We have spoken to a few clients over the past month who have been unaware of something Google are giving away (yes giving away).
Google Shopping, which is part of the GoogleAds platform, recently launched a free version, to allow website owners to list their products free of charge.
For those who don’t know, Google Shopping is normally charged on a CPC (cost per click) basis, like standard Google Ads Text Ads.
From an agency perspective, we have seen mixed results. Some clients have launched onto the free ads and seen outstanding click-thru rates, and some less-so depending on the competition. However, it’s free, and it’s exposure for your brand, so for anyone with an e-commerce site, it’s a no-brainer.
A few things to mention
You don’t get the full google shopping experience and control you would with standard paid shopping Ads.
You don’t get the same level of reporting data as with paid shopping ads.
Setting up Google Shopping involves gaining a merchant centre account with Google, and setting up a Google Ads account, whilst also generating a feed-file from your website to give Google your product data. Most popular website platforms (eg Magento, Shopify, Woo) have free or cheap feed generator plugins you can use to create your listing feed.
Google is attempting to position itself as a marketplace alternative to Amazon, in terms of the wealth of products, hence allowing sellers to jump into this for free.
If you would like help and advice with integrating your website with Google Shopping, get in touch.