This document provides best practices for Google Shopping campaigns. It discusses setting up campaign structure using attributes from product feeds, using custom labels, and monitoring data quality. It also covers identifying campaign goals and using the appropriate bidding strategies, settings, and audience targeting to optimize performance.

1. @adwexp
Google Shopping – Best Practices
Sergio Borzillo (UK Head of PPC) @ ADworld Experience

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About me…
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Sergio Borzillo
UK Head of PPC
NetBooster
• 29 years old, Italian and in the UK since 2005
• BA Marketing Degree
• Head of PPC at NetBooster UK
• In Digital Advertising since 2007
• Managed/Manage clients like American
Express, Nespresso, Accor Hotels, Nelly.com,
SonyEricsson, Maplin, Viking Direct etc.
• Hobbies: good food & F1

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About NetBooster Group

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Common mistakes
 A – Botch campaigns setup > Fewer campaigns & lack of granularity
 B – Not using campaign priorities nor labels for campaign structure
 C – Ignoring Feed errors & warnings
 D – Not knowing that remarketing lists and SQRs features are available in Google
Shopping.
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The Agenda
 1. Campaign Strategy
 1.1 Campaign settings
 1.2 Campaign structure
 1.3 Budget management
 2. Data quality - Google Shopping Algorithm
 2.1 High quality feed: product title, description , images
 2.2 Google Taxonomy
 2.3 Errors & Warnings
 2.4 Run search query reports and set up negative keywords
 3. Strategic approach to Ads management
 3.1 Bidding and Goals
 3.2 Bidding and Performance
 3.3 Bid strategy
 3.4 Settings & Strategy
 3.5 Audience
 4. Key Take Aways

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1.1 Campaign Settings
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Settings Can be changed Example
Merchant ID no 1331948
Country no United Kingdom
Networks yes Search and Search partners
Device yes -80% mobile adjustment
Bid strategy yes Manual CPC bidding or flexible bid
strategy
Budget yes £5,000
Delivery method yes Accelerated
Scheduling yes Hours of day and days of the weeks
IP exclusions yes 5.67.145.137
Tracking URLs for
dynamic links
yes {unescapedlpurl}

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1.1 Campaign Settings – Inventory filters to
limit the products you want to advertise
 Create custom filters in the campaign settings.
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 Can use 1 or
several filter.
 Don’t overuse
filters
otherwise you
will limit
exposure.

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1.1 Campaign Settings – Priority settings
 For multiple campaigns advertising the same products.
 Can be used to promote items in special sale without using custom labels.
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1.2 Campaign Structure
 Campaigns built around
attributes from Google
Merchant Center Feed:
e.g. Product type
 Alternatively you can use:
Category, Brand, Item ID
or custom label to
subdivide the campaigns /
ad groups
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1.2 Campaign Structure – Custom labels
 Use label for your own targetable criteria
 Label products in your feed based on key performance indicator (KPIs)
 Example of categorisation by label (promotion, rating, holiday, margin etc.)
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id title Custom_label_0 Custom_label_1 Custom_label_2 Custom_label_3
1 HP 711 Original black printhead
C1Q10A
2 Fellowes Gel Crystals Black
Mouse Pad
3 Epson Inkjet Photo Paper White
A4 102gsm
4 Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
inches tablet 4G & WiFi 16GB
bronze
5 Apple iMac 27 inches ME089B/A

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1.2 Campaign Structure – Subdivide based
on attributes
Multiple Ad groups per campaign
 Advantages:
 Subdivide based on product subcategories
 Greater control over negative keywords
 Disadvantages:
 Each new ad group will contain all product groups. Make sure to exclude to avoid
serving multiple ad groups
One Ad group per campaign
 Advantages:
 Quicker to bulk upload Max CPC. Changes
 Disadvantages
 Ad group Negative keywords will block all traffic.
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1.3 Budget Management
 Avoid having too few campaigns. It will prevent you from allocate your
budget efficiently
 Create best sellers or best margins campaigns with high budgets
 If possible, optimise individual product bids to decrease costs rather than
using budget cap.
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Never put all your eggs in one basket

