Delight motivated shoppers with Google Deals
Google has announced the release of a new deals section to help customers find discounts — and to help merchants get more business. The new Google Deals section lets shoppers see “hot” promotional offers and it helps merchants get sale items in front of more shoppers.
Google sees this as a mutually beneficial feature for shoppers seeking lower prices and sellers looking to increase reach.
More than ever, shoppers are looking for the best value for every dollar, especially during seasonal shopping moments like Back to School. In fact, searches for “discount code” have increased over 50% since last year. - Google
New Google Shopping tab page structure
Paid or sponsored product listings remain fixed to the top of the Google Shopping tab page followed by free listings.
The free listings section continues to make up the bulk of the Google Shopping tab page, but now (when applicable) it is followed by the Deals section. This new section showcases the best deals related to a shopper’s search query.
Another key benefit of the Deals feature is the increased visibility on the search results page. Deals are now included in the shopping carousel right on the SERP, which means shoppers won’t have to click over to the shopping tab to see relevant deals.
Plan promotions with better insights
Market volatility can make it difficult to predict the demand for your products, which reduces your ability to adapt merchandising and pricing strategies.
Google wants to help.
Along with Deals, Google is adding two new features to its bestsellers report. The new report provides more relevant and timely shopping insights, historical bestseller data, and relative demand to better predict sales trends for the upcoming season and plan promotions accordingly.
How to get the new Google Deals feature
To have your products included in the Google Deals section, you must create a promotions feed and upload it to your Google Merchant Center. Your deals will be automatically surface when they qualify for search queries related to your products.
Adding your promotions is easy.
- First, log in to Google Merchant Center.
- Next, go to Marketing > Promotions in the left navigation.
- Click the Add button.
- Follow the prompts to create your promotion:
Country and language
Select the country where your promotion will run. Select the language for your promotion. Currency cannot be chosen; it is determined by the selected country.
- Country of sale
- Language
- Currency
Destination
Select the listing format you want promotions associated with. Shoppers will see the promotion only within eligible formats.
- Shopping ads
- Free listings
Promotion category and type
As part of the new Deals redesign, Google is making it easier for you to customize offers. Now, you can indicate whether you want to give a flat rate amount off, an amount off based on quantity of products purchased, BOGO, gift card, free gift, free shipping, free overnight shipping, free 2-day shipping, and more.
Select the kind of promotion you want to offer. Based on your selection, the additional offer customization options will become available for further refinement of your offer.
- Amount off (monetary discount)
- Percent off (percentage discount)
- Free gift (gift with purchase)
- Free shipping
Promotion title and ID
Enter a title that describes your promotion and includes the value and spend requirements. To help your promotion get approved quickly, Google may modify the title. Customers will likely see the title of your promotion (so make it good!).
- Title
- Promotion ID
Products
Choose the products that you want to include in this promotion. You can filter products by supported attributes. Filters are case-sensitive. Pay special attention to this option; it is solely responsible for product inclusion. We recommend Option 1 (product that match promotion ID) because it gives us more flexibility and allows us to add/remove promotions from products without redoing the whole thing.
- Option 1: Choose only products with a promotion id that matches this promotion's ID
- Option 2: Choose all products
- Option 3: Create custom filters based on product attributes
Promo code (optional)
If you use one, enter the promo code here. Customers will use this code to redeem the promotion.
Start and end dates
Choose the dates you want to run your promotion. You can schedule promotions well in advance (we counted as many as 4 years ahead), but you cannot schedule promotions to run immediately. Google requires a minimum of 24 hours to validate your promotion before it goes live. Take this into consideration when planning your promotion.
Once you have built out the promotion’s options, click the Create button. Your promotion will go to Google for review.
What to expect from Google Deals
Google’s new Deals feature is a great way for you to target discount seekers with your best promotional offers at precisely the right time. Deals helps ensure that your product reaches highly motivated shoppers during your most important sales seasons.
We expect increased visibility for Deals during the holiday season. Beginning in October, seasonal shopping search queries will show popular deals on SERPs. Shoppers searching for Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, for example, will see a carousel with web-ranked deals right on the main search results page.
Need help with Google Shopping? GoDataFeed can help you get your optimize and automate Google Shopping product and promotion feeds.
