Create a Google Ads Shopping campaign

Before you start

Before you can create a Google Ads Shopping campaign in Search Ads 360, make sure you link your Merchant Center account with both Google Ads and Search Ads 360. Even though you can see the option to create a shopping campaign in Search Ads 360, you first need to link accounts before you can successfully create a shopping campaign.

Feed label replaced the "Country of sale" settings in Google Merchant Center feeds.

• Shopping campaigns created in Search Ads 360: Use a feed label that specifies the target country for any new campaigns you create. Feed label helps Search Ads 360 to target your ads to the target country.
• Shopping campaigns created in Google Ads and synced to Search Ads 360: Product-level reporting isn't available for Google Merchant Center feeds with a blank feed label or a feed label containing anything other than a two-letter country code. Learn how to Use feed labels to advertise products from specific feeds.

Create a Google Ads Shopping campaign

1. In Search Ads 360, navigate to a Google Ads engine account and click the Campaigns tab.

   Steps for navigating to an engine account

   1. In the left navigation panel, click All accounts.
      What if the left navigation pane isn't visible?

   2. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

   3. In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

   4. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser that contains the engine account.

   5. In the "Account" list, click on the engine account.

   6. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

   Search Ads 360 displays the engine account page.

2. Above the reporting table, click New and select Shopping campaign.

3. In the campaign editor, name the campaign.
   Campaign names are case-sensitive in Search Ads 360.

4. Enter campaign settings.

5. Click Save.
   The new campaign appears in the table of existing campaigns.

Next steps

Search Ads 360 automatically creates an ad group that contains one ad and one product group. After you create the campaign, you can do any of the following:

1. Edit the settings of the ad group that Search Ads 360 creates or create additional ad groups.
    
2. Subdivide the product group Search Ads 360 creates into more focused groups based upon your advertising goals, your business structure, and the types of products in the feed. You can also set up Search Ads 360 to automatically subdivide product groups based on a goal you specify.

Settings for a Google Ads Shopping campaign

Budgets and Dates

Enter the budget and start/end dates as you would for a manual campaign.

Shopping

Inventory account

The inventory list contains all Merchant Center accounts that you have linked with Search Ads 360. Be sure to select an account that you have also linked with Google Ads.

Country of sale

Select the country where the products in this campaign are sold.
This setting defines which products from your Merchant Center inventory are advertised in this campaign. It filters products based on the target country of the feed containing those products.

 

 

Campaign priority

If you have multiple Shopping campaigns advertising the same product, this setting determines which campaign (and its associated bid) will be used when ads for these products show.
By default, all Shopping campaigns are set to Low campaign priority. To change, select Medium or High, depending on how you choose to prioritize this campaign over other Shopping campaigns with the same products. Learn more about the campaign priority setting on the Google Ads Help Center.

Inventory filter

Use this setting to limit the products you want to advertise in your Shopping campaign based on the Merchant Center product attributes you choose.
By default, the inventory filter is set to None - use all products in country of sale (recommended). To change, select Create custom filter.

1. Select the attribute and corresponding value of the products you want to include in your Shopping campaign.
2. Add more as needed (up to 7 attribute filters). 

Local

Local inventory ads allow you to advertise products that are available in nearby stores when a customer searches for items. Once you have set up local product feeds in your Google Merchant Center account, you can configure your Shopping campaigns to display ads for your in-store products. Learn more about including local inventory ads in Shopping campaigns.

Bid strategy

Bidding strategy

Applies a Search Ads 360 bid strategy or a Google Ads bid strategy to the campaign. The bid strategy will automatically adjust bids and bid adjustments to optimize your advertising goals. To set bids manually instead of using a bid strategy, select Manual bidding.

By default, a bid strategy is inherited by a campaign's ad groups and keywords unless an ad group or keyword is managed by a different bid strategy.

To apply a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy in Search Ads 360, you are required to first create the portfolio bid strategy in Google Ads and then run a sync in Search Ads 360.

