Google Merchant Center has paved the way for many e-commerce businesses. It is the driving force behind running Google Ads and displaying products on Google Shopping. The platform offers a convenient way to sync product listings and market them across Google seamlessly.
Approximately 1.2 billion individuals use Google Shopping to find products, making it a trusted platform for customers to discover what they need. This widespread use helps online businesses become more discoverable, leading to increased conversions and potential sales.
To achieve all this, it’s important to set up Google Merchant Center that syncs your products and easily runs ads on Google Shopping. In this guide, we shall discuss the steps involved in setting up the Merchant Center and everything you need to know.
Let’s jump right into it!
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Prerequisites To Set Up Google Merchant Center
Before setting up the Google Merchant Center, you need the following things ready:
Google Account
To sign in to Google Merchant Center, you need a Google account. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to create one. To create one, simply go to accounts.google.com, follow the prompts, and create a new Google account.
Comply With Google Merchant Center’s Guidelines
Merchants must comply with Google Merchant Center’s guidelines to use the platform and Google Shopping for listings and ads. These guidelines prohibit dangerous content and products and ensure a safe advertising ecosystem and a positive customer experience.
These guidelines include:
Follow Shopping Ads Policies:
Ensure you don’t advertise prohibited content, such as counterfeit goods, dangerous products, products that enable dishonest behavior, inappropriate/unsupported shopping ads, or might end in account suspension.
Avoid prohibited practices such as abuse of the ad network, irresponsible data collection & use, and misrepresentation in ads that can mislead customers.
Refrain from selling restricted products like alcohol, adult-oriented content, copyrighted content, gambling-related content, healthcare-related content, trademarks, political content, and high fat sugar salt food & beverages.
Promote Only Products Available For Direct Purchase
The items featured in Shopping ads and free product listings should be directly purchased through your store. You cannot utilize these ads to promote affiliate or pay-per-click links to products unless you are involved in a Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) program in a CSS program country.
Links used in Shopping ads and free listings must direct users straight to a page where they can purchase the product that was advertised.
Use A Supported Language
Ensure you use languages that are compatible with Merchant Center, especially while listing your products. You also have the option to list your products in multiple official languages. Just ensure that you provide distinct product data for each language and that the product data corresponds to landing pages in the respective language. Use the same language for:
- Your website
- The product data that you submit
- The language you select when registering your product data
Tell Customers About Your Return And Refund Policy
Informing your customers about your return and refund policy is crucial. Google might offer additional features and experiences based on your return policy, especially if it’s attractive and competitive.
Your policy should explain exactly how you handle returns and refunds, including:
- What the user is required to do
- Under what circumstances you offer returns and refunds
- Timeframe in which you accept returns
- When your user can expect a refund
Also, it’s important to mention the shipping information, charges, and how long it takes to ship products.
Collect User Information Responsibly And Securely
Google asks merchants to follow these rules:
- Ensure the payment gateways are secure such as credit card numbers, account details, etc. The payment gateway must be secured on an SSL-protected page
- Don’t sell your users’ contact info
- Don’t use users’ personal information or images in ads without their consent
- Your site’s primary purpose shouldn’t be to collect users’ personal information
- Don’t offer free items or incentives except in certain circumstances:
- With the purchase of a product
- As part of a marketing campaign
- When the primary purpose is not to collect personal information from users
Verify And Claim Your Website
To confirm ownership of your website and prevent unauthorized claims, you must claim and verify your domain in the Search Console. Verification involves being able to edit your website’s HTML or upload files to your server to verify your URL (website address).
Website Requirements
Ensure your website meets the following requirements:
- Accurate contact information: Ensure your website includes contact options such as a contact form, links to social media profiles, or visible email addresses and phone numbers. Also, mention the time of availability in order to respond to the customers.
- Secure checkout process: Conduct payment transactions securely using SSL-protected servers with a valid SSL certificate (https://).
- Payment methods: During checkout, offer at least one conventional payment method, such as credit card, debit card, invoicing, or payment on delivery.
