The condition to run Google Shopping ads is to import product data into Google Merchant Center first. If you are using Woocommerce, there are many plugins that support quick export of data, but the best plugin today is Product Feed PRO for WooCommerce.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Install and activate the plugin
First of all, you need to install the plugin on your website.
Step 2: Create Feed
Go to Product Feed PRO → Create Feed and then choose as instructed here:
Project name: Enter any name. As an example here, I export data to advertise for the website dogothanhtung.vn so I set it as DoGoThanhTung for easy remembering.
Country: Vietnam (Select the country you want to advertise).
Channel: Google Shopping. The plugin also supports exporting data for other ad networks like Bing, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat but you probably won’t use it.
Include product variations: Default is Off. Pop it up if your product has multiple variations.
Add only include default product variation: Default is Off.
Add only include lowest priced product variations: Default is Off. For products with multiple variants (different selling prices) you should Enable to export only the data of the variant with the lowest price. This is beneficial for Google Shopping ads because of the low price, who doesn’t like it, right?
File format: Select CSV to also import into Excel or Google Sheets to edit for convenience.
Delimiter: tab
Refresh interval: No refresh
Done with this step, press Save & Continue to continue.
Step 3: Field mapping
All default data you leave as is. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Add field mapping button to add new data according to the instructions below:
Remember to do exactly as the picture, then output the data correctly.
Step 4: Category mapping
This step is to match your Woocommerce product catalog with Google Shopping product catalog.
Google has a standardized library of product categories (google_product_category). For each product, we must declare the code of the appropriate category. If the declaration is wrong, the product will not be approved and cannot run ads.
At this step if you enter the code google_product_category then the data will automatically be added for all products in the respective category on your website. However, I usually skip this step because manually entering in the Excel file will be more accurate. The reason is that our catalogs are often not as detailed as Google’s, so there will be products in the same category on the web but the code is different. google_product_category different again.
You scroll to the bottom of the page, press the Save mappings button to continue.
Bước 5: Conversion & Google Analytics settings
This is the section that configures conversions for tracking in Google Analytics. Those of you who can read the Google Analytics report can certainly configure this part yourself, so I won’t say any more to focus on the main content.
If you don’t need tracking, turn off Enable Google Analytics tracking.
When done, press the Generate Product Feed button to continue.
After downloading, you will get an Excel file like this:
Based on this file, next you just need to add some data to get the complete data file required by Google Merchant Center.
Step 6: Normalize Google Shopping data file
The standard data file to import into Google Merchant Center has the following columns:
Compared with the data file you just exported with the Product Feed PRO for WooCommerce plugin, we still have empty data fields: google_product_category, brand, gtin and mpn.
First, you can see the Google Shopping product data specifications here:
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=vi
You will see which fields are required and which fields can be left blank.
GTIN
For Thanh Tung Furniture, all products are self-manufactured, there is no barcode, so the GTIN column can be left blank. And with all products that are not branded products, without clear origin, the GTIN can be left blank!
MPN
Same as GTIN, leave it blank!
BRAND (trademark)
Because the product is not a branded product, you can leave this column blank or enter the name of your shop. For example, here I import Thanh Tung Furniture.
Google Product Category
First you download Google’s normalized catalog here:
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324436?hl=vi
You should download the Excel file (.xls) for easy lookup:
Then compare your products with Google’s standardized catalog to declare the correct catalog number, then the new product will be approved and distributed to the right target customers.
Your product is not in the Google catalog?
If so then you can choose a category that is most relevant.
For example, among the fine art wood products that Thanh Tung Furniture is trying to advertise, wood collapse not in the Google product catalog. However, we can put it in the group of Living room furniture sets (Code: 6348). Although many people also buy collapsible to put in the church room.
