Here’s our step by step guide to starting a Google Shopping trial campaign with £100 and a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Are you keen to get your products in front of more potential customers with Google Shopping, but not sure it’ll work for you?
This quick and easy guide will show you how to set up and run a month long Google Shopping trial using just a spreadsheet and a £100 budget.*
We will set up a Google Shopping feed using Google Sheets (Google’s cloud-based version of Excel spreadsheets). You will be able to modify your list of products using your web browser or the Google Sheets App.
Create a Spreadsheet of your products
1Sign up for a google account
You’ll need a google account, if you don’t have one, get one here.
2Sign Up for a Google Merchant Centre Account
Once you’re logged into your Google Account, sign up for Google Merchant Centre Account here.
3Log into Google Merchant Centre
4Click on “Products” then “Feeds” then the big blue “+”
5Fill in the details to Register a new feed
Mode = “Standard”
Type = “Products”
Select your Target country (note that this will automatically fill in “Currency” and “Language”
Give your feed a name, e.g. TrialFeed2017
Click “Continue”
6Input Method
Select “Google Sheets”
Click “Continue”
7Select “Generate a new Google spreadsheet from a template”
8Create an upload schedule
Click “Create an upload schedule” – this will automatically reload the data in your Google Sheets spreadsheet according to the schedule you use.
We’re going to stick with the suggested schedule of “Daily” and “2:00 AM” “Pacific Time”.
Click “Save”
9Allow Merchant Centre to create the new spreadsheet
Make sure you allow Merchant Centre to create the new spreadsheet in your Google Drive.
10Edit your spreadsheet
You will then be redirected back to the “Feeds” section of Google Merchant Centre where you will see your feed listed. Click on it, and click “Edit Spreadsheet”
11Add your products
You will be redirected to Google Sheets. Here you will see your spreadsheet and the headings will be automatically filled in for you – all you need to do is add your products!
The sheet saves automatically and as we set up the Merchant Centre to reload the sheet daily any changes we make will automatically load into our Google Shopping within approx. 24hrs. The tabs “Examples” and Instructions” will tell you what to put into each of the cells.
Decide which products you want to include and fill in your data
If you have a lot of products (e.g. more than 1000), have a good think about which ones you’d like to include in your test and cut it down to 100 or less. If you’re in a high competition FMCG type marketplace, consider cutting it down even further – or increasing the budget for your test.
The basic premise; the higher the competition for your product the more you’ll need to pay to get it seen, so if you’ve got a fast moving high competition product but want to run a trial with a smallish budget, reduce the number of products you put into the trial.
Load your feed
When you’ve finished editing your Google Sheet spreadsheet close it down and go back into the Merchant Centre. Click on your feed and click the “Fetch Now” button. The feed will start processing. This can take some time, so leave the Merchant Centre and move on to set up your AdWords Account.
*A £100 budget should give you an idea of how your products perform on Google Shopping. But for some products, like those with a higher value, you may need to spend more than £100 to see an impact. For guidance on how much you should be spending on Google Shopping, contact one of our PPC experts. Call: 0161 974 0974.