Google Partners Masterclass 2015 Insights Part 3: Google Merchant Center Feed Updates For Large and Small Retailers

 

To give you a recap of last week’s posts on the Google Partners Masterclass 2015 series, the first article covered Google’s concept of Micro-Moments and how we can leverage the series of small contextual moments of our customers to better understand and engage them. The second article presented key points raised by David Booth, the main speaker, on using data in a way that provides the most value for customers. For the third and succeeding articles of the series, we will be discussing the Google Analytics and AdWords updates presented at the event.
 

Let’s begin!

Google announced two new data feed enhancements to Merchant Center to help digital advertisers easily update ads and quickly get products in front of new customers.

Here are the enhancements and their benefits:

 

Online Product Inventory Update Feed

 

Source: http://www.rimmkaufman.com/blog/save-time-with-google-online-product-inventory-update/12052015/

This works best for large retailers who require regular inventory updating.

Applications might include where inventory regularly changes throughout the day. You can simply update key attributes without submitting again the whole product feed. Only a few attributes are available to be updated in this way, including price, availability, sales price and sales price effective date.

 

What could this do for you?

 
There are 3 main benefits of this update…

1. Uber-fast processing – Shopping feed updates instantaneously after processing so Google Shopping will be able to display your updated information much quicker.
2. Give your customers what they’re looking for – If there are product pricing or availability changes, you can submit on the fly, several times throughout the day. Google Shopping then displays only the latest and freshest information to your customers.
3. It’s flexible – You can update your price, availability and sales price information for all or just a subset of product items separately from updating the main product feed.

Click here for a helpful article from Google on this update. There are other blog posts that might help you flesh out the added value of this feature. Check this post from Merkle | RKG.

 

Google Sheets Add-on

 

This option is suitable for small and medium sized retailers with smaller inventory feeds or to give customers easy access to update the feed in real time. The Google Sheets extension directly connects your spreadsheet to Merchant Center for faster and easier upload. This gets your shopping ads up and running quickly.

 

What could this do for you?

 
There are 2 main benefits of this update…

1. Product validation directly from Google Sheets – The sidebar in the add-on lets you validate your data by individual row or for the entire sheet. It also shows you errors and warnings before you upload your data feed.
2. Product upload directly from Google Sheets – From the sidebar, you can upload your entire spreadsheet into Merchant Center without leaving Sheets. You can easily see your upload results on the sidebar providing you with immediate feedback on feed processing. You can then make the changes, if needed.

Google has an article and video on submitting data feeds via Google Sheets here. Check it out to find out more about the update and some advantages and disadvantages of using it.

 

Up Next…

 
For the fourth part of the Google Partners Masterclass 2015 series, tomorrow’s post will talk about another Google update which is on Remarketing Lists for Search Ads with Google Analytics. Google has made it possible to create remarketing audiences using the Google Analytics tag providing you with advanced list building capabilities.