Do you know Google Merchant Center? Do you know what advantages it can bring to your Online Store? Currently, there are multiple platforms designed to help grow and expand an Internet business, favoring it to obtain much more traffic and potential clients.

If there is any tool that stands out for its value in the eCommerce sector, it is Google Shopping. She is able to take the reach of your Store products to new levels, giving them more visibility than they normally would. And, when speaking of advertising in Shopping, it is where the “Merchant Center” comes into play .

So, if you do not know it yet or you do not finish understanding exactly what Google Merchant Center is and what it is for, I invite you to stay in this article. In addition, I have prepared a guide and video tutorial on how to create an account and how to upload your products to it .

What is Google Merchant Center And What Is It For?


Google Merchant Center is a tool created by the search engine in which you can enter the data regarding your eCommerce, upload information about your products (product ID, description, price, etc.), and then be able to use them in your Google Ads campaigns. .

What is it for? This tool allows you to automatically upload information through a data feed, to announce everything you sell within your Online Store in the different channels that Google has available to you, such as, for example, Shopping, the results of the search engine itself or other sites associates.

It is even possible to advertise your products on local channels or inventories to increase sales in your area or city more efficiently.

But, it not only helps you to promote your products optimally in the various channels of this search engine, but it is very easy to use and is a direct method to improve your work in order to optimize the amount of sales or customers potentials that may have access to your Online Store.

Taking this into account, it is easy to see the Merchant Center as an almost mandatory tool for any eCommerce that intends to be more competitive , since although you can continue working on your advertising campaign without it, it is much more beneficial to take advantage of all its advantages, which I will also review in this article.

How Does Merchant Center Work Exactly?


As I was saying, although at first it may seem a somewhat confusing tool, its simple design, together with a very intuitive interface, make it an easy platform for almost anyone to learn to use.

Therefore, I recommend you create an account for your business, upload the information from your eCommerce product catalog and start promoting them through the enormous network of channels that Google has set up for you.

In just three steps, you can start taking advantage of the benefits it offers to its users and give visibility to your store.

The three points that you should know about the operation of this platform are:

»Register your business and select programs

The account creation process is not complex (you will find out below), you only need to have a previously created Google account (for which, if you do not have it, you must create a Gmail email ) and use it to register your business and the data of the same.

This company registration process is only carried out once, since the search engine uses this information and maintains it for all subsequent channels and services.

Google Merchant Center offers complete connectivity with a large list of programs that you can use to promote your business and its products. These can be summarized in two main branches: the different platforms associated with the search engine and Shopping ads .

It is possible to choose more than one advertising program, and in fact the same platform recommends that you choose all that are useful to you to meet the commercial objectives that you have set for your business.

Do not worry if you do not get the results you expected from the beginning, since later it is possible to change the initial configuration and improve, cancel or add programs to your original list.

»Create an information feed

This is a mandatory and very important step, since without doing it it is not possible to continue using Merchant services. Basically, the feed is the file in which we will upload all the information of the products . There are two types of files, the main and the complementary ones.

You can see these files as a kind of product list, where all the data you upload to the platform will be grouped. These, in turn, have a series of attributes that make it possible to define the products that are automatically added.

To conclude this point, when you want to add a list of products to an advertising program, it will be necessary to do it through these feeds . You can choose to which platform to add each of those feeds based on the objectives you want to achieve.

»Products and advertising campaigns

Finally, the key to the operation of Merchant Center is the products and advertising campaigns . The products that we upload are those that we are going to be able to promote through the advertising campaigns in Google Ads (in Shopping or similar).

Product example in Google Merchant Center

These generally appear in the form of ” Rich Snippets “, including images, price, name of the product and name of the business that is selling it.

Keep in mind that the products do not remain permanently on the platform, the data has a time limit for its expiration, that is, you need to update it from time to time.

Uploading the most relevant products and all the useful information about them, as well as creating more optimized campaigns, is the best way to take advantage of the benefits provided by Google Merchant Center. So before we start, I suggest you think hard about the goals you want to achieve and how to do it.

»You may also be interested in reading:

How To Create An Account in Google Merchant Center Step By Step?


Now that you know what the Merchant Center is and how it works, I will quickly show you how you can access this platform. I remind you that before doing so, you first need to have a Google account enabled , or what is the same: your Gmail email account, as I previously reminded you:

1. Enter the platform

The first thing you need to do is access this tool and, to do so, I invite you to click on “Solutions” which will take you directly to the Google Merchant Center page .

Once there, go to the option that says ” Start “, as I show you below:

Enter the platform

This will take you to another section where you need to choose the Google tool in which you want to register, by default Merchant Center will be selected, so all you have to do is click ” Start ” again.

2. Register your business

The next thing you should do is register your company information, starting with the name and the country where it operates.

Do not worry about the time zone, as it will automatically adjust when choosing the country. After putting the information, we click ” Continue “.

3. Accept the terms and conditions

After registering the basic information of your company, you need to accept the terms and conditions , I recommend that you give them a read, since you need to comply with them if you want to avoid being penalized in any way in the future.

Accept the terms and conditions

In this part you can also choose if you want to be contacted by them to receive information regarding this product or to test new features that are under development.

It is completely optional, the only box that is mandatory is the one of the terms and conditions that I mark in red.

Once I do this, click ” Continue “.

4. Select the advertising programs you want to associate

Once I do this, it is time to start configuring your campaigns. To do this, the first thing will be to choose the programs you want to use.

As I mentioned before, these are the associated platforms and Shopping ads. Analyze them and choose the one that suits you best according to your case (you can use both).

Select the programs you want to use in the Google Merchant Center

As you can see, the search engine platforms are free, while the Shopping ads are paid, so choose the one that best suits your needs.

This step is not entirely mandatory, and you can save it for later by clicking on the “ Skip for now ” option ; and you can even change your choice whenever you want.

5. Create your corporate account

Once you choose your program (or decide to leave it for later), you can go to the final step to create an account in Google Merchant Center.

Create your corporate account

Here what you will do is check that your account information, as well as the programs you have chosen, are correct.

Create Account

Once you check that everything is fine, go to the bottom of the page and click the ” Create Account ” button.

Manage your Google Merchant Center account

When you do, your account will be created successfully and you will be redirected to your Google Merchant Center page , from where you can manage your account, upload the product feed, view your programs, your products and much more.

How To Set Up Your Merchant Center Account?


How To Upload Products to Merchant Center?


Conclusion

As you have been able to verify after following these simple steps, having a Google Merchant Center account for your business is not only fast, but also provides the advantage that it can help you to optimize advertising campaigns or the sales of your products. Online way.

Therefore, if you were one of those who still did not know what this topic was about, I recommend that you keep this guide in mind to take full advantage of this tool owned by the search engine.

Source: josefacchin.com