Google Shopping: find out how to promote your products

Google Shopping is Google's product showcase. When someone searches for something to buy, it shows them photos, prices and stores, so they can compare without visiting each website.

For an online store it's a huge opportunity: your products appear right when someone intends to buy. Here's how to make it happen.

Updated in 2026. Since we wrote this article, Google has changed quite a few things: you can now appear for free in the Shopping tab, Merchant Center has been redesigned and campaigns are always created from Google Ads. We've updated the steps.

Free or paid: two ways to appear

• Free listings. Your products can show up at no cost in Google's Shopping tab and in other places across search. All you need is to have them in Merchant Center.
• Shopping ads. These are the sponsored products that appear at the top of the search results. You pay per click, through Google Ads, and they give you much more visibility.

The usual approach is to start with free listings and, once the catalogue is in good shape, move on to ads.

1. Create a Google Merchant Center account

Google Merchant Center is where your product information lives. It's free and the setup wizard guides you through it: business details, verifying your website, the countries you sell to, shipping costs and return policy. These last two matter, because Google shows them alongside your products.

2. Upload your products

Merchant Center offers several ways to add your catalogue:

• From your platform: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop and others have integrations that sync your products automatically. It's the most convenient option.
• From your website: if your product pages have properly marked-up structured data, Google can read it directly.
• With a spreadsheet in Google Sheets or a file (feed) that you update regularly.

These are the basic details each product needs:

• A unique ID (the most practical choice is your reference or SKU).
• The title and a detailed description.
• The link to the product page on your website.
• The link to the main image.
• The price and availability, which must match what your website shows.
• The condition (new, refurbished or used).
• The brand and product code (GTIN, the barcode number) where they exist.

3. Take care of your product photos

Shopping is a very visual channel: the photo is the first thing the shopper sees and often decides the click. On top of that, Google rejects images that don't meet its rules. Bear in mind that:

• The main image must have a neutral background, preferably white.
• It must show the product clearly, well lit, in focus and at a good size.
• It can't carry promotional text, watermarks, borders or logos on top.
• You can add extra photos of the product in use or from other angles.

4. Link Merchant Center to Google Ads

If you want to run ads, connect Merchant Center to your Google Ads account from the Merchant Center settings, in the apps and linked accounts section. Then accept the request from Google Ads.

One detail if you sell in Spain or elsewhere in Europe: Shopping ads are published through a comparison shopping service (CSS). By default it's "Google Shopping" itself, but there are other CSS providers that may offer you better terms.

5. Create your campaign in Google Ads

Campaigns are always created from Google Ads. You have two options:

• Shopping campaign: only shows your products in Shopping placements. It gives you more control over which products are advertised and how much you bid on each one.
• Performance Max campaign: Google combines your products with other ads and shows them across Search, YouTube, Gmail and other placements, optimizing automatically. It's the one Google recommends, but it needs your sales to be properly tracked.

When you create it, you choose the name, the country, the daily budget and the bidding strategy:

• Manual CPC: you decide the maximum you pay per click. Ideal for starting out with control.
• Maximize clicks: Google adjusts your bids to get as many visits as possible within your budget.
• Target ROAS (return on ad spend): Google bids to reach the return you set. It needs conversion tracking to be set up.

6. Location and schedule

Finally, set where and when your ads are shown:

• Locations: limit them to the places you actually ship to.
• Ad schedule: if you see that you sell more on certain days or at certain times, you can focus your budget there.
• Start and end dates, if the campaign is for a particular season or promotion.

And once it's running, check every week which products drive sales and which ones only spend.

Do you have an online store and want to sell on Google Shopping? Get in touch and we'll help you prepare your catalogue and campaigns.