Application of Google Shoppping Ads

We briefly discussed Google shopping and the increased competition from Amazon's own search tools in class. This was one of the topics that piqued my interest in particular. From an end user / potential customer's perspective, I know for a fact that purchase decisions are not solely based on the price sometimes. I care about ratings and the description beneath those small square images. For example, I wouldn't click on a shopping ad if the site doesn't have any ratings; also, words like "free shipping" would certainly be a plus.

I did a bit more research on this topic. I find the below articles very informative as they both offer technique-based advice that e-commerce owners and marketers can easily implement as they navigate this tool. 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307077

https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/google-shopping-campaign-tips/

Getting set up on Google merchant center is just the first step. Since the tool is fairly expensive, optimizing the shopping ad compaign is necessary. It is more of a strategic add-on tool in my view. The decision to invest in Google shopping ads is influenced by how old an e-commerce site is and how successful its business has been. For example, ratings are important for these Google shopping ads. However, for a ratings to show on your ad, you need to have a mininum of 3 reviews of any single product and a minimum of 50 reviews across your site.