It's not a secret that shopping ads are one of the most effective advertising options for e-commerce businesses. In fact, this is a major part of the work we do for our clients at Ernst Media.
I assume you already run a Google shopping campaign and want to know how to scale it. If that's not the case, you can check out the most common PPC advertising questions article first.
My name is Evan Ernst, and here is what I'll cover in this guide:
- The Google Shopping Campaign Structure Elements
- Two Basic Google Shopping Strategies You Can Use
- A Couple of Advanced Shopping Campaign Strategies
- How To Optimize the Campaign Once It's Running
Before we dive into that, let me answer one important question for those who are new to Google shopping campaigns.
How Do Google Shopping Campaigns Work?
As stated on Google's About Shopping Ads page:
"In contrast to a text ad, which displays text only, shopping ads show users a photo of your product, plus a title, price, store name, and more."
The great thing about shopping campaigns is that Google does most of the heavy lifting. Their system automatically creates ads for your products and matches them with relevant search queries. You can even automate your bidding strategy.
To start a Standard Shopping Campaign, you need to link your Google Merchant Center with your Ads account. Then, choose what you want to advertise from the product feed.
Each Shopping campaign should include several ad groups. Within that, you want to make sure that you’re dividing your products into the relevant groups.
But once you’ve set up your shopping campaigns, one thing remains unclear.
What Can You Do to Get Ahead of Your Competitors?
I mean, you can follow Google’s default recommendation to increase the CPC and raise the budget.
But spending money just for the sake of it will reduce your profits. If you're playing with Google Ads and other effective paid digital marketing channels at the same time...you might not even have the extra buck for that.
That's why you need to structure your campaigns for maximum effectiveness. To be able to do that, you need to understand how priority options, ad groups, and product groups work.
Your Google Shopping Campaign Structure
To get the most out of your Google shopping campaigns, you should build and implement good campaign structures from the ground up. Here are the key elements you must focus on.
Shopping Campaign Priority Options
Within Google Shopping Campaigns, you have access to three campaign priorities. Here is how to utilize those for maximum effectiveness.
High
Ideally, you'd use high-priority campaigns for your newly arrived products, best-sellers, or clearance items. Usually, those products you'd want to be sold above any others. Basically, you're telling Google, "Hey, pick these products first, no matter what!"
Medium
Medium-priority is ideal for Google Shopping campaigns that point to product categories, product lines, specific regions, etc. They might not be the star of the show, but they deserve their moment to shine when the high-priority campaigns have had their turn.
Low
Lastly, low-priority campaigns would be your catch-all campaigns. These will cover all your products or your store in a single campaign. When there's no high or medium-priority campaign that matches search queries, these step up to the plate.
The point is to help Google decide which products to show to shoppers based on what's most important to your business at any given moment.
Google Shopping Campaign Ad Groups
Like Google Ads, Google Shopping campaigns have ad groups. You want to keep each ad group as compartmentalized as possible. Limiting the number of products will enable you to adjust bids and/or optimize quickly.
For example, you might have one ad group that's dedicated to high-end fishing gear, while another is all about budget-friendly accessories. This level of detail allows you to be competitive where it counts without overspending on items that can afford a lower bid.
Yes, this will probably lead to a ton of Google shopping ad groups you need to manage.
But you shouldn't be worried about it. Trust me, when each ad group is well-defined, optimization is a lot easier. This approach will also lead to more relevant ad placements and better click-through rates.
The more relevant your ad group is to the searcher's intent, the better your ads will perform.
Product Groups in Shopping Campaigns
Inside each of the ad groups within a Shopping campaign, you'll find product groups, a.k.a. inventory subsets. One ad group can have up to 20,000 different product groups.
These are segments of your products relevant to that ad group.
You can have one group for all your products or subdivide each group into 7 levels for maximum segmentation. Let me explain.
Product Type
This is based on your inventory categorization. Segmenting by product type allows you to bid differently on, let's say, "running shoes" vs. "hiking boots," even though they're both under the category "shoes."
Category
This is based on your site's category taxonomy or Google product categories. It's a broader classification that helps you manage bids at a higher level, like "Electronics" or "Home & Garden."
Item ID
This is based on the ID (identifier) of each of your products, which means you can get super specific. It allows you to push a best-seller or to lower the bid on a slow mover to maximize your ROI.
