Turn your Google Shopping Ads strategy into profitable growth

Google Shopping Ads are product-based ads that show information such as a product image, title, price and retailer directly in Google search results. Unlike traditional Search Ads, Shopping Ads use product information from Google Merchant Center and product feeds, rather than primarily relying on keywords to match products with relevant searches.

Your product information is submitted to Google Merchant Center and connected to Google Ads. Google uses information such as titles, descriptions, categories, identifiers, prices, availability and images to understand your products and match them with relevant searches. Connected then builds the strategy around this foundation, combining product data, audience behaviour, commercial priorities and campaign signals to determine which products to prioritise, where to invest and how to optimise towards your objectives.

A product feed is the structured information about your products supplied to Google Merchant Center. It can include product titles, descriptions, prices, availability, GTINs, brands, categories, images and other attributes. Feed quality is fundamental because Google uses this information to understand what you sell and determine when your products are relevant to a search. Keeping product information accurate and up to date is also important as prices, stock and product ranges change.

Shopping campaigns focus on Shopping inventory and provide a different level of campaign control, while Performance Max uses your Merchant Center product data across a broader range of Google inventory, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. The right approach depends on your objectives, available data, product range and the level of control and automation required. Connected considers the role each campaign structure should play rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.

Improving Shopping performance starts with getting the fundamentals right. This includes resolving product disapprovals, improving titles and attributes, completing identifiers, strengthening category mapping and ensuring pricing, availability and imagery are accurate. From there, Connected Media looks beyond the feed to product segmentation, audience behaviour, bidding, budgets and campaign structure, ensuring investment reflects the commercial value of different products rather than simply optimising towards an account-wide ROAS target.

ROAS is useful, but it doesn't tell the whole commercial story. Two products can generate the same revenue while delivering very different margins and profit. Connected Media starts by understanding the objective, whether that's sales volume, revenue, margin or profit, then builds the appropriate strategy and performance guardrails around it. Where reliable margin data is available, incorporating profit into decision-making can help prioritise the products and opportunities that create the greatest commercial value.

Not every product deserves the same level of investment. We consider factors such as sales volume, margin, stock levels, demand, strategic importance, promotional periods, seasonality and competitive positioning when deciding which products to prioritise. This allows us to build product-led campaign structures and investment strategies that reflect the commercial opportunity, rather than treating every product in the catalogue equally.

Very important. Shopping Ads expose information such as product price and imagery before a customer clicks, meaning the way a product is positioned can directly influence whether someone engages. Google also supports promotional and price-related annotations that can help products stand out. Connected considers pricing, promotions, discounts, seasonality and competitive positioning alongside media performance. The goal isn't simply to discount more, but to understand when and how an offer can create additional value and improve the likelihood of conversion.

People don't all search and shop in the same way. Search behaviour can vary by audience, location, device, product category and stage of the purchase journey. Connected Media uses these signals alongside product and performance data to understand which audiences and products are most valuable, helping tailor investment and campaign strategy around how people actually shop, not just how the product feed is structured.

Product feeds should be automated where possible and monitored continuously rather than treated as a one-off setup task. Product ranges, prices, availability, search behaviour and competitors change over time, while disapprovals and data-quality issues can reduce product coverage or limit performance. Connected Media continually monitors feed health, product eligibility, search relevance and product-level performance, making changes as new data, products, promotions and market conditions emerge.

We look beyond revenue and ROAS to understand the metrics that matter to the business. Depending on the objective, this can include sales volume, revenue, margin, profit, cost per acquisition, average order value, product-level performance and return on investment. Google also provides product-level reporting and competitive insights that can help identify underperforming products, demand trends, product issues and opportunities to improve performance.

Yes. Shopping strategy doesn't have to focus solely on increasing the number of individual product sales. Product selection, bundles, complementary products, promotions and the landing-page experience can all influence the value of a customer's basket. Connected Media considers these opportunities as part of the broader commercial strategy, looking for ways to increase customer value rather than simply generating more individual transactions.

No. Google's automation and machine learning can optimise campaigns at scale, but the quality of the inputs, commercial strategy and ongoing optimisation still matter. Connected Media continually tests, analyses and refines Shopping campaigns, responding to changes in product performance, stock, pricing, promotions, seasonality, competition and consumer behaviour. This allows us to keep improving the strategy rather than relying on the platform to make every decision.

Connected takes a commercial approach to Google Shopping. We don't simply optimise feeds, bids and campaigns towards the products Google can sell most easily. We connect product economics, consumer behaviour, feed quality, campaign strategy and platform data to understand where investment can create the greatest value. The result is a Shopping strategy built around your business objectives - whether that's sales growth, margin, profitability, customer value or sustainable commercial growth.