What are Google Showcase Shopping Ads?
Google Ads offers many different types of ads for the various properties they own. One of the top ads for e-commerce companies offering consumer goods for sale is the “shopping ad. It will display quick squares at the top of search with the product image, product name, and price.
Even with the Shopping Ads, Google has decided to tweak their offering and give another option for e-commerce advertisers.
When Did Google Showcase Shopping Ads First Appear?
During the beta presentation of Google Ads at the end of 2018, the Showcase Shopping ad was also discovered.
Where do Showcase Shopping Ads appear?
Showcase Shopping Ads will show up at the top of the search results page right under the search box for a particular search. Here is an example below.
Top Benefits of Using Google Showcase Shopping Ads
One of the best parts of Showcase Ads is you no longer have to bet on people searching a more specific type of product to find your ad. Instead, you can group related products together and show for a search term that is more generic.
Here’s an example. If your company sells furniture, you can group together different recliners you might offer. Then if someone searches the more generic “recliners” your showcase ad can display.
Another perk of the showcase ad? When someone clicks on a Showcase ad for the first time, it just expands the group to multiple products. If they stay less than 10 seconds, you aren’t charged. When they click on a more specific product within the group, you are then charged for the click which sends people to your website.
The cost to advertise on Google Shopping ads is less than you think
With the Showcase ads, by their very nature, the first click is free! The clicks thereafter once the shopping showcase has been opened, will be charged at a specific cost per click based on your budget and the competitive landscape at the time of running the ads. The beauty of Google Ads is you can control how much you spend in a day, week, and month. If you want to spend $5 per day, then you can. If you want to spend $500 per day, then you can as well. The important factor is knowing what your cost per click (CPC) is so you can find out how many clicks you will get to your website based on your budget.
Google Showcase Shopping Ads: Get Started In Less Than 15 Minutes
You will need the following:
- A Google Merchant Center Account where you can put your product feed.
- A Google Ads account where you will create a Google Shopping campaign from the list of campaign choices.
- Once you connect your merchant center to your Google Ads account, the Shopping ads will be available.
Where in the World are Showcase Shopping Ads available?
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Germany
- France
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- India
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- the Philippines
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- United Arab Emirates
- UK
- USA
Showcase Shopping Ads vs. Google Search Ads
As you might think, it’s tough to rank for generic type keywords. It takes quite a while to show up in the organic (free listings) for the generic terms, depending on the level of popularity.
So why not just use Google Ads? You sure could use those types of ads to pull in people on generic keywords. However, if you are selling products through e-commerce, wouldn’t it be better for the ad to be quite specific to shopping. Showing the price, showing the buy button would be much more helpful to put the consumer’s mind in the “buying mode.”
Google suggests starting with a large array of products in a category (approximately 100) and then narrow it down from there.
Take My Money Google! Bidding for Showcase Ads Explained
The main bidding strategy for Showcase Shopping ads is CPE (cost-per-engagement). This means you will be charged when someone expands your ad and spends 10 seconds or more within the ad.
Update: Google now allows you to also use Maximize clicks bidding and Target ROAS on Showcase Shopping Ads.
Can I list my products for free on Google?
You can also benefit from using Googles free product listings. According to Google, these listings vary based on data requirements.
With hundreds of millions of people doing shopping related searches on Google, you can have your product listings show on different Google properties such as the shopping tab, Google Search, Google Images, Google Maps, and Google Lens.
The Two Requirements for Showcase Shopping Ads:
Make sure you have a Google Merchant Center Account in good standing. Link your Google Merchant Center to your Google Ads account.
Your product data must be updated at least every 30 days. The product feed specification must be adhered to.
Here is a Run Down of the Google Shopping Policy No-No’s:
Prohibited:
- Counterfeit Goods
- Dangerous Products
- Products which allow dishonest behavior
- Inappropriate content
- Malicious content
- Poor data collection practices including obtaining the following information over non-secure SSL:
- username or email with passwords
- Credit and debit card numbers
- bank and investment account numbers
- Checking account numbers
- Wire transfer numbers
- National identity, pension, social security, tax ID, health care, or driver’s license number
The following are restricted:
- Adult-oriented content
- Alcoholic beverages
- Copyrighted content
- Gambling-related content
- Healthcare-related content (medications, prescription drugs, etc)
- Political content
- Trademarks
You Can Show 1 – 100+ Products in One Showcase Shopping Ad – Here’s How
According to Google, you will want to start off with a large set of products (perhaps hundreds) in one Showcase shopping ad group. You can then narrow the products into more specific categories.
How do you see how many products are targeted in a Showcase ad group?
You will just go to the “Products Active” column on the “Product groups” page in Google Ads.
Landing Page Requirements for Showcase Shopping Ads
- Show your product clearly with all key elements of the product present
- Landing page must prominently show the product you are advertising, skip search/category pages.
- Clear display of the product price
- Skip layouts that hide key elements on the page
- The language in your ad must match your landing page’s product data
- Use the currency to match the product data
- Availabilities must remain updated
- Product condition must match your product data
How to Setup a Showcase Shopping Ad Group
Start a shopping campaign
- Click Ad Groups
- Click the plus button
- Click “select a campaign” and then choose the shopping campaign you want to add this new showcase shopping ads ad group to.
- For bidding you will need to choose CPE (cost-per-engagement).
- Ad group type: Showcase Shopping
- Ad Group Name: Enter your own name, I would suggest “Showcase Shopping Ad Groups – (Product Category)
You will want to divide your product groups or “all products” will be created. Set it up so the ad groups are targeted to specific groups of products.
Showcase Shopping Ad Specs Required
- A header image to represent your product category, brand or business
- 600 X 314 px minimum (1200 x 628 px is recommended)
- JPG or PNG
- Max file size: 5 MB
- Use a high quality image with at least one of the products in that category.
- Make the image purely visual without any text.
Optional Text
Headline – Helps people notice your ad, short line of only up to 24 characters.
Description: Up to 120 characters to show in the expanded form of the showcase ad.
Required Text for the Showcase Ad
Final URL: The URL of the landing page you want people to visit.
Display URL
My Conclusion on Google Showcase Shopping Ads
This is certainly an interesting development in the number of new features Google Ads can offer. It looks like they are focusing on e-commerce and perhaps wanting to compete a little more with the Amazon giant. It is also another way Google is working to keep the searcher on Google pages instead of immediately sending them to other websites.
Outside of Google’s move towards more time on site, I find these showcase shopping ads intriguing. They offer the advertiser more control over which products show and give them the chance to show for more generic terms in a way which (for now) which catch a potential customer’s eye due to the newness of the display.
Will Showcase Ads be better than Shopping Ads? I’m not quite sure. I always say it’s best to test and let the numbers prove you right or wrong. However, my concern is that people may get lost in the open and closing of the showcase shopping ads so much they forget to continue on with their shopping journey. Too many choices can sometimes lead to no choices.
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