by Austin LeClear
on December 3, 2024
If you’re running Google Shopping campaigns, you’re probably familiar with Google Merchant Center as the hub organizing all of your product data. But did you know that your Google Merchant Center account offers a wealth of hidden insights that can help you edge out the competition, optimize your pricing, and ultimately boost your Google Shopping ads sales?
These four secret reports hidden inside Google Merchant Center are often overlooked, but can deliver serious value (if you know where to find them). They’ll help you:
Dig deeper into your product data
Get a clear understanding of your competitors
Make strategic adjustments that can have a direct impact on your bottom line
So, what are these Google Ads reports and where can you find them? Let’s dive in!
Prefer video? Check out our YouTube video on the 4 Secret Google Merchant Center Reports That Will Boost Your Sales:
1. Shopping Experience Scorecard
The first report on our list is the Shopping Experience Scorecard, which can be found in the “Overview” tab or by navigating to the “Growth” section in your Merchant Center dashboard.
This report provides critical insights into your store’s performance from the customer’s perspective, measuring key elements like shipping experience, return experience, seller rating, and purchase process.
Why It Matters
Google not only ranks your products based on price and relevance, but also on the overall shopping experience you provide. This scorecard assigns your store a quality rating that reflects how well you meet Google’s customer experience standards. Stores with exceptional performance receive a Top Quality Store badge, which can boost visibility and credibility with potential customers.
This report can also reveal areas where your online store may need to improve, such as:
Shipping delays or costs: Are your shipping costs competitive, and are there opportunities to optimize shipping times?
Return policy: How does your return policy compare to your competitors using Google Ads? Google evaluates this and may downgrade your rating if it’s too restrictive or costly for the customer.
For example, while reviewing the scorecard with one of our clients, we noticed they were losing points on their return experience. Their return policy was more rigid than competitors’, which was likely causing friction in the buying process for potential customers. By tweaking the return policy to be more lenient and customer-friendly, they not only improved their Shopping Experience Score but saw a positive impact on conversion rates from their Google Shopping ads.
How It Can Boost Your Sales
A strong shopping experience rating can directly impact your sales from Google Ads. The Top Quality Store badge enhances your brand’s trustworthiness, and customers are more likely to click on listings from stores that are deemed reputable by Google. Optimizing the key factors in this report can also prevent customers from bouncing due to high shipping costs or unfavorable return policies, so (if you’re looking to get the most out of your Google Shopping campaigns) it’s well worth reviewing.
2. Price Competitiveness
Next up is the Price Competitiveness report, which lives in the “Growth” section of Merchant Center. This report gives you a clear breakdown of how your product prices stack up against your competitors’ prices in Google Shopping ads.
Why It Matters
In the world of Google Shopping ads, price is king. According to Google, price is one of the most significant factors that influences whether a potential customer clicks on your product listing or your competitor’s. If your product is overpriced compared to the market benchmark, you’re at risk of losing sales, no matter how optimized your product feed is.
This report provides invaluable data about your Google Shopping ads performance by:
Comparing your product prices to competitors’ prices: It highlights where your products are priced too high, which can hurt your visibility and sales in Google Shopping ads.
Flagging pricing gaps: You can identify products that are significantly more expensive than the market average, allowing you to adjust prices or rethink your pricing strategy for those products in your shopping campaigns.
Real-World Example
One of our clients sells CPAP machines. While reviewing this report with our client, we discovered that their product was priced 13.3% higher than the benchmark for a CPAP machine.
Unsurprisingly, their Google Shopping campaign for the CPAP machine wasn’t performing well in terms of clicks or sales. By adjusting the price to be more in line with competitors, you’re more likely to see an increase in clicks and conversions on your Google Shopping ads.
On the flip side, it’s important to note that pricing too low can also cut into your margins unnecessarily. This report helps you identify the sweet spot for pricing: where your Google Shopping ads are competitive without sacrificing profitability.
For most Google shopping campaigns, price is the number one Google shopping ads optimization tip. If you can lower the price (contingent on margin, availability, etc.) and the product data suggests the competition has lowered the price, you might consider joining them. When it comes to clicks on your Google Shopping ads, you’re not going to win if your product is priced higher. Therefore, it’s important to check the price competitiveness report regularly to ensure your Google Shopping campaigns are priced as effectively as possible.
