Manage product groups manually

• If you manage a large number of product groups, you can use a bulksheet to manage product groups.
• You can subdivide product groups at any time as you monitor your campaign's performance. For example, you can use the Product Type 1st level attribute to subdivide the All products group into an Electronics product group and a Music product group. You can use the Product Type (2nd level) to further subdivide Electronics into Computers and Video. If you need to boost advertising for Video, you can increase the max. CPC for the Video product group. You can even subdivide product groups by item ID if you find that different products within the same product group require different max. CPC.
• If you're unsure of what to bid on your new product groups, try using automated rules to automatically increase or decrease max. CPC for product groups that generate a specific number of clicks or that lead to a specific number of conversions.
• If a bulk edit or rule includes product groups that are excluded from bidding, the product group might no longer be excluded from bidding.

Create a product group

To subdivide your inventory into focused product groups, do the following:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a Microsoft Advertising client account or a Google Ads client account.
3. On the page menu, click Campaigns.
4. In the table, click the name of a Shopping campaign.
5. In the table on the "Ad groups" page, click the name of the ad group you want to subdivide.
6. On the "Product groups" page,  hover over the name of the product group you want to subdivide, then click the plus icon .
   • If this is the first time you’re looking at the product groups for this Shopping campaign's ad group, you can only subdivide the "All products" product group.
7. On the "Select product groups" page, click the dropdown next to "Subdivide [name of product group] by" and select the attribute you want to subdivide your new product group by.
   • For example, if you sell women’s shoes and select the Product type or Category attribute, the values listed could include sandals, dress shoes, and boots. Select the checkbox next to the values that you want to make up your new product group, such as "Sandals" and "Boots".
8. Next, do any of the following:
   • Click Continue to edit bids, click the pencil icon  to edit a bid, and then click Save.
   • Click Save without editing bids.

In the table on the "Product groups" page, the All products group is now subdivided into your new product groups (in this example, Sandals and Boots) and Everything else. You can subdivide Sandals and Boots even further by following the steps above.

Once you’ve created product groups for this campaign and ad group, you can adjust your bids for product groups that don’t have subdivisions. 

How do I see which products are in a product group?

To see the list of individual products that are in a product group, hover your cursor over the product group's name. The new Search Ads 360 opens a pop-up that lists all products in the group by item ID.

Create product groups for missing products

If products or categories of products are currently missing from your feed but you expect them to reappear, do the following to create product groups for the missing products:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a Microsoft Advertising client account or a Google Ads client account.
3. On the page menu, click Campaigns.
4. In the table, click the name of a Shopping campaign.
5. On the page menu, click Product groups.
6. Hover over the name of the product group you want to subdivide, then click the plus icon .
7. On the "Select product groups" page, click the dropdown next to "Subdivide [name of product group] by" and select a product attribute that contains custom values.
   • For example, to add new brands manually and create product groups for the new brands, select Brand from the subdivide dropdown.
   • If the product attribute doesn't appear in the subdivide dropdown, the attribute may be used in a parent product group. In this case, click the pencil icon  next to a parent product group on the "Product groups" page and see if the attribute appears. If you're at the topmost parent and still don't see the attribute, the attribute may not be defined in your inventory feed.
8. At the bottom of the window, click the  Bulk add values manually link and enter any additional values in the text field that appears. Click Confirm when you’re done.
   • This link appears only for attributes that contain custom values, such as Brand or Item ID. The link doesn't appear for product attributes that contain standard Google-provided values, such as Category level 1, Channel, or Condition.
9. Do any of the following:
   • Click Continue to edit bids, click the pencil icon  to edit a bid, and then click Save.
   • Click Save without editing bids.

What happens to performance metrics when product groups are subdivided?

When a product group is subdivided, the new Search Ads 360 keeps all of the metrics associated with the product group. Metrics, including those that occurred before the subdivision, are attributed to sub-groups.

Example

1. For the month of April, you had a product group named Shoes, which received 500 clicks.
   • The new Search Ads 360 records clicks for potential sub-groups, but doesn't show the sub-groups.
2. At the beginning of May, the Shoes product group was subdivided into Boots and Sneakers.
3. During the month of May, the Boots product group received 325 clicks, and the Sneakers group received 400 clicks.
4. At the end of May, you view the Product groups tab and set the time range to include April and May. The totals include clicks that occurred prior to creating the sub-groups.
5. The Shoes group reports 1,225 clicks, which includes the 500 clicks from April as well as the 725 clicks from the sub-groups created in May.
   • The sub-group totals also include clicks that were logged before the sub-groups were created. In this case, the Boots sub group reports 625 clicks, which includes 300 clicks that occurred in April, before Boots group was created, and 325 clicks from May. The Sneakers sub-group includes 200 clicks from April and 400 clicks from May.

Time range: April 1, 2022–May 31 2022

Product group	Sub-group	Clicks (April)	Clicks (May)	Clicks (April and May)
Shoes		500	725	1,225
	Boots	--	325	625
	Sneakers	--	400	600

 

Adjust a product group's bids

To adjust a product group's bids, do the following:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a Microsoft Advertising client account or a Google Ads client account.
3. On the page menu, click Campaigns.
4. In the table, click the name of a Shopping campaign.
5. On the page menu, click Product groups.
   • In the "Product group" column, the plus icon  appears next to product groups that have subdivisions.
6. Click the pencil icon  in the "Max. CPC" column next to the product group name.
7. Revise the bid amount in the window that appears.
8. Click Save.

Exclude a product group from a campaign

To prevent a campaign from from displaying ads for a product group, do the following:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a Microsoft Advertising client account or a Google Ads client account.
3. In the page menu, click Campaigns.
4. In the table, click the name of a Shopping campaign.
5. On the page menu, click Product groups.
6. Select the checkbox of the product group you want to exclude.
7. In the bar above the table, click Edit, and then select Exclude.
8. Click Save.

Known issue with excluded product groups

The new Search Ads 360 reports visits and conversions without performance metrics for excluded product groups. You can ignore the visit and conversion data reported for excluded product groups.

Excluded product group data also isn't used by bid strategies in the new Search Ads 360. You can use a filter or a rule to find excluded product groups in reports in the new Search Ads 360.

Remove a product sub-group

To remove a product sub-group, do the following:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a sub-manager or client account.
3. On the page menu, click Product groups.
4. In the table, hover your cursor over the parent All products group, then click the pencil icon .
5. On the "Select product groups" page, deselect the checkboxes for each sub-group that you want to remove. 
   • Alternatively, click the remove icon  in the right-hand column next to each sub-group that you want to remove. If you want to remove all sub-groups, click Clear all above the column.
6. Click Save without editing bids (or Save if you have removed all sub-groups).