- Refund policy: Provide a clear return and refund policy outlining procedures, requirements, and timelines for returns and refunds. If you do not accept returns or refunds, clearly state this on your site.
- Billing terms and conditions: Clearly disclose all terms related to billing both before and after purchase, including payment models and total costs incurred by the user.
- Complete checkout process: Ensure users can easily add products to their cart and successfully complete the entire checkout process on your website.
Make Sure Your Data Meets The Product Data Specification
When you’re prepared to upload your products via the Merchant Center, ensure your product data adheres to the product data specification set by Google.
Sign Into Your Merchant Center Account Regularly
Log in to your Merchant Center account at least once every 14 months to keep it active. Regular sign-ins help ensure that your product data remains current and up to date.
Steps For Setting Up Google Merchant Center
Now that you’re up-to-date with the guidelines and have a Google account, let’s create your Merchant Center. Note that the steps explained below are for Google Merchant Center Next, the latest version. While setting up, you will be automatically taken to Merchant Center’s Next version.
Let’s start with the creation process:
Step 1: Create A Google Merchant Center Account
To create your Google Merchant Center account, visit google.com/retail/. You will see this page –
- Click ‘Start now’ to begin setting up. Then, enter your Google account login credentials. While creating a Merchant Center account, you have to enter the following:
- Indicate whether your business operates online, in a brick-and-mortar (physical) store, or both.
- Your store’s website.
- Your business information and registered country.
- Next, you’ll reach this screen. Read and explore the features that Merchant Center offers and then scroll down and click ‘Continue to Google Merchant Center.’
- After filling in all the required information, you will be greeted with a “Welcome to Google Merchant Center Next” message on your screen, marking your successful entry into your Merchant Center account.
Your business information and the Merchant Center ID are at the top right of your screen.
Now, on the left side, you’ll see a panel. This is where you’ll be adding all the data about your online store.
Step 2: Add Business Information & Contact Details
The specific business information you need to input will vary based on the type of business you are establishing. You must follow Google’s instructions closely to ensure you include all necessary details.
Follow these steps to fill in business information:
- On the left side panel, click ‘Business Info.’ In that, click Details > Business details > Edit business details.
- Provide your business name, business address, contact information for verification, and customer service contact for Shopping ads.
- Go to Stores and add a Profile to create a Google Business Profile.
- Next, go to ‘Countries’ and add all the countries where you sell your products.
Step 3: Verify Your Store’s Website
Google will request verification of ownership and the claiming of your website URL to connect it with the merchant account.
This can be done in four ways:
- Using a code sent to you by Google
- Utilizing an e-commerce platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.
- Using HTML tags or uploading an HTML file.
- Using Google Tag Manager.
To verify, navigate to Business Info, go to Details > Your Online Store > Confirm online store.
Enter the store’s URL and select a verification method.
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Step 4: Setting Up Shipping And Sales Tax
It’s time to set up shipping & returns and sales tax. To do so, follow the steps below:
- In the left panel, go to Shipping & Returns > Shipping Policies. For return policies, click the Return Policies tab and feed the information.
Follow the prompts and add accurate data about your online store and business.
- For Sales Tax, Google will propose a tax configuration based on your business location. You can allow Google to calculate the sales tax automatically or set it up manually.
Go to Products > Sales Tax.
Step 5: Add Products To Google Merchant Center
There are five ways to add your products to the Merchant Center:
- Connecting Shopify
- Using Google Sheets template
- One-by-one individually
- Creating or uploading a product data feed
- Using API
Before adding products, ensure that you these requirements are met:
- Product images must be of high quality.
- Use optimized product titles.
- Mention all the necessary attributes.
- Add correct product descriptions with accurate information.
- Utilize Google product categories.
Now, let’s see the different ways you can add products:
Firstly, go to Products > All Products > Add Products.
