Before you can begin creating your product listing ads you will need to make certain that you have configured your Google AdWords and Merchant Center accounts.

Please Note:   If you want to track product level revenue and cost, you need to use ChannelAdvisor to send your product data to Google.  If you do not currently regularly provide your inventory data to ChannelAdvisor and wish to start, please  contact our support  to verify your inventory configuration in our platform before beginning. For additional details please view the ChannelAdvisor Inventory Types Overview page. 

Also:  Before enabling Product Listing Ads tracking, please  review this page  for a list of changes to your account and product limitations.  

• Create Your Google Merchant Center Account -  Google Merchant Center is a tool which helps you upload your product listings to be used for Google Shopping, If you have not created your Google Merchant Center Account you will need to do so before continuing.  Learn more about the Google Merchant Center and how to create your account.
  
  
• Create Your Google AdWords Account - No matter what your budget or how little time you have, you can reach new customers and grow your business using Google’s online advertising program (AdWords). With AdWords you can choose where your ad appears, set a budget that’s comfortable for you and easily measure the impact of your ad.  Learn more about Google AdWords and how to create your account.
   
• Link Your AdWords and Merchant Center Accounts - In order to display product listing ads, you'll have to link your Google AdWords and Google Merchant Center accounts. You can add multiple AdWords accounts to a single Google Merchant Center account.
1. In your Merchant Center account, navigate to your  Settings > AdWords  view . 
2. Enter your  AdWords Customer ID (CID) . You can find your CID at the top of your AdWords account when you're signed in. 
3. Click  Add .

After you have linked your Google Merchant and AdWords accounts you will need to create your Google Product Listing Ads campaign. There are three methods of creating a Google Product Listing Ad Campaign. There are three methods of creating a Google Product Listing Ad Campaign. Choose any one of the methods listed below: 

1. Creating a Campaign via the ChannelAdvisor User Interface
2. Creating a Campaign via the Google Product Listing Ads Wizard
3. Creating a Campaign via your AdWords Account

View the Creating a New Google Product Listing Ad Campaign  page for additional information.

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You must synchronize your Google Product Listing Ads Campaigns with ChannelAdvisor in order to accurately track your campaign results. This includes providing your domain URLs, filling in your Google AdWords account information and enabling the AutoTrack setting for your Product Listing Ad Campaign. Complete the followiing steps to complete this task.

1. Navigate to your  Feeds > Shopping > AdWords Account   view. 
2. Select the New Account Button.
3. Select "Google" from the provider drop down menu
4. Complete the following fields:   
• Account Name:  Enter your Google account name
• Account ID:  Found in the upper right hand corner of your AdWords screen
• Login:  Use your AdWords login email address
• Password:  Use your AdWords password
• Account Status:  Select "Active" from the Account Status drop down menu
• Indicate if you would like to Track All Campaigns.
5. Enable Auto Track

View the  Configuring ChannelAdvisor Access to your Google Adwords Account  page for additional information.

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Once you have completed the proper configurations within your Google AdWords and Merchant Center Accounts you can move forward and create your Google Shopping Feed within your ChannelAdvisor account. When creating your feed you will need to make sure to complete all of the required and applicable pages of the feed template. In addition, you will need to map the following fields as shown below:

• Excluded Destination - Map to the  Google Shopping Excluded Destination business rule pre-created in your account.  This business rule reads a product's bid value for Google and returns "Shopping" if you have set the product bid to $0.  A Shopping value in Excluded Destination will tell Google to exclude this product from being advertised in Google Shopping.  Reset bid will clear a bid value for a provider.    
   
• Adwords Grouping  - Map to the  Google Shopping Adwords Grouping  business rule pre-created in your account.  Required for clients using our solution to create targets.
   
• Adwords Labels  -  Map to the  Google Shopping Adwords Labels  business rule pre-created in your account.  Required for clients using our solution to create targets.
   
• Adwords_queryparam1  - should use this value of  cagpspn={ifpla:pla}{ifpe:pe}.   cagpspn={adtype} is still supported by Google, but the other format is recommended.  
   
• Adwords Redirect -  Map to the  Google Adwords Tracking Rule  business rule   pre-created in your account.  It is optional to provide this field to Google, it is an override on the regular  Link  field.  The  Google Adwords Tracking Rule  will copy the values you provide in the  Link  field including our tracking.  If you need to add special tracking to distinguish between PLA and other Google traffic, you can use this field.   Please refer to this page  for more information about changing the  Google Adwords Tracking Rule  so that you do not lose SKU-level performance visibility on Google Shopping.

For additional details on the feed creation process view the  Shopping and Flex Feeds Getting Started Guide .

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Product Targets are used instead of keywords as a way to specify which products in your Google Merchant Center account should trigger your product listing ads for related searches. You can also set unique bids for different sets of products. It is required to define at least on product target in order to successfully run a Product Listing Ad campaign. Read more about  Google's Product Targets . 

Determining the best attribute to define your product targets will depend on how you wish to organize your campaigns. Below are the criteria Google has made available when creating your product targets: 

• product ID:  This is your seller SKU.
• brand:   The product's brand as specified in your Merchant Center account. Example: Google
• product_type:    This should be your category for your product. Examples: shoes, high heels, or fridge (  Learn more about this attribute  )
• condition:   The condition of the product. Examples: new, used, and refurbished
• adwords_grouping:   A custom defined grouping of products. This attribute only accepts one value per product. You can create your own grouping as you see fit. Examples of custom groupings could be those of grouping the products per season, per designer, per manufacturer, per year, per model, etc.
• adwords_labels:   The same as adwords_grouping but it accepts multiple values. You can group your products in two different concurrent groupings. For example, cars grouped by model and by manufacturer.

There are several methods to set up product targets that are dependent on your ChannelAdvisor inventory configuration.  The method you use to create product targets will depend primarily on your inventory configuration.  If you are unsure of your inventory configuration, or wish to make a change, please contact ChannelAdvisor support.

View the  Setting Up Product Targets for Google Product Listing Ad Campaigns  page for additional details.

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Within ChannelAdvisor you have the ability to view and analyze the performance of your Product Listing Ad Campaigns at the Product Target level as well as at the individual product level. Analyzing this data will give you insight into how best to optimize your Product Listing Ad Campaign. Navigate to your  Feeds > Google Shopping > Performance  view and select any one of the performance grids listed below:

• Product Targets Performance Grid - Select the Product Targets tab and use this page to view detailed information on your Google Product Targets.
   
• PLA Product Performance Grid - Select the Product tab and use this page to view detailed information on which products in your Product Target(s) contributed to your performance.  

View the  Analyzing Google Shopping Product Listing Ad Performance  page for additional details.

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Once you have successfully created your product listing ads you will want to continuously monitor their performance and make the necessary bid adjustments. ChannelAdvisor offers several tools to assist you with this effort.