Shopping ads and free listings have several features to help support your global reach, such as the ability to target multiple countries from a single offer and automatic currency conversion in case you can’t provide product prices in a foreign currency.
This article explains how to set up Shopping ads and free listings in multiple countries.
You may also be interested in learning more about using the right language and currency.
Create a product data source in Merchant Center to target multiple countries
To begin listing your products in multiple countries, you can use either one of these methods:
Method 1: Going global with Merchant Center and using product data source language
In Merchant Center, select the “Business info” page from the left navigation menu and click countries.
Then click Add countries to select the countries where you want to list your products.
Target countries that share the same language
- You can use your existing data source to target countries that share the same language. Example: You have an existing product data source in the Spanish language. You can target Spanish-speakers in Colombia and Ecuador, where Spanish is the local language, by adding these countries to your data source. You can also target Spanish speakers in Canada, Japan, or any other country in which Shopping ads and listings are available.
- If you have translations of your product listings, you can add additional data sources for each language and target new countries with those languages.
Update your product data sources with additional countries
The easiest way to make your products discoverable in multiple countries is to add additional countries to your product data sources.
Log in to your Merchant Center account.
Click Data sources from the Settings and tools icon
.
Select the product data source individually one by one or add a new product source.
Select Your setup tab and click the pencil icon
across “Countries”
Add the additional countries to your product data sources.
Then, follow the below steps to ensure your account has a shipping service configured for your chosen countries:
Go to the Shipping and Returns page from the left navigation menu.
Confirm that there are shipping policies set up in the currency of your product for all the countries you choose on the data source. If not, set up shipping policies for these countries. Ensure the shipping cost is specified in the same currency as the offers.
- For example, adding AU would require these steps:
- Name your shipping service and select the countries you want this service to cover. Note: The currency of the shipping service matches the offer currency, example, USD in this example—not AUD.
- Set up delivery times.
- Set up shipping cost.
Your offers are now set up for free listings in all the additional countries you added.
Note: Creating a product data source in Merchant Center doesn’t automatically make your products part of an advertising campaign because you must also have a campaign configured in Google Ads to cover these products.
To set up your products to serve in multiple countries in Google Ads Shopping campaigns, log in to Google Ads, create a new campaign, and select the Country of Sale or feed label of your offers/feeds (the number of products per Country of Sale or feed label will be listed in the Google Ads UI while additional countries on your offers won’t be.)
Method 2: Going global with Shopping via attributes and Shopping APIs (Content API and Shipping API) in your data source files
You can target multiple countries from a data source file only, add shipping attributes to each of your items, specifying the ship-to country and shipping cost, as a minimum and also you can target multiple countries from a data source file where you’ve already configured shipping.
Going global with Shopping via attributes in your data source files
To target multiple countries from a data source file only, add shipping attributes to each of your items, specifying the ship-to country and shipping cost, as a minimum. Learn more about the shipping
[shipping] attribute.
The below example uploads 4 products sold in euros to an account, where there are no shipping services configured on the account.
- Item 122 is configured to be sold in both GB and IE.
- Item 133 is configured to be only sold in IE.
- Item 144 is configured to be sold in IE, GB, FR, and DE.
- Item 155 is configured to be sold in IE, FR, NZ, and AU.
ID[id] |
Title[title] |
Description[description] |
Link[link] |
Condition[condition] |
Price[price] |
Availability[availability] |
Image link[image_link] |
Shipping[shipping] |
| 122 | Toy Bear | A yellow teddy bear | https://ww... | new |
10.00 EUR | in_stock |
https://ww... | IE::: 5 EUR, GB:::1.00 EUR |
| 133 | Blender | 12-speed, black blender | https://ww... | new |
10.00 EUR | in_stock |
https://ww... | E::: 5 EUR |
| 144 | Red Pen | Generous grip for comfortable writing. Red ink. | https://ww.. | new |
10.00 EUR | in_stock |
https://ww... | IE::: 5.00 EUR, GB::: 1.00 EUR, FR::: 1.00 EUR, DE::: 5.00 EUR |
| 155 | Android Squishable | 15" Android Squishable Organic Cotton | https://ww... | new |
10.00 EUR | in_stock |
https://ww... | IE::: 5.00 EUR, FR::: 10.00 EUR, AU::: 7.00 EUR, NZ::: 7.00 EUR |
To target multiple countries from a data source file where you’ve already configured shipping services on the account, add shipping attributes to each of your items and specify the ship-to 2 letter country code at a minimum. The shipping cost can be left blank as the shipping information will be taken from the shipping services on the account.
The below example uploads 3 products sold in US dollars to an account, where there are shipping services already configured on this account for the US, CA, and AU.
- Item 123 is configured to be sold in both the US and CA.
- Item 456 is configured to be only sold in CA.
- Item 789 is configured to be sold in the US, CA, AU, NZ, and MX. Note: Shipping services aren’t mandatory for NZ and MX. Hence, they don’t need to have shipping price defined at an item level.
