What Exactly is Google Merchant Center and How Does It Operate

When it comes to the internet, Google is an unavoidable name. You might be surprised to know that more than 3.5 billion searches are made on Google each day. The regular effort of Google is to ensure that you get the best search experience from it. You may also know about Google Lens.

It is a very convenient tool by Google, and since the launch of Google Lens, more than 1 billion questions have been asked on this platform. This artificial intelligence-powered tool is handy to make our life easier. Google Merchant Center is another outstanding service offered by Google, thereby requiring a Google merchant account beforehand.

You may also love to know that Google searches are prevalent on mobile devices too. Google’s Android has a leading market share for mobile operating systems. It has more than 70% market share. 

More than 60% of the organic searches originated from mobile devices in the United States in 2019. Statistics show that around 50% of online product searches start from Google. Only Amazon has the upper hand on online product searches over Google. So, as a store owner, you must learn about Google Merchant Center, and how it can impact your business.

Google Merchant Center and How It Operates

Google Merchant Center is another leading digital service offered by Google. It is another brilliant service by Google for online store owners to upload their product data feeds. Using the product data feed you upload on Google Merchant Center, you can run Shopping Ads on Google. Additionally, the online shop owners also need to add shipping and taxes information on this platform.

When you search for Google or Google Shopping, the products that you see there are promoted via Shopping Ads, and they have been uploaded on Google Merchant Center.

How Google Merchant Center works

First of all, you will need an account on Google Merchant Center to set everything up. In case you have an existing Gmail account or Google My Business account, then you can use that account too.

Secondly, you will have to provide Google with detailed information about your business. Information that you need to share with Google includes your business name, physical address of your business, contact number for customer service, your shop URL, and some additional information.

Thirdly, you will have to upload your products on Google Merchant Center. You need to upload appropriate product information on Google to meet the specific product feed requirements set by Google. You need to upload a product feed with all the necessary product information.

Things You Must Know about Product Data Feed

You need to be very careful while creating the product feed. An incomplete or corrupt product feed file may end up as an unsuccessful campaign. You may get flags from Google Merchant Center, and it may not show your products on the Shopping Ads. 

The critical product information you need to include for each product includes the product title, product ID (must be unique), a valid product link, accurate product price, product image, and description.

Apart from the required information, there are the best practices to ensure the best results from your product feeds too. There are thousands of eCommerce stores with millions of products, so you cannot become confident that your products will be visible to the customers without adopting the best practices.

Creating and managing the product data feed can be very challenging if you don’t have any prior experience because you need to create the feed file following the exact guidelines of Google. 

Luckily, for WooCommerce powered online store owners like you, we have CTX Feed to manage your product data feed with ease professionally. You will be surprised by its ability to create and manage product data feeds for over 100+ product promotions, price comparisons, and affiliate sites.

Regular updates of your product information on the data feed are critical to maintaining the active status. CTX Feed is genuinely fantastic to bring the best results for you as it will regularly update your product information on the product data feed. 

Set the desired frequency from the plugin setting, and you are all set. With the brilliance of CTX Feed, you can only focus on product promotion, knowing that your product feed is well taken care of by this outstanding tool.

Finally, you have to link your Google Merchant Center account with your Google Ads account to run the Shopping Ads. Google Shopping is fantastic as it multiplies your chances to make sales and generate more revenue from your store.

You might be interested to know that Google Merchant Center is another free service from Google. You can easily set up and use a free account on Google Merchant Center. Shop owners may choose to utilize the free product listing service on Google Shopping, but there are options for paid promotions.

Benefits of Google Merchant Center

First and foremost, you need a Google Merchant Center account to advertise your products on Google Shopping. Secondly, it helps to organize your product information, essential for product promotion properly. So, if you don’t have a Google Merchant Center account, you have no other way to promote your products on Google Shopping.

As the leading search engine and most visited site on the internet, Google is another internet name to lots of people. For shop owners who sell their products directly to customers, Google Shopping is an essential platform. It can boost your marketing efforts and take your shop or business to the next level.

Adding Your Products on Google Merchant Center

Hopefully, you already have a Google Merchant Center account ready. If you do not have an account, please follow this guide to create and set up your Google Merchant Center account.

