19 February 2016

Google

Google Merchant Centre – Perfect for E-Commerce Solutions Part 1

What Google Merchant Does and How it Can Help You Sell More on Your E-Commerce Site

There are tonnes of articles about Google Merchant Centre online but the blur between Google Merchant Centre, PLA, PPC and Adwords is never really omitted, leaving people confused to the extent that even if they knew about Google Merchant Centre, they wouldn’t know where to start.

So, let’s break this down.

Who can use Google Merchant Centre?

If you have an E-Commerce site that:

• Has just been built
• Has existed for a while
• Has undergone a makeover

Then Google Merchant Centre can provide the perfect solution to increase the sales of your products. In fact, even if your E-Commerce site has not been built but you want to explore additional avenues that you can take to get your products full exposure, it is definitely a tool that is worth exploring.

A lot of E-Commerce website owners haven’t even heard of Google Merchant Centre, let alone knowing the potential it has to grow your online business to new heights, but only once you have used it and learned what it can do for you will you truly realise the value it provides to your business and how it can increase your profits. In order to use it, you first need to know what it is, what it does and how it works. So continue reading to find out!

What is Google Merchant Centre?

Google Merchant Centre is an online tool that can help you advertise and promote your products on Google itself. The best bit is that it is completely free to set up and you only pay for what you want with no hidden costs.

What is the difference between Google Merchant Centre, PPC, PLA and Adwords?

Perhaps the most confusing aspect of researching into the use of Google Merchant Centre is the fact that all of terms and tools are thrown around very causally but very few business owners really know the difference.

PLA stands for Product Listing Ads and is a type of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisement/promotion, where you, as the advertiser would pay money per click every time the ad is clicked. The only real difference between the two is that PLA is PPC but with images of the product as well as just the words.

Google Merchant Centre and Adwords are both tools provided by Google that enable you to start a PLA campaign. With Google Merchant Centre, you simply upload your product and all the relevant information associated with it, and with Google Adwords you begin the actual sales campaign.

So, now that that’s all cleared up, what does using Google Merchant Centre actually involve?

What is the process?

All you need to get started is to visit the Google Merchant Centre site and set up your account for Merchant Centre. Once you have done that, simply upload the products that you want to promote and sell (whether that is all of them or just a selection) and then start advertising your products through an Adwords campaign (also known as Product Listing Ads, or PLA).

How does Google Merchant Centre work?

Google Merchant Centre works in conjunction with Google Adwords and constitutes the first half of the whole sales campaign that you would need in order to maximise the benefits you receive from the program. Here, you can upload and manage information about your products such as how much stock of that product is available and how much it costs. Google Adwords constitutes the second part of the sales campaign this is where you are able to decide the amount of money you would like to pay per click and generally set the whole shopping campaign up. If you want more information about Google Adwords, check out part 1 and part 2 of our Google Adwords blog.

To find out what the features of Google Merchant Centre are, and what makes them so good, stay tuned for part 2.