ID[id] |
Title[title] |
Description[description] |
Link[link] |
Condition[condition] |
Price[price] |
Availability[availability] |
Image link[image_link] |
Shipping[shipping] |
| 123 | Shirt | T-Shirt, Red | https://ww... | new |
10.00 USD | in_stock |
https://ww... | US:::, CA::: |
| 456 | Blue Pen | Generous grip for comfortable writing. Blue ink. | https://ww... | new |
5.00 USD | in_stock |
https://ww... | CA::: |
| 789 | Shoes | Original Men's Shoes, Blue/orange, 12 | https://ww... | new |
15.00 USD | in_stock |
https://ww... | US:::, CA:::, AU:::, NZ:::, MX::: |
Going global with Shopping APIs (Content API and Shipping API)
There are 2 options when using APIs to set up multi-country targeting on Global Offers.
Option A: Detailed step
Set up shipping services on your Merchant Center account, and provide the destination, currency, shipping cost, and estimated delivery times.
Add the shipping
[shipping] attribute to all products, and specify in the attribute information all the countries you wish your product to be discoverable in and can be shipped to.
Option B: Detailed steps
Add product shipping attributes to all your offers/items, specifying the ship-to country, service level, and price for all the countries you wish products to be discoverable in. Learn more about the Shipping Settings API.
Set up tax settings specific to your new country
- Follow the correct tax policies for your target country. Tax for Shopping ads and free listings is restricted to two concepts: value-added tax (generally called VAT, IVA, TVA, MWST, or GST in different countries) and sales tax. Most countries use VAT, while the US has a sales tax system. Keep in mind that each country’s tax regulations and policies differ. When you set up specific tax and shipping settings for a new country, ensure that you provide correct information for your products. Learn more about tax settings.
Included tax vs. excluded tax using currency of the target country
Example
In Germany, tax is included in product prices. In Canada, tax isn’t included. A merchant based in Germany that exports to Canada in the currency of the target country must not include any tax in their product prices. In Canada, merchants must also not submit any tax in the tax [tax] attribute. If the merchant does charge tax in Canada, they can say so on their landing or checkout pages.
Included tax vs. excluded tax using currency conversion
Example
If a merchant exports to Australia in USD, Australian customers are able to identify the merchant’s location by the currency in the ad. The merchant must follow US sales tax rules in their product data and on their website. The tax [tax] attribute should be used in place of the price [price] attribute to submit tax information. Since Australian consumers expect taxes to be included in prices, ads show a “+tax” annotation to indicate to users that tax isn't included in the price.
Different levels of included tax
Example
If a French retailer (VAT rate 20%) exports to Sweden (VAT rate 25%), they can choose to include either 20% or 25% in the product price as long as it matches both the landing page and the checkout pages on their website.
- Identify import or export charges. These are charges that cover costs charged in direct connection with products crossing a border. Often this is referred to as duty, excise, or customs, but can also include storage cost, special handling fees, or other costs. Some countries also charge a luxury tax or product specific tax for certain imports. These types of charges don’t fall under the tax category, but are considered an import or export charge.
To make sure that consumers can connect information they see on Google with the information that they see on your website, you must clearly label the relevant costs and submit information in your product data accordingly.
Based on how you operate, you may display import and export charges on your checkout page separately, combine them into a single line item, or combine some of them with existing shipping costs. The import or export charges can be combined into the shipping [shipping] or price [price] attribute. If they are combined with the price [price] attribute, the product price on the landing page and checkout page must match the value submitted for the price [price] attribute, and the item can only be listed in the target country.
Example
Your shipping provider handles customs clearance, but you still charge import duties yourself. On your checkout page, you should have a “shipping and customs” charge and an “import duty” charge. You should submit a shipping cost that includes customs clearance charges and matches the “shipping and customs” charge on your checkout page. The import duty charge needs to be displayed on the checkout page, but doesn’t need to be submitted to Google.
Requirements for your export country
- Make sure your landing pages are up to date. Dynamically switching the content, such as language or currency, on your landing pages based on user location is against requirements. Learn more about landing page requirements.
- Follow policy requirements for your new country. Check on the requirements for your new target country. To avoid disapprovals, make sure your product data complies with policies. Learn more about Shopping ads policy and Shopping policies and requirements.
- Comparison Shopping Services (CSSs) can place Shopping ads on Google on behalf of merchants in countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA), as well as in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Learn more about advertising with Comparison Shopping Services.
Create a campaign for your new data source
You can use campaigns to create ads on Google and around the web, where potential customers can view what you're selling. Campaigns help you promote your online and local inventory, boost traffic to your website or local store, and find better qualified leads. Learn more about Shopping ads.
If you already have a standard Shopping or Performance Max campaign with a Merchant Center data source set up, review your location targeting and ensure it includes any additional countries you've added to your data source.
If you don't have a campaign yet, first review and then pick which campaign makes sense for your business.
While setting up your campaign, you can pick a country of sale or feed label. If you do so, you should make sure your location targeting includes any additional countries you've added to your data source.
Example
Your data source targets the US, the UK, and France. In your campaign settings, you'll need to ensure that the UK and France are not excluded in your location targeting settings so that the products show in those countries.