Optimizing Google Shopping campaigns

Google Shopping campaigns show your products directly in search results with images, prices, and store names. ConvertMate helps you analyze product performance, optimize your product feed, and improve Shopping campaign profitability.

Before you start

You need:

• An e-commerce store with products
• Google Merchant Center account connected to Google Ads
• Active Shopping campaigns with performance data
• Connected Google Ads account in ConvertMate

Shopping campaigns work differently from search campaigns. They use your product feed rather than keywords, so optimization focuses on product data quality and bid management.

Why Shopping campaigns matter

Shopping campaigns:

• Show products with images directly in search results
• Typically have higher conversion rates than text ads
• Capture high-intent shoppers comparing prices
• Require less ongoing management than keyword campaigns
• Display product inventory automatically
• Work well for visual products

However, Shopping campaigns are competitive. Your product feed quality directly impacts performance, and you're competing on price and image appeal.

Analyzing Shopping performance

To review Shopping campaigns:

1. Go to Insights → Google Ads
2. Select Shopping product performance
3. Choose your date range
4. Optionally filter by campaign
5. Click Analyze

This costs 15 credits and takes 20-30 seconds depending on your product count.

Understanding Shopping metrics

Each product shows:

Product ID - Your SKU or identifier from your product feed. Product title - Name shown in Shopping ads. This is critical for performance as Google uses it for matching to searches. Product type - Category you've assigned (different from Google's automatic category). Brand - Your brand name or manufacturer. Required for most products. Price - Current price from your feed. Must be accurate and match your website. GTIN/MPN - Product identifiers. Not always required but improve performance when provided. Impressions - Times your product ad appeared in Shopping results. Clicks - Times shoppers clicked your product ad. CTR - Click-through rate. Shopping CTR is typically 0.5-1.5%, much lower than search ads because people are comparing many products. Cost - Amount spent advertising this product. Conversions - Sales of this product from Shopping ads. Conversion value - Revenue generated from this product. ROAS - Return on ad spend. For Shopping campaigns, aim for 4.0+ ROAS on average, though this varies by product margin.

Identifying winning products

Look for products with:

High ROAS - Products generating $5+ revenue per $1 spent are winners. These deserve higher budgets and bids. Strong conversion rates - Products above 3-5% conversion rate indicate good product-market fit and competitive pricing. Growing impressions - Products gaining visibility often benefit from increased bids to capture more traffic. Premium pricing success - Products selling well despite higher prices than competitors indicate strong differentiation or brand appeal.

Scale winning products by:

• Creating dedicated Shopping campaigns for top products
• Increasing bids on high-ROAS products
• Improving product images and titles for even better CTR
• Ensuring adequate inventory
• Cross-promoting related products

Identifying problem products

Watch for:

Zero sales with significant impressions - Product shows up but doesn't sell. Likely causes:

• Price not competitive
• Poor product images
• Weak product title or description
• Negative reviews
• Out of stock status showing

High cost, no conversions - Spending money without results. Options:

• Lower bids significantly
• Improve product feed data
• Pause if unprofitable
• Fix pricing or image issues

Low impressions for important products - Your key products not showing. Causes:

• Bids too low to win auctions
• Product feed quality issues
• Limited search volume
• Category/type mismatches

Declining performance - Products that used to sell well but don't anymore:

• Competitors lowered prices
• Your prices increased
• Product is aging/seasonal
• Image quality fallen behind competitors

Actions for problem products:

• Review pricing against competitors
• Improve product titles and descriptions
• Update product images
• Fix feed quality issues
• Adjust bids or pause
• Check for policy violations

Product feed optimization

Your product feed determines Shopping performance more than any other factor:

Product titles:

• Include brand, product type, key attributes (size, color, material)
• Put most important information first
• Use words customers search for
• Limit to 150 characters (first 70 show in ads)
• Bad: "Men's shoe 12"
• Good: "Nike Air Max Running Shoes Men's Size 12 Black"

Product descriptions:

• Include detailed specs and features
• Use natural language, not keyword stuffing
• Highlight unique selling points
• Explain what makes the product different
• 500-5000 characters recommended

Product images:

• High resolution (1000x1000 pixels minimum)
• Clean white or light background
• Show product clearly
• Multiple angles helpful
• Lifestyle images can improve appeal
• Follow Google's image requirements exactly

Product categories:

