5 signs your Google Shopping campaign isn’t working as good as it could

Google Shopping Ads are a big opportunity for your business. When they’re not performing as efficiently as they could be, it can quickly get frustrating. So don’t freak out, we’ve all been there, and this is why we’ve listed the most common signs that your shopping ads aren’t appearing on Google. Let’s dive in and work on these signs to make your shopping ads appear at the top results.

Merchant Center and Google Ads are not linked

You may notice that your Google Shopping Campaign is not appearing on Google. One cause may be because you have not linked both accounts correctly and it’s nothing more complicated than that! It’s recommended that you first check Merchant Center, the platform from where you can effectively drive your shopping campaigns by transferring all product information directly to your shopping campaigns.

Product Feed Data is not optimised

Another component to keep an eye on is your Product Feed Data. Be sure to check that your product feed includes all fields that are required and if needed, add any that are missing through supplemental feeds. You’re able to add as many supplemental feeds as you need to progressively optimise your feed data.

The aim is to make your product data compliant as much as possible to score high enough for searchability by providing information through your feed using your product attributes also called product variations. If you leave blank fields that are relevant for your products, Google won’t show your products until you fill those blanks.

The main attributes that are usually used in titles and descriptions are the colour, the size, the material, and the style to make sure your products are appearing for popular queries. If you’re shopping ads are already running, you can get a glimpse of which attributes are most searched by customers which is a great starting point. On top of that, you can optimise your product feed further, by adding optional attributes for your products.

Besides, you need to pay attention that the branding section in your Merchant Center account is complete otherwise it won’t let your shopping ads appear in the search results. Obviously the logo that you’ll be using will be advertised with your products on Google Networks and Display Networks if you’re using Smart shopping campaigns. Don’t forget to upload square and rectangle formats of your logo to make sure that your brand is displayed on any type of device.

Google Ads Policy Violation

You could unintentionally violate Google Ads’ policy which may affect your product feed and stop your products from showing up in the search results. There are different reasons that your product feed may be disapproved, a few of the most common Google Ads Policy violations include:

• Watermarks on the images of your products
• Difference of prices across your product data on merchant center and your website
• Mismatch of availability across your product data given on merchant center and on your website
• And anything else that could be related to your campaign. Basically, any information that you provide must be compliant to Google specific rules to be able to show your products to shoppers. Keep in mind that Google Shopping’s Policy applies to titles, images, descriptions, and availability.

The best way to avoid these policy violations is to automatically update and fetch your product feed daily on Merchant Center. In this way you make sure that you’re always providing the most recent and accurate information on your products.

Your bids are too low

Bidding lower than your competitors for specific search queries and your products may lead to your Shopping campaigns not appearing. Google provides you with an average bid as a benchmark to give you a glimpse of how much your competitors are bidding for the same market that you’re targeting.

So, it’s always good to keep an eye on your bids and try to increase them incrementally to see if that solves the issue by getting more impressions. In this way you make sure you’re bidding as much as your competitors or more.

Your bids exceed your daily budget

Google allows you to put the budget that you want and manually change your bids but they need to align together so that when your shopping ads drive clicks they don’t drain your budget too early.  In other words, Google won’t be able to show your products if your bid/budget ratio is too high. Try to lower down your bids to see if the issue isn’t fixed yet you may need to increase your daily budget.

Conclusion

As a PPC Agency, we can assure you that there are various solutions that you can use on Merchant Center and Google Ads in the instance that your Shopping ads aren’t showing. Once implementing the You should start seeing better results by monitoring the amount of impressions and clicks driven by your campaigns. If you’re still struggling with you shopping ads and aren’t sure of what’s stopping them from showing, you can always ask an expert for help who will review more in-depth your campaigns set up and your product feed compliance.