How to Set Up Google Shopping Ads?

Setup Roadmap: What “Google Shopping Ads” Actually Need to Work

When people say “Google Shopping Ads,” they’re usually referring to product-based ads that pull from your product data (not from keywords). The core setup has three moving parts that must line up: your product catalog in Merchant Center, your measurement in Google Ads (so bidding can optimize to revenue), and a campaign type that can serve Shopping inventory (most commonly Performance Max with a Merchant Center product data source, or a Standard Shopping campaign).

If you build those three correctly, everything else—bidding, targeting, creative testing, and profitability—becomes dramatically easier.

Before You Touch Campaigns: Quick Readiness Checklist

• You can edit your website (or your developer can), because site verification and tracking usually require it.
• You have stable product landing pages that load on mobile and don’t force login to view price/availability.
• Your store policies are clearly visible (shipping, returns, contact info). Policy gaps are one of the fastest ways to get limited visibility or disapprovals.
• You can pass revenue (transaction-specific conversion values) into Google Ads for purchases.

Part 1: Merchant Center Setup (Products, Policies, and Eligibility)

1) Verify and Claim Your Store URL (Don’t Skip This)

Merchant Center needs to confirm you own the domain you’re submitting products for. Verification proves ownership; claiming reserves that verified URL for your Merchant Center account so your products can be approved and served consistently.

In practice, verification is often automatic if your site is already connected to certain measurement tools, but you should know the manual options because they’re common for newer stores or stores using platforms that restrict access.

Typical verification paths include adding an HTML tag, uploading an HTML file to your server, or using an existing container/property where you have admin-level access. If verification fails, one of the most common fixes is correcting how the URL is entered (for example, removing prefixes like “www” or “https” in the field when prompted) and ensuring the verification tag is placed exactly where required (usually in the homepage head section).

2) Choose How You’ll Add Products (Pick the Method You Can Maintain)

Merchant Center supports multiple product upload methods (file upload, scheduled fetch, spreadsheets, ecommerce platform integrations, and API-based approaches). The “best” method is the one you’ll keep accurate every day—especially for price and availability.

One important operational detail: switching your primary upload method can remove existing products created by the previous method, so treat feed-method changes like a migration. Download/export your current product information first so you can re-use it (and avoid accidental product loss). Products you added manually one-by-one in the product editor are handled differently than feed-based products, but most serious ecommerce programs should still plan feed changes carefully.

3) Build a Clean Product Feed (This Is Where Performance Starts)

Shopping performance is tightly tied to feed quality because your titles, identifiers, images, and categories drive matching, eligibility, and ad prominence. At minimum, make sure every item has consistent core attributes: a stable ID, strong title, accurate description, correct landing page link, valid image, price, availability, and condition. Then tighten product identifiers: brand and GTIN whenever available, and only use MPN when you’re confident it’s correct (guessing can cause disapprovals).

A common mistake I still see after 15+ years is merchants filling unknown fields with placeholders like “N/A” or “Generic.” That tends to create avoidable issues. If something truly doesn’t exist for a product, handle it using the appropriate attribute logic (for example, indicating that a product identifier doesn’t exist when legitimate).

If you’re in the United States, note a major simplification: starting July 1, 2025, Merchant Center stopped requiring merchants to provide US sales tax, and the related tax attributes/settings have been removed over time. That shifts your focus even more toward shipping accuracy and on-site policy clarity.

4) Select the Right Marketing Methods (Shopping Ads vs Free Listings)

Merchant Center lets you control where products are eligible to show using marketing methods (this replaced older “destinations” language in many interfaces). Two important concepts: enabling “free listings” can allow eligible products to show without ad spend after review, while “Shopping ads” requires an active Google Ads campaign to actually serve paid placements.

At the product data source level, you can select which marketing methods apply so products inherit the correct eligibility. If you need granular control, product-level include/exclude attributes can keep specific items out of Shopping ads (or out of free listings) without changing the whole feed. This is useful for low-margin brands, restricted products, or items with compliance risk.

