Shopping Ads

  • Shopping ads feature detailed information about specific products, helping to promote inventory, boost traffic, and find qualified leads.

  • Before creating Shopping ads, you must submit product data to your Google Merchant Center account, either through a product feed or the Content API for Shopping.

  • You need to link your Google Ads account to your Google Merchant Center account before creating Shopping ads.

  • The Content API for Shopping and the Google Ads API can be used to automate tasks related to managing your Merchant Center account, product data, and advertising campaigns.

A Shopping ad is an ad type that features detailed information about specific products that you sell. Shopping ads let you promote your online and local inventory, boost traffic to your website or local shop, and find better-qualified leads. For broader details, see the Google Retail overview.

Prerequisites

Before you can use the Google Ads API with Shopping ads, you must complete the following requirements:

Account ID of the Merchant Center
Find this ID inside the Merchant Center UI. You need this account ID to link your Google Ads account with your Merchant Center account and to create Shopping campaigns that link to the Merchant Center.
Approved product data submitted to the Merchant Center
Submit your product data to your Google Merchant Center account either as a product feed or as individual products using the Merchant API. Once these products have been approved, they become available to use with Google Ads. To understand the requirements for submitted data, see the Product data specification.
Linked Google Ads and Merchant Center accounts
Once you've submitted your products, link your Google Ads account to your Google Merchant Center account. See Link Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts for instructions.

Automate using the Merchant API

The following tasks can be done using your Google Merchant Center account or using the Merchant API:

  • Manage your Merchant Center account
  • Manage your product data (including price and availability)
  • Manage your tax and shipping settings

Automate using the Google Ads API

With the Google Ads API, you can automate many of the tasks you perform in the Google Ads UI, such as creating, updating, or deleting the following:

  • Campaigns
  • Campaign bidding strategies
  • Campaign budgets
  • Ad groups
  • Shopping product ads
  • Shopping listing group trees (equivalent to Product Groups in the Google Ads UI)

You can also access reporting information from the following views for all campaign types that use a Google Merchant Center feed (including Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Video, App, and Display campaigns):

Implementation workflow

Follow these steps to create Shopping campaigns, ad groups, and ads with the Google Ads API:

  1. Link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts
  2. Create a Shopping campaign
  3. Create a Shopping ad group
  4. Create a Shopping ad group ad
  5. Create Shopping listing groups
  6. Retrieve Shopping reports
Next
Link Merchant Center