Custom Labels
This is based on up to 5 theme labels you can create, such as seasonal or low-margin. It gives you the flexibility to structure your campaign based on unique business insights and marketing strategies.
Brand
This is based on the product manufacturer. You can differentiate your bidding strategy based on brand performance. Set a higher bid for a premium brand or go lower for budget brands.
Channel
This is based on the sales channel where a product is sold. It means that you can bid differently depending on whether the item is sold "in-store" or "online."
Condition
This is based on the condition of the products (new, used, etc.). It's a very useful option if you're in a market where condition significantly influences a shopper.
So, these are the key elements of your Google shopping campaign structure. Now, let's discuss the basic strategies you can use for your shopping campaigns.
The Basic Google Shopping Strategies
The first two strategies for Google shopping ads are best suited for newbies. Since they involve creating a single campaign structure, they have some limitations.
However, they perform great under certain circumstances, so I've included them in this guide.
One Campaign with One Ad Group
Due to its simplicity, this Google Shopping campaign structure is often the first choice of business owners doing PPC for eCommerce sites. Occasionally, we also run single campaigns with a single ad group for clients.
For example, let’s say you're starting an e-commerce biz selling just sneakers.
Since you only sell one product, the product group within your ad group wouldn’t be too technical. Obviously, it's also very easy to set up and monitor, so there is no point to get into details.
Again, this Google shopping strategy is great for beginners but very limiting in the long run. As you're increasing your inventory, more product data and a more complex structure will be needed to:
- Identify which search queries are bringing in the most sales and focus on those.
- Exclude poor performers from many products lumped together in the same product group.
- Find irrelevant search terms and add those to your negative keyword list to sculpt queries.
One Campaign with Numerous Ad Groups
The next basic Shopping campaign structure is again a single campaign but with many ad groups. I'll still use the above shoe business as an example.
If you’re still just selling sneakers, you can create separate ad groups around product topics, such as price, brand, design, and popularity.
Another scenario would be if you've branched out into a variety of casual shoes.
You can now build one campaign that includes different ad groups based on product types (sneakers, sandals, loafers, etc.).
This campaign strategy gives you a clearer insight into which product types perform better. It also allows you to experiment with adding negative keywords to different groups.
Of course, being a basic strategy, it also has a drawback.
Since you’re running only one shopping campaign, all your ad groups will be sharing from the same budget pool. Thus, you won't be able to set different budgets for different product types.
Advanced Strategies for Google Shopping Campaigns
Now that we've covered the basics, I'll show you two of the advanced strategies we use when managing shopping campaigns for our clients.
Multiple Campaigns with Multiple Ad Groups
This structure/strategy is ideal for online stores with a variety of product types or brands or for those that require tighter budget control.
In this case, our shoe seller, who now offers different products, will create separate campaigns. Each shopping campaign would be built around a certain category or type, while ad groups would focus on individual products.
Basically, each of your product groups/types will have its own budget. The idea is that tracking performance can be segmented based on these splits.
I must say that as an advanced strategy, this one involves a lot more time and effort to set up, monitor, and optimize. Something to keep in mind if you offer many types of products.
Three Campaigns - Three Priorities
As I mentioned, your campaign has three priority options. This advanced shopping strategy involves creating three campaigns, one for each priority (high, medium, and low).
The good thing about this structure is that campaigns are relatively easy to create and set up. On top of that, they give you much more control over your bids and performance.
Now, I must warn you that these benefits come at a higher cost. However, it's possible to utilize this strategy even with a limited budget. Here is what we do for such clients.
Let's say you can't afford to spend much on product ads or on any resources required to build highly granular campaign sets.
The first thing to do is limit the number of products in your shopping campaigns. You can use two methods to filter those:
- Include only products with a high impression AdWords share.
- Group products by popularity based on your online sales stats.
In other words, keep your campaigns small with products that bring you the best ROI for your budget. Then, as the sales increase, start adding to the budget to include new products.
How To Optimize the Campaign You've Built
Structure gets you to a campaign that runs. Keeping it profitable is a separate job, and it's the part I see people skip most often. Four things are worth your time: the product feed, the campaign settings, your asset groups, and testing.
One note before we start. A lot of shopping inventory now runs through Performance Max rather than standard Shopping campaigns, so check which campaign type you're in before you go hunting for a setting. The principles below apply to both. The menus don't always match.
