What are Google shopping results? Google shopping results are both free and paid ads for products that appear in a Google search.
Online markets are bigger than ever. However, these marketplaces are crowded, so now is the perfect time to make your products stand out above the rest. Using shopping results is one tactic you can deploy to get more of your merchandise in front of more customers.
What are Google shopping results?
You have probably seen shopping results before, but you may not have known what they were. Also known as product listing ads (PLAs), shopping results are both free and paid ads for products that appear in a Google search.
They contain the following features:
- A photo of your product
- A title
- The price
- Your store name
- Your average reviews, if applicable
For almost a decade, you could only get shopping results on Google for your products using paid ads. But in April 2020, Google opened it up to free advertisements, as well.
Enable shopping results by creating a Google Merchant Center account if your company doesn’t already have one. Then upload your products, making sure to format your listings appropriately. Finally, be sure to link your Google Ads account.
Shopping results at work
An example of shopping results might give you a better idea of how they work.
Let’s say your company sells clothing, and your best seller is a black hoodie. A potential customer searches for “buy black hoodie” on Google. The customer sees paid ads on the first page featuring pictures of the hoodies, names of the companies, prices, and potential starred reviews.
These results show up on a scrollable carousel for the shopper to browse so they can determine which one looks best quickly. If you have paid for Google Ads, your ad for a black hoodie may show up on the user’s front page.
Additionally, the customer can click on the Shopping tab, which will take them to both paid ads and organic listings. Any unpaid ads of yours would show up here.
Benefits of Google shopping results
Shopping results display product options without taking searchers away from the search page, which gives users information they can use to decide which item to buy.
This ease of use makes customers more likely to buy your product since they already know the major details when they click through to your site.
Also, shopping results offer small businesses a huge opportunity to advertise products for free on Google. This opportunity may be especially useful for any drops in sales with the fluctuation of the economy.
Additionally, your company may also decide that paid ads would give you a decent return on ad spend, thus making it lucrative to pay for Google Ads.
What type of content does Google’s shopping results work on?
Shopping results show up for searches with the intention of purchasing an item. It can be any item that is available for sale, from clothing to car tires to televisions. However, these results aren’t based on keywords.
Instead, to increase the chances that your ads will appear, your best bet is to make sure the data for the products in your Merchant Center fit with Google’s requirements.
