Google Smart Shopping for Magento

At MagentoLive Europe 2018 in Barcelona, Google made its debut as an active part of the Magento ecosystem. They had been working on a Google Smart Shopping integration with the Magento development team, according to discussions I had with some of the Googlers at last year’s conference.

It turned out that it wasn’t going to be released as a bundled extension until the release of Magento 2.3.3 earlier this month. A free Google Shopping Ads Channel extension has been available on the Magento Marketplace for some time already. Version 3.0.1 of the extension was just released yesterday, which fixed some index management issues. The extension is compatible with versions 2.2.4+, 2.3.0, 2.3.1, and 2.3.2 of Magento Open Source, Magento Commerce, and Magento Commerce Cloud. If you upgraded to Magento 2.3.3, you can remove the extension as it is not bundled in core directly.

Smart Shopping Campaigns

Google Smart Shopping Campaigns simplify campaign management, maximize conversion value, and expand reach. This campaign subtype combines Standard Shopping and display remarketing campaigns, and uses automated bidding and ad placement to promote your products and business across networks.

With Smart Shopping campaigns, an existing product feed and its assets are combined with Google’s machine learning to show a variety of ads across networks. You just need to link to a Merchant Center account, set a budget, upload assets, and let Google know the country of sale. Google’s systems will pull from the product feed and test different combinations of the image and text provided, then shows the most relevant ads across Google networks, including the Google Search Network, the Google Display Network, YouTube, and Gmail.

In Europe, Smart Shopping Campaigns can be used with any Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) you work with. The ads will show on general search results pages and on any other surfaces the CSS has opted in to. To help you get the best value from each ad, Google also automates ad placement and bidding for maximum conversion value at your given budget.

Magento Google Shopping Ads Channel

With Google search being utilized in over 70% of online consumer shopping or browsing journeys, and Google Shopping ads accounting for 60% of all ad clicks internationally, it’s hard to ignore the Google network to reach potential buyers. With Google Shopping ads Channel in Magento you can unlock the power of the Google advertising network in one end-to-end solution.

It enables you to seamlessly connect Magento with Google Merchant Center and Google Ads. By leveraging your Magento configurations and product catalog, Google Merchant Center onboarding and ongoing maintenance are streamlined and simplified. As your business and eCommerce store changes, Magento stays in sync with Google so you never have to worry about advertising out-of-stock products or inaccurate product pricing.

It let’s you leverage Google’s newest ad type, Smart Shopping campaigns, that utilizes AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning to simplify your ad management, maximize conversion value, and expand your reach. Through the Magento backend (admin area) you can easily create Google Smart Shopping campaigns where you only need to set a daily budget and then Google’s machine learning does the rest. Google Smart Shopping will optimize for the highest return on ad spend by automatically choosing which products to advertise, how much to bid, who to target, and which ad creative to show. You can track the performance of your campaigns at the campaign and account level within Google Shopping ads Channel. 

Account & Pricing 

The extension will create a new Google Merchant Center and Google Ads account on your behalf during on-boarding if you don’t have one already. Although the extension is free, in order to actively publish ads on the Google network you will be required to enter payment information on Google’s site. There is no minimum and you only pay when users click your ads.

Features 

• End-to-end functionality all within Magento for both Google Merchant and Google Ads
• Simple onboarding using an intuitive step-by-step approach  
• Utilize your existing Magento attributes to conform to Google’s strict product data schema
• As your product catalog changes, updates will be sent automatically to Google so your product and pricing information are never out of sync
• Resolve Google errors with an easy to read dashboard within Magento
• Simplify your ad management and maximize conversion value by utilizing Google’s AI and machine learning technology, Smart Shopping campaigns
• No need to be a marketing guru, you can create Smart Shopping campaigns by simply adding a daily budget
• If more targeted advertising is desired, you can choose which products to advertise
• Automatically install gtag to use with Smart Shopping campaigns 
• Review campaign performance directly from the Magento admin with intuitive reports, or utilize Magento Business Intelligence for more robust analysis 

Support & Documentation

Openstream has integrated various Swiss and international merchants with Google Shopping and is happy to assist. You can also learn more about Google Shopping ads in the Magento Admin User Guide:

• Magento Open Source 2.3 and Commerce 2.3
• Magento Open Source 2.2 and Commerce 2.2

Sources

The contents of this post have been partly taken and adapted from the Magento Marketplace and Google Ads help pages.