Optimize the Product Feed
Your product feed is where your products live. Google pulls data from that feed to build your shopping ads, so a better feed means your ads reach more qualified shoppers and your budget goes further.
Two parts of the feed matter most: images and titles.
Images
The image is the first thing a shopper sees, so put your best foot forward. Use high-resolution photos that are sharp and keep attention on the product. You don't need to be a Photoshop master. I've used free basic tools for years to adjust contrast, brightness, and color.
Test different image types against each other. Item-only shots versus lifestyle images, which show the product being used or worn, is the easiest test to start with. Google also asks for images that are free of clutter and watermarks, so keep those out.
Titles
You only have so much space in a title, so be precise. When I work on a client's shopping campaign, I try to think from the shopper's side. What would someone type into Google when they're looking for this product? The title should answer that.
Attributes like brand, model, color, and material give shoppers the detail they're after and tend to help both click and conversion rates.
Feed Maintenance
Images and titles get your ads noticed. Keeping the feed clean is what keeps them running. Remove discontinued items, and update the information and prices on the products you still sell. Stale or wrong data gets items disapproved, and disapproved items don't show. Third-party feed tools handle this if your catalog is too big to manage by hand.
Revisit Your Campaign Settings
Settings aren't just about ad spend. They're how you tell Google what a conversion is actually worth to you, and how you adapt when the market shifts.
Goals
For most stores, the goal of a shopping campaign is revenue, so "Sales" is the obvious pick.
We often have clients selling both services and products on the same site, and they want different priorities for each. If that's your business, go back into the campaign goals and choose the conversion action that matches what that specific campaign is meant to produce.
Audiences
If your campaign type accepts audience signals, give it your own data instead of leaving it blank. Remarketing lists and customer lists are the strongest signals you have. They don't lock your targeting down, they point the system at the kind of buyer you already know converts.
There's also a setting that lets you bid more for new customers than for existing ones. If growth matters more to you than repeat purchases, it's worth checking which way that's set.
Build Out Your Asset Groups
If you're running Performance Max, the assets are where you still have real hands-on control. The format lets you add plenty of creative, and some people see that as a chore. I don't. It's flexibility, even when you're working with a single ad group.
Listing Groups
Split your products into specific buckets so you can promote each one with tailored creative and copy. It's the same logic as the product groups above, applied one level up.
Assets
Use images, videos, and copy specific to the products in each asset group. You can let Google pull product images from Merchant Center instead, and that's a reasonable base. But if you do, double down on brand and lifestyle images so your ads don't look like everyone else's.
The more assets you add, the more combinations Google has to work with. We're talking about optimizing a shopping campaign here, not fully automating it.
Test and Adjust
We all have assumptions about what will perform best.
Let me ask you a question. Would you pay us, or any other agency, to run your shopping campaigns on assumptions? I don't think so. So rely on performance data instead. Test the idea, look at what happened, and be willing to change course.
Google Ads has a built-in experiments tool for this, including experiments for Performance Max campaigns. Start there rather than making a change and eyeballing the before-and-after.
Consumer behavior and market trends keep moving, which means this isn't a one-time pass. Once your campaign sits on a solid structure, the testing doesn't stop.
For the Shopping Campaign Newbies
Shopping campaigns might be a little confusing at first for those who have only played with search campaigns in the past.
While your strategy in search campaigns is entirely based on search queries and keywords, you can't do that when using shopping ads.
Instead, you can set your bids based on your products. Then, while optimizing the product feed, you can use relevant keywords in titles and descriptions.
Give yourself some time to understand how Google shopping campaigns are structured, and you'll see that they're very effective. And if you don't have the time...We're here to help!
Final Words
My goal with this article was to explain the campaign structure and strategies in a way that both beginners and folks with basic knowledge can understand.
There are many strategies you could try in the future. It's just that, in my opinion, adding all of these into one article will create confusion.
That's also why I kept the optimization section to four things. Get the feed, the settings, the assets, and the testing right before you go looking for anything more exotic.
My advice for you is to first learn how to play with product groups, product ads, negative keyword lists, etc. Once you feel more confident, you can build your own shopping campaign strategies that will work best for promoting your business on Google.
Founder of Ernst Media. Fifteen years running paid search and paid social for small and mid-size businesses, and still the person who builds the audits by hand. Writes here about what actually moves accounts.