The constant evolution of e-commerce practices is forcing commercial enterprises to constantly adopt new ways of acquiring potential customers. Google shopping is one of these new ways of attracting customers. It responds to a demand from online shoppers who increasingly feel the need to compare prices and products. Google shopping takes Internet users into a world of shopping, which of course also benefits e-tailers who advertise their products via this system. Comparison shopping sites in general are a highly effective way of acquiring more traffic and, by extension, more sales. Let's take a look at how to use Google shopping to reach new prospects.
What is Google shopping?
Launched by Google as a free service, it has been a pay-per-click service since 2012. It's a pay-per-click price comparison service. It offers products sold on the web by ranking them using an algorithm similar to its own search engine. Search results take into account the relevance of keywords and content, as well as the amounts paid by advertisers.
Visitors can access items by clicking on the shopping tab below the search bar. Each item is presented with a photo and a brief description. Clicking on a box takes the user directly to the advertiser's page.
Why sell on Google shopping?
Google has a market share of over 90% worldwide. More than ever, it is the leader among search engines. The average conversion rate is higher than elsewhere. Billions of queries are made on Google every day.
Google shopping is becoming a must-have for all merchants looking to attract qualified traffic. A well-managed Google shopping campaign can be very cost-effective compared to traditional search campaigns (text ads), and quicker to set up than keyword buying.
How to get started
To begin with, an e-tailer needs to communicate its catalog via the Merchant Center, which will manage the flow of products. You'll need to provide all the information for each item: name, color, model, size, price, reference, stock status...
You can upgrade daily by switching directly from your own e-commerce platform (shopify, prestashop, woocommerce, etc.) to Google shopping, which is compatible with most of them.
Launch a campaign
Once you've created a Google Ads account, it's time to launch a shopping campaign. The operation is similar to that of a classic campaign, except that instead of managing ads with a title and meta-description, you manage ads with photos and prices. Keywords are replaced by products.
It's also a bidding system that will put the merchant with the highest cost-per-click (CPC) in first place. Google determines the position of the ad according to the bids of all competitors, as well as an undisclosed quality factor. The highest bid should always be placed on the most relevant keywords. Lower bids are placed on secondary words and phrases.
Several bidding strategies are available, depending on the goal of each seller: selling goods or services, boosting brand visibility, subscribing to a newsletter, evaluating video content...
If, for example, the main objective is to attract as many visitors as possible in order to try and sell them a product, the CPC method is a good place to start. The advertiser only pays when the user clicks on the ad and arrives at the site.
How to succeed on Google shopping?
To succeed without breaking the bank, you need to master the quality of every item you put online, in order to achieve optimum profitability. Quality means attractive photos, catchy titles and clear descriptions. All this will influence the positioning of your ads in relation to search queries.
You then need to take a close look at the conversion of each product over time, and keep only the most effective. A simulator is available, enabling you to make bidding projections to estimate the number of potential customers reached and the budget this will represent.
Google shopping is a very powerful tool, capable of boosting an e-commerce store or increasing sales for any business, but only if you know how to use it wisely.