Split Tech City is a community composed of well-intentioned and progressive companies, startups, associations, initiatives, institutions and individuals. Together we encourage and develop the IT sector of Split and the surrounding region.
Support our community
If you run a webshop, you are always looking for new ways to reach more customers and grow sales. But are you familiar with Google Shopping ads?
It is a Google ad format that lets shoppers see a product photo, its name, rating and even the price right in the search results. That means you can put your products in front of people who are already looking for what you sell, before they even visit your webshop.
Below is a guide to Google Shopping ads, from how they work to preparing your webshop and the most important things to check before you launch campaigns.
Shopping ads are not interesting just because they look different from classic Google ads. Their advantage is that a shopper can see the actual product and its price before clicking on the ad.
An analysis of more than 500 e-commerce accounts published by COREPPC in 2026 recorded an average return on Shopping ad spend of more than 5x, compared with only around 3.3x for regular text ads. In other words, every dollar invested in Shopping ads brings in more than 5 dollars of revenue on average!
According to the Digital Ads Benchmark Report by Tinuiti, clicks on Google Shopping ads in the US grew by 18% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. Clicks on classic text ads in Google Search grew by 11%.
The scope of the report adds weight to these figures. The analysis is based on anonymised results from ad campaigns managed by Tinuiti, whose total annual digital ad spend under management exceeds 4 billion US dollars.
Still, it is important to stress that these figures come from foreign markets and that results depend on the product category, competition, margins, campaign quality and many other factors.
A Shopping ad is not a magic wand, but an additional opportunity webshops can use to bring their products closer to shoppers and earn more.
Google Shopping ads are a type of paid ad that lets webshops show their products directly in Google search results. Instead of seeing only an ad text made up of a headline and description, the user immediately sees:
For example, imagine you sell office chairs. When someone searches Google for “ergonomic office chair”, they may see ads from several webshops offering such products. At a glance they can compare how they look and what they cost, and choose the offer that suits them best.
That is the main advantage of Shopping ads. Your product reaches a potential customer at the very moment they are actively looking for it, and the customer gets the key information before clicking.
If you have advertised on Google before, you are probably familiar with text ads shown above or below the organic search results. Shopping ads work differently because the focus is on the product itself, not just on a text message made up of a headline and description.
| Feature | Text ads | Shopping ads |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Headline, description and link | Product photo, name, price, ratings and similar |
| Presentation | Highlights the product with text only | Shows the product visually, through image and text |
| Product choice | The user only sees the full product after clicking | The user sees the product before clicking and can compare it with others |
| What triggers the ad | Keywords | Product data |
In short, the main benefits of Google Shopping ads are:
1. A clear visual presentation and easier product comparison
Shoppers immediately see the product image, name and price without having to visit your webshop first.
2. More relevant visits and greater readiness to buy
The ad shows a specific product that matches the user’s search. This can help attract interested shoppers who are already ready to buy, because they see all the important information before they click.
3. Extra visibility
Smaller webshops get the chance to appear alongside bigger brands and increase their visibility.
That is why it pays to prepare early and take advantage of being among the first, when there is less competition and more room to test and achieve good results.
So, we have covered what Shopping ads are, how they differ from other ad types and what their benefits are. What does launching them actually look like?
If you want to advertise, it is not enough to simply open a Google Ads account (if you don’t already have one) and set a budget. You need to prepare a few basics so Google can understand what you sell, show your products to potential customers and connect the ads to your webshop.
Here are the four main components you need before you start advertising.
The first prerequisite is a functional webshop where customers can browse products and complete a purchase. It can be a store built on a platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce, or on another system that supports the necessary integrations.
The platform itself is not decisive. What matters more is that each product has its own page with a clear name, good photos, an accurate price and availability information. Information about delivery, payment and returns should also be easy for customers to find.
For example, if you sell sneakers, a customer who clicks on a Shopping ad should land directly on the page of that model, where they can choose a size and easily complete the purchase.
In other words, the webshop needs to be ready not just to show ads, but also to turn visitors into customers and provide a great user experience. Which brings us to the basic things Google expects from a webshop:
If any of these is missing or not working properly, Google may show warnings and limit the display of certain products or, depending on the issue, block them from being advertised and, in the strictest case, suspend your entire Google Merchant Center account. More about that tool below.
So before preparing campaigns, check not only the technical connection between your webshop and Google’s tools, but the entire shopping experience.
