Last updated - November 29, 2022
On your Google search results page, you may have noticed advertisements for online stores. Shopping advertisements are more educational than typical text advertising since they provide visuals and other product details like pricing. The likelihood of consumer interaction is increased by this. How do you control Google Shopping advertisements for the goods in your WooCommerce store? You must register for a Google Merchant Center account and provide an updated product feed. In order to generate targeted ads, you may subsequently link your Google Merchant Center account with Google Ads. This post will go through how using Google Merchant Center to market your WooCommerce business might increase sales.
What is Google Merchant Center
Simply said, Google Merchant Center is a service that makes it easier for you to publish your online goods to Google. Your items will become accessible through a number of Google services, including Google Shopping Ads, Google Ads, etc.
The main benefit of Google Shopping advertisements is that you can specifically target clients who are already doing their product research. An easy Google product search is typically one of the first steps in an eCommerce sales funnel. Your items will be able to draw in a lot more potential customers if they are visible at that height.
How to Use Google Merchant Center to Promote Your WooCommerce Store
We’ll utilize the free ELEX WooCommerce Google Shopping plugin to advertise your WooCommerce store. You may easily add your items to Google Shopping after incorporating this plugin into your online business. It displays a preview of the product’s details, including title, description, image, cost, availability, color, and a lot more. A Google product feed may be easily created as an XML, CSV, or TSV file and sent to Google Merchant Center.
Advantages of the plugin
- This plugin facilitates the easy creation of a feed of several WooCommerce items with precise category and attributes mapping.
- By uploading the product feed you built with this plugin, you may attract more clients to your website, generate targeted traffic, and increase sales.
- Based on your needs, you may create an infinite number of streams, and you can even schedule them at your convenience.
- Choose among the languages that this plugin supports, including English, Russian, Spanish, French, and German.
- A live feed may be easily modified, copied, downloaded, paused, deleted, or renewed. Additionally, you may update and modify your current XML, CSV, and TSV files.
Setting up the plugin
The ELEX WooCommerce Google Shopping plugin can be downloaded from the ELEXtensions’ website or by clicking the link above. Once the plugin is downloaded, you may install and activate it as you would with any other plugin by going to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Install Now.
Once the installation is complete, click Activate Plugin.
Now that the plugin is active, you may access it by going to Dashboard > Google Shopping Feed.
Once you access the plugin dashboard, you will find a few sub-tabs under Manage Feed. The tabs are as follows:
- Start
- Map Categories
- Map Attributes
- Filtering Options
- Generate Feed
Start
You may provide a Project Name for your feed here. Create a project description that provides more information about the specific feed you are producing. Choose your country of sale from the list of alternatives. If you wish to include changeable goods in the Google feed, you may enable the Include Variations option. Enable Auto-set Identifier exists if your items lack a distinctive product identification.
Based on the items you wish to showcase on Google Shopping, select a default Google category. Select the Google Merchant Center-compatible TSV file format.
A Refresh Schedule can be programmed to occur daily, weekly, or monthly. Pick the daily refresh option, then give it a time. When you’re finished, click Continue.
Map Categories
The WooCommerce product categories will be immediately mapped to Google categories in the Map Category section. With the help of the accessible Google product categories, you can quickly add and map any number of product categories.
For listing it on Google Shopping, you may also utilize the Individual product mapping. Select Map Product from the menu.
In the text box, you may input the name of the product category that needs to be mapped to Google Categories, as well as Google Categories that you want to map to the desired items. As soon as you begin typing, these categories will be filled up automatically. Once you’re satisfied, click Save & Continue.
Map Attributes
Google attributes will be automatically mapped to the set attribute values in the Map Attributes section. Each of these parts may be double-checked, and if necessary, edited. Select an attribute value from the pre-set options or enter your own.
You may modify how your product data appears on your product feed by using the customization options for product characteristics. For instance, you may utilize the Prepend option to prepend the brand name to the product title. Alternatively, you may utilize the Append option to append the brand name to the product title.
If the stock level of the product you are selling is unknown, you may specify in the Stock status condition that the stock level is less than a specified minimum amount, and then indicate in the Product Description that the stock level is less. Click Continue when finished.
Filtering Options
You may choose how your goods will be filtered for the Google catalog feed-in Filtering Options.
Stock Quantity or Sold Quantity are two options for filtering. Choose whether a certain value is Equal to, Greater Than, or Less Than. You can carry out the same procedure for the sold quantity. If you want your Google catalog feed to only contain the featured goods, check the Featured Products box.
If you don’t want to include a certain product in the catalog feed, you may omit it via Exclusion. Once finished, press the Generate Feed button.
You may download the TSV file to your computer by selecting View Feed from the menu.
The ability to Manage Feeds is also available. Use the URL to schedule fetch, which we shall cover in more detail in a moment. Additionally, you may view the next product feed date. Use the action buttons to edit, copy, pause, refresh, download, or read reports, among other things.
Create a Google Merchant Center account
Let’s head over to the Google Merchant Center now. Use an existing Gmail account to log in, or create a new one. When finished, a screen similar to the one below will appear.
Add your business information, and Set up shipping to distribute your goods to clients. Afterwards, you may move on to verify and claim your website. To validate it, copy the given code and paste it into the HTML of your website. Give your business address and phone number now.
When you’re finished, move on to Add Product Data. Select the option to upload multiple products.
Choose your preferred language, then choose your country of sale, and check the box for free listing. Click Continue when finished.
Enter the name of the primary stream, choose Upload from the menu, and then click Continue.
Give the file a name, choose Upload a new file here, select the TSV file that you previously downloaded using the plugin, and then upload the file.
Once finished, press the Create Feed button. Your items will begin to upload to Google Merchant Center once the TSV file is opened.
Conclusion
Your Google Product feeds can now be shown in the search engine. Your items will appear on the Google shopping page in this manner. The items are readily available for customers to browse here and purchase straight from your online store. On Google Merchant Center, you can also monitor the performance and expansion of your product.
A fantastic way to increase sales on your WooCommerce site is using Google Merchant Center. To develop targeted ad campaigns, you may connect your Google Merchant Center account and Google Ads account. Additionally, you may use free tools like Merchant Promotions to improve the appeal of your Shopping Ad listings.
