How to Add Products to Google Shopping

Do you know 46% of all product searches begin on Google? 

This single piece of information is enough to support the importance of promoting products on Google shopping, right? 

I mean, who wants to lose 46% of potential customers?

To utilize this opportunity, there’s no alternative to promoting products via the Google shopping platform. But, before promoting the products on the Google shopping platform must have a clear concept about how to add products to Google Shopping.

In this article, we’ll define Google Shopping, the benefits of adding products on Google shopping, and lastly the in-depth process of adding products on the Google shopping platform.

Here we go.

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping, formerly known as Froogle or product listing ads, was released in 2002 by Craig Nevill-Manning. This is a dedicated Google service used to offer a better shopping experience to the users.

This shopping platform hosts lots of online stores and shows a product list based on the customers’ search queries. It helps customers to browse and compare products from multiple vendors.

However, you have to create a Google Shopping campaign in order to promote your products on Google advertising platform. These shopping campaigns will promote your products better on the Google display platform. 

Here is the Google’s official visual representation of the ads network where your products will be displayed. 

After creating the shopping campaign, Google will start promoting your products. Here’s an example of a Google Shopping ad. 

Previously the Google Shopping platform showed only the products from the vendors who were running paid Google Shopping campaigns. But, Google recently introduced the opportunity to list products for free on Google.

However, Google will display the freely listed products under the Shopping tab only. On the contrary, the products with paid campaigns will be visible both on the search result page and under the Shopping tab.

You may check Google’s official introduction video to understand Google Shopping better.

Read More: How to Set Up Google Shopping Ads or PLAs to Maximize Revenue?

Why Should You Add Products to Google Shopping?

Google Shopping has lots of benefits for eCommerce users. Here we have listed a few of those. 

• Free product listing on Google Shopping
• Drives quality traffic to your website
• Generates better ROAS
• Ads automation facility
• Costs lower CPC than other ads
• Remarketing is easier
• Improves the overall SEO performance etc.

These are the most common benefits of the Google Shopping platform. In case you want to know more, please check our list of 20 Google Shopping Ads benefits.

How to Add Products to Google Shopping Network?

If we want to get the benefits of Google Shopping, there’s no alternative to promoting products on Google. But, you must add your products to the Google platform to promote those. 

5 steps of adding products to Google Shopping.

1. Setting up a Google Merchant Center account
2. Optimizing the product images and videos
3. Uploading product data on GMC
4. Link Google Ads with GMC
5. Create a Google Shopping campaign

Now, we will walk you through the complete process of adding products to Google Shopping. Let’s start with the account creation section. 

1. Setting up a Google Merchant Center Account

The very first step to add products on Google Shopping is setting up a Google Merchant Center Account. To do this, you’ll need to sign in to the Google Merchant Center. 

Simply visit the Google Merchant Center homepage and click the blue Get started button. If you are an existing user, use the Sign in option.

Now, we will walk you through the complete process of adding products to Google Shopping. Let’s start with the account creation section.

On the following page, you have to provide some business-related information, such as –

• The legal business name
• Business country
• Local time zone
• eCommerce tools etc

After providing all of this information, agree to the Terms of Service of Google Merchant Center, and the Create account button will be activated afterward. Click on the button, and your account will be ready. 

After the activation, you have to verify the ownership of your website. This verification process has two steps. These are –

• Verifying the website ownership &
• Claiming your website on GMC

Check the video below to understand the verification process –

However, there are different methods of verifying your website on Google Merchant Center. These are –

Verification Methods	Verification Process
Using Google Analytics	Add the Google Analytics tracking code on the <head> section of the homepage.
Using  Google Tag Manager	Use the Tag Manager code on your website’s homepage’s <head> section.
Uploading an HTML file	Upload the HTML file to the file server.
Adding an HTML tag	Paste the HTML tag on the <head> section of your website’s homepage

You may verify your website by following any of the methods described above. 

2. Optimizing the Product Images and Videos

Online shopping totally depends on the visual appearance of a product. So you must use attractive and high-quality product photos on your website. However, you must optimize the product images on your own website before optimizing those for the product feed.

To optimize the image, you are recommended to follow Google’s image guidelines properly. Here are few of those image requirements of Google – 

• Don’t apply logos on product photos.
• Avoid adding promotional tags or borders.
• Images must be clear and concise.
• Use a transparent or solid white background. 
• The maximum image resolution is 64 megapixels.
• Image file will be less than 16MB.
• Recommended image size is 800 x 800 pixels.
• Minimum image size 100 x 100 pixels (250 x 250 pixels for apparel products) etc.

These are the common guidelines that you should maintain while adding product images. However, you may follow Google’s official instruction video to have a quick overview of the image guidelines –

💡 These requirements are not only applicable to Google. These specifications are also good to follow if you sell your products on other platforms like eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Walmart, etc.

3. Uploading Product Data on GMC

Uploading the product data on GMC is the core section of this process. You may either add products to GMC one-by-one or upload a product feed that includes all of your products within a single file.

However, there are 4 methods of uploading product feeds to GMC. These are –

• Uploading the feed via Google Sheets
• Uploading a feed via FTP 
• Upload a feed file &
• Using the content API

So, let’s create a product feed before uploading the feed to GMC. 

You’ll need only a decent WooCommerce product feed generator plugin to generate product feeds for your WooCommerce store. As you might already know, the most effective product feed plugin is the CTX Feed.