• Use Google's product taxonomy
• Select most specific category possible
• Accurate categorization improves matching
• Review categories quarterly

GTINs and MPNs:

• Provide when available (required for many categories)
• Improves trust and click-through rate
• Helps Google match products to searches
• Validates product legitimacy

Custom labels:

• Tag products by margin (high, medium, low)
• Mark seasonal items
• Identify best sellers
• Flag clearance items
• Use labels for bid management

Product groups and bidding

Structure Shopping campaigns using product groups:

Single product groups - Bid on each product individually. Maximum control but time-consuming. Best for stores with under 100 products. Category-based groups - Bid by product type or category. Easier to manage but less precise. Margin-based groups - Bid higher on high-margin products, lower on low-margin. Optimize for profitability rather than volume. Performance-based groups - Separate top performers into their own campaigns with higher bids. Brand groups - If you sell multiple brands, separate by brand for different positioning.

Recommended structure for most stores:

1. High-priority campaign for top products (high bids)
2. Medium-priority campaign for standard products (medium bids)
3. Low-priority campaign for long-tail products (low bids)
4. Catch-all campaign for new products (test bids)

Use priority settings to control which campaign serves products when they appear in multiple campaigns.

Competitive pricing strategies

Shopping is highly price-sensitive:

Race to the bottom - Constantly undercutting competitors leads to thin margins and unsustainable business. Premium positioning - Higher prices work if you offer:

• Strong brand recognition
• Superior product quality
• Better customer service
• Faster shipping
• Generous return policies
• Bundled value adds

Strategic pricing - Price competitively on comparison products where buyers are price-sensitive, premium on unique or differentiated products. Price testing - Test small price increases on high-margin products to see if sales volume drops or remains steady.

Use comparison shopping engines to monitor competitor pricing. If you're always the most expensive, you'll struggle. If you're always the cheapest, you're leaving money on the table.

Image optimization

Product images directly impact CTR:

Technical requirements:

• Minimum 100x100 pixels (800x800 recommended)
• Maximum 64 megapixels
• JPG, PNG, GIF, or BMP format
• Under 16MB file size
• White or light background preferred

Best practices:

• Show entire product
• No promotional text or watermarks
• Lifestyle images can boost appeal but product must be clearly visible
• Consistent image style across products
• Show product in use when relevant
• Include scale references for size perception

Testing variations:

• A/B test different image angles
• Try lifestyle vs. studio shots
• Test images with models vs. without
• Experiment with different backgrounds
• Monitor CTR changes after image updates

Better images mean higher CTR, which means lower cost per click and better ad positions.

Shopping campaign structure

Standard Shopping campaigns:

• Manual bid control
• Product group flexibility
• More work to manage
• Better for most businesses

Performance Max campaigns:

• Automated bidding
• Limited control
• Uses AI to optimize
• Can work well but less transparent
• Requires conversion tracking

Smart Shopping campaigns (being phased out):

• Being replaced by Performance Max
• Migrate if you're still using these

Local inventory ads:

• Show in-store availability
• Requires local product feed
• Great for retailers with physical stores

Most businesses should start with Standard Shopping for better control and learning, then test Performance Max once profitable.

Seasonal optimization

Shopping performance varies seasonally:

High seasons (holiday shopping):

• Increase budgets 50-300%
• Raise bids to stay competitive
• Update product titles with seasonal terms
• Highlight gift potential
• Emphasize fast shipping
• Extend return windows

Low seasons:

• Reduce budgets
• Test new products with lower bids
• Focus on clearance of seasonal items
• Improve product feed quality
• Optimize images and titles
• Plan for next high season

Promotional periods:

• Update prices in feed immediately
• Add sale annotations where allowed
• Increase bids during sale
• Highlight promotion in title where permitted
• Ensure landing pages match advertised prices

Back to school, seasonal events:

• Create dedicated campaigns for events
• Update product types and titles
• Adjust inventory priorities
• Time campaigns to event schedules

Inventory management

Out-of-stock products waste budget:

Monitor stock levels - Automatically exclude or lower bids on low-stock items. Pre-orders - If you sell pre-order products, make availability clear in title and description. Discontinued items - Remove from feed promptly to avoid showing ads for unavailable products. Inventory syncing - Ensure your feed updates regularly (daily minimum, hourly recommended). Stock availability - Use availability attribute correctly:

• in stock - Ready to ship
• preorder - Available for pre-order
• out of stock - Not available

Google stops showing ads for out-of-stock products, but feed updates may lag.

