On April 21, Google announced that it would display your products for free in the “Shopping” tab. We talked about this in our article “Google Shopping Free? Your products will be displayed in the organic Shopping results!”
The “new” feature has so far been available in the USA. Now it’s announced by Google as a worldwide launch of free shopping listings!
In mid-October, search results in the Shopping tab will also feature free ads, whether or not you advertise on Google Shopping.
Google’s stated aim: to help retailers connect with more customers.
From paid Google Shopping to free Google Shopping
From mid-October, the Google Shopping tab, in France and the rest of the world, will no longer feature only paid ads, but a mix of paid and free.
Merchants who have participated in the program since April 2020 in the US have seen an average increase of over 50% in clicks and over 100% in impressions on both free and paid ads in the Shopping tab. Merchants, both “small and medium-sized”, saw the biggest increase.
Google sees free ads as complementary to existing paid ads. It is therefore recommended to use both free product listings and paid Shopping ads.
What impact will existing shopping campaigns have?
According to Google, the free product listing will have no impact on the performance of your current shopping campaigns.
However, you will be able to track the evolution and performance of products in the “Google Shopping Free” section in new Merchant Center reports.
These reports will be visible in the “Performance” and “Product” sections of Merchant Center.
How can you improve your performance on free Google Shopping listings?
To improve your ranking in Google Shopping’s free product listing, you’ll need to follow the best practices that should be implemented for Google Shopping campaigns. You’ll need to continue optimizing your feed and the quality of the product information you add to it.
Feed attributes are therefore the key to quality.
In fact, we recommend you re-read our article on optimizing your Google Shopping feed.
Use all required flow attributes and ensure that the data produced is up-to-date, correct and complete.
As far as technical constraints are concerned, all you have to do is opt for the feed of your existing ads in Google’s surfaces. You don’t need to create a separate feed. Separate feeds for your Shopping ads and the free listing could result in the loss of product eligibility for Shopping ads.
Here you’ll find all the data requirements and eligibility criteria for displaying your products on Google surfaces.
Conclusion
This is a major development for Google Shopping and for merchants who promote their products on Google.
It’s also a step backwards for Google, which launched Google Shopping free of charge.
In any case, the key to these developments is the data and information in the product feed sent to the Merchant Center;
The optimization of feed attributes and their enrichment needs to be worked on and improved. We are available to discuss with you the possible evolution of your flow and the improvement of your catalog’s visibility.