The next big question is how you can add your products to Google Merchant Center. Google offers several options to upload your product on Google Merchant Center. 

You can import a product feed file in XML or text format, or you can also use Google Spreadsheet with your complete product listings. Then, you can manually upload your products one at a time. Finally, you can also use Content API or the FTP/SFTP service.

Uploading your products on Google Merchant Center with the product data feed is very popular. So, let’s get to know how you can upload your product with a product data feed.

1. Go to your Google Merchant Center account and find Feeds under the Product tab.

2. You will find a plus icon there to import your product data feed.

3. If you select the scheduled fetch option, then you can have a live data feed link. The most important benefit of a live data feed link is that Google will automatically check for updated product information once in 24 hours. Again, CTX Feed can help you create a live product data feed URL right on your WooCommerce store. You can learn more about this here.

4. Regular updates of product information on the feed file are essential to secure the best result. Make sure to schedule the data feed for daily updates.

5. Next, you will have to set other important information like the target country and the destination.

6. After everything is set, go ahead and click on the Save button. Afterward, Google will process your product feed and show you a health report of your product data feed in the Diagnostics section of Google Merchant Center.

As mentioned above, you can also upload your products to Google Merchant Center one by one. We are skipping this manual method because we recommend creating a live feed file URL with CTX Feed. Apart from the regular update scheduling ability, there are lots of other benefits too. For example, it will help you create error-free product feeds from your WooCommerce store.

Creating Data Feeds for Google Merchant Center

Before uploading your products to Google Merchant Center, you need first to create a proper product data feed file. In the how-to upload section, we have already stated that it is better to create a live data feed and attach the link to your Google Merchant Center.

For WooCommerce store owners, CTX Feed offers the best options to create the most optimized product data feed and generate a live URL. Here is a step-by-step guide for you to create an optimized product data feed for Google Merchant Center.

Connecting Google Merchant Center with Google Ads

So you have created your WooCommerce product feed and uploaded it to Google Merchant Center. 

Now, what are the next steps? Now that you are all set, you will have to connect your Merchant account with the Google Ads account. Otherwise, you won’t be able to promote your products for the Shopping Ads.

Linking the Google Merchant Center account and the Google Ads account is quite simple. First of all, from your Merchant Center account settings, find Lined Accounts then Your Google Ads Account. Select the proper customer ID and click on Link.

Once you have sent the request to link, you will have to accept the connection request from Google Ads Interface. Go to the Tools icon to continue with the setup. From the linked account section, you will find Google Merchant Center. Go to details and finally approve the request.

More on Google Shopping

You can consider Google Shopping as a different type of eCommerce platform. Here customers can search and compare products and prices from different online retailers. As a result, customers can quickly know about product details and prices. 

Apart from Google Shopping, when the search term matches with products keyword, they will show the Shopping Ads on the Google search window too. Thus store owners have a higher chance of making more revenue by promoting their products on Google Shopping.

Google Product Ads

Product Ads on Google are similar to the Pay Per Click Ads of Google. With Product Ads, you can secure a better exposure for your products because Google will place them at the top of the search page. So, you can expect more clicks from a potential customer and a higher possibility of making revenue.

Benefits of Google Shopping for Online Retailers

You have learned a lot about Google Merchant Center and Product Ads. You should already know its potential to increase your store’s revenue. Here is a highlight of the benefits of Google Shopping and Product Ads:

1. Google is a trusted source, so when people find your products or brand, they will have more faith in your products.

2. When people search for a product on Google or Google Shopping, there is a higher chance of purchasing. By promoting your products on Google Shopping and Product Ads, you can generate more qualified traffic to your store.

3. Shopping Ads have a higher performance rate compared to typical text-based ads.

4. Google shopping also helps to create a better product and merchant credibility with ratings.

5. Moreover, you can get detailed insights on your customers from Google.

6. Finally, promoting products on Google Merchant Center also increases your visibility in local searches. You need to add inventory data for your locations so that Google will prioritize local searches.

Final Words

We hope that you better understand Google Merchant Center and how it works after reading this post. Make sure to put these insights into good use to increase your store’s revenue. CTX Feed is the lifesaver for WooCommerce store owners to create product data feeds. Follow these links to learn more about CTX Feed’s basic and CTX Feed’s premium versions.