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1.
Product
Title
2.
Product
Description
3.
Google
Taxonomy
4.
Product
History
5.
Policy
compliance
2. Data Quality: The Google Shopping
Algorithm

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2.1 High Quality Feed
 Submit all required attributes
 Use as many recommended attributes as possible
 Ensure your data feed matches with info on your website
 Refresh your Feed Regularly with Automatic uploads

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2.1 Product Title & Description
Product Title
 The Most important keyword should come first as they increase relevancy. The first 70
characters are the most important.
 Special signs such as ®, ™, & etc. or punctuation are not passed to the Google
Algorithm
Product Description
 Product description can contain up to 5000 characters. Google recommends between
500 and 1,000.
 Text should not contain unnecessary capitalization or unusual characters
 Describe the most relevant attributes, size, material, special features etc.
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Ensure to maintain good word order in your product titles Brand + Product Type + Feature

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2.1 Product Ads Images
 Images should have a white framework
around the product presentation
 Images should not contain
additional text or logos
 Images should not display
accessories that are not included
 Use High Resolution Images

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2.2 Google Taxonomy
 Google Taxonomy helps to categories products to the
right segmentation  4.881 possible categories
 Products can be categorized based on two attributes:
1. Google Product Categories attribute
2. Product type attribute
Office Supplies > General Supplies > Paper Products > Printer & Copier Paper
Office Supplies > General supplies
Use one of the categories defined by Google
You can use your own category names

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2.3 Common Errors & Warning
Outdated prices or availability
 Most likely due to out of date feed.
Missing unique product identifiers
 Submit incorrect number
Disapproval due to policy violation
 Product submitted does not comply with Google’s policy
Generic Images
 Lack of unique image or use of placeholder images (e.g. logo)
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Too many disapproved items could lead to account suspensions.

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2.4 Run SQRs in Shopping
 As you do for search you can run
SQRs for shopping too
 It is recommended to run them
frequently to have higher control on
which queries your ads are showing
 Although in shopping queries are
more relevant than those triggered
by keywords, there are still changes
to appear for less qualified traffic
Irrelevant query
Competitor term

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3.1 Strategic Approach – Bidding & Goals
1) Identify your goals
2) Examples of goals: maximise revenue, improve margin per products or
category, push new products / new brands, maximise ROI, bring new
customers etc.
3) Choose the right biding strategies
4) Categorise your products for advance biding strategies
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3.2 Strategic Approach – Performance
 Product ID bidding: Calculate ROI per product ID and Change Max. CPC to find “your
sweet spot”.
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Common KPIs for performance based bidding: CPA and ROI

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3.3 Strategic Approach – Bid Strategy
 Automate Bids with flexible bid strategies to avoid manual bidding
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Most common Bid Strategy:
 Enhanced CPC: adjust
bid to help you get more
conversions
 Target CPA: Cost per
acquisition
 Target ROAS: Return on
ad spend

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3.4 Strategic Approach - Settings
Make good use of settings to optimise your campaigns
 Scheduling: Bid adjustment during low or peak hours
e.g. It is recommended for B2B clients to push bids during working hours.
 Mobile: Bid adjustment to limit or increase mobile traffic
e.g. If your website is not mobile-optimised, it is wise to limit mobile traffic.
 Location: Bid adjustment to target city or location
e.g. Conversions might be lower in Scotland, therefore you could lower the bid to
improve overall performance.
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3.5 Strategic Approach - Audience
Remarketing list for search ads (RLSA) is also available for Google Shopping
 Bid more aggressively for visitors who have already been to your website but not
converted
 Bid more aggressively for users who abandoned their shopping cart
 Bid for converting users to maintain customer acquisition
 Identify top converting page on Google Analytic, create page specific list, and bid
more aggressively.
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Allow long cookie window for products with long sale cycle

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Key Take Aways
 A – Choose the structure which you are most comfortable with.
 B – Use labels for your own targetable criteria.
 C – Submit high quality feed and monitor errors over time.
 D – Identify your goals and the appropriate bidding strategy.

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Thank You!
Getting In Touch:
Sergio Borzillo, UK Head of PPC
Direct: +44 207 80 29513
Mobile: +44 758 11 90421
Email: sergio.borzillo@netbooster.com