1.  In the left panel in the Bid strategy section, click Search Ads 360 bid strategies or Google Ads bid strategies.

2. In the right panel, click the arrow to display the list, and then select one of the following settings.

   Search Ads 360 bid strategy settings:

   • Manual bidding
   • A specific bid strategy
   • Create new bid strategy

   Google Ads portfolio bid strategy settings:

   • No bid strategy (manual bidding)
   • A specific portfolio bid strategy

Avoid bid strategy conflicts

You can only create Search Ads 360 bid strategies in Search Ads 360. You can only create a Google Ads portfolio bid strategies in Google Ads. You can apply Search Ads 360 bid strategies and Google Ads portfolio bid strategies in Search Ads 360. For best results, don't apply a Search Ads 360 bid strategy and a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy to the same campaign, ad group, or keyword because you will get unpredictable results.

Even though Search Ads 360 detects whether a Search Ads 360 bid strategy or a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy is already applied to an item and displays a warning message, Search Ads 360 doesn't prevent you from applying the bid strategy.

 

Ad groups and keywords can inherit a Search Ads 360 bid strategy and a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy

As mentioned earlier, inheritance applies to bid strategies from the same source (Search Ads 360 or Google Ads). That is, a Search Ads 360 bid strategy applied to an ad group overrides the Search Ads 360 bid strategy applied to the ad group's campaign. The same is true for a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy.

A Google Ads portfolio bid strategy doesn't override a Search Ads 360 bid strategy.

A Search Ads 360 bid strategy doesn't override a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy.  

 

Example

If you apply a Search Ads 360 bid strategy to a campaign, the campaign's ad group will inherit the Search Ads 360 bid strategy, even if you apply a Google Ads portfolio bid strategy to the same ad group. Both the Search Ads 360 bid strategy and the Google Ads portfolio bid strategy will be trying to manage the ad group's keywords.

 

 

Automatically add location targets

If you specify high-level location targets, such as a country or state in a campaign, you can let Search Ads 360 use performance data to automatically create new, smaller, focused location targets from your existing geo-location targets. For example, if you've targeted a country, Search Ads 360 might create location targets for some provinces within the country. If you've targeted a state, Search Ads 360 might create location targets for some cities with the state.

Learn more about adaptive location targets.

Automatically add product groups

Search Ads 360 can monitor your Merchant Center feed and automatically subdivide product groups by the product ID attribute using criteria that you define in a conversion goal or Search Ads 360 bid strategy. The goal specifies the conversions that are relevant to your shopping campaign and instructs Search Ads 360 to create new groups using one of the following criteria:

• Create new groups for products that generate similar amounts of revenue
  (along with a similar number of clicks and conversion rate)
• Create new groups for products that generate a similar number of conversions
  (along with a similar number of clicks)

How bids are set on adapted product groups

A conversion goal uses Floodlight or Google Analytics conversions to set only the initial bid for adapted product groups. You can then manually change the bid for the adapted product group.

A bid strategy uses Floodlight, Google Analytics, or Google Ads conversions to continually adjust bids for adapted product groups.

Learn more about adaptive product groups.

 

Let Search Ads 360 automatically create location targets and product groups

1. If you haven't already done so, apply a Search Ads 360 bid strategy to the campaign.

   1. In the Bid strategy section, click Search Ads 360 bid strategies.
   2. In the right panel, under Search Ads 360 bid strategy, click the arrow▼ to display the list, and then select a bid strategy with a conversions or revenue goal.
2. Under Adaptive settings, select the following check boxes:
   • Location targets 
   • Product groups
    

   If you select the adaptive Location targets check box, we recommend that you also select the Location target bid adjustments check box in the bid strategy's optimization settings.

   1. Click Edit optimization settings.
   2. In the bid strategy editor, under Automatically optimize, select the Location target bid adjustments check box.
   3. Click Save bid strategy.
3. If you're done making changes to the campaign's settings, click Save.

