The Google Merchant Centre is divided into 5 main groups:
• overview,
• products,
• performance,
• marketing,
• and growth.
Based on these main groups, we will explain which reports you can view, what information you can get from them, and who you should share them with on a regular basis. Please note that the Google Merchant Center is subject to constant change. Therefore, by the time you read this article, things may already be different. Nonetheless, some reports have been around for years and therefore we do not expect them to disappear overnight.
1. Overview
For whom: SEA-specialist
The first page is the overview page. Here you have a quick overview of which feeds have been uploaded and when the last update took place. In addition, you can see how many products are active per program:
- Shopping ads,
- Free listings,
- Dynamic Remarketing,
- Shopping Ads and Free Local Listings.
Also, you will see Google's key announcements, which give the latest updates on features, in the GMC. Finally, you'll see the top features suggested by Google. The latter should always be taken with a grain of salt, Google often shows the opportunities that are particularly in the interest of Google itself.
2. Products
The product overview contains three different subtabs with insights about your product data.
For whom: These overviews are primarily important for the SEA specialist, but if errors occur, this is also interesting to share with the developer(s) and warehouse worker(s).
A. Diagnostic data: This is probably the most opened tab within the Google Merchant Center as it provides an overview of the hygiene of your product feed. This allows you to quickly spot if something is going wrong with your feed.
- Active products: The green bar shows the number of active products. Typically, the more active products you have, the more auctions you qualify for, which in turn should result in more clicks and ultimately more sales. You therefore want the numbers to be as high as possible. A big drop in the number of products could mean that your feed is no longer coming through properly, or that you are unfairly filtering out too many products. Best practice is to always list all your products from your range. Even low value products. You can filter out these products in your Google Ads campaigns, this will make them eligible for the free listings, but save you costs in Google Ads on unprofitable products.
- Expiring products: The yellow bar indicates the number of expiring products. These are products that have not been updated for more than 30 days. A growing yellow bar indicates a feed that no longer updates properly and is reason to look at your feed settings.
- Producten pending: The blue bar shows the number of items that are pending. Typically, items are processed within 3 working days. It is therefore important to also list products that are out of stock. You give products that are not in stock the status "out of stock". This allows the products to become active again faster as soon as they are back in stock and do not have to go through another approval process first.
- Rejected products: The red bar shows the number of rejected products. These are products that did not pass Google's policy for various reasons. This could be because of Prohibited Content, Prohibited Practices, Restricted Content and/or Editorial and Technical reasons. The most common reason is missing GTINs. In Europe, these are usually EAN codes that are missing. It is therefore advisable to periodically share this list with the appropriate person in the warehouse so that he or she can check it for you.
B. All products: In this view, you can easily filter by all your specified products to see what final values have been specified. This can help you tremendously in troubleshooting problems. If you get the message that one or more products have an invalid price then it is advisable to zoom in on one of the products. You can search for the product in different ways in this tab. You then open the product to see what the final price is and from which data source this comes. This is because a certain feed or setting may have overwritten the value.
C. Feeds: This overview shows you which feeds are running. These can be both primary and supplementary feeds.
3. Performance
For whom: SEA-specialist, procurement and pricing
A. Overview & products: The performance summary pages are a golden source of useful information. For example, this provides a quick overview of the number of clicks on your ads and free listings in the past few days. On the product page, you can see which products, brands and product groups have received the most clicks.
B. Competition: On the competition page, you can see which competitors have had the biggest and similar visibility within your product category. In my opinion, this is more valuable than the auction insights in Google Ads as in many cases the auction insights cannot be focused on the product groups relevant to you. The ad/organic ratio also gives a very good picture of how aggressive other parties are in the auction at any given time. The higher the ratio, the more aggressive they are advertising.
C. Market demand: The market demand reports are very interesting to share with your buying team. This is because here you can see which products within certain product groups are currently the most popular on Google. Perhaps the procurement team can also start buying these products. Also, you can see which of the products you currently have out of stock are popular on Google. Products with low market demand, on the other hand, may be less interesting to stock.
D. Prices: The pricing page is interesting to share with your pricing team. This is because here you can see in what percentage of cases you are cheaper than competitors, weighted by click share. Also, you can easily view this per brand.
E. Promotion: The promotion page offers a simple overview of the performance of products that have a special promotion, such as an out-of-stock price or price drop. This is also interesting to share with your pricing and/or marketing promotion team.
4. Marketing
For whom: SEA-specialist
Marketingpromotion, the marketing dashboards offer different types of overviews:
A. Promotions: The promotions dashboard shows which promotions are live, which promotions are yet to be reviewed and which promotions have been rejected.
B. Product reviews: The product review overview shows the status of your product reviews. These are star ratings displayed with product listings.
C. Ad campaigns: The ad campaign overview is a new overview in Google Merchant Center. This overview shows the performance of your campaigns but in the Google Merchant Center. This can be useful if you want to quickly view results and don't have Google Ads open. In most cases, however, I would recommend viewing the performance in the Google Ads UI, as the data in the GMC is rather concise.
5. Growth:
For whom: SEA-specialist, procurement/pricing
A. Capabilities: A quick overview of possible problems you can solve, including the expected uplift in clicks when solving the problem. For example, landing pages of products that are not reachable.
B. Price competitiveness capability: This overview provides a more comprehensive view of your price competitiveness than performance. It is therefore interesting to share this overview with your purchasing and pricing colleagues. In contrast to the previously mentioned report, you can also make a breakdown by product category and product type level here. The downside, however, is that you cannot see exactly which competitors are cheaper and what the cheapest product in the market is. For this, you are better off using paid tools or activating features like the Adchieve Price Insights function.
C. Bestsellers: The bestseller overview is similar to the market demand overview but just a bit more comprehensive. Here, you can easily see which products and brands within your categories have the highest search demand in Google.
D. Price insights: With price insights, you can see at what selling price you can expect what numbers of clicks and impressions. Your pricing and buying team can use this to determine what the optimal price should be. Just be aware that competitors can track your prices, which can send you into a negative price spiral.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Google Merchant Center is an indispensable tool for both SEA specialists and the entire e-commerce team. It offers comprehensive and dynamic insights that, if applied properly, can be invaluable to different departments within your organization. From accurately tracking product performance to understanding market demand and price competition, the GMC is more than just an advertising tool. It is a strategic partner that helps you optimize your presence online and grow in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace. However, always be alert to ongoing updates within the platform, and make sure you are always taking advantage of the latest features and reports to drive your e-commerce strategy forward. With this guide, we hope you will get the most out of Google Merchant Center, and propel your business to new heights.