How to optimise your Google Shopping Feed

Google Shopping Ads make up to 76.4% of eCommerce ad spend playing a huge role in customer acquisition and revenue growth. Customers who click on Google Shopping Ads – aka Product Listing Ads – have a stronger intent to buy because the vast majority of the information they require, such as price, free delivery, image and are directed directly to the product page. Take a look at our tips to optimise your Google Shopping Feed below.

1. Optimise your product titles

With people being so direct in their approach to Google Shopping, optimising your product titles for search intent is fundamental to success with your Google Shopping feed. Being vague with your product titles will result in Google incorrectly categorising your products or customers being unable to find them.

You are given a total of 150 characters for product titles but only around 70 of those characters will show on the Google Search Results Page (SERP), try to use all characters for full optimisation. Start by front-loading the title with the most important and relevant information, including brands, descriptors, and other details. For instance, if you are an eCommerce clothing store, make sure you put the brand, colour, size, and product type in your titles.

To determine which search terms and phrases correspond to the corresponding product, it is best to perform a search query analysis. Include all pertinent terms in the title as long as they don’t exceed the allotted 150 characters. It’s crucial to think about the terminology that best describes a particular product. For instance, using the word “couch” in a title for a chaise lounge or sofa may make the item appear more affordable to the buyer.

2. Write detailed product descriptions

Product descriptions can be up to 10,000 characters long but we’d recommend writing slightly shorter ones with concise points. Try and include all the details possible; full name of the product, price, sizes if appropriate, colour, and any technical specifications like power sources or memory sizes. Whilst Google Shopping doesn’t use keywords, using targeted keywords in your product descriptions helps Google locate your products. Use terms with high search volumes to get the best results.

We suggest that you aim for the following:

• 500 to 1,000-character descriptions.
• Include all the most relevant attributes, such as size, features and technical specifications.
• Add information around visual details, such as pattern, material and design. This helps Google return more accurate searches for the shopper.
• Avoid listing the specifics of any variant products — simply state the product comes in other colours, materials and so on. This prevents the wrong product from showing.
• Focus on using good grammar and punctuation throughout your description, while limiting the use of special characters, such as exclamation marks.

3. Use product identifiers correctly

One of your feed’s most crucial attributes is the unique product identifier. GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), MPN (Manufacturer Part Number), and brand are the three different types of UPI – you must upload at least 2 of these. Products are grouped together and Google will analyse your competitors, with the expectation that you will submit similar data.

Always make sure that the UPI you upload is correct, otherwise, Google will incorrectly group products and it will also seem that your data is conflicting with your competitors. When compared to ads without GTINs, this can raise your conversion rate by as much as 20% so it’s imperative that you make sure they are uploaded correctly.

4. Use correct Google product categories

Using the correct product category is another way to tell Google which product your ad should show. The Google product categories are similar to product identifiers in that you and your competitors should be submitting the same values for each product, giving Google another way of grouping your product with other competing products.

You can get your products approved with general categorisations such as Apparel & Accessories > Clothing, but for the best results, you should put products into the most specific category.

You can download Google’s Product Taxonomy here, which contains all of the different product categories.

5. Use custom labels

When you want to divide the products in your campaign based on specific criteria, you can use custom labels in Shopping campaigns. This way you can group your feed in a branded way, using custom labels like most purchased, varying price points or product ranges and also split up your ad campaigns for a more targeted approach. Whilst it doesn’t seem like a direct link, the labels help create a structured feed making it more optimal for conversions due to its ease of use.

6. Use high-quality images

All humans are visually focused. We are much better at processing and understanding information in visual form than in text form with people processing 20% of text and 80% of visual content. When it comes to optimising your Google Shopping feed, a high priority should be using high-quality images to display your products as they’re the first thing anyone sees, thus making imagery a key factor for people’s purchasing decisions.

Google’s requirements are at least 100×100 pixels but we’d advise using larger images to avoid any pixelation. If there are different colour variations for a product, use the appropriate image for each one; don’t compromise on this step.

You also always should use the right image for the product, whilst it’s nice to be artsy with imagery, leave that for your social channels. The images you use on your Google Shopping Feed should be representative of the product, without irrelevant products in the background or unnecessary filters.

7. Populate fields that don’t contain product data

If there are a number of products in your feed that don’t have product data, you should go through and add this data to help Google group your products.

To do so, you obviously require these attributes to be included within your product feed. We suggest that you have at least got the following attributes within your feed:

• Colour
• Size
• Material
• Age
• Gender

It would take a lot of time and resources to manually search through and find the data for a large number of products without data. We advise using rules to find various attributes rather than doing it manually.

You can use lookups within the description to find colour, size and material. For example, if the description contains the word “green”, then add “Green” to the field “Colour” and so on.

How to optimise your Google Shopping feed summary

With almost 60% of shopping queries on Google Search being specific with their search intent, customers are a lot more likely to convert, so as a free platform, it’s a no-brainer for you to have an optimised Google Shopping Feed. Ensure you:

1. Optimise your product titles
2. Write detailed product descriptions
3. Use product identifiers correctly
4. Use correct Google product categories
5. Use custom labels
6. Use high-quality images
7. Populate fields that don’t contain product data

Download our quick tips and get in contact with us below to optimise your Google Shopping offering.