Take advantage of Merchant Promotions in Google Merchant Center (GMC) regularly and especially on peak shopping days like Black Friday. Find out how to enhance your Product Listing Ads with our in-depth guide on how to create Google Merchant promotions.
Before you keep reading this article first check if your country is eligible to use Merchant Promotions.
Which countries have access to create Merchant Promotions for Google PLA campaigns?
Merchant Promotions are currently available in:
- Australia
- France
- Germany
- India
- United Kingdom
- US
Why are retailers in these countries taking advantage of Merchant Promotions for their Google PLA campaigns? Google has published data that suggests around the time of Black Friday people’s online search behaviour changes and it’s all about the deals.
Mobile searches containing “Black Friday” increased by 80% over the past two years (e.g., “when is black friday,” “lowes blackfriday,” “best black friday deals”).
About 2.5 weeks before the four-day weekend, there is a switch to searches for Black Friday becoming mostly branded (e.g., “ashley furniture black friday” and “sephora blackfriday 2016”) as shoppers narrow down their options and begin laser-focusing their research on the specific items they want to buy.
Research from Google Data, US, October – December 2014 and 2016
What does a Google Merchant Promotion look like?
A Merchant Promotion provides more visibility to your Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) by adding the text “Special Offer” to your product listings. As you roll-over the special offer text you’ll see a pop-up box. The sample below shows what the promotion could look like including a call-to-action, description, expiry and potential promo code.
Example of a Google Merchant Promotion from Google’s Blog
How do you create a Google Merchant Promotion?
To create a promotion you first need a Google Merchant Center (GMC) shopping feed. If you have this feed and a GMC account then you need to fill out a Merchant Promotions Interest Form.
It is a fairly short form with the following message at the top.
Once you get the ok from Google to start your Merchant Promotions there are two ways to go about it.
Google Promotions Tool
Suggested for a low volume of promotions as it may be time-consuming.
OR
Google Promotions Feed
Suggested for if you have a high volume of promotions to submit.
Highstreet.io helps clients to optimise their Product Data Feeds by adding the required information so their ads display the right information to the right person at the right time. Contact us to find out how we can help you get your Google Shopping product data feeds optimised for the holiday season.
Option 1: Google Promotions Tool
Once you’ve selected Merchant Promotions in your GMC account and added a promotion, the next step is finding the right category.
Google states that GMC Promotions Builder offers 4 categories to choose from:
- Amount off: Offer a monetary discount for your items
- Percent off: Offer a percentage discount for your items
- Free gift: Offer a free gift based on an item purchase or amount spent
- Free shipping: Offer free shipping based on an item purchase or amount spent
Update your promotion by choosing your spend thresholds, the discount, gift descriptions, and more. The tool is very straightforward once you choose your category. Follow the in-depth step-by-step directions from Google.
Option 2: Promotions Feed
If you are submitting a high volume of promotions to GMC a Promotions Feed containing all of your promotions could help to streamline the submission process.
A .txt file, .xml file, or Google Sheets are acceptable formats for your promotions feed.
Once your feed is ready you’ll need to submit it to GMC in this location.
To make sure your feed is always updated we typically select Scheduled Fetch.
Conclusion
Review the specific details of your Google PLA Promotions as you decide what you what products you want to include. Google has strict criteria on what they allow.
Promotions criteria include:
- Limited for a 6 month time period
- Redeemable at check-out or time of purchase
- Compliant with policies and editorial requirements
NOTE: If your feed doesn’t meet Google’s technical requirements, policies or editorial guidelines it could prolong the approval of your promotions. Start the submission process as early as possible to ensure your promotions are approved. Highstreet.io is experienced with the management of promotions by extending our managed feeds with rule-based promotion ids.
Sell more online, get stores and products found locally and refresh large-scale product data quickly with Highstreet.io’s Full-Service Product and Store Feed Management.
More about Product Feeds:
How to create a Google Local Inventory Products Feed
How to create an Instagram Product Feed
4 Product Feed Solutions to Save you Time & Money