5) Configure Shipping and Returns Like a Merchant, Not Like a Marketer

Shipping and returns settings are not “admin busywork”—they directly affect eligibility, user trust, and click-to-purchase rate. Set up shipping policies in your account so they match your actual checkout experience, and keep your account-level settings consistent with item-level feed data (inconsistent configurations can create surprises).

If you use a platform or third-party app that syncs shipping, be aware those automated updates can overwrite manual edits. Decide who is the “source of truth” for shipping rates early to avoid constant mismatches.

Returns are worth special attention because they can appear with your products and influence buying decisions. You can define return policies, add country coverage, create exceptions (and label products that have different rules), and monitor verification status (for example, pending vs verified vs rejected). The policy must be easy to find on your website without forcing login, and it must be consistent across your site and Merchant Center.

Part 2: Google Ads Setup (Linking, Tracking, and Campaign Creation)

1) Link Merchant Center to Google Ads (Do This Before Campaign Build)

Your Google Ads account must be linked to the Merchant Center account that holds the products you intend to advertise. This is also where many teams get stuck when agencies are involved: the request may start in Merchant Center, but it often requires approval inside Google Ads by someone with admin-level access.

Once linked, treat the Merchant Center selection inside campaigns as a one-way door: after a Shopping campaign is created, you typically can’t swap it to a different Merchant Center account. Plan your account structure first (especially if you sell in multiple countries or manage multiple brands).

2) Set Up Conversion Tracking (Shopping Without Revenue Tracking Is a Budget Leak)

For ecommerce, your “Purchase” conversion should pass a transaction-specific value (the order revenue, or revenue adjusted to whatever your business considers the correct optimization value). This is what allows automated bidding to make intelligent decisions across a catalog with different price points.

In Google Ads, the modern conversion setup flow usually starts by adding your website URL and scanning the site to detect an existing tag or an existing analytics property that can be linked. If nothing is detected, you’ll be prompted to install a sitewide tag. After conversion actions are created, don’t ignore enhanced conversions—enabling them improves measurement quality and makes smart bidding more reliable, especially as browsers and privacy settings reduce basic tracking signals.

If you’re on a commerce platform integration (for example, a dedicated app-based setup), be extra cautious about duplicate tracking. Two purchase tags firing can make an otherwise “profitable” campaign look incredible while it quietly overspends. Always validate that you have one primary purchase action used for bidding, and treat everything else as secondary/observational unless you have a clear reason.

3) Choose Your Campaign Type: Performance Max vs Standard Shopping

Most advertisers today should start with Performance Max using a Merchant Center product data source because it’s designed to expand reach across multiple Google channels using automation and your product feed. Standard Shopping still has a place when you need more manual control (for example, tighter query control workflows), but it generally requires more ongoing management to stay competitive.

4) Create a Performance Max Campaign That Can Serve Shopping Inventory

When you build Performance Max for ecommerce, the key is attaching the product data source during campaign creation. You’ll choose an objective that supports Performance Max (commonly Sales), confirm conversion goals, select Performance Max, then choose to advertise products from a linked Merchant Center account. After the campaign is created, you typically cannot add/change/remove the product data source—so confirm you selected the correct Merchant Center and the correct product scope.

Next comes asset groups. Even though Shopping ads can render from your feed, Performance Max still benefits from strong creative inputs (headlines, descriptions, images, logos, and ideally video). If you don’t provide video, the system may generate one automatically; that can work, but brands that care about presentation should proactively provide at least one solid video so the message stays on-brand.

Keep your structure simple at launch. One campaign with a clean asset group structure is usually better than many fragmented campaigns competing against each other for learning—unless you have a clear separation need (different countries/languages, fundamentally different ROAS targets, or distinct inventory strategies).

5) Create a Standard Shopping Campaign (If You Need the Classic Workflow)

To create a Standard Shopping campaign, you’ll start a new campaign, choose an eligible objective (Sales, Leads, Website traffic, Local store visits and promotions, or no goal guidance), then choose “Shopping” as the campaign type. You’ll pick the Merchant Center account that contains the products you want to advertise, and optionally choose product scope using feed labels/data sources if you’ve set those up.

