The Essential Steps to Set Up Google Merchant Center for E-commerce Success

Verify your Ecommerce Website

You cannot use the Google merchant center without validating your ecommerce website, making it the first step after you set up the account.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Return to the top of the dashboard, go to Tools and select Company Information.
• Select on the Website tab.
• Add your website URL and select enter.
• Google will verify the website and automate the claiming process.

Provide your Taxation Details

In order to initiate the selling process, Google will require accurate tax information. If you’re serving customers from different states, be sure to add tax information for each target state.

Here’s how:

1. Select the gear icon and click Sales Tax.
2. Here, you can add tax information for each state using the toggle bar.
3. Google will present you with two options:

                                  (i)  Allow Google to automate the sales tax calculation process.

                                  (ii) Create a customized sales tax calculation system.

You can select either one, or decide whether you want to include tax handling within your store.

• Go to Tax Categories if you want to add new tax categories for specific states or explore new ad types.

Managing Shipping & Returns

The ads you run on Google Merchant Center will attract potential customers from various states and regions, requiring a reliable and credible shipping service.

Here’s how you can set up a shipping service:

• Select the gear icon and click on Shipping and Returns.
• Click on Add Shipping Service.
• Select which countries you want to ship your products to, and then answer the given questions regarding company name, service, currency, etc.
• Decide what kind of shipping services your company will provide, alongside specifying the shipping charges. You can also engage different shipping partners and set up custom delivery timelines. Ecommerce stores can opt for various shipping prices, including free shopping, range-based charges, flat rates or free delivery for products worth a certain amount.
• Provide the “Ship From” destination for your products to ensure Google’s bots and crawlers can easily extract information about your shipping charges and timelines. You can include several shipping destinations to avoid misleading customers with inaccurate or incomplete information as they purchase your products.

Once you’ve set up the shipping process, create a comprehensive Return Policy for your store. You can choose between a full refund, an exchange system or a no-returns policy.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Go to Shipping and Returns and click on Add Policy.
• Link your Google merchant account to the return policy provided on your ecommerce site. Be sure to specify if your store accepts returns or not.
•  Fill out all the required fields regarding how you manage customer returns, the duration of accepting returns after purchase, and other details.

Set Up a Google Merchant Product Feed

Businesses must ensure their Google merchant product feed is fully in compliance with Google’s Product Data Specifications to set up your Google Shopping campaigns. Be sure to go through the guidelines once to avoid inaccuracies or violations that could lead to restrictions.

Ecommerce stores have the following options for setting up their Google merchant product feeds:

Automate the Process

Google merchant center allows brands to automate the entire process of creating and optimizing their product feeds. This process is highly efficient and advertisers don’t have to upload an entire product feed manually. Automating the product feed is like extracting data from a Google Sheet. You can maintain updated product listings and enjoy greater scalability as you launch new ad campaigns.

Here’s how:

• Open the Feeds tab and select Add a New Feed.
• Now, click on Scheduled Fetch.
• Set up a scheduled fetch by adding the name of the feed file. Add the accurate URL of the file alongside URL information.

If you’ve selected the automated process, be sure to fetch data at least once daily.

Content API Method

If you require real-time updates to elevate your product listings, select the content API upload process that’s quite easy to manage. This method is ideal for maintaining a single product feed as the main information source.

You simply have to select Feeds and then click on Content API to create a new product feed. You can target multiple countries through this streams, making it a great choice for ecommerce brands targeting consumers across various regions.

Manually Upload Each Product File

Advertisers willing to pour time and effort into creating meticulously optimized product feeds opt for the manual method of uploading each file. This process isn’t different from Google Sheets data extraction – you simply have to each file to the Google database. While this process is time-taking, it ensures effective optimization and each product features accurate information.

Brands with a limited inventory are advised to manually upload each product file to provide compelling information and high-quality images.

Here’s what you need to do:

• You can add product files from the Create a Feed section.
• Select the manual upload method by clicking on Upload.
• Now, provide the file type and make sure the file isn’t larger than 4GB.

Once you’ve uploaded each file, be sure to specify details like availability, pricing, currency, shipping, returns, etc. Remember, inaccurate or misleading information will result in temporary restrictions and permanent bans.

We strongly advise making the product listings detailed and descriptive, emphasizing features like utility, color, sizes, etc.

Optimizing Product Feeds for Maximized Conversions

It’s important to avoid haphazard approaches of creating and managing product data feeds. You need a concrete strategy to manage the Google Merchant Center and integrate it with your overall Google advertising approach.

Before you create your product data feed, create a plan on how you intend to display product information. Be sure to focus on aspects like pricing, product availability, shipping timelines and charges, etc. If you make any changes to these aspects, be sure to update your Google Merchant account right away to avoid issues.

Google will not showcase your product ads if your Google merchant data feed isn’t the same as the information on your website. We strongly advise compliance with Google’s content and ad policies.

Optimizing product feeds in Google Merchant Center is crucial for maximizing conversions, especially when managing multiple accounts under MCC Google for streamlined performance.

Here are some tips to optimize your product feeds:

• Attract potential customers with attention-grabbing titles and detailed descriptions.
• Provide accurate prices, especially when showcasing products in foreign currencies.
• If you’re targeting customers in multiple countries, create separate product data feeds for each country.
• Showcase your products with high-definition and immersive imagery that outline product specifications and attract potential customers.
• Make sure each product features its product website URL to lead customers to live pages. Avoid adding pages with 404 errors or security lapses.

Final Thoughts

Setting up detailed product feeds in the Google Merchant Center is one aspect of a dynamic ecommerce advertising campaign. It’s important to boost campaign strategy by integrating your Google merchant account with other Google products, especially a Google Ads account. If your ad campaigns aren’t performing due to temporary restrictions and algorithmic glitches, we suggest upgrading to an account that best serves your lead generation needs.

GCG Media’s Google Agency Accounts equip advertisers with a plethora of cutting-edge features and tools, alongside an AI-powered algorithm designed to boost ad interactions and conversions. Get in touch with our team today to learn more.