How to set up a Google Retail search campaign for your WooCommerce store

Introduction

If you’re running a WooCommerce store, Google Retail search campaigns can go a long way in driving traffic and sales to your store. With Google’s massive reach and advanced advertising capabilities, it’s a powerful tool for any online retailer. In this post, we’ll go through step by step on how to set up a Google Retail search campaign for your WooCommerce store.

Setting Up Your Google Merchant Center

Before you start with your Google Retail search campaign, you need to have a Google Merchant Center account set up. This account lets you upload your product data, which will then be used in your Google Retail search ads.

1. To create an account, simply go to the Google Merchant Center website and sign up with an existing Google account.

2. Follow the on-screen instructions to create your account, including providing your store’s basic information (name, URL, country, etc.).

3. Now that you have your account created, you’ll need to create a product feed. This feed contains all the information about your products that Google will use to display your products in search, including the product title, description, price, availability, and image.

4. To create your feed, you can either manually upload a spreadsheet (recommended) or use an automated method such as Google Sheets or a third-party plugin like WP All Import. The automated method is much easier to maintain in the long term, but it may require more setup time upfront.

5. Once your feed is uploaded, Google will need to approve it. This process could take several days, and you’ll receive an email when your account is approved.

Setting Up Your Google Retail Search Campaign

Now that your Google Merchant Center account is set up, you’re ready to set up your Google Retail search campaign.

1. Open Google Ads and create a new campaign. Choose “Shopping” as your campaign type and select the country where you want to display your ads.

2. Provide your campaign name and select your Merchant Center account and campaign sub-type (Standard Shopping or Smart Shopping).

3. Next, choose your bidding strategy (we recommend “Maximize conversions” for most stores) and your daily budget.

4. Now it’s time to create your product groups. These groups let you organize your products and set different bids for different groups. You can create groups based on product type, brand, or other attributes that make sense for your store.

5. Once your product groups are created, you can set your bids. Higher bids will make your products more likely to appear in search results, but it can also lead to higher costs.

6. Finally, set up your ad groups, create your ads, and preview them to make sure they look the way you want them to.

Using PHP Client

If you’re comfortable with programming, you can also set up your Google Retail search campaign using the PHP client library. Here’s a quick example of how to create a new campaign:

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\AdWordsServices;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\AdWordsSessionBuilder;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\v201809\cm\Campaign;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\v201809\cm\CampaignBudget;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\v201809\cm\Budget;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\v201809\cm\BiddingStrategyConfiguration;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\v201809\cm\CampaignType;
use Google\AdsApi\AdWords\v201809\cm\AdvertisingChannelType;

$session = (new AdWordsSessionBuilder())
      ->fromFile()
      ->build();

$adWordsServices = new AdWordsServices();

$campaign = new Campaign();
$campaign->setName('New campaign name');
$campaign->setAdvertisingChannelType(AdvertisingChannelType::SHOPPING);
$campaign->setStatus('PAUSED');
$campaign->setCampaignType(CampaignType::SHOPPING);

$campaignBudget = new CampaignBudget();
$campaignBudget->setBudget(new Budget());
$campaignBudget->getBudget()->setAmount(new Money(null, 1000000)));
$campaignBudget->getBudget()->setDeliveryMethod(BudgetBudgetDeliveryMethod::STANDARD);
$campaign->setBudget(campaignBudget);

$biddingStrategyConfig = new BiddingStrategyConfiguration();
$biddingStrategyConfig->setBiddingStrategyType(BiddingStrategyType::TARGET_ROAS);
$campaign->setBiddingStrategyConfiguration($biddingStrategyConfig);

$campaignOperation = new CampaignOperation();
$campaignOperation->setOperator(Operator::ADD);
$campaignOperation->setOperand($campaign);

$campaigns = $adWordsServices->get($session, CampaignService::class)
    ->mutate([$campaignOperation]);

foreach ($campaigns->getValue() as $campaign) {
    printf(
        "Campaign with ID %d and name '%s' was added.\n",
        $campaign->getId(),
        $campaign->getName()
    );
}

How WPSOLR Can Help

If you’re looking to improve the search capabilities of your WooCommerce store, WPSOLR is a powerful plugin that can help. It integrates with the default WordPress search function and enhances it with advanced features like faceted search, autocomplete, and more.

With WPSOLR, you can also easily integrate your WooCommerce store with Google Retail search. It automatically generates your product feed and keeps it up to date, saving you a lot of time and hassle.

Conclusion

Setting up a Google Retail search campaign for your WooCommerce store can be a powerful way to increase traffic and sales. However, it does require a bit of setup and technical knowledge. By following the steps outlined in this post and using plugins like WPSOLR, you can get started with your own campaign in no time.