Google has been pushing its automated solutions more and more to simplify the campaign management to get maximum conversion value and expand your business reach.  From automated bidding to responsive ads, Google is helping advertisers to boycott manual work. For this reason Google has recently launched Smart Shopping Campaign.

This shopping campaign combines Standard Shopping as well as Display Remarketing Campaign. It uses automated bidding and ad placement to promote your offerings across networks.

How it works

First you need to link your ad word account to Google Merchant Center Account (MCA). After linking to MCA, you need to set a budget, upload assets and provide your target location. The system will then pull content from your product feed and it will test different combination of the text and images you provide. It will show the most relevant ads across Google networks including Google Display Network, Google Search Network, YouTube and Gmail.

Requirements

To set up a Shopping Campaign, you will need to set up Conversion Tracking. It will lets you keep track of when your ads are leading to sales on your website. Here you need to have at least 20 conversions over the last 45 days across existing shopping campaigns.

Another important thing you will need is to add a global site tag to your website. You should also have a remarketing list of minimum 100 active users associated with your account which shows personalized ads for people who have visited your website before. If you are using Google Analytics then you can link to your Google Analytics account instead of global site tag.

Ad types and where they can appear

Smart Shopping Campaign shows both Display ads & Product Shopping ads (including remarketing ads) which will appear on the various Google networks.

In case of automated ad creation, your ad will appear in the ad spaces where they are relevant and your bid will be set to maximize your conversion value.   

On Google Search, users search queries and predict which product from your feed should be shown. In case of Display network, ads are based on user engagement with your website.

Campaign report

Campaign performance information is important for every advertiser. You will get to know the overall spend and the return you get on the running campaign. You can see the predefined reports segmented by category, product type etc. You will also get the typical reporting like clicks, conversions and impressions.

The only way to know if this campaign is a good fit for your business is testing. One thing is sure that it will save lot of time of advertisers and will help to increase reach of the business.