The largest search engine - Google, keeps offering multiple tools to digital advertisers which help turn data into actionable strategies; this, in turn, helps enhance the performance of ad campaigns. Google constantly updates to ensure that digital advertisers have multiple options to achieve the desired goals. This includes responsive search ads becoming the default type of expanded text ads, updates on ranking & algorithm, etc. One such update is that now you can link Merchant Centre to Google Analytics 4.
Most of the products you see while browsing the shopping tab in Google have been uploaded via the Google Merchant feed. This interface allows importing product catalogs data directly on Google shopping and how they appear on Google. It includes updating product descriptions, images, titles, pricing, etc. To take advantage of the business opportunities by Google shopping ads, you must consider linking the two accounts as you link Google Ads with Google Analytics to perform remarketing, track e-commerce performance, etc. In this blog, we will discuss what Google Merchant Centre is and how linking it with Google Analytics allows you to increase the performance of shopping ads and manage its product flow in real-time.
What is Google Merchant Centre?
Google Merchant Centre is a tool by Google that helps PPC advertisers to upload their product shop and product data. This data is made available to your shopping ad campaign and across various Google Display Networks. Merchant Centre acts as the backbone for achieving the desired return on investment from running ad campaigns when running Google shopping ads.
Google Merchant Centre can said to be the unsung hero of Google shopping ads. Many advertisers use this in online marketing, reducing their effort to upload their product details whenever a new ad campaign is launched. You may be working on demographic targeting to get in touch with the target audience with high chances of taking the intended action. When you focus on audience segmentation in these locations and run Google shopping ad campaigns accordingly, you do not wish to upload product details now and then. Moreover, as the digital marketing world keeps evolving with the SEO trends, PPC trends, e-commerce trends, etc., you need to focus on having real-time results for your ad campaign to keep the interest of the user engaged with your ad. This is where the Google merchant center helps, as once you upload the details of your products, you only have to update the product description when running holiday ads and e-commerce PPC ads.
Google Merchant Centre is a digital platform that allows you to create shopping ads and upload your product details. You can run these Google shopping ads on the Google Ads platform and its search partners. These shopping ads appear across multiple sites, like YouTube Ads and many others. The primary purpose of running the Google Merchant Centre is to allow merchants to upload and update information about their products. This product information includes pricing and availability. The updated data is displayed in relevant Google Shopping ads and search queries.
Why should we use Google Merchant Center?
All-size businesses use Google shopping ads. With nearly 5.6 billion searches per day and approximately 2 trillion searches per year, PPC advertisers do not wish to miss out on running Google Ads. With such a wide audience that you can target to increase the impression share, the number of clicks on your ads, etc., you must consider using Google shopping ads when running shopping ad campaigns. Whether the business has a few products or different varieties to the target audience, it becomes essential to use Google Merchant Centre. Some of the advantages of using Google Merchant Centre for your shopping ads are listed below.
1. Importing customized product data sheets - Google Merchant Centre offers a wide array of descriptions that you can define for your product. As shopping ads require multiple details of the product offerings so that the target audience chooses your business, you must consider giving details that lure the users into clicking on the ad. With the help of this, you get plenty of scope for customization.
As you focus on ad scheduling in Google Ads, writing compelling ad copies to grab users’ attention to click on your ads, etc., you can prepare a customized data sheet that helps your ads appear to the relevant audience with high chances of taking the intended action. With Google Merchant Centre, your cost per click lowers, but you see the Google Analytics conversion rate getting high. Also, as you have various products, there are chances that other products have different conversion rates. With the help of Merchant Centre linked with Google Analytics 4, you get to see the performance of your ad campaign. You can then conduct a PPC audit to determine which of the PPC metrics are performing well and what other metrics need to be optimized.
2. Editing and updating existing product data - Another benefit of using Google Merchant Centre is that you can easily update the product data. As multiple changes keep happening in the digital marketing world, you must focus on updating your products in sync with the latest marketing trends. In addition, Google Merchant Centre allows you to tinker with bids and manage your advertising strategy practically in real-time.
3. Integration with other Google products - Google offers the merchant center, so it naturally integrates with Google Ads, the Google Display network and other advertising platforms. This provides you with the option to get in touch with audiences who are present on different platforms. This means you can run sophisticated remarketing campaigns. As you have the opportunity to perform omnichannel marketing in search engine optimization, similarly, the merchant center helps you get in touch with PPC audiences present on different platforms. This means you can run sophisticated remarketing campaigns.
4. Top of Google search results - Another benefit of using a merchant center for your business is that you get the opportunity for top ad rank & position on Google search results. Amid competition among digital advertisers, the competition to achieve high ad rank & position is constantly increasing. With a top position on the Google search results, you have an increased impression share, better click-through rate, etc. and build brand awareness, have an increased return on investment, and much more. As Google itself provides Google Merchant Centre, there are ample opportunities to optimize the ad to achieve a higher ad position.
