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Google Product Listing Ads
Note
You will need to have a Google Product Listing Ads account before proceeding with the process. If you do not have a Google Product Listing Ads account, you can sign up for one by clicking here.
Configure your Google Product Listing Ads settings
First, you will need to set up your Shift4Shop store so that it can upload the generated feeds to your Google Product Listing Ads account.
- Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
- Use the left hand navigation menu and go to Marketing >Shopping Engines
- Look for the "Google Product Listing Ads" section located on the left hand side of the page
- While viewing the Google Product Listing Ads Plugin, click on the "Settings" link.
You will be presented with the following options in which to enter your Google Product Listing Ads account information:
- FTP Server Name
The server location provided to you by Google Product Listing Ads
- Password
The login password for your Google Product Listing Ads service
- FTP Username
The login username for your Google Product Listing Ads service
- File Name
The name that will be used when generating the feed for upload to Google Product Listing Ads
- Once you have entered the appropriate information, click on the "Save" button at the top right of the page to commit your changes.
Customize your Google Product Listing Ads Feed
Your Shift4Shop store will generate a the product feed using default attributes used by Google Product Listing Ads for a successful upload. If you'd like, you may review and edit the feed as needed using the following steps:
- Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
- Use the left hand navigation menu and go to Marketing >Shopping Engines
- Look for the "Google Product Listing Ads" section located on the right hand side of the page
- While viewing the Google Product Listing Ads Plugin, click on the "Customize" link.
How shopping feed plugins work
It's important to note that Shift4Shop's Shopping Engine plugins are set to generate an export of your products via a pre-built custom CSV export. This custom export is tailored to match the individual shopping engine's default attributes; renamed and ordered in the style that the shopping engine uses.
For example, your Shift4Shop store will normally export an individual product's inventory as "stock" whereas Google Product Listing Ads refers to the attribute as "availability" The custom export used by the Shopping Engine plugin will take "stock" and generate a feed with the label "availability" instead.
For the most part, the default feed has everything you'll need for a successful export, so you won't have to edit the custom feed at all. The ability is there if needed, however. So, let's have a look at the applicable areas of the customize feed page.
Add Export Field
At the very top of the page, you will see the "Add Export Field" section. While the default feed is structured to have the appropriate attributes already added, you may add more as needed.
- Add New Field
This drop down menu will let you add a product attribute from the Shift4Shop store's database to your shopping engine feed.
Simply select the necessary attribute form the drop down menu (for example, stock) and click on the "+Add New" button to have it added to the list.
Tip
Google has certain requirements that are needed on the feed; depending on the type of products that you're listing. For example, Apparel Products require attributes such as gender, age group and others that are not listed in the feed by default.
For these types of attributes, you can use the extra_field_x attributes from the product database. There are 13 extra fields available on each product (look in the information tab of the product), and each can be populated with the required information for the feed.
For example, extra_field_1 can be the product's gender, extra_field_2 can be the product's age group and so on.
Update Export Parameters
Below the Export Field section, you will find the Update Export Parameters section. This area of the page allows you to specify some of the formatting used on the resulting feed. These settings should usually be left untouched but can be changed if/when needed. Your choices here are as follows:
- Set Name
The name of the custom export set that will be used for the feed.
Under normal circumstances you will not need to change this.
The default entry for Google Product Listing Ads is "google"
- Delimiter
The data delimiter used by the Shopping Engine.
Each shopping engine has its own required formatting for how data is separated.
Your choices in this drop down are:
- Default & Comma Delimiter
Both default and comma delimiters will use a comma (,) to separate each data entry.
For Google Product Listing Ads, the default is Comma Delimiter
- Tab Delimiter
This will use a tab to separate each data entry
- Tilde Delimiter
This will use a tilde (~) to separate each entry.
- Category Separator
If the feed uses category listings, this setting will let you control how Parent Category/Sub-categories relationships are displayed. Your choices are:
- / (forward slash)
Categories will be displayed as "ParentCategory/SubCategory"
- > (close angle bracket)
Categories will be displayed as "ParentCategory>SubCategory"
- - (hyphen)
Categories will be displayed as "ParentCategory-SubCategory"
This is the default for Google Product Listing Ads
Export Fields
Finally, at the very bottom of the page, you will see the actual export fields and how they will be formatted when the feed is generated. The listing will be shown with the following columns:
- Field
The name of the product attribute as it appears on the Shift4Shop database.
Again, using product inventory as the example, we call it "stock"
- Alias
The name of the product attribute as it will appear on the resulting feed.
This is usually the designation that the shopping engine wil use.
Again, using product inventory as the example, Google Product Listing Ads will refer to it as "availability"
- Prefix
Information entered here will be added to the start of the respective product attribute
For example, some shopping engines may require prices to be displayed with the appropriate currency symbol.
In these cases you would enter the currency symbol as the prefix so that the resulting export displays $0.00.
- Suffix
Information entered here works the same way as the Prefix except it will be added to the end of the data
- Order
This column is where you can set the sroting order for the resulting feed's data.
The higher the number, the farther it will appear in order.
At the far right of each entered field, you will see its respective Action Wheel which will give you the option of deleting the field as needed.
Tip
As mentioned, extra_fields_x can be a great way to populate your feed with requirements needed by Google. Furthermore, you can change the label of the extra field in the store language area (Settings >Design >Store Language) so that it appears on the customer facing product pages with proper labels. (extra fields can also be used for store searches, adding yet another level of presentation and functionality.)
Regarldess of what you label the extra_fields on the store front, be sure to rename the attribute in the product feed using the "Alias" field so that it matches Google's designation.
Another option is to use the "constant" database field which is basically a wildcard entry on the feed. Constant does not insert product information onto the feed at all, but rather lets you create an attribute that is the same for all products. For example, one required attribute is "condition" which will usually be the same for all products. So you can add the field as "constant," set its Alias as "condition," and simply add "new" as the prefix. This will generate a feed in which all the products will have the condition listed as new.
Generate Feed
After setting up and customizing your Google Product Listing Ads feed as needed, you can generate it for upload to your Google Product Listing Ads account.
- Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
- Use the left hand navigation menu and go to Marketing >Shopping Engines
- Look for the "Google Product Listing Ads" section located on the right hand side of the page
- While viewing the Google Product Listing Ads Plugin, click on the "Generate Feed" link.
The store will generate the feed and give you two separate options to utilize.
- Download
The "Click here to download the exported file" link will download the generated file to your computer.
This file may be used for archiving or manual upload to the Google Product Listing Ads Service
- Upload
The "Click here to upload to Google Product Listing Ads" link will take the generated feed and, based on your server settings configured earlier, will upload it for you.
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