Sign up for Shopping ads by selecting it when you sign up for Merchant Center, or click Growth in the left navigation menu, then Manage programs. Select Shopping ads from the list of available programs.
You can stop and start setup at any point. Once you’ve started setup, Shopping ads will automatically be added to your list of pending tasks on the "Overview" page.
How it works
When you set up Shopping ads, you’ll need to make sure your Merchant Center account has the following product data entered:
- Add your products
- Using feeds, add your products to Merchant Center. Learn more about Product data specifications for Shopping ads
- Add your tax information (US only)
- Your tax information is important data. Learn more about adding your tax information
- Set up shipping
- To set up shipping, you’ll configure a shipping service in Merchant Center. Learn more about setting up shipping
- Verify your website
- Confirm that your website and URL belong to you. Learn more about how to verify your website
- (Optional) Provide promotion information
- Run promotions on your products to help increase shopper engagement. Learn more about Merchant Promotions implementation
You’ll also need to create a Google Ads account or link an existing Google Ads account to your Merchant Center account:
- Connect your Google Ads account
- Creating or linking your Google Ads account allows product data to flow seamlessly between Google Ads and Shopping ads. Learn more about how to link your Google Ads account
- Add a payment method
- Your payment method will be set up within your Google Ads account and is needed so you can pay for your ad campaigns. Learn more about how to setup payment methods
- Review ads policies
- Be sure to review each of the Google Ads policies to ensure your business is a good fit for the program. Learn more about Shopping ads policies
- Note: The adult content setting is disabled by default. If your website primarily contains adult-oriented content (for example, erotic lingerie), you should enable adult content. Learn more about Google’s policy on adult-oriented content in Merchant Center
- Create a Shopping campaign
- Create a Smart Shopping campaign within Merchant Center or access your Google Ads account for more advanced features. Learn more about creating Shopping campaigns
After you’ve successfully onboarded and created a campaign, you can manage your campaign and view metrics from your Merchant Center homepage by clicking on Marketing, and then click Shopping ads.