Check your webshop’s health with our list
We have prepared a full list of everything you should check to see whether your webshop is optimised for the best possible user experience. Click here to request the list.
The product feed is one of the most important components of Google Shopping advertising. It is structured data that gives Google information about the products you want to advertise. Simply put, it is a file containing a list of your products.
The list usually includes:
Imagine your webshop has 500 products. Instead of entering each product into Google’s tools by hand, the feed lets you deliver information about a large number of products in a structured way. Depending on the platform and integration, the data can be updated automatically when you change a price or availability in your webshop.
That is why the feed is not just a technical detail. The quality of your product data significantly affects how well Google can understand what you offer.
Google Merchant Center is the central tool you use to send Google the product data from your webshop and manage it. In it you can:
For example, Merchant Center can warn you about missing data, a price mismatch between the feed and the product page, or other issues that need fixing. This lets you spot errors before they seriously affect your advertising, and your entire Merchant Center account.
A Google Ads account is needed to set up and manage paid campaigns. Through it you choose which products to advertise, set the budget and goals, and track results. You need to link Google Ads with Google Merchant Center, and only then can you launch Shopping ads.
It is also important to think about measuring results. If you want to know whether your ads are bringing in sales, you need to set up purchase and order value tracking correctly. Otherwise you will see how many clicks you got, but you won’t have good enough data to judge the real business impact of the campaign.
Opening a Google Ads account is only the beginning. Good advertising means connecting all the pieces, checking that the data is correct and defining what you want to achieve.
The webshop, product feed, Google Merchant Center and Google Ads each have a different role, but together they form the foundation of Shopping advertising.
If the webshop is good but the product data is wrong, you may run into problems with how ads are shown. If the products are well prepared but the campaign is not set up properly or results are not measured correctly, it will be hard to tell how much the advertising really helps you.
That is why it is important to check the whole process before launching campaigns, from the data in your webshop to purchase tracking. They don’t say preparation is half the job for nothing.
It is important to know that not all products can be advertised through Google Shopping on the same terms. While most everyday products have no special industry restrictions, additional rules apply to certain categories, and some products are banned from advertising altogether.
Before you start preparing campaigns, check whether your products fall into any of these categories:
| Can be advertised | Subject to special restrictions | Banned from advertising |
|---|---|---|
| ✅ clothing | ⚠️ alcoholic drinks | ❌ tobacco products |
| ✅ footwear | ⚠️ medicines and health products | ❌ recreational drugs |
| ✅ furniture | ⚠️ sex toys and adult products | ❌ weapons, ammunition and explosives |
| ✅ household appliances | ⚠️ gambling-related products | ❌ counterfeit products |
| ✅ electronics | ||
| ✅ office equipment | ||
| ✅ children’s toys |
This is not a complete list! Before advertising, check the rules for specific product categories, which change from time to time, as well as the laws of the country where you plan to advertise.
If a product does not meet Google’s requirements, the ad may be disapproved and the product removed from advertising. For repeated or serious policy violations, Google can take further action, including suspending the account. You can find more details on Google’s official pages and in the ad policies.
According to the latest information available at the time of writing, support for the Croatian market in the Croatian language is expected in March 2027.
The date has not been officially confirmed yet, but it already makes sense to prepare your webshop so you can make the most of it when it becomes available and stay a step ahead of the competition.
We have prepared a practical checklist for reviewing your webshop before you start advertising. It will help you check the most important elements, including:
All you need to do is send an email with the subject “provjera webshopa” (webshop check) to toni.segvic@sem-consulting.biz and ask for the checklist. That’s it!
No time to check everything yourself? Leave it to us, completely free of charge. Just send a link to your webshop along with the email, and we will review the key elements and prepare a report with the issues found, recommendations and priorities. That way you will know what to fix first and what can wait.
Don’t put it off for too long. The sooner you spot possible problems, the more time you will have to fix them and the bigger your advantage over the competition.
Google Shopping can give webshops an extra opportunity to be visible on Google and attract shoppers who are already looking for the products they sell. Experience from developed markets shows how important this format has become in online store advertising.
Still, success does not depend on launching a campaign alone. The quality of your webshop, accurate product data and properly set up tracking all play an important role.
You don’t have to research everything you need to look out for on your own. Use the practical checklist to walk through the most important elements of your webshop.
Good luck! 🙂
The author, Toni Šegvić, has ten years of experience in digital marketing and runs SEM Consulting, a business specialising in Google advertising.
Share
