Google Merchant Center – what, how and where?

If you run an online store or use product ads in Google Ads, you’ve surely heard of Google Merchant Center more than once. GMC is another of Google’s free tools that makes it easy to manage e-commerce of any kind. Whether you sell thousands of products every day or only a few dozen products on your store’s virtual shelves, you should have an account here. Millions of companies worldwide use GMC to manage their product feed, optimize attributes and eventually upload product data to Google Ads and Google Shopping.

How to create an account in GMC?

Google Merchant Center, like its other services, requires a Google account. The account in question is the same one you use to use YouTube, Google Ads or receive mail via Gmail. If you don’t already have such an account, you can set one up by selecting the appropriate option on  the Google website If you already have a Google account, you can add the Merchant Center service. When registering with GMC, Google will ask us for basic information about the company – including website address or store name. Next, we will need to upload a product feed, but more on that later in the article.

Basic settings

After logging into GMC, you need to configure some basic accounts. In the top bar you will find several options, but the most important at this stage is the gear wheel, responsible for account configuration. After expanding it, you will notice two submenus – tools and settings.

Tools

This submenu allows us to configure basic information about our store. As we click through the options, we should focus primarily on deliveries, returns, and company information. If we do not configure these options correctly, displaying product ads will be impossible. 

Settings-and-Connection-with-Google Ads

The second part of the menu is items strictly related to the GMC account. Here, we will set permissions for users using the account, the display language or the time zone. However, the most important element is the „Linked Accounts” tab. Once there, we can connect the GMC account with the Google Ads account on which we want to display product ads. To do this, we select the „Connect Account” option, and in the window that appears, we enter the Google Ads customer ID and send a connection request. Then, in the Google Ads panel, we select „Tools and Settings” and „Linked Accounts” and find the Google Merchant Center icon. Next to it, there should be an option to accept the invitation.

Menu

After familiarising ourselves with the menu at the top of the panel and completing the necessary information, we can move to the side menu. It contains the most important functions of Google Merchant Center. It allows you to verify the products uploaded to the tool, check reports and track development opportunities. All options are divided into five categories: overview, products, results, marketing and development. The overview is nothing more than a summary of the files we upload to the tool, information about the programs we use (more on later), and ads’ effectiveness. All this information is described in more detail in the following tabs:

Products

A subpage that allows you to view and manage all the products you submit to the tool. Here, you will find, among other things, the number of active products, a list of products that need to be improved (e.g. due to missing attributes) and the ability to edit each product individually. The heart of the entire tool, i.e. Product Data Files, is also located here. This is a particularly important element, so I will discuss it later.

Results

The products we use get specific results—views, number of clicks, or CTR. After accessing this subpage, we can analyze these and many other data. We can filter traffic by brand, category, product, or location. In addition, we can create a personalized report to help us analyze the data in the future. 

Marketing

If we have already created product campaigns in Google Ads, we can preview them in this segment. In addition to displaying campaign results such as number of clicks, conversions, or cost, we can also make simple edits here—change the name, budget, or products used in a given campaign. It is also possible to create a Performance Max campaign from this level, but its optimization and addition of resources must already be done in Google Ads.

Development

The tab that most often gets new updates from Google. New options for the store, development opportunities and recommendations appear here. If we agree to Google’s terms, we can check the price competitiveness of our store (the option compares products based on EAN code and price, among all stores that have joined the program). In addition, we can find industry bestsellers, statistics on customer shopping impressions and a separate tab for programs available in GMC – programs are described in more detail below.

Programs available in GMC

Google Merchant Center allows you to join free programs to achieve better results when displaying your products on Google. At the time of writing this article (November 2022), there are eight programs, but Google adds new options for promoting your assortment occasionally. Currently, customers can choose from:

Free product information

Joining the program will allow your products to be displayed to customers who use various Google services, such as YouTube, Google search, Google graphics and the Shopping tab. Displaying your products in this way is not as effective as paid promotions, but it can be a supporting element to your main activities. As I mentioned, the program is free, so even if it does not bring the desired results, it is worth giving it a chance.