Merchant Center issues

Product feed issues kill Shopping performance:

Disapproved products:

• Check Merchant Center regularly for disapprovals
• Fix issues within 7 days to avoid account suspension
• Common issues: price mismatches, missing data, policy violations

Data quality warnings:

• Address missing attributes
• Fix incorrect GTINs
• Update outdated descriptions
• Resolve price inconsistencies

Account suspension:

• Serious policy violations can suspend your account
• Misrepresenting products
• Selling prohibited items
• Cloaking or redirecting
• Poor customer service or return policies

Maintain high feed quality to avoid issues that prevent ads from showing.

Landing page optimization

Where you send Shopping traffic matters:

Product landing pages:

• Match price on page to price in feed exactly
• Show product clearly above the fold
• Make "add to cart" prominent
• Include reviews and ratings
• Show shipping costs/delivery times
• Trust signals (secure checkout, return policy)
• Mobile-optimized design

Collection pages:

• Can work if sending to filtered category
• Helps when you have size/color variants
• Must clearly show price range matches feed

Homepage:

• Never send Shopping traffic to homepage
• Google may disapprove products

Checkout issues:

• Complicated checkout kills conversions
• Unexpected costs cause cart abandonment
• Offer guest checkout
• Show progress clearly
• Mobile-friendly forms

Shopping traffic is high-intent. Don't lose sales to poor landing page experience.

Measuring Shopping success

Key metrics beyond ROAS:

Product-level profitability:

• Calculate true profit per product (revenue - cost of goods - shipping - fees - ad spend)
• Some products may have good ROAS but low actual profit
• Focus budget on high-profit products, not just high-ROAS

Incrementality:

• Would customers have found you anyway through organic search?
• Shopping ads work best for products you don't rank well for
• Less valuable for branded searches where you already rank #1

Customer acquisition cost:

• What does a new customer cost through Shopping?
• Compare to other channels
• Factor in lifetime value

Market share:

• Impression share shows how much possible traffic you're capturing
• Low impression share suggests room for growth
• High impression share with low ROAS suggests market limitations

Advanced tactics

Dynamic remarketing:

• Show Shopping ads to people who viewed products on your site
• Higher conversion rates than cold traffic
• Lower CPCs typically
• Requires tracking code and audience lists

Showcase Shopping ads:

• Group related products together
• Show lifestyle imagery
• Good for fashion, home decor
• Tells product story better than single products

Merchant promotions:

• Add special offers to Shopping ads
• Free shipping, discounts, buy-one-get-one
• Improves CTR and conversions
• Requires Merchant Center promotions feed

Customer reviews:

• Product ratings show in Shopping ads
• Significantly improve CTR
• Collect reviews through post-purchase emails
• Use Google Customer Reviews program

Credit costs

Shopping analysis reports cost:

• Shopping product performance: 15 credits per report

Run weekly during optimization phase, monthly during maintenance phase.

Common questions

My products aren't showing at all. Why?

Common causes:

• Products disapproved in Merchant Center
• Bids too low to win any auctions
• Inventory set to out of stock
• Price on website doesn't match feed
• New campaigns take 24-48 hours to start

Check Merchant Center for disapprovals first.

How do I compete with Amazon or big retailers?

You can't win on price alone against massive retailers. Win on:

• Specialized knowledge and curation
• Better customer service
• Unique products they don't carry
• Faster shipping or special services
• Brand experience and values alignment

Target long-tail products and specific niches rather than commodity items.

What's a good ROAS for Shopping campaigns?

Depends on your margins:

• Low margin (10-20%): Need 5.0-10.0 ROAS
• Medium margin (30-40%): Need 2.5-3.5 ROAS
• High margin (50%+): Can be profitable at 2.0 ROAS

Also factor in lifetime value. Losing money on first purchase might work if customers return.

Should I use Standard Shopping or Performance Max?

Start with Standard Shopping if:

• You're new to Shopping campaigns
• You want control over bids
• You have time to manage actively
• You want to learn what works

Try Performance Max if:

• You have conversion tracking working perfectly
• You want to test automation
• Your Standard Shopping campaigns are profitable
• You have limited time for management

Don't rely solely on Performance Max - always keep at least one Standard Shopping campaign for comparison.

More questions? Use the chat widget in the bottom-right corner or email support@convertmate.io.