This is where many accounts go wrong: they build the campaign before the feed is truly ready. If products aren’t approved for the “Shopping ads” marketing method (or are stuck in review/needs attention), the campaign can launch into low volume or no impressions and waste your first week troubleshooting instead of learning.

Part 3: Make It Work in the Real World (Diagnostics, Feed Hygiene, and Early Optimization)

1) Turn On Feed Safety Nets (But Don’t Use Them as an Excuse)

One of the best “quiet wins” in Merchant Center is enabling automations that help prevent temporary price/availability/condition mismatches by checking your landing pages. This can reduce sudden disapprovals when your site updates faster than your feed.

However, these automations are not a replacement for keeping your product data current. If your prices and availability change frequently, you should still update your feed often (or use an API-based approach) so the catalog stays accurate at scale. Also remember that these automations rely on your site’s structured data being correct; bad markup can cause automation issues and visibility drops.

2) Fix “No Impressions” and “Low Traffic” with This Order of Operations

• Check product approval status first: if items are disapproved or limited, campaigns can’t perform no matter how good your bidding is.
• Confirm marketing method eligibility: products must be eligible for Shopping ads to serve paid placements.
• Validate conversion tracking: make sure Purchase is recording correctly with values, and you’re not double-counting.
• Review shipping/returns accuracy: mismatches between Merchant Center settings and checkout experience can contribute to issues and lower conversion rates.
• Ensure the right account linkage: correct Google Ads ↔ Merchant Center link, and the campaign is using the intended Merchant Center account/product scope.

3) Policy Compliance: The Fastest Way to Lose Shopping Eligibility

Shopping is stricter than Search text ads because it’s product-first and consumer-trust-first. If your site experience or business representation is misleading—or your policies are unclear—you can run into account-level impacts, not just individual product disapprovals.

Build trust signals directly into your storefront experience: clear contact info, transparent pricing, shipping timelines that match what you advertise, and a return policy that’s easy to find and consistent everywhere it appears. If something is flagged, fix the site and the product data first, then use the review/appeal mechanisms only after the underlying issues are truly resolved.

4) Early Optimization Tips That Actually Move Revenue

Start by ensuring you’re optimizing to the right outcome. For ecommerce, that usually means optimizing to purchase conversion value (not just clicks). Let the campaign run long enough to learn—six weeks is a practical minimum for many Performance Max ecommerce launches, especially if volume is moderate.

Use your feed to create clarity for the bidding system. Add custom labels that reflect your business priorities (best sellers, seasonal items, high-margin products, clearance) so you can segment inventory into separate campaigns or asset groups when needed. If you have both online and in-store goals, plan that intentionally rather than mixing everything by accident; multi-channel setups can work extremely well, but only when inventory signals and measurement are solid.

Finally, invest in “boring” creative completeness. Strong images and accurate product data will carry a lot of weight, but adding high-quality assets (especially video) gives Performance Max more to work with across placements and can improve both volume and efficiency over time.

‍

Setting up Google Shopping Ads is mostly about getting the fundamentals right before you ever touch bids: making sure your store meets Merchant Center policies (clear shipping/returns/contact info, no forced login), verifying and claiming your domain, building and maintaining a clean product feed with accurate identifiers, configuring shipping and returns to match checkout, and then linking Merchant Center to the correct Google Ads account with purchase conversion tracking that passes revenue so Performance Max or Shopping campaigns can optimize properly. If you want a lighter way to keep all of that healthy after launch, Blobr connects to your Google Ads account and uses specialized AI agents to continuously spot issues and opportunities across campaigns and creatives, such as improving underperforming RSA messaging with its Headlines Enhancer agent or tightening keyword-to-landing-page alignment with its Keyword Landing Optimizer agent, helping you spend more time on strategy while staying on top of ongoing diagnostics and optimizations.