Shopping Ads

A Shopping ad is an ad type that features detailed information about specific products that you sell. They let you promote your online and local inventory, boost traffic to your website or local shop and find better qualified leads.

Learn more about Shopping Ads.

Before you can create Shopping ads, you must first submit your products to your Google Merchant Center account. Google Merchant Center lets you upload your product data to Google to use with ads or other Google services. There are two approaches to uploading your products:

  1. As a product feed
  2. As individual products using Content API for Shopping

Once you've submitted your products, you need to link your Google Ads account to your Google Merchant Center account. See the article on linking your accounts for more information.

Automate using the Content API for Shopping

The following tasks can be done using your Google Merchant Center account or using Google Content API for Shopping:

  • Manage your Merchant Center account
  • Manage your product data (including price and availability)
  • Manage your tax & shipping settings

Automate using the Google Ads API

With the Google Ads API, you can automate many of the tasks you are able to perform in the Google Ads UI such as creating, updating, or deleting the following:

  • Campaigns
  • Campaign bidding strategies
  • Campaign budgets
  • Ad groups
  • Shopping product ads
  • Shopping listing group trees (equivalent to Product Groups in the Google Ads UI)

You can also access reporting information from the following views:

Prerequisites

Before you can use the Google Ads API with Shopping ads, you must first obtain the following:

Account ID of the Merchant Center
This can be found inside the Merchant Center UI. You need this account ID to link your Google Ads account with your Merchant Center account and to create Shopping campaigns that link to the Merchant Center.
Approved product data submitted to the Merchant Center
This product can be submitted as a product feed or uploaded using the Content API for Shopping. Once these products have been approved, they become available to use with Google Ads. To understand the requirements for submitted data, see the Product data specification.

Here are the steps necessary to create Shopping campaigns, ad groups, and ads with the Google Ads API:

  1. Link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts
  2. Create a Shopping campaign
  3. Create a Shopping ad group
  4. Create a Shopping ad group ad
  5. Create Shopping listing groups
  6. Reporting
Next
Link Merchant Center