're ready to optimize and monitor the performance of your campaign.