If you want your shopping ads to attract many target customers with high conversion rates, the important factor lies in the data displayed on the ad. Google Merchant Center (GMC) is a useful tool to help bring your product information closer to your target customers. What is Google Merchant Center? How does this tool work? How to register to use GMC? Please follow Optimal Agency is article below to get these questions answered.
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What is Google Merchant Center?
Abbreviated as GMC, it is a tool developed and provided by Google that allows users to download and store product-related data. This information is then provided to Google Shopping and other Google services. The main goal is to ensure that campaigns can reach and spread to potential customers of the product.
GMC is the most used tool to support Google Shopping Ads campaigns. Shopping ads allow buyers to find sellers’ products on Google easily and quickly.
All information displayed for the product will have to go through Google Merchant Center. By linking your Google Ads account and Merchant Center account, your seller’s products will be shown directly to users through shopping ads.
After entering product data, Google provides product content displayed in search results with relevant queries. With Google Merchant Center, you can also control the quantity of goods and add new products to diversify products or remove old products.
By creating and managing product data in GMC, businesses can ensure all product information is always accurate and complete. This helps increase advertising visibility, improve user experience, and increase the ability to sell successfully on Google.
Important features of GMC include managing product listings and creating product-focused advertising campaigns. Track advertising performance and improve product visibility on Google advertising channels.
How Google Merchant Center works
Google Merchant Center acts as a product information control tool. It acts as an intermediary between a business’s online store and the Google Shopping Ads account.
On Google Merchant Center, businesses can advertise products on Google Shopping and other Google advertising channels. To use it, you need to register an account and upload product information. It includes name, description, image, price, and other information related to the product.
The product information will be verified and Google will include your product in advertising channels. When users search for products, they will appear in search results. If an interested user clicks on the product, they will be redirected to your product page to view and purchase.
What are the benefits of using Google Merchant Center?
Google Merchant Center is an essential tool for businesses that want to expand their online business and reach a large number of target customers. It brings many benefits to businesses including:
Products display better to users
GMC allows you to integrate product information across many sales channels such as Google Shopping, Google Images, and YouTube. This helps expand the reach of target customers. At the same time, improves sales capabilities and increases the brand’s online presence on many different platforms.
Convenient product management
Possessing a smart and intuitive management interface, Google Merchant Center allows you to manage your product information. Including easily creating, editing, and updating product information, prices, promotions, etc. From there, users can save time and effort when managing products.
Easily track performance
By linking Google Merchant Center and your Google Ads account, you can track advertising effectiveness and related metrics such as number of impressions, click rate, conversion rate,… Through Analyzing data, you can adjust advertising campaigns to optimize effectiveness.
Increase product reliability
When product information appears on Google, especially in search results and the Google Shopping page. This will create credibility and professionalism for the brand. Customers tend to trust products displayed on Google. Thereby contributing to building the brand and enhancing trust.
Multi-language support
Provide a convenient shopping experience for foreign customers by providing product information in local languages. Thanks to that, you can attract the attention of local customers, increasing your ability to reach new customers.
How to register and use Google Merchant Center effectively
After understanding the concept and benefits of using Google Merchant Center, let’s explore how to register and use this tool as follows:
Create and set up a Merchant Center account
To create a GMC account, you need a Google account, then log in and link that account on merchants.google.com. If you don’t have a Google account, visit accounts.google.com, and click “Create account” to register a new account. After successfully creating a new account, follow these instructions to create an account:
Access via the link: https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center/ to go to the Google Merchant homepage and select Get Started. Next, fill in basic information about your business in the Business Information section including display name, country, website, time zone, address, and contact information.
Then you click Create Account to register for a Merchant Center account. Next, select Continue with Merchant Center to proceed to verify and claim the merchant’s website.
Verify and claim the website
The links you provide in your product data must match the claim URL in your account. Domains that are not registered in your Merchant Center account will not be processed by Google’s system.
Verify the website
In this step, you need to enter and verify the website URL. The most used method today is to upload the Html file. To maintain your verified status, you should not delete your HTML file even if Google has verified your URL. Next, click Verify Url to confirm the verification operations.
Additionally, you can verify your website by adding HTML meta tags, connecting your website to Google Tag Manager, or connecting your website to Google Analytics. To verify with Google Tag Manager, you must be an account-level administrator.
Claim the website
To claim your website, you need to log in to your Google Merchant Center account and then click Claim Website at the bottom right. If you have already created a feed, you must find and reload it after claiming the website. If you use the Content API, you must re-upload your feed so the data can be re-crawled.
There are some cases when you see a claim message even though the account is not verified. This happens over some time if a previously verified and claimed website loses its verified status.
Instructions for creating a feed in Google Merchant Center
Simple feeds are information files containing advertising product attributes such as ID, title, description, product link, image… To create a new feed, select the Products section. in your GMC account then click Data Cable Source and select the blue (+) icon.
Now update the basics to set up your Google Merchant Center feed including target country, language, and destination. Google supports 4 ways to set up feeds to Google Merchants that you can apply including data from Google sheet, schedule feed, data upload, and Content API. You need to choose one of the setup methods, enter the source name then click Continue.
Set up account information
The next step is to provide basic information about the business in the Business Information section on GMC. Business information includes:
Business display name: it is the store name you want to display on product ads. Use an actual name to make it easier for customers to recognize your brand.
Website: enter the domain hosting your product in this section. The website URL must begin with “http://” or “https://” and the full domain name. Note that the link to the product’s landing page must match the domain name you registered in Google Merchant Center.
Business address: clearly state the business location or corporate headquarters.
Primary user: is the person in charge of related issues and use of the Merchant Center account. They are the people who receive emails about account activities like administrators or email contacts.
Secondary users: are people who manage orders and customer reviews via Google, payment managers…
Customer care service: fill in the URL, email, and phone number of the business that can assist customers with questions.
At this point, you have a better understanding of what is Google Merchant Center? How to set up and use this tool. Hopefully, this information will help you in implementing successful product and brand promotion campaigns to get the best results.
Please refer to:
- How to optimize keyword quality scores on Google Ads?
- 8 Ways to protect your Google Ads account safely and effectively in 2024
- Popular Google Ads payment forms today
Frequently asked questions
The answer is No. Google Merchant Center and Google Shopping are not the same even though they are related and used together. Google Merchant Center is a platform provided by Google that allows businesses to upload and manage their product data for use in other Google services including Google Shopping.
Retailers of all sizes can sell their products directly on Google without paying Google commissions on Google Merchant Center.