You can also group data by brands. When you’re in the red, it’s difficult to compete successfully against other sellers of the same product in Google Ads, in large part due to price point.
How It Can Boost Your Sales
Regularly checking this report allows you to stay on top of the market trends and adjust your prices (and Google Shopping ads) accordingly. Price is often the deciding factor in a customer’s purchasing decision, so aligning your prices with the market (or strategically undercutting competitors) can give you the edge in Google Shopping ads, helping you win more clicks and drive higher sales volume.
3. Competitive Visibility
The third secret report is Competitive Visibility, which can be found under the “Performance” tab.
Think of this report as the Auction Insights report for Google Shopping campaigns but within the Merchant Center. It gives you a clear view of how your products and shopping ads are performing in relation to your competitors.
Why It Matters
Google Shopping is a competitive space, and understanding who your competitors are and how you stack up against them is key to refining your shopping campaigns. The Competitive Visibility report provides a comprehensive look at:
Page overlap rates: This shows how often your products appear on the same page as competitors.
Relative visibility: This indicates how often your shopping ads are seen compared to competitors in your industry.
Higher position rates: This shows how frequently your Google Shopping ads rank higher than your competitors’ listings.
By analyzing this data, you can identify which competitors are consistently outranking you (and which ones you’re outperforming). This can help you strategize around:
Which product categories to prioritize.
Where to focus your ad spend to gain a competitive advantage.
Areas to optimize further, such as feed quality, bidding strategies, or pricing.
You can also see the businesses with the highest visibility. Normally, these are multinational conglomerates like Amazon and Walmart. This can be useful information, but in general we find the ‘Businesses with similar visibility’ section is the most helpful when determining how to optimize Google shopping campaigns.
How It Can Boost Your Sales
Let’s say your Google Shopping ads are consistently appearing below a key competitor in your product category. Armed with this data, you can adjust your bidding strategy, refine your product feed, or improve your Google Shopping feed to close that visibility gap. The higher the products in your shopping campaigns rank, the more visibility you gain — leading to more clicks, a stronger Google Shopping campaign, and, ultimately, more online sales.
4. Promotions Performance Report
Last but certainly not least is the Promotions Performance Report, which can be accessed under the “Performance” section in Google Merchant Center.
If you’re running promotions on Google Shopping, this report is an essential tool for understanding which promotions are actually driving results in your Google Ads account.
Why It Matters
Running promotions can be a powerful way to drive traffic and increase sales, but not all promotions are created equal. Some may flop, while others may be incredibly successful.
The Promotions Performance report shows you exactly which promotions performed well and provides detailed metrics such as:
Impressions: How many times your promotion was seen.
Clicks: How many customers clicked on the promotion.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who saw your promotion and clicked on it.
With this data, you can identify which types of promotions resonate most with your audience. For example, you might find that percentage discounts outperform dollar-off promotions or that certain product categories respond better to promotions than others. This can information can help you make data-driven decisions in future when it comes to deciding how to allocate your ad spend in Google Shopping to get the most out of your shopping ads.
How It Can Boost Your Sales
The key to successful promotions is to repeat what works. By analyzing the Promotions Performance report, you can fine-tune your promotional strategy to focus on the offers that are driving the most engagement and conversions. This ensures you’re making the most out of your promotional budget by appealing to potential customers and driving meaningful sales growth via your Google Shopping campaigns.
Final Thoughts
There you have it — the four secret reports inside Google Merchant Center that can significantly enhance your Google Shopping campaigns. From improving your customer experience score to optimizing pricing and promotions, these reports can give you the insight you need to make better, data-driven decisions.
Be sure to take the time to dive into each report, analyze the data, and make strategic adjustments based on what you find.
By leveraging the product data in these four reports, you’ll be better able to outpace your competitors and boost your sales on Google Shopping.
Remember, success with Google Shopping campaigns starts with data, and these reports give you the actionable insights you need to make informed decisions. So, what are you waiting for? Log in to your Merchant Center account and start reviewing today!