We’ll now discuss two common ways to upload products on the platform:
1. Adding Products Individually
You can opt to add every product on your online store individually to the Merchant Center. Here’s how you can do it:
- Go to the ‘Products’ section in the left navigation panel and click on ‘All products.’
- Next, click the “Add products” button and choose to add products individually.
- Fill in all necessary fields with the product information.
- Optional – If your products include variations such as color, size, gender, or other attributes, navigate to the “Detailed product description” section and select “I have apparel or variant products.”
Here, you can specify variant colors, genders, age groups, sizes, materials, and patterns for your product. Choose the attributes and their respective values that differentiate each variant item. - Finally, click save.
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2. Creating Or Uploading Product Feed
A product feed is a file that consists of a list of products or services as well as product attributes and product information. You can add two types of feeds to the Merchant Center: a primary feed and a supplemental feed.
Adding Primary Feed:
Primary feeds serve as the primary data sources for your inventory. If all products added to your primary feed meet Merchant Center’s data and eligibility criteria, additional feeds may not be necessary.
To add a primary feed, follow the steps below:
- Go to Products > All Products > Add Product.
- Then, select ‘Add Products from a file.’
- Add the feed URL or upload the file from your computer. Edit the schedule and add authentication information.
- Next, select a country and language. Tick all the networks you wish to display your products on. Then, click Continue.
- Add the name of your feed and select the type of fetching.
- Next, enter the name of your feed file and start uploading the file. Once done, click Create Feed.
And your primary product feed is ready.
Adding Supplemental Feed
Supplemental feeds are exclusively used to modify existing product data found in one or more primary feeds. You can have several supplemental feeds, each capable of updating data across any number of primary feeds.
You will be asked to enter the supplemental feed’s name and the method to fetch it. Add necessary information about the feed and create it.
Step 6: Go Through Google’s Policies
Read the policies thoroughly and understand Google’s expectations of merchants. These policies are necessary to provide a safe and positive shopping experience to your customers.
Complying with Google’s policies will not only provide a good shopping experience but also help prevent your product from receiving disapproval, misrepresentation, or ban.
Step 7: Submit Your Merchant Center For Review
Once you’re done creating your account, adding products and complying with Google’s policies, you can submit it for review. If you’ve thoroughly gone through the policies, your Merchant Center’s chances of disapproval will be low to zero.
You will encounter a prompt directing you to submit your account for review. Select it, and Google will assess and approve your account.
Your Google Merchant Center is finally set! You can now easily sell your products across the Google Display Network.
How To Revert To Google Merchant Center Classic?
The steps outlined above are for setting up Google Merchant Center Next, a new and upgraded version that replaces the previous version, Google Merchant Center Classic.
Some merchants may prefer to continue using Classic because they are accustomed to its user interface and navigation. If you wish to revert to the Classic version, follow the steps below:
- Log in to your Google Merchant Center account.
- Click on the “Help and feedback (?)” icon located at the top of the page.
- When you click, a menu of options will appear. Choose the “Use classic Merchant Center” option from this list.
- A confirmation message will pop up. Click on “Use classic Merchant Center” again to confirm your selection.
- After confirming, a feedback box will appear asking why you are switching back to the classic version of GMC. Provide your feedback and then click on “Submit.”
- Another confirmation message will appear. Check the box to confirm your decision, and then click “Switch now.”
This way, you’ll successfully revert to Google Merchant Center Classic.
How To Connect Google Merchant Center To Shopify?
Google Merchant Center can easily be integrated with Shopify. This integration streamlines the process of syncing product feeds across the two platforms, making it easier to run Google Ads, YouTube Ads, etc.
Here’s how you can connect Shopify to Google Merchant Center:
1. Go to your Merchant Center account and click ‘Go to the Google & Youtube app in Shopify.’
The Google & YouTube app is the sales channel that can help sync products from Shopify to GMC, helps drive Performance Max ads across Search YouTube, Display, and offers access to all the Google tools you need for generating sales.
