This is the type of announcement that can’t go unnoticed! Google has launched a free version of Google Shopping for the US and India. For the past few days, offers can be displayed on the Shopping tab of Google.com and on Google Shopping at no cost for retailers.
Where on Google Shopping will my complimentary listing be displayed?
The free listing on Google Shopping is done in two places:
1. On the Google.com Shopping Tab
By clicking on this tab, users segment the search results uniquely for products. After that, a new listing space appears just below the paid search results.
2. On Shopping.Google.com
Better known to advertisers as Google Shopping Actions, this platform is already widely used.
As you can see on the two following screenshots, there is however, a significant change of UX with the display of the offers just below the Paid Ads.
Before / After Google Shopping on Mobile:
Before / After Google Shopping on Desktop:
New optimizations to take into account
This new opportunity of free listing for your Google Shopping offers will not require an additional flow. To activate this, all you need to do is to activate the following feature in your Merchant Center: set up surfaces across Google – Google Merchant Center Help.
After that, you must add a new destination on the settings for the integrated flow in your Merchant Center, and activate the “Surfaces Across Google” destination.
Nonetheless, it is critical to ensure you pay close attention to the content provided to Google. We are, in fact, talking about a free listing of your offers on Google Shopping. “Free” recalls “SEO optimizations”. It is, therefore, necessary to work on your content to ensure that your offers are the most visible possible on the search results.
At the same time, be careful not to impact your paid search results on Google Shopping negatively. Let’s not forget that the Google.com Shopping tab only represents a small percentage of traffic on the overall global traffic of the Google Shopping inventory.
Once activated, you will be able to create a specific report to quantify your free traffic results directly on your Merchant Center.
This is a feature currently available only for the US and India
Unfortunately, this is currently not available for advertisers outside of the US and India. We believe other countries will follow, but Europe is a special case when it comes to Google Shopping.
In fact, with the arrival of CSS in the European market,which forced Google to open up to competition, they may not be legally allowed to offer this feature for free in this market.
We believe this is an excellent opportunity for advertisers to list their offers on Google Shopping at no cost. In our opinion, we believe that users attribute real credibility for ‘organic’ search results on Google, even though by leaving these results exclusively on the Google.com Shopping tab and on Shopping.Google.com, we would not expect a significant increase in traffic.