Product ads

The most important program available is one that allows you to use images, prices, and product features in Google Ads. For most people, this is the main task of Google Merchant Center – submitting products to Google Ads. Product ads will not work properly if you do not join this program.

Dynamic remarketing

Dynamic remarketing reminds potential customers about a product they viewed some time ago but didn’t decide to buy. It differs from classic remarketing in that the customer is shown a specific product rather than a graphic banner or store logo. After joining this program, we can use dynamic remarketing when creating campaigns in Google Ads.

Consumer Reviews and Product Ratings

These are two separate programs, but they address the same issue – store credibility. How important customer ratings and reviews are when presenting a product goes without saying. They affect reliability and are often the deciding factor in the final stage of the sales funnel. When you join Google’s programs, it will collect customer reviews and allow you to display them under the product in product ads. It will also allow you to display seller rating badges on your site. A five-star product coming from a store with good reviews is sure to attract more attention than one with two.

Free local product information

This program is useful, especially for stores that also operate offline. If you have a stationary store, it is worth using this program—it will allow you to display your local assortment so that customers can see what products are available in the store. Unlike, for example, the „Product Ads” program, you will not need a paid campaign here.

Local-assortment-product ads

Google Ads also allows you to advertise products from traditional stores – when you select the appropriate type of campaign, local product assortment ads will be displayed online. Of course, as long as you join this program beforehand – otherwise local assortment ads will not work.

Promotions

Discounts, rebates, and gifts attract customers’ attention. When you join this program and set up promotions, customers will see a special message next to product ads, free information, and local assortment ads. The content of the message depends on your settings, but the options are really many—starting with promo codes, percentage discounts, and gifts added free of charge to the order.

The descriptions of the programs sound interesting – especially considering their price. However, there is a small detail. To join each program, our store must meet specific requirements. Some involve GMC settings or product feed content, and others involve adherence to special rules. Still, it’s worth using them, even if it cost us a few hours of extra work.

Product-file in GMC

I have mentioned many times above the important role of the product file (feed) in the tool. A product file is a document that contains all the information about the products in the store. Each product is assigned a file, which includes, among other things, its name, price, description, availability, EAN code, etc. 

Where to get the product file?

If you run an online store, this question should not cause problems. Most popular store systems have the ability to automatically generate such a file – whether in the form of a link, the contents of which will change dynamically, or in a static .xml or .txt file. However, if the system you use for your online store doesn’t have this capability, you can create the file manually.

Required attributes

Any tool that uses product files requires it to conform to rules. These concerns, among other things, required and optional attributes and their content. In GMC, the mandatory attributes are:

• identifier [id]
• title [title]
• description [description]
• link [link]
• link to image [image_link]
• availability [availability]
• price [price]
• brand [brand]
• GTIN – EAN [gtin]

Some product categories also require other attributes, such as clothing, where the color or material of the product must be selected. All attribute requirements in the feed file are described on the Google website

Add a product file to GMC

When you have prepared a valid product file, you need to add it to Google Merchant Center. You will find the appropriate option by selecting „Products” and then „Data Files” from the side menu. By selecting the blue button with a white plus, we will be taken to the feed configuration. Here, we need to select the country where we want to sell products, the language of the descriptions and the destinations. Then, we can name the file to be uploaded and choose how to configure the data file. Here we have a choice of Google Sheets (the file must be properly configured, the columns must have appropriate headers), scheduled download (using a link generated by the store management system) or manual upload (when we decide to update the file manually, e.g. using Excel). Next, we fill in the necessary data, such as the frequency of updating the file (the faster the turnover of products in the store, the frequency should be higher) or the link to the file. After entering all the data, we can create the file – it should automatically upload to the tool. If everything goes successfully, the content of the „All products” tab will be completed.

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Summary

Google Merchant Center is an indispensable tool for online stores that want to compete online. It allows you to reach more potential customers, use your products in Google Ads, and offer a number of other options. It is a tool that is enhanced with new features from time to time—no wonder so many companies use it.