CTX Feed is the most optimized product feed generator plugin for the WooCommerce websites. It can generate unlimited product feeds with unlimited products for WooCommerce stores. 

The free version of CTX Feed – WooCommerce Product Feed Manager Plugin is available in the WordPress plugin directory. Install the CTX Feed plugin from the WordPress plugin directory first. However, you may also purchase the premium version of CTX Feed to use the premium features.

After installing the plugin successfully, it’s time to generate the product feed. Navigate to CTX Feed > Make Feed and provide some information. Here’s the list of the required information – 

• Name of the country
• Choose the template
• File name
• File type
• Product variation inclusion

💡 The attributes will be loaded automatically just after you choose the required template.

After providing all of the information, click on the Update and Generate Feed button located on the right-bottom corner. Then your product feed will be generated within a very few moments. However, the feed generation time depends on the number of products.

Now, it’s time to upload the product feed to Google Merchant Center. There are mainly four different methods of uploading the product feed. These are – 

• Uploading the feed via Google Sheets
• Uploading a feed via FTP
• Upload a feed file &
• Using content API

You can access this option by navigating to the Merchant center > Products > Feeds. Let’s explain these methods of uploading products to Google Shopping. 

▶ Uploading the feed via Google Sheets

The very first option for uploading the feed is the Google Sheet option. You can submit your products to Google Shopping via Google Sheets. To do that, you have to select the Google Sheets option as the feed input method.

After clicking the Continue button, you have to select your preferred Google account for registering a Google spreadsheet file. You may either generate a new Google spreadsheet from a template or select an existing Google spreadsheet.

However, you can also set the feed fetching frequency from there. It will check your selected Google spreadsheet file in order to update the product information. 

▶ Uploading a feed via FTP

Uploading the product feed by using a URL might be the most convenient and easiest process of adding products to Google Shopping.

To do that, you have to select the Scheduled fetch option as the feed input method and click the continue button below. After that, you have to enter the following options – 

• Name of the product feed file
• Fetching frequency
• Fetch time
• Time zone &
• URL of the feed file

However, the username and password field isn’t mandatory. You have to provide these login credentials only if your feed file URL is password protected.

By the way, the CTX Feed WooCommerce product feed manager plugin updates the feed file automatically. You can choose the fetch interval between 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 1 week, etc. This scheduled cron job will be triggered after your chosen time interval.

▶ Upload products by using a feed file

Besides uploading the product feed file from online sources, you can also upload the product file directly into the merchant center. However, the selected product file must satisfy the following conditions –

1. The feed file should be in XML or TSV &
2. The maximum size of the feed file is 4GB

If your product feed file satisfies these conditions, you can just drag and drop the file into the feed upload box. Then your product file will be uploaded automatically, and the Google Merchant Center will collect product information from your uploaded file. 

💡 You can also preview your product data by using the ‘Upload as test’ option. It won’t override your existing product feed file or disrupt the ads.

▶ Upload a feed by using Content API

If you make frequent changes to your product data or plan to upload a large amount of data, you should use the Content API. 

Generally, the Content API creates a feed file in Google Merchant Center automatically. You can set custom feed rules to manage those feeds. Check the official feed rules to set rules in your product data.

💡 You can use only one Content API feed. If you need to update product information, add those to your existing Content API feed.

So, these are the main methods of uploading product data to Google Merchant Center. Now, your product will be visible on the Google Shopping tab for appropriate search terms. However, if you want to advertise your products on Google, you must promote those ads via a shopping campaign. 

Follow steps 4 & 5 to create a Google Shopping campaign from scratch.

4. Link Google Ads with GMC

After uploading the products on GMC, it’s time to link your Google Ads account with Google Merchant Center. To do that, you have to follow only two steps. 

• Sending a linking request from GMC to Google Ads &
• Approving that linking request from your Google Ads account.

To send the linking request from GMC to Google Ads, you have to click on the gear (⚙)  icon and choose Linked accounts from there. 

On the following page, you will notice the ads account under the Google Ads tab. Click on the Link option from there. By the way, if you have multiple ad accounts, you must choose the correct option carefully. 

After sending the request, simply accept it from your Google Merchant Center account. 

You may check the linking status by navigating to Google Merchant Center > Linked accounts > Google Ads. If you have done everything properly, you will get an Active tick sign under the Link status tab.

5. Create a Google Shopping Campaign

Creating a Google Shopping campaign helps the user to promote their products throughout the Google Shopping platform. However, users can also track their product’s performance while running campaigns on Google Shopping. 

Here are the step-by-step process for creating a Google Shopping campaign –

• Log in to the Google Ads account
• Click on Campaigns from the left menu
• Click on the +New campaign
• Select Shopping as the Campaign type
• Click Next
• Choose your advertising preferences
• Click Save and continue
• Build an Ad group
• Place your bid
• Click Save

That’s the process of creating a Google Shopping Campaign to promote your products throughout the Google platform. 🎉 

Read More: Simple and Easy Steps to Create a WooCommerce Google Shopping Campaign

Conclusion

Google Shopping platform is like a digital mall of the eCommerce industry. Shoppers can search, check, and compare product prices easily on this platform. Overall, it is a major leap from the previous text-heavy shopping experience. 

So, if you are a website owner, it’s high time to promote your products on this platform. It will benefit your business greatly for sure!