2. Next, link the app to your Shopify account and set it up.
3. On the Shopify admin, read the prompt and click ‘Install.’
4. Next, click ‘Connect Google Account.’
5. Finally, you’ll be automatically taken to the app setup. Finish the setup and easily run ads on Search, Images, Display, YouTube, etc.
You can now directly upload your Shopify product feed!
What’s Next After Setting Up Google Merchant Center?
When you create a Google Merchant Center account, you unlock various avenues, such as Google Shopping, YouTube ads, Shopping campaigns, etc., which will help build brand awareness and conversions!
Here’s what ensues after setting it up:
Create Google Shopping Campaigns
Link your Merchant Center to Google Ads. With the accounts linked, create Shopping campaigns and organize your products into ad groups and product groups for better management and optimization.
Product Feed Optimization
Ensure your product feed is accurate, complete, and updated regularly. An optimized feed improves your products’ visibility in searches and enhances the shopping experience.
Implement Retargeting
It’s easier to retarget ads to customers who have shown interest in your brand in the past. Retargeting is also effective when a customer abandons their cart and needs a reminder to complete purchasing it. Also, Google offers dynamic remarketing ads, which help increase the likelihood of conversion and improve sales performance.
Use Inventory Ads And Promotions
Set up promotions in the Merchant Center to attract customers with special offers. If you have physical stores, use Local Inventory Ads to show nearby shoppers that your products are available in-store.
Explore Additional Merchant Center Features
Use supplemental feeds for additional product data and leverage Merchant Center insights to better understand product performance. These advanced features can enhance your listings and campaigns, providing a competitive edge.
Conclusion
In summary, setting up Google Merchant Center is your gateway to seamlessly connecting with customers on Google’s extensive network and kickstarting your sales journey.
By carefully setting up your product listings and ensuring they’re optimized, you’ll not only enhance your visibility but also create meaningful connections with shoppers worldwide!
FAQs
What is Google Merchant Center and why is it important?
Google Merchant Center is a tool that allows businesses to upload their product data to Google and make it available for Google Shopping and other Google services. It is important because it helps increase product visibility, drive more traffic, and potentially boost sales through Google Shopping ads.
How do I create a Google Merchant Center account?
To create a Google Merchant Center account, visit the Google Merchant Center website, click “Get Started,” and follow the prompts to set up your account. You will need a Google account to sign in. Once registered, provide your business information and verify your website.
What information is required to verify my website in Google Merchant Center?
To verify your website, you will need to provide your website URL. You can verify it by adding a meta tag or HTML file to your website, by using Google Analytics [in Classic], e-commerce platform like Shopify or Google Tag Manager if they are already set up on your site. Follow the specific instructions provided by Google Merchant Center during the verification process.
How do I link my Google Merchant Center account to Google Ads?
To link your Google Merchant Center account to Google Ads, go to the “Linked Accounts” section in Google Merchant Center, find Google Ads, and click “Link Account.” You will need to enter your Google Ads Customer ID to complete the linking process.
What are the requirements for product data feeds in Google Merchant Center?
Product data feeds must include essential information such as product ID, title, description, link, image link, price, and availability. Additional attributes like brand, GTIN, and MPN may also be required depending on the product category. Ensure that all information is accurate and up to date to comply with Google’s feed specifications.
What are common errors to avoid when setting up Google Merchant Center?
Common errors include incorrect product data, outdated information, and failing to comply with Google’s policies. To avoid these, double-check your product details for accuracy, keep your feed updated, and review Google Merchant Center’s guidelines and policies regularly.
How do I handle disapproved products in Google Merchant Center?
If products are disapproved, Google Merchant Center will provide specific reasons for disapproval. Review these reasons, correct any issues, and resubmit your products for review. Common reasons for disapproval include incorrect product data, policy violations, and poor image quality.
How can I track the performance of my products in Google Merchant Center?
You can track the performance of your products using the reporting tools in Google Merchant Center. These tools provide insights into impressions, clicks, and conversions. Use this data to analyze the effectiveness of your listings and make necessary adjustments to improve performance.