If you’ve been watching your Google Shopping Ads drain your budget without delivering results, you’re not alone. Many e-commerce sellers struggle to make these ads work for their business. But here’s the good news: most issues with Google Shopping Ads come down to a few common, fixable mistakes. Let’s dive into the core reasons your Google Shopping Ads may be underperforming and how to get them back on track.
- Your Product Feed Needs Optimization
Your product feed is the foundation of your Google Shopping Ads. If it’s incomplete or not structured well, your campaigns will suffer. Unlike traditional ads, Google Shopping doesn’t rely on specific keywords but instead pulls from the details in your product feed.
Common Product Feed Issues:
- Missing Information: Every entry needs essential attributes like product title, description, price, image, GTIN, and brand. Missing information could even get your product rejected.
- Inaccurate Titles: Make your product titles keyword-rich and descriptive. For example, “Men’s Running Shoes, Size 10, Red, Nike” works better than a generic “Running Shoes.”
Pro Tip: Consider using tools like DataFeedWatch or Feedonomics to clean up your product feed and automate updates.
- Weak Product Descriptions
Although Shopping Ads don’t directly target keywords, Google uses your product descriptions to match ads with search queries. Vague or poorly written descriptions make it hard for your ads to appear in relevant searches.
Tips for Effective Descriptions:
- Incorporate relevant keywords naturally. For example, if you’re selling organic coffee, a description like “100% organic Arabica coffee beans, sustainably sourced from Colombia” works well.
- Avoid stuffing keywords. Google can detect excessive keywords and may penalize you.
- Incorrect Bidding Strategy
Many sellers struggle with bidding. Low bids may limit traffic, while high bids could exhaust your budget with little return.
Bidding Tips:
- Begin with a moderate bid and adjust as needed. If you’re not getting impressions, consider raising the bid. If clicks aren’t converting, lower it.
- Google’s automated bidding options like “Maximize Clicks” or “Target ROAS” can be effective once you have some data.
- Missing Negative Keywords
While you can’t directly target keywords in Google Shopping, you can use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant searches. This step is often overlooked and can lead to clicks from searches that don’t convert.
Using Negative Keywords:
- Regularly review your search terms report to identify irrelevant keywords, then add these as negatives.
- If you’re selling premium watches, adding terms like “cheap” or “kids” as negative keywords will filter out unqualified traffic.
- Unappealing Product Images
A strong image can be the difference between a click and a scroll-past. Low-quality images, or images that don’t meet Google’s guidelines, will hurt your ad’s performance.
Image Optimization Tips:
- Use high-resolution, clear images that showcase your product.
- Where possible, show your product in use (e.g., a kitchen gadget in a kitchen setting).
- Follow Google’s guidelines: images should be at least 100 x 100 pixels (250 x 250 for apparel).
- Poorly Optimized Landing Pages
Once a potential customer clicks, they need to land on a well-optimized product page. Common issues with landing pages can lead to high bounce rates and low conversions.
Landing Page Best Practices:
- Fast Loading: A slow page could turn visitors away. Make sure your site is optimized for speed.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Many users shop on mobile. A poor mobile experience means missed sales.
- Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Make it easy for customers to complete their purchase with a visible “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button.
- Lack of Data Analysis
If you’re not analyzing your data, you’re missing out on insights that could improve your ad performance. Regularly checking your metrics in Google Ads and Google Analytics can reveal valuable information.
What to Look For:
- Track impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rate.
- Break down data by product, device, and location to see where your ads are performing best.
Final Thoughts If your Google Shopping Ads aren’t working, don’t panic. It’s usually not about your product but rather how your campaigns are set up. By refining your product feed, descriptions, bidding strategy, negative keywords, images, landing pages, and analysis methods, you can transform an underperforming campaign into a profitable one. Remember, “Success in Google Shopping Ads is all about optimization.” So keep tweaking and testing, and you’ll start to see results.
FAQs:
- Why aren’t my Google Shopping Ads showing up? Check your product feed. Missing required details like product title, price, or GTIN can cause Google to reject your products.
- How do I select the right bidding strategy? Start with a moderate bid, adjust based on performance, and consider using Google’s automated strategies like Target ROAS after gathering enough data.
- What’s the purpose of negative keywords? Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing in irrelevant searches, helping to save budget by targeting the most relevant traffic.
- How can I improve my product titles for Google Shopping? Include key details such as brand, color, size, and material to make your titles more relevant and help your products show up in the right searches.
- Why are high-quality images so important for Google Shopping Ads? Clear, professional images increase the likelihood of clicks and conversions by capturing attention and building trust with potential customers.
- Which metrics are most important for monitoring Shopping Ads? Track impressions, CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS to spot opportunities for improvement and focus on high-performing products.
- Why am I getting clicks but no conversions? Check your landing page’s speed, mobile-friendliness, and clarity of the call-to-action. These are essential factors for converting traffic into sales.
Need Help with Google Ads? If you’re ready to take your online store’s performance to the next level with Google Shopping Ads but need a helping hand, consider reaching out. I’m Andy Splichal, author of Make Each Click Count and host of the Make Each Click Count podcast. Whether it’s about creating high-performing Shopping Ads or mastering your overall Google Ads strategy, I’m here to help. Let’s make those clicks count!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Splichal is the founder and managing partner of True Online Presence, author of the Make Each Click Count book series, host of the Make Each Click Count podcast, founder of Make Each Click Count University and certified online marketing strategist with twenty plus years of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.
He was named to Best of Los Angeles Awards’ Most Fascinating 100 List in both 2020 and 2021. To find more information on Andy Splichal, visit www.trueonlinepresence.com or read The Full Story on his website or his blog, blog.trueonlinepresence.com.