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About This Guide
This guide aims to provide Storebuilders with a set of integration best
practices for Free Listing and Paid Ads. This guide helps storebuilders to
enable their merchants by offering a seamless experience. This guide highlights
the various Google APIs required to efficiently manage large numbers of Merchant
Center and Google Ads accounts. While navigating the guide, you can expect to
find the following guidance for most all sections:
Introduction and Business Impact
Tech guidance (API & others)
UX guidance with screenshots
Known issues & tips
How to Use This Guide
As you navigate through this resource, you find 5 broader steps to create
a strong foundational integration:
Account setup
Product upload
Data Quality / Troubleshooting
Ads
Reporting
Within each of these steps, there are essential features to implement.
The majority of features are required but some are not required based on
numerous factors. These are determined on where you are based, where your
merchants are targeting, how you decide to implement and on which shopping
programs you are implementing.
UX Design Guidance Principles for Onboarding
It's important to establish an onboarding experience that guides storebuilder
merchants who want to get their products on Google and sets them up for success
at the beginning by preventing avoidable errors.
We recommend the UX to unify the Free Listing and Paid Ads onboarding
requirements and provide optional paid ads steps when needed (that is creating
a paid ads, including Set up a Google Ads campaign, and Enter your billing
details).
There are 3 specific onboarding UX principles we recommend you to be aware about
as you design your integration.
Essential onboarding with ease
We recommend the following to help merchants onboard with ease:
Simplify Onboarding: We recommend providing minimum mandatory tasks only.
Smart defaults, always editable: When setting configurations, take an
educated guess on behalf of merchants, be transparent about that choice, and
allow them to edit.
1-page onboarding: Best practice is to have all onboarding tasks on one
page. Merchants can see all tasks together when they start the onboarding, and
at any stage of onboarding flow.
Allow merchants to complete complex tasks later: For website policy check
and shipping settings, allow merchants to skip during onboarding and complete it
later, see. Then alert and guide merchants to complete requirements
post-onboarding.
Contextual guidance
We recommend to guide merchants to understand the impact of onboarding tasks and
only surface concise guidance when it is relevant to the current task merchants
are working on.
Adaptability
The guidelines provide a classification and it flexes as it applies to a wide
variety of store builders. We recommend adapting based on your integration and
you can select the option that best fits its platform condition. For example,
there are shipping settings for open-resource store builders and store builders
with a robust shipping system.
Contact channels
If you have any questions or need support, consider using the following options:
Google Merchant Support: This support channel helps you get support for questions related to Merchant Center and Paid Ads.
Google Point of Contact (POC): If you have a dedicated Google POC to
support your integration, we recommend reaching out to them directly for any
questions.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2024-09-03 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis guide provides Storebuilders with integration best practices for Free Listing and Paid Ads, focusing on Google API usage for efficient management of Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe guide outlines 5 key integration steps: Account setup, Product upload, Data Quality/Troubleshooting, Ads, and Reporting, with essential features and implementation considerations for each.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eStorebuilders should prioritize a user-friendly onboarding experience by simplifying tasks, using smart defaults, consolidating onboarding onto one page, and allowing for deferred completion of complex tasks.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUX design should incorporate contextual guidance, explaining the impact of tasks and providing relevant information, and adapt to various store builder types with flexible options.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSupport is available through the Content API for Shopping Support Team, Google Merchant Support, or a dedicated Google Point of Contact.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["This guide outlines integration best practices for Free Listings and Paid Ads, focusing on Google APIs for efficient management. It details a five-step integration process: account setup, product upload, data quality, ads, and reporting. Onboarding UX design principles emphasize simplifying onboarding, using smart defaults, having a 1-page onboarding, and allowing complex tasks later. The guide recommends contextual guidance and adaptability to various store builders, and suggests contacting support channels for assistance.\n"],null,["About This Guide\n----------------\n\nThis guide aims to provide Storebuilders with a set of integration best\npractices for Free Listing and Paid Ads. This guide helps storebuilders to\nenable their merchants by offering a seamless experience. This guide highlights\nthe various Google APIs required to efficiently manage large numbers of Merchant\nCenter and Google Ads accounts. While navigating the guide, you can expect to\nfind the following guidance for most all sections:\n\n- Introduction and Business Impact\n- Tech guidance (API \\& others)\n- UX guidance with screenshots\n- Known issues \\& tips\n\n### How to Use This Guide\n\nAs you navigate through this resource, you find 5 broader steps to create\na strong foundational integration:\n\n1. Account setup\n2. Product upload\n3. Data Quality / Troubleshooting\n4. Ads\n5. Reporting\n\nWithin each of these steps, there are essential features to implement.\nThe majority of features are required but some are not required based on\nnumerous factors. These are determined on where you are based, where your\nmerchants are targeting, how you decide to implement and on which shopping\nprograms you are implementing.\n\n### UX Design Guidance Principles for Onboarding\n\nIt's important to establish an onboarding experience that guides storebuilder\nmerchants who want to get their products on Google and sets them up for success\nat the beginning by preventing avoidable errors.\n\nWe recommend the UX to unify the Free Listing and Paid Ads onboarding\nrequirements and provide optional paid ads steps when needed (that is creating\na paid ads, including Set up a Google Ads campaign, and Enter your billing\ndetails).\n\nThere are 3 specific onboarding UX principles we recommend you to be aware about\nas you design your integration.\n\n#### Essential onboarding with ease\n\nWe recommend the following to help merchants onboard with ease:\n\n- **Simplify Onboarding:** We recommend providing minimum mandatory tasks only.\n\n- **Smart defaults, always editable:** When setting configurations, take an\n educated guess on behalf of merchants, be transparent about that choice, and\n allow them to edit.\n\n- **1-page onboarding:** Best practice is to have all onboarding tasks on one\n page. Merchants can see all tasks together when they start the onboarding, and\n at any stage of onboarding flow.\n\n- **Allow merchants to complete complex tasks later:** For website policy check\n and shipping settings, allow merchants to skip during onboarding and complete it\n later, see. Then alert and guide merchants to complete requirements\n post-onboarding.\n\n#### Contextual guidance\n\nWe recommend to guide merchants to understand the impact of onboarding tasks and\nonly surface concise guidance when it is relevant to the current task merchants\nare working on.\n\n#### Adaptability\n\nThe guidelines provide a classification and it flexes as it applies to a wide\nvariety of store builders. We recommend adapting based on your integration and\nyou can select the option that best fits its platform condition. For example,\nthere are shipping settings for open-resource store builders and store builders\nwith a robust shipping system.\n\n### Contact channels\n\nIf you have any questions or need support, consider using the following options:\n\n- **Content API for Shopping Support:** For technical support, you can contact the [Content API for\n Shopping Support Team](https://support.google.com/merchants/contact/shopping_api_support_form).\n\n- **Google Merchant Support:** This [support channel](https://support.google.com/merchants/gethelp) helps you get support for questions related to Merchant Center and Paid Ads.\n\n- **Google Point of Contact (POC):** If you have a dedicated Google POC to\n support your integration, we recommend reaching out to them directly for any\n questions."]]