Campaign goal

If you select a Search Ads 360 manual bidding strategy, you can select a conversion goal for the campaign. A conversion goal sets or recommends bid adjustments and can auto-generate or automatically adapt location targets and, in a shopping campaign, automatically add product groups.

Automatically add location targets

If you've already specified high-level location targets, such as a country or state in a campaign, you can let Search Ads 360 use performance data to automatically create new focused location targets from your existing geo-location targets. For example, if you've targeted a country, Search Ads 360 might create location targets for some provinces within the country. If you've targeted a state, Search Ads 360 might create location targets for some cities with the state.

Learn more about adaptive location targets.

Automatically add product groups

Search Ads 360 can monitor your Merchant Center feed and automatically subdivide product groups by the product ID attribute using criteria that you define in a conversion goal or Search Ads 360 bid strategy. The goal specifies the conversions that are relevant to your shopping campaign and instructs Search Ads 360 to create new groups using one of the following criteria:

• Create new groups for products that generate similar amounts of revenue
  (along with a similar number of clicks and conversion rate)
• Create new groups for products that generate a similar number of conversions
  (along with a similar number of clicks)

How bids are set on adapted product groups

A conversion goal uses Floodlight or Google Analytics conversions to set only the initial bid for adapted product groups. You can then manually change the bid for the adapted product group.

A bid strategy uses Floodlight, Google Analytics, or Google Ads conversions to continually adjust bids for adapted product groups.

Learn more about adaptive product groups.

Select a conversion goal for the campaign

1. In the Bid strategy section, click Search Ads 360 Bid strategies.
2. Under Search Ads 360 bid strategy, click the arrow▼ to display the list, and then select Manual bidding.
3. Under Campaign goal, select or create a conversion goal.

4. Under Bid adjustments, select any or all of the following bid adjustments that you want the goal to set:

   • Mobile bid adjustments
   • Remarketing target bid adjustments (Google Ads ad groups only)
   • Location target bid adjustments

   If you don't select a check box, the conversion goal will only recommend bid adjustments.

    

    
5. To automatically add location targets from existing location targets, under Adaptive settings, select the Location targets check box. 
   If you select the adaptive Location targets check box, we recommend that you also select the Location target bid adjustments check box.
6. To automatically add product groups from existing product groups, under Adaptive settings, select the Product groups check box.
7. If you're done making changes to the campaign's settings, click Save.  

Targeting

Targeting

Enter values for locations, networks, and device bid adjustments as you would for a Google Ads manual campaign.

If you apply a conversion goal or Search Ads 360 bid strategy that maximizes conversions or revenue (Smart Bidding strategy) to a campaign, the goal is used to automatically:

• Set or recommend device bid adjustments
• Set or recommend location target bid adjustments
• Create smaller, focused location targets from larger location targets

URL options

URL template

A campaign-level URL template applies a tracking URL to landing page URLs for all product groups in the campaign.

This template applies to all product groups in the campaign, though lower-level items like ad groups can define their own template instead. If you create a template for the engine account, the campaign uses its own template instead of the account's template.

URL parameters that appear in this field may not be sent to the landing page, depending on how you define them. The recommended practice is use the Final URL Suffix to specify URL parameters that your landing pages require.

Learn more about URL templates

Final URL Suffix

Specifies URL parameters that your site uses for tracking purposes. Google Ads adds these parameters to all  landing page URLs in the campaign when it serves an ad.

For example, the following URL suffix appends a static URL parameter, a parameter with a Search Ads 360 custom parameter, and a Google Ads ValueTrack parameter:
p_id=42&campaign={_dscampaign}&src={param2}

 

Custom parameters (optional)

Defines parameters and values you can add to the URL template or Final URL Suffix for the campaign or any of its ad groups or product groups. You can also add these parameters directly to the landing page URLs in any of the campaign's product groups. If custom parameters defined at a lower level use the same name as the ones you define here, the parameter values at the lower level override the values specified for the campaign.