The Ultimate Google Merchant Center Guide for 2021 | Social Heads (2023)

The Google Merchant Center is at the heart of every Google Shopping activity. This article is an overviewWhat is it, how to start and use it?Run the Shopping ad with the highest conversion rate.

What is Google Business Center?

Some people assume that GMC is a marketplace where products can be sold. However,Google Merchant Center (GMC) is essentially an online platform where you can manage all your product listings and use them for your Shopping ads on Google, YouTube and other Google partner sites.

What is the main purpose of Google Merchant Center?

Typically, the Google Merchant Center is usedControl online product information such as images, prices, availability and how it is displayed on Google.

After connecting your account to GMC, you can:

• Upload your product information.Google lets you add a variety of products and related information, such as titles, descriptions, terms, or prices, at no cost to you.
• Attract more customers with promotions.Advertising on Google can drive large amounts of traffic to your website or even your local business. The best part? You only pay when they click on your ad!
• The latest performance reports and insights:The platform provides you with detailed reports showing what worked and what didn't. Together with Google Analytics, you can further optimize your campaigns and maximize profits accordingly.
• Generate sales from all over the world.With the multi-country feed feature, you can reach potential customers from over 90 countries and go global right from your laptop.
• Highlight promotions.Google knows that everyone loves a discount or promotion of any kind. Thus, the platform allows you to set up site-wide promotions or just a product group for your shopping ads.
• To set up dynamic remarketing:Remarketing allows you to show ads to previous website visitors and personalize those ads based on what parts of your website they've viewed. With this in mind, you can go one step further and display dynamic retargeting ads with relevant product information customized based on a customer's recorded website activity.

You may be wondering:

Which Google services can you access through GMC?

As mentioned earlier, GMC is not a standalone application. instead of this,You can connect it to other Google services and third-party e-commerce platforms or applications.

These integrations are key to maximizing your business performance if you know how to use them properly.

google my company

GMB allows you to provide all business information such as location, contact information, hours of operation, website link and business description.

Registering your business gives you instant control over it. Google will display the information you provide, and your business profile will appear as a sidebar next to search results or on a map.

Google ads

This is a paid advertising platform that you can use for various sponsored placements of your Google brand. It used to be known as Google AdWords. You can connect Google Ads to your Google Merchant Center account to use your product listings in your advertising campaigns.

Google Analytics

With this reporting tool you can take a closer look at the activities of your visitors. While Merchant Center itself includes performance reporting tools, Google Analytics can provide additional traffic reports, including organic and paid results, and visitor behavior.

Please do not forget toIn addition to Google-to-Google, there are other integration options.You can also sync with ecommerce platforms like Shopify or connect to various third-party apps.

For example, by connecting your Google Merchant Center account to Socialshop, you can manage your Google and Shopify stores in one place.

Is Google Merchant Center paid?

A Google Merchant Center account isRegistration, setup and use are 100% free.

But remember, the main reason we love this platform: it helps us run Google Shopping ads!

in other words,You have to payIf you run Google Ads.

There are basically 2 payment methods available to you:

• CPC – cost per click:You pay a certain amount each time a potential customer clicks on one of your ads in this way.
• CPE – Kosten pro Engagement (CPE):You pay each time a visitor responds to your ad. These interactions may include viewing the ad for more than 10 seconds, scrolling through the ad, or clicking on the ad.

How do I set up Google Merchant Center?

before we startYou need a Google account (e.g. Gmail) to sign in to GMC.If you don't have one available, just create a new account and we'll continue.

Create a new Google Merchant Center account.

1. goGMC-Homepage>Start.

• From there you will be taken to a page where you can do thisIf you sell online, fill out your store's website.

  

  Tell Google about your business

• Once completed, a page will appear where you can participateBasic information about your companyFor example your company name, your country or your time zone.

  

  Enter your company information

• Check over "I have read and agree to the Google Merchant Center Terms of Service"then click"Create Account".

  

  Agree to the GMC Terms of Service

that's all! Create an account for GMC in a few simple steps. Now we can set up your account.

Set up your Google Merchant Center account

1. First you need to add yoursbusiness detailsExamples include address lines, cities, states, or zip codes. Just fill them out.

   

   Enter the business address and phone number

2. Next you needelectronicEnter your shop URL and verify your website.If successful, your screen will look like this.

   

   Check the website URL and claim it

3. After that you will seeShipping Settings section..

• First fill out your formName of the shipping service provider, country, currency and shipping locationas desired. Please do not forget to,The country and currency should match what is in your feed.You can select multiple countries.