5. Qualified leads - With the use of Google Merchant Centre, you get to have qualified leads for your business. When running PPC ads, you have an increased number of impressions for your ads and if you have focused on building brand awareness on social media, you may see visitors to your landing page coming from various sources. You may prepare an attribution report in Google Analytics to determine where the users come from to your web page. In a PPC ad campaign, you do not wish your ad budget to get drained on irrelevant clicks, so with the help of the merchant center, you can have leads that are interested in taking the intended action. As in the PPC plan & strategy, you focus on generating leads with high chances of taking the intended action. In the same way, for your Google shopping ads, you get to have users who are not just window shopping but are genuinely looking for the products you offer.
Benefits of linking Google Merchant Centre with Google Analytics 4
1. Insights into important metrics - With PPC ads, different businesses have different advertising goals like brand awareness, lead generation, form fill up, etc. However, with the Google shopping ads, the main aim is to ensure that your ads appear to the top position on the top position in Google search results for the keywords or search terms entered. The next essential point that you need to focus on is that the visitors click on your PPC ads for the keywords or search terms entered. With the Google Merchant Center linked with Google Analytics 4, you get a clear insight into the performance of the crucial PPC metrics for your business.
With multiple PPC metrics available to analyze the performance of your PPC ads, you need to focus on choosing the ones that best suit your ad campaigns. You can focus on conducting keyword research and selecting the high traffic relevant keywords so that you can consider adding them to your ad copies and ad description to lure the target audience into making a click on them. You can consider performing a PPC audit and using different PPC tools to determine which important PPC KPIs need to be optimized. The essential metrics for your shopping ads may include:
a. Page loading speed.
b. Cost per conversion.
c. Quality score.
d. Average position.
e. Cost per acquisition.
f. Bounce rate.
g. Return on ad spend.
2. Perform remarketing - Another benefit of linking the merchant center with Google Analytics 4 is performing remarketing. Remarketing in PPC ads is done for users who have previously interacted with your PPC ads but did not take the intended action due to one reason or another.
As you focus on writing great content in your content marketing strategy, have an email marketing list in your email marketing strategy, etc., you need to focus on performing remarketing to get in touch with the users who are potential customers for your business. With the help of a merchant center linked with Google Analytics 4, you get to see the details of the traffic to your landing page, average session duration, bounce rate and many other essential PPC KPIs for your business. You can focus on conducting a PPC audit and preparing a PPC report to highlight the factors you need to consider when performing remarketing. Some of the points that you need to focus on when performing remarketing for your PPC ad campaign are listed below.
a. Have clear remarketing objectives.
b. Determine which pages to tag.
c. Target demographics that can convert.
d. Create a variety of ad sizes with images.
e. Make a sales funnel that is not rushed.
f. Offer coupons and discounts.
g. Highlight the ratings & reviews that you have from different users.
3. Analyze transactions or conversions - The next advantage of linking merchant center with Google Analytics 4 is that you can see transactions or conversions for your business. When running shopping ads, the crucial point for your business is to ensure that you have an increased number of transactions. In Google Analytics 4, transactions are known as conversions. Having an increased number of conversions for your business, you see an increase in the revenue generated.
When you have both accounts linked, you can determine the number of completed transactions for your business. As in search engine optimization, you focus on getting increased website traffic, boosting conversion rate, etc.; in the same way, you need to know how the users that navigate through different sections on the landing page, add products to the cart, check out and complete the intended action. So, it is essential to know the number of transactions for your business.
4. Track online traffic - Linking the merchant center to Google Analytics 4 helps you have a clear idea about the online traffic that reaches your landing page after clicking on the ad. As you may be running Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads, etc., in your social media marketing strategy, visitors to your web page can be from varied sources. As users from different marketing platforms have different user intent, you need to work on a strategic marketing plan to ensure that you design your ads based on buyer persona.
With the increasing number of websites, it becomes essential to grab users' attention so that the users choose your brand name ahead of competitors. As you focus on including negative keywords in your ads to avoid the irrelevant clicks and trigger your ads from appearing in the irrelevant searches, you also need to track online traffic. Another Google Analytics 4 property is that you can perform a backlink analysis to see whether the external links that you are getting are not from black hat websites. As in affiliate marketing, you focus on link building and ensure that the traffic to your web page is from authoritative websites; similarly, you need to analyze this here so that you do not have irrelevant traffic that are least interested in taking the intended action.
5. Improve e-commerce conversion rate - Another advantage of linking the accounts is having an improved e-commerce conversion rate. When running shopping ads, you need to be aware that you target a wide range of users and your competitors are also doing the same. So, to ensure that the target audience chooses your business ahead of competitors, you focus on running e-commerce PPC ads. You ensure to write engaging ad copies, ad descriptions, etc., that grab the users’ attention and increase your business's impression share.
