The present and future of e-commerce in Google AdWords is based on two, if you will allow me to be facetious, keywords.
On the one hand, there is the strategy automation and campaigns, which allows us to focus 100% on high value-added activities, such as data analysis, and, on the other hand, the qualityThe quality of our landings, of the UX of our website, of our ads, of the account in general, of having an optimized product feed that contains as many relevant values as possible, such as gender, color, size, etc. Precisely today, we will talk about one of the most important attributes: the Google Product Category.
What is the Google Product Category?
Basically, it is the attribute that Google uses to categorize a product or item.. For this purpose, Google created a document in which it standardizes the taxonomy to be followed to define Google product categories.
However, we must not confuse it with the Product Type, which is the categorization of the product according to our own criteria. Attention! Its inclusion is mandatory in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan in sectors such as appliances or clothing and accessories. And although in Spain it is still not so strict, if we are not careful we can find ourselves with massive rejections inside our Google Merchant account.
An example of a Google Product Category taxonomy for televisions would be as follows:
Electronics>Video>Televisions
This string of words corresponds to a code, in this case 404, which you can use instead on certain sites such as the Google Merchant module for Prestashop.
What is the Google Product Category for?
The benefits of having a correct classification of this attribute defined are bidirectional. As advertisers it will help us in the following ways:
- All fields definedThe right choice helps to increase the quality of our AdWords account. with all that this entails: lower cost per click, better positions in the ranking of advertisers that have products similar to ours, etc. Whether or not our product is positioned ahead of our rivals may be due to having filled in the Google Product Category.
- We will help Google to identify which of our products best match certain searches.
- Channels such as Bing Shopping (not available in Spain), Facebook Ads o Criteo are nourished by this categorization, so once we have defined this field we can use it in our multichannel strategy.
As a result of this increase in the quality of our Google Shopping ads, we will make our strategy more effective in matching the needs of our customers with the products we offer. We will advertise only what the potential customer needs. For example, if you are looking for a sandwich maker, it makes no sense for us to impact him with a grill electric. In this case the Google Product Category can be decisive.
Tips for defining the Google Product Category:
Use updated categories o Google could assign your product to an irrelevant category, or even to other types of products.
Don't be lazy! Be as specific as possible with the levels you define.. The more information you provide to Google, the better for the quality of your feed and your account.
Use the merchant available for the different content management systems available on the market.. Among the options offered is the automatic configuration of Google categories. Accessing it is very simple, just enter the module configuration and follow the following path: Google Management > Match Google Categories > Click on the pencil icon under «Match My Categories».»
Study the possibility of collaborating with companies that are highly specialized in the world of e-commerce. that allow you to save time and give you the best advice in the environment of the digital marketing. Geotelecom has, within its powerful feed editing tool, the option to automate the configuration of the Google Product Category field.
If you have any questions, please contact us!