  

  Service scope settings in GMC

• Second: EnterOrder acceptance times, processing times and shipping timesSet up shipping times in Google Merchant Center.

  

  Service scope settings in GMC

  • The order deadline is the time when you no longer process the orders received that day.For example, if the order cut-off time is 15:00 (GMT+8), orders received after this will be processed on the next business day.
  • The processing time is the time between the order deadline after an order has been placed and when the order is ready for dispatch.(to the operator). Enter 0 – 0 if the shipment is ready the same day as the order. (if the order is placed before the cut-off time of the day).

• • Transit time is the time it takes the carrier to deliver the product to the customer.

• • Don't forget to use the drop down menus to select the order processing date range i.e. which days of the week you would like your order to be processed. In this example, I chose Monday through Friday, but you can choose any other date range.

• Finally, select the shipping rate of your choice. I choose for exampleFree Shippingthen clicksave on computer.

  

  GMC shipping settings

just right? What is the next step now?

it's time toCreate a feed and add your products.

How do I add products to Google Merchant Center?

In the last step we took, click “Next” and you will see"Add product"Part. You can choose to addone or more items at a time.

Adding individual items can take a lot of time and effort.You must provide required information such as country and destination of sale, product identifier, product dates, price and availability or shipping and returns.

If you prefer to work manually, choose this option. However, I don't think this is the best option as you have to spend hours adding products one by one.

On the other hand, if you choose the option to add multiple products, you can create your main product feed.

for your information,Feeds are simply the source that Merchant Center uses to access and display your product dataOnce your feed is created, you can update it or change your information without resubmitting it.

Now follow the instructions andEnter your country of sale, language and destination.

At this point, select your main feed name and the input method of your choice from these 4:

• Google Sheets:You can upload an existing form with product data or use a Google-generated form template and fill in the required information.
• Planted Crawls:Google actually gets your feed directly from your server.
• Upload:You can upload files manually or via SFTP, FTP or Google Cloud Storage.
• Content-API oder Website-Crawling:If you don't have feeds in your account but have properly structured data on your site, Google can crawl it for your product data.

Do you think these methods are too complex?Here's our great news! As already mentioned,You can actually integrate your GMC account with third party applications to further streamline the feed management process.

If you're interested, be sure to check out one of our top apps:social shop.The only requirement to use Socialshop is that you also sell on Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce.

Unlike manual work, this tool helps you set up, create feeds and sync product data right from your existing ecommerce platform. Additionally, Socialshop has some of the best features to help you optimize your product feeds for greater presence and visibility on Google Shopping.

In addition, it is very user-friendly and can be done in a few simple steps. described as follows:

1. First you needRegister an accounton our website and Set up your product source, this can be your Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce store.

   

   Set up product sources in the social shop

2. You will then be taken to the application. Click hereadd lining”。

   

   Add a feed in the social shop

3. Next you chooseGoogle Merchantas the channel you want to create the feed on.

   

   Select a channel to create a product feed in Socialshop

4. At this point you will be prompted to log in to your GMC account.A window will then appear in which you can set up your feed. Give hertarget market, language, and type aFeed-Nameyour decision. hitNext.

   

   In the social shop, enter the target market, language and feed name

5. After connecting your Google Merchant Center account,Our app syncs products from your shop according to your settingsand create feeds within the app.

   

   Google Merchant Center-Feed im Socialshop

From here you can see the status of your product. The first time they sync, they'll appear as pending because they're being verified by Google. The verification process can take up to 3 business days. If they meet Google's requirements, your article will be listed in the "Approved" column.

After 30 minutes, your feed will appear in Google Merchant Center with your default feed name.

you're done! It's super easy and the whole process takes less than 30 minutes.

How do I connect Google Merchant Center to Google Ads?

The most important thing for all of us is that we generate sales on Google Shopping. So don't miss out on this feature.

1. Start with your Google Merchant Center backend:Settings > Linked accounts > Google Ads > Linked accounts.
2. Then enter yoursGoogle Ads customer numberthen clickSubmit a link request.

   

   Submit a linking request to Google Ads

3. A linking request will be sent to your Google Ads account. Now go back to Google Ads, browse the notification button and clickview>Accept link request.

   

   Accept link requests in Google Ads

Congratulations, your Google Ads and Google Merchant accounts have been successfully linked! You can apparently undo this setting by clicking the unlink button in the GMC backend.

finally

All in all, as a business owner, Google Merchant Center can become an integral part of your digital marketing campaign. Mastering Google Merchant Center and Google Ads data feeds can give you an edge over your competitors.

Also, don't forget that you can always count on itsocial shopIf you're available on Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce, Google Shopping is your next destination.