E-commerce business has multiple product offerings and there are e-commerce trends that keep evolving with time. As multiple e-commerce trends are coming up in the market, your products need to be in sync with the latest marketing trends to make the target audience click on your ad. To ensure that you have an increased number of clicks and a higher conversion rate for your business, you focus on conducting e-commerce keyword research to get to know which of the keywords are in demand. You can consider highlighting the product description with great features and why the users should buy from your business. When you focus on enlisting these product features, the users believe that the company provides the majority of the details beforehand, which means that the content on the landing page would be the same as discussed. You need to ensure ad relevancy on your landing to keep the users’ interest intact in your website.
After you have worked on all these plans & strategies for utilizing the maximum ad space for your ad, the next point is that you will run e-commerce PPC ads. After the ad goes live, you can see the performance of PPC metrics. With the help of Google Analytics, you can see the e-conversion rate for your business and then decide on taking the necessary steps to optimize the campaign performance.
6. Conversion tracking - Another benefit of linking merchant center with Google Analytics is that you can set up and track conversions in Google Analytics. Another Google Analytics 4 property that you can use with the linking of merchant center is conversion tracking. Although you can track the number of conversions in Google Ads, but why use various online platforms when Google Analytics 4 property provides multiple details.
In PPC advertising, you have users to your landing page coming from various platforms and not all end up taking the desired action. So, you need to have a crystal clear view of the user intent to design your ads accordingly. As in search engine optimization, you focus on optimizing your website, optimizing images, optimizing website for mobile devices, etc., so that the target audience, after reaching the web page, takes the intended action. In the same way, with Google shopping ads, you can perform conversion tracking that shows the number of users who take the intended action, users who add the product to cart, etc. You must have optimized your ads for mobile devices so that you get to see which devices bring more conversion. This conversion tracking helps you understand user behavior and have insights into data reports to make PPC plans & strategies, etc.
Steps to link Google Merchant Center with Google Analytics 4
Follow the steps discussed below to link Google Merchant Center with Google Analytics 4.
1. In your Google Analytics account, click admin.
2. In the Account column, select the desired account you wish to connect. If you have only one account, then it will already be selected.
3. Select the property you want to link to Merchant Center in the property column. Under PRODUCT LINKS, click Google Merchant Center links.
4. In the link table, click Link.
5. If you are an admin for one or more Google Merchant center accounts, in the row for Link to Merchant Center accounts I manage, click choose an account, then select the account you want to link your property to and click confirm.
6. Now click next.
7. Under enable auto-tagging, choose to enable auto-tagging for the Merchant Center account or leave the auto-tagging settings as they are.
8. Click next, then review and submit your configuration settings.
Does Google Merchant Center cost anything?
Using the Google Merchant Center is completely free. As it is a tool by Google, it is easy to have the details of the various PPC metrics on your shopping ads when linked with Google Analytics. However, you need to focus on the point that you get to plan & strategize on some of the competitive metrics as you do in Google Ad. It can be done in a couple of different ways:
• Cost per click (CPC) - Cost per click is a metric in which you have to pay a certain amount to the search engine for every click made on your PPC ad. So, you need to consider adding negative keywords in your keywords list for the keywords or search terms that you wish your ad to trigger. To improve user engagement and get in touch with the relevant audience who are potential buyers and save your ad budget from getting drained, you must focus on a bidding strategy to get the maximum conversions with a low cost per click.
• Cost per engagement (CPE) - This is another important metric that you need to focus on to improve brand awareness and drive traffic to your landing page. You have to pay every time a user engages with your ad with cost per engagement. This may be in the form of expanding a collapsed ad, scrolling an ad, tapping an ad, etc.
Round off
As Google Merchant Centre provides such a vast range of business opportunities, linking it with Google Analytics 4 opens the door to deeper insights into the possibilities your shopping ads can target. For advertisers running e-commerce PPC ads, Google Merchant Centre can be an integral part of their digital marketing campaign. As you focus on improving the ranking website in the SERPs in search engine optimization and improving ad rank & position in PPC ads, in the same way mastering the Google Merchant Centre and linking it with Google Analytics 4 will give you a huge advantage over your competitor. If you find running Google shopping Ads a difficult task, you can get in touch with a digital marketing company with expertise in video ads, mobile ads, search ads, display ads, lead generation, etc. Avail of white label PPC services and a drastic change in conversion rate of your PPC ads. Also if you are finding it difficult to expand your painting, plumbing, construction, appliance repair, or HVAC business online, our top-notch PPC services, such as painting PPC, plumbing PPC, construction PPC, appliance repair PPC, and HVAC PPC, can help you significantly increase your online presence and help you generate more leads. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation!
References
• [GA4] Google Merchant Center integration
• Merchant Center can now be linked to Google Analytics 4