Google announced on April 21 that it will display your products in the “Shopping” tab free of charge. For the time being, these changes will take effect in the United States before the end of April, and will roll out worldwide before the end of the year.
(Update October 12, 2020: the worldwide launch of Google Shopping Free listings is officially scheduled for mid-October. See our article on the subject and the Google Free Shopping program update)
Paid ads will continue to appear in ad slots and will function in the same way as current Shopping ads.
Natural results from Google Shopping
Google’s announcement comes as something of a surprise, given that retailers who use Google Ads invest heavily in Google Shopping ads to promote their products.
Why make this feature free? What’s in it for Google? And what’s in it for merchants?
Why does Google make Google Shopping free?
In general, online shopping and the user experience on Google’s platforms have been major issues since the company decided to launch its “Shopping Action” Marketplace to compete with Amazon.
One might think that this is a throwback to Google Shopping, when “Froogle” was free back in 2012 at its launch. But it seems more accurate to say that it’s an enrichment of Google’s database.
More products = more purchasing opportunities = more product searches on Google and therefore less on Amazon.
Opening up Google Shopping and making it free of charge would be a way of capturing more buyers on Google and not leaving room for Amazon and other marketplaces. Some studies have already shown that Amazon captures more buyers than Google. According to Feedvisor’s March 2019 study, two-thirds of American shoppers generally start their search for new products on Amazon;
Source: Emarketer.com – Feedvisor study “The 2019 Amazon Consumer Behavior Report”.
Making Google Shopping free for merchants seems to have 3 objectives for Google:
- Expand product database in the face of Amazon.
- Showcase merchants who don’t run Shopping campaigns, and thus capture future customers for Google Shopping campaigns.
- Retain and acquire new users who currently prefer to search for products on Amazon and other marketplaces.
What are the benefits for merchants of participating in the Google Platforms program?
For merchants and e-tailers, the benefits are quite simple. It’s all about making your products visible and acquiring more customers through Google’s search engine, and more specifically through Google Shopping.
Merchants who don’t yet run Google Shopping campaigns will be able to discover the benefits of this visual ad format, which is already highly effective for those who do run paid Google Shopping campaigns.
What’s not certain, however, is how Google will select which products will be displayed as natural.
Some ads indicate that these will be “popular” products. But will it be SEO popularity: i.e., counted by the number of external links pointing to your page, popular because of the number of sales on your products, or popular because it’s a product with a lot of positive reviews?
How can I join the Google Platforms program?
To take part in the program, you must of course comply with Google’s prorgamme distribution rules. In order for your products to appear in Google Shopping’s natural results, you must meet one of the following two criteria:
- Work on your SEO, as your products will appear in Google Shopping’s “natural results”. You don’t need to have a Merchant Center account. Google will automatically retrieve product information via their structured data tags if these are present on your site. Our teams are available to help you with your SEO project.
Links:
=> Structured tags
=> Tools for creating structured tags
- Activate the “Google Platforms” program in your Merchant Center account. As soon as the program is active in France, you’ll need to add a new “destination” in the Flux import parameters. In the Merchant Center, under the “Growth” tab, you’ll find the link to “Manage programs”. Google Platforms” will then be displayed.
For the second option, in the Merchant Center, in the “Growth” section, you will find the link for “Manage programs” which redirects you to the functions and options in which you can participate (such as Google Shopping, Shopping Action, Avis Client …):
Google Platforms program
For the moment, as the program is not active in France, adding products to “Google Platforms” is not yet possible.
On the other hand, you’ll soon need to add a new “destination” to your feed. ” Destination: Google Platforms”.
Conclusion
In any case, we strongly recommend that you add rich content (or structured data tags) to your site and product sheets in the coming months if you wish to benefit from this free option.
As for the question of how products are displayed and search engine optimized on Google Shopping, we still don’t have all the answers.
Google talks about “popular” products, but this definition is very vague.
Are they popular products because they’re in high demand, or because they’re products with high sales, a lot of reviews, or because there are a lot of links pointing to this product page?…
We’ll keep a close eye on developments in the program and keep you informed. I hope these elements have given you a little more information on the subject!
We welcome your questions and comments. If you need more information or advice on your acquisition, our Google Ads Certified agency and our team of Google Ads Experts are available to discuss your requirements.
See you soon
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