By now you have your Thrive, Google Merchant Center, and Google Ads accounts set up and connected. Additionally, your product listings in Thrive should be rich and optimized so Google’s algorithm can place them in relevant search results. At this point, you’re ready to create your first Google Shopping Ad.
Though your Google product catalog lives in your Google Merchant account, Google Ads is where you build and manage Shopping Ad campaigns.
There are a couple of ways to create Shopping Ads but we recommend using Smart Shopping campaigns to start with.
Prerequisites
You are on the Professional plan or above.
To learn more about our plans and upgrade, click here.
At least one active Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce integration is connected to your Thrive account.
Since customers will be checking out on your store, you'll need an active e-commerce integration with Thrive so Google knows where to send those potential customers.
A Google Merchant Center account.
Don't have one? No problem, we'll help you set one up here.
You've claimed your website in Google's Merchant Center.
Haven't done that yet? No worries, here's a quick guide!
You have connected your Google Merchant Center to Shopventory.
If you haven't, here's a guide on how to get it all connected!
You have set up a Google Shopping Ads account
Google Smart Shopping Ads
This method is easy to set up and you won’t have to worry about maintaining your ads too much once they are up and running. As we mentioned before, Google does all the heavy lifting to determine what search terms your product is relevant for. You can even choose to have Google maximize your conversion value. Additionally, Smart Shopping includes dynamic remarketing ads to target consumers who have landed on your website.
Here’s how to launch your first Google Smart Shopping campaign
You’ll start in Google Ads by clicking on “New Campaign.” Be sure to check “Sales” as your campaign goal and “Shopping” as your campaign type to let Google know you want to connect with your Google Merchant Center account.
You will then be prompted to select your Google Merchant Center account, which should already be connected. Next, choose the countries you want to sell your products in and then click on the “Smart Shopping campaign” option.
Continue filling out your campaign name, a daily budget, and determine a bid strategy. You can either choose a target ROAS or, if you want Google to maximize your conversion value, simply leave it blank.
Now you’ll select the products you want in this ad campaign by clicking on “All products.” That will give you all the approved products from your Google Merchant Center feed to choose from.
If you have your Google for Retail integration turned on, your Shopping Ad account will auto-fill the product image and details from Shopventory.
If you want Google to display dynamic remarketing ads, ensure you add your logo and any additional product images.
And that’s it! You’re ready to launch your first Google Shopping Ad!
Things to Note:
Standard and Enhanced listings are specific to the Google for Retail integration.
By adding a Google for Retail integration, it does count as one of your allotted sales channels for your plan. Click here to see how many locations/integrations your plan allows.
Shopventory syncs all updated product data to Google within 30 minutes, it can take Google up to 3 days to approve a product listing for Google Shopping Ads.
*This feature is included on Professional plans and above.
To learn more about our plans and upgrade, click here.