How To Dominate Google Merchant Center [Podcast]

So, you want to promote your products online. Are you ready?

Google Merchant Center is the future of ecommerce when it comes to both PPC AND SEO (including local). It is the first step to launching Shopping Ad campaigns for your products.

In this episode, Duane Brown joined me to talk about Merchant Center, its data, the importance of feeds, and the all-around Google Shopping experience for Google’s users.

Your shopping feed is the most important thing you could work on, and it sets you apart from your competition because most people are not going to work on it. Admittedly, it’s a bit tedious, but it’s a tedious, boring work that gets you ahead.–Duane Brown, 20:53

Google really wants to build an Amazon type of marketplace, and we all know that Amazon is all about the lowest price at the end of the day.–Duane Brown, 40:34

I believe that Merchant Center is a hybrid of organic and shopping that may be used in the future for organic results and shopping ads. So keep an eye on that. –Loren Baker, 24:43 [00:00] – A little about Duane.
[03:07] – Does Duane do ads outside of Google Shopping?
[04:26] – What’s exciting in the Google ad scene right now?
[07:41] – Emerging ad platforms.
[11:38] – Why is Merchant Center important?
[13:51] – Should SEO be involved in the Merchant Center?
[17:33] – Tips for feed management.
[21:22] – How to be considered a Google Shopping ranking factor.
[22:58] – How important is shipping-time data?
[27:22] – Recommended apps for smaller ecommerce stores.
[29:10] – How important are tools?
[33:17] – Why are search engines going feed-based?
[35:26] – Merchant Center suggestion for a motorcycle dealership.
[38:38] – Additional tips & techniques for Google Merchant Center.
[41:58] – Can you sell services with Google Shopping?

Resources mentioned:
Google Merchant Center – https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center/
Triple Whale – https://trytriplewhale.com/
Take Some Risk – https://www.takesomerisk.com

Suppose you’re going to run shopping ads. Whether it’s paid shopping ads or you want to be on the shopping tab, which is free, you definitely need a Merchant Center to have a place to store your data.–Duane Brown, 12:26

Retention is just becoming a bigger thing. Google realizes that if we want to have people with a better experience, we need to think about retention. –Duane Brown, 26:36

You build a business. It’s that second purchase, that third purchase, that fourth purchase –well, you turn them from a customer to a brand loyalist. That’s a goal. That’s the dream. –Loren Baker, 28:52

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Connect with Duane Brown:

Duane is a global citizen with 14 years of experience working across digital marketing and branding for clients, including ASOS, Walmart, Jack Wills, WooCommerce, RockerBox, and Wea.

Duane’s story is one of hard work, dedication, and success. So far, his globetrotting has taken him places like Australia, where he worked at Telstra; London, the UK, working on brands such Mopp & Grant Thornton. He left London after ten weeks to go to Asia, then back home in Canada, where he landed a job at Unbounce.

With this opportunity came more opportunities that led him down the path toward running an advertising agency that helps ecommerce, DTC, and SaaS brands scale PPC and paid-to-advertise.

When Duane is not working, he travels somewhere new, checks out a restaurant on his bicycle, or delves into a book that caught his eye.

​​Connect with Duane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanebrown/
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/duanebrown

Connect with Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal:

Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker