One sheeter | Google Shopping

Google Merchant Center

Google’s solution for online merchants
Google Merchant Center is a tool that lets you manage your product
Provide High-Quality Data
High-quality product data attracts more inventory with Google so your items can appear on Google properties.
users who are more likely to convert to a Linking your Google AdWords and Merchant Center accounts allows your
sale. Be sure to update your data frequently products to appear as product ads on Google search (www.google.com)
with specific and correct details that will and Google Shopping (www.google.com/shopping). Product ads feature
make it easy for shoppers to find your
detailed information about your inventory, like prices, images, and
products during their search.
item descriptions.
Learn how to get started with Merchant Center so you can bring your
sales catalogue to life.

Create your account

You’ll need to sign up for an account to begin using Google Merchant
Center. Visit www.google.com/merchants to get started. When you sign
in to Google Merchant Center with your Google account for the first time,
you’ll see prompts to complete the following:
1. Select a location
2. Agree to the Terms of Service
3. Set up your account
Once you create your account, you’ll need to provide a little more
information about your business on the General > Settings page:
• Website Information (Website URL) Your URL must begin with
http:// (or https://) and include your full domain name. You’ll also
be need to verify that you’re the owner of the website before
you can show product information on Google Shopping. Visit
www.google.com/webmasters/tools to verify your website.
• Business Information Provide a store name that follows the Google
Merchant Center guidelines at support.google.com/merchants.
• Customer Service Information Please provide the contact information
for customer service inquiries for your store.
• Private Contact Information Your private contact information will not
be displayed publicly, but Google will use this information to contact
you if necessary.

Provide your product data

You can share your product information with Google Merchant Center with
a data feed. A data feed is a file that contains all the information about the
products you sell. The different pieces of information about your products
(price, condition, name) are described in attributes, which allow customers
to search for and find your items. Your items will need to comply with
Google Shopping policies, and your data feed content must follow Google
Need more help?
Visit the Merchant Center Help Center at Shopping feed specification guidelines.
support.google.com/merchants. You can
You’ll be able to submit your feeds using automatic upload, a Google
also give us a call at 1-866-2-Google
(1-866-246-6453) from 6:00am – 5:00pm
spreadsheet, FTP transfers, or Google Cloud Storage. Be sure to create
PST, Monday through Friday. your feed in the file format that is easier for you to create and maintain.
We support two main data feed formats: Text (.txt) and XML (.xml). For
most small merchants, we recommend using .txt format since these files
require the least amount of technical knowledge to create. You can easily
create a .txt data feed using a spreadsheet editor like Microsoft Excel or
Google Spreadsheets.

Advanced feed support

The Google Content API for Shopping lets developers integrate their
applications with Google Shopping. Due to the nature of the Google
Content API for Shopping, developers should have some technical skill
and experience in programming applications.
Use the API to programmatically manage the structured data items you
upload to Google for use in Google properties, such as Google Shopping
and Web Search. The API allows you to query for items and insert, update,
and delete items in your Google Merchant Center account.

Best Practices
• Update your feed as soon as your inventory changes, and no less
than once a month. This will keep your inventory fresh and relevant.
• Submit high-quality images that accurately showcase your products.
• Follow our editorial guidelines to get the best results from your listings.
• Correct any data feed issues that appear in your account’s Data Quality tab.

Advertise your inventory

You can use both Merchant Center and AdWords to run Product Listing
Ads (PLAs). PLAs use the same product data you upload to your Merchant
Center account. You can customize your promotional messages, set a
budget and pricing that’s comfortable for you, and easily measure the
impact of your ads with advanced reporting and performance tools.
You can easily create PLAs directly from Merchant Center:
1. Set up an AdWords account and create a basic Product Listing
Ads campaign.
2. Customize your campaign and promotion details.
3. Provide your billing information.
To get started, select “Set up Product Ads Campaign” in the alert box on
your Dashboard tab or click on the AdWords tab under “Settings.”

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