How do I set up my Google Merchant Centre Feed for Google Shopping?

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping is an advertising service from Google that promotes products from your online store in Google search results. Google Shopping results often appear at the top of search results. Google now offers free listings for some countries including New Zealand, Australia, the UK and more. You will still be able to boost your campaigns with paid ads if you would like to get a step ahead. 

There are two key parts to Google Shopping campaigns:
Google’s Adwords service is used to set up and manage your Google Shopping campaigns
Google Merchant Centre is the service used to share the products in your online shop with Google Shopping.

Rocketspark has created a direct feed from your online shop to your Google Merchant Centre so that your Google Shopping Campaign can be up to date with the latest products and not promote products that are out of stock. The automated feed means that you don’t need to manually update your Google Merchant Centre.

Set up your Google Merchant Feed

Our Google Merchant Feed is an XML file that Google can access automatically using what Google calls a scheduled fetch.

Part 1 - Setup your products to work with Google Shopping

For each product in your online shop you need to add the information that Google Specifically requires for a Google Merchant Feed.

1. Add or edit a product in your online shop
2. For each product complete the Google Merchant Feed section of the edit product page
   • GTIN is an internationally recognised barcode number
   • Google Category is a product categorisation system used by Google

Part 2 - Setup your Google Merchant Feed

1. In your Shop Settings go to the Google Merchant menu.
2. Click Enable Merchant Feed. A link will be generated.
   
3. Copy your Google Merchant Feed URL
4. Add the feed to your Merchant Centre as a ‘Scheduled Fetch’. See Google’s Guide for how to create a Google Merchant Feed. Follow the option to create a Primary Feed with a Scheduled Fetch’ If your Merchant Centre looks different to Google’s user guide please see Google's guide for the old feeds experience. When setting up your scheduled fetch we recommend that you select the minimum fetch frequency Google provides which is currently every 24 hours.
5. You will be prompted to enter the File URL of the Google Merchant Feed which is the URL that you copied in Step 3 above.
   
6. Once you've added your feed you want to Google Merchant Centre to fetch your feed.  If you are using the 'New' Google Feed system click the 3 dot menu and select Fetch Now.  If you are using the 'Old' google feeds system select Update and Fetch Now. 
               

Once your Google Merchant Feed is set up Google will fetch your product information from your shop for placement in your Google Shopping ads.

Important to note:

• Google’s dashboard does change from time to time so it can be tricky to stay up to date. If you notice that these instructions don’t match what you are seeing please contact us and we’ll update the guide for you.
• The feed that we provide to Google is updated every hour, but currently the minimum automatic fetch time offered by Google is 24 hours. You can get Google to do a manual fetch in your Merchant Centre.
• The Google Merchant Feed is not available for Rocketspark e-commerce sites using our private login feature
• Products with $0 sale price are not included in the feed
• You should keep your Google Merchant Feed private. If your URL has become public you can generate a new Google Merchant Feed URL in your Google Merchant menu in Shop Settings. If you do regenerate your Google Merchant Feed URL you will need to update the URL in your Google Merchant Centre.
• Our Google Merchant Feed is only available for new products, i.e. not second-hand products.
• If you find that not all products are imported we recommend checking your product titles and descriptions for any special characters such as macrons which may break the feed.  

If you’d like expert help to set up your Google Shopping Campaign please contact us and we’ll connect you with a preferred Google Advertising partner who will contact you to introduce how they can help.

What information does Rocketspark’s Google Merchant Feed provide?
Our Google Merchant Feed provides the information that Google requires to set up a Google Shopping Campaign.

Our feed provides the following information to Google:

• SKU
• Title
• Description
• Link to the product page
• Link to the first product image
• Availability
• Price
• Sale Price if promotions are used
• Shipping cost
• Brand
• Condition - set only as new
• Google product category
• GTIN

Learn more about Google Shopping
Check out this short video for an overview of Google Shopping.