Feed optimisation is the process of editing your product's attributes in Google Merchant Center so that your shopping ads perform better.

You can think of it in 2 ways.

Unless you optimize your product feed, you'll see:

When you go about optimising your product feed, you always want to make sure that the backend is good first and then improve on the front end.

The reason why?

If Google has no "attributes" (aka understanding) of your products, it doesn't matter how good your titles or product images are, they won't appear on relevant searches.

Plus, you want to always optimise on the front-end based on data from relevant traffic. If Google doesn't understand what your products are, then you'll be showing up for a greater percentage of irrelevant search terms, and to people who aren't looking for your product.

This is an attribute you enter in GMC to tell Google what category of products you sell.

Google has a list of product categories (called the Taxonomy), and you have to set this attribute to one from the list.

​Check out the list here.​

You should follow the taxonomy and get as close as possible to the product (up to 5 layers deep).

This is basically "Product Category" but in your own words.

Break down your product type so that that it makes sense, and gives keyword clues to Google.

Start with the product category, and then add deeper layers separated with a ">" symbol.

You have 5,000 characters to add here, and 99% of advertisers either have 0 or <200.

This is an opportunity to give Google so much data on what and who your product is for.

Is it time intensive, YES. But it'll be worth it (start with best sellers, look at product your page for inspiration).

Your title optimisation helps both your front-end and back-end performance as it provides Google with keywords to understand your product, and also tells people what they're buying.

Changes to your title will be the largest factor that affects your click-through-rate outside of image and price changes.

Only the first 70 characters will show for your title, but you want to try and give Google up to 150 characters (don't keyword stuff) to give more context + action for a user to click.

Regarding word order, you should always put the most important stuff first. This could be your brand name if you have large brand awareness, or winning search terms.

Look at competitor shopping ads to understand the common keyword order amongst brands in your niche. To do this just type into Google the search terms that trigger your ads, and look at the "Shopping" tab to see who else is bidding on those terms.

Look at competitor shopping ads to get an idea of the average price of products that you're selling.

If your prices are way above the average, your CTR is going to take a hit.

If you can't lower your price due to expenses, try and position your products in a way that makes them seem more luxurious or higher quality.

If you've had a consistent price for >90 days, make sure to add a "Sale Price" attribute to showcase any sales you're running. You get a visible shopping callout in the PLA.

The biggest thing here is testing different variations to stand out from your PLA competitors.

Usually the big test is white background (product only) vs lifestyle image (product in use).

You can also test different colour backgrounds to stand out.

If you don't have a lot of social proof (product ratings that show up as stars under your product) then standing out in other ways will be key to your success.

If you do have lot's of genuine product reviews, then you should sign up to the Product Reviews program in Merchant Center.

PRO TIP --> add up to 10 additional images so people can cycle through your product in use/sizing/different angles etc...