Product Listing Ads Change Back to Google Shopping

 

This week, Google have changed ‘Product Listing Ad Campaigns‘ to ‘Shopping’ in AdWords (kind of). And with the change, comes a much easier way of working with Product Listing Ads. Rejoice!

Normally, I fear change. But this was actually so easy to set up I’m already embracing the change. Plus, you get loads of fabby new features and reports.

Remember how annoying it was having to add auto targets and then validate each one? Those days are over, Buddy.

The Old One

New & Shiny

And adding products literally could not be easier…

 

Once you have added the products you want using the sub-division options of your choosing, you can apply bids to each one at ad group level (now called product groups, FYI), the same as before. All products will be hiding at the bottom. You can also add more layers to each product group to make the targeting ‘Toight like a Toiger’.

 

Now on to the rest of the improvements:

Products!

A full list of all products in your Merchant Centre feed. And you can filter it – snazzy.

Additional Columns on the Product Groups Tab!

See how your ads perform against the competition with a handy benchmark CTR and Benchmark Maximum CPC, as well as your impression share.

Set Up Multiple Campaigns With Super Granular Targeting and Set the Campaign Priority!

Got a sale on a select group of products? No problem. Just set up a new campaign with Inventory Filters and choose whether you want this campaign to be prioritised over an existing one.

So all in all, good stuff. But I have come across a few fails along the way…

 

1. Does not appear to be compatible with AdWords Editor (The current version 10.3.2 and earlier)
2. Says that when I try to add an ad that there are too many text ads in the ad group.

 

Add an ad… sure.

Oh! OK, no. You may have one only. And theoretically, it’s not really a text ad, it’s an ad promotion extension thing.

 

Also, if you want to get to ‘Ad Groups’…

3. You’ll need to go to the all campaign view, then all ad groups and filter. If your ad group is turned off, it will just say ‘Empty’ under the folder, and if it says ‘Empty’, your ads are NOT running! (If someone can work out an easier way of getting to the campaign ad group when it’s paused - please let me know! I’m baffled).

Good

Not Good

 

And that’s about it for now. I’m off to faff about with it some more!

 

Update!

Found something that sucks this morning - no actual search terms, so no way of adding negatives that you don’t want the Shopping ads to show for. What a fail.

Here’s what I mean…

 

Old Product Listing Ads

Previously, I could use auto targets tab to see exactly what terms had been searched and matched to my data feed, and I could exclude any that I didn’t think were relevant enough to bid for.

But now, no actual search terms, so no way of adding these as negative keywords. Woe is me.

 

New Product Listing Ads

Again, if anyone can find this, let me know! (I’m guessing once I have enough data I can see the search terms in the dimensions tab, but don’t think I can add them from there unless I export the report and then enter the negative keywords manually)? PAH!