Earlier this year due to the pandemic, Google rolled out free shopping ads in the US. Since April, Google shopping listings have been free in America. Google has plans to extend this benefit to more countries over the world. Soon retailers across Europe, Asia, and Latin America will be able to run free Google Shopping listings.
The change will most likely start taking effect from mid-October. The financial and situational crisis, that hit many businesses, was the main reason behind this change. Many businesses have since moved online and more and more consumers have also started showing a rise in online shopping activity. This change will not only benefit retailers but also consumers who will now have the benefit of choice irrespective of the scale of business they are transacting with.
This change will provide an opportunity for many struggling businesses to resume operations and reconnect with their consumer base. Many businesses have a robust stock of items that people are searching for online but there is a huge gap because they do not have any online presence whatsoever.
Google saw a significant rise in the percentage of engagement between consumers and merchants after they rolled out free shopping listings in the US. Google wishes to expand this benefit beyond borders now so that retailers all over the world can take a sigh of relief.
Retailers who can afford to pay though can still do so. Google has left that option open. It is quite obvious to state that paid listings will benefit more than the free ones and will appear in ad slots above the free ones in the Shopping Tab. So it is still advantageous to pay for shopping listings on Google.
So, how will you run your free Google Shopping Ads?
- Create a Google Merchant Center Account or sign in if you already have one
- Click on Growth in the left navigation menu
- Go to Manage Programs
- Select Surface across Google
- Use Product Feed to add your products
- Follow through with the website verification process
- Confirm that the website belongs to you
- Click on Activate and you are all set
Stay tuned on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages as we will share the news when this goes live in India.
