Any brand that sells online knows that competition is heating up. And with major retailers taking more and more of the market share, it’s more important than ever for medium and smaller brands to be showing up in search.
Mobile eCommerce reached $2.2 trillion in 2023 and makes up 60% of all eCommerce sales around the world — and that’s a trend that will likely only continue to grow. This means that every day, hundreds of millions of people are turning to Google for help with their shopping needs and choosing options based on what they find in search.
Fortunately for those medium and smaller brands, automated product data feeds have become more scalable and accessible, empowering businesses of all sizes to use Google Shopping.
So, let’s take a deeper look into how it can benefit your brand. First things first —
What is Google Shopping?
Google Shopping is the tab in search that shows shoppers purchasing options for whatever they’ve typed into the search engine. For brands, it enables potential customers looking for products similar to yours to easily find and purchase from you. For consumers, it’s an easy way to compare products from different retailers through both paid and organic listings — and even see product recommendations based on their shopping and search history.
Best of all, Google decided to let businesses list their products for free back in 2020, leveling the playing field and giving everyone a chance to take advantage of Google’s reach to get their products in front of more eyes.
How does it work and what are the benefits?
You’re probably already familiar with how Google Shopping looks and works from the consumer side. But there are a few key things to remember as a business using Google Shopping.
In particular, Google Shopping listings can be a great way to lift your visibility and reach new customers beyond organic search results and paid ads. When shoppers click those listings, Google shows them more product information, customer reviews — and inventory details and availability — allowing for a seamless and more holistic shopping experience.
Altogether, the top benefits businesses can expect from using Google Shopping include:
Enhanced product visibility and reach
Shorter sales cycles from showing products to people who are already interested
Robust analytics for listings
Mobile-friendly shopping experience
And easy-to-manage listings powered by an automated feed
And you can get even more out of those benefits with the right strategy.
Strategies to maximize your success with Google Shopping
Whether you’re using Google Shopping Ads or free listings, these are some tried and true ways to get even more out of your Google Shopping presence.
1. Enhance your listing titles
You have 150 characters to use for your title — and even though Google often shows only the first 70, it’s recommended to take advantage of them all by including important details like your brand name, and defining characteristics of the product itself, like material, color, model, and so forth.
When it comes to structuring the information in your title, here are some recommended templates:
Brand + Product Type + Color + Material
Brand + Size (length, width, height) + Product Type + Color
Material + Product Type + Color + Brand
Style + Color + Product Type + Brand
Product Type + Size + Color + Feature + Brand
2. Follow Google’s best practices for your product descriptions
Beyond the minimum requirements for product descriptions, the powers that be at Google recommend some simple best practices to optimize your listing performance.
When in doubt —
Keep the description specific and accurate
List the most important information in the first 160-500 characters of the 5000 allotted for product descriptions
Include details and attributes shoppers are likely to search for, like material, technical specifications, patterns, variants, and so forth
3. Image quality matters
Visuals are everything in eCommerce, and Google Shopping images are the first impression you make with people shopping for what you’re selling — so it pays to get them right.
Google cares quite a bit about image quality, so make sure your uploads are crystal clear by sticking to their image guidelines. For example, high resolution images that show the entire product on a solid or transparent background are recommended.
You can also draw potential customers in with imagery that addresses what they’re looking for when considering a purchase. Whether it’s clothing for kids of a specific age or a couch that fits in small spaces, the images you choose convey how relevant your product is to shoppers before they even click on the listing for more info.
4. Use banners to highlight important selling points
It’s no secret that online shoppers are motivated by a great deal. But what you may not know is that Google Promotions allow you to show special offers in your Google Shopping ads.
You can offer a fixed discount (think: $20 off), a percentage off, free shipping, buy-one-get-one, or free gift with purchase to catch more eyes — and conversions by giving shoppers more incentives to buy now.
Supercharge your Google Shopping performance with Trustpilot
Research shows that in this day and age, 89% of shoppers around the world check online reviews to inform their purchasing decisions — and 49% consider positive reviews to be among the top 3 deciding factors on what they buy.
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to collect reviews with a Trusted Google Reviews Partner like Trustpilot to make sure your product reviews can show up in Google Shopping to make a bigger impact with your campaigns.
Whether you’re a smaller business looking to grow awareness for your brand, or a bigger business looking to enhance your listing performance, there’s a lot to gain from showcasing Trustpilot reviews in your Google Shopping listings — including up to 10% more clicks at no extra cost.
It begins with a Free Trustpilot account, or a conversation with our experts. What do you say?
