How to add dropshipping products to Google Shopping (2024)

Expand your reach and showcase your dropshipping products to millions of online customers by using Google Shopping. This step-by-step guide will take you through setting up your Google Shopping account, getting featured for free, and creating your first paid advert.

Google Shopping is a price comparison feature. A selection of sponsored product adverts appears at the top of Google search results when an online shopper searches for a product using Google.

Google describes their shopping service as a "product discovery experience." According to their website, they say it is their goal to make it easy for users to:

• Research purchases
• Find information about different products, their features and prices
• Connect with sellers to make their purchase

Google Shopping offers free listings and paid adverts.

Paid adverts vary in price depending on the product category and competition. As an ecommerce retailer creating Google Shopping adverts, you only pay Google when an online shopper clicks on your product advert. This is based on the pay-per-click (PPC) model.

These are the advantages of dropshippers advertising their products with Google Shopping:

• Get to the top of Google: Online shoppers who search for the item you sell will see your product at the top of the search results (SERPs). This means better visibility and a higher chance of shoppers clicking on your product.
• Increased traffic to your website: Google users are attracted to the highly visible and engaging Google Shopping adverts.
• Google is the number one search engine: Google is leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors. According to Statista in 2023, Google had a 92% share of the desktop search engine market with Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo only taking a tiny portion of online users. By using Google Shopping, you're sure to reach a huge buying audience.
• Engaging features: Price comparison, customer reviews, product images, carousel display, promotions, Google Lens integration, price tracking, and price alerts make Google Shopping a more interactive and personalised shopping experience for users.
• Shopping campaign insights: Retailers can access analytics for their Google Shopping campaigns. Useful data such as click-through rates and conversion rates show which products are popular.

What are the drawbacks of dropshippers using Google Shopping?

• Cost: Google Shopping can be expensive due to the PPC model. Define goals for your Google Shopping campaign before setting a budget aside. Make sure you understand the costs and start small.
• High competition: Certain niches may have tough competition, making it difficult and expensive to stand out from the crowd.
• Technical know-how: Google Shopping requires setting up Google Adwords. This can be daunting and confusing for dropshippers with little technical knowledge.
• Product feed management: Maintaining the accuracy of product information in Google Shopping adverts takes time and effort. It requires frequent product feed updates.
• Suspension risks: Similar to Amazon and other platforms for ecommerce advertising, dropshippers need to abide by rules and policies. Violating these will lead to account suspension or termination.

Step 1: Create a Google Merchant account

Go to the Google Merchant Centre website. Click "Start now" to create an account. You will need to answer questions such as if you sell products online and if you have a physical shop.

Step 2: Connect with Shopify

There are specific instructions for dropshippers who use Shopify for their ecommerce website. You need to install "Google & YouTube" by Google LLC in the Shopify App Store. The app will appear under "Sales channels" on the left menu in your Shopify account.

To connect your Shopify store to the Google Merchant Centre, you will be prompted to complete these steps:

• Add a refund policy
• Add a privacy policy
• Add customer contact details
• Add a Google account to connect with Google Merchant

Shopify makes it easy to create legal policies for your dropshipping store by providing free templates. Simply check the details and amend if necessary.

Other third-party integrations for Google Merchant Center include:

• WooCommerce
• BigCommerce
• Magento

Step 3: Add your business information

Skip this step if you connected a third-party such as Shopify to your Google Merchant account. Dropshippers without a third-party platform need to manually add their business details. This includes:

• Business address
• Verify your phone number
• Verify your dropshipping store URL

You have two options to verify the URL of your dropshipping website. If you don't want to add code to your website, you can verify your website email address instead.

Step 4: Add delivery details

Make sure the correct delivery details are added for each country you sell to. Certain codes and tax IDs will be required depending on the country. You will also be asked to provide this information:

• Order cut-off time: What is the latest hour that customers can order from your website for each delivery option?
• Handling time: How many days will it take for a customer order to be packed and ready for delivery?
• Transit time: How many days will it take to deliver an order to the customer?
• Delivery costs: How much will delivery cost and in what currency? Is there a flat rate or does the delivery cost depend on the product price or weight?

Delivery information per country can be edited or removed if your delivery prices or promotions change.

Step 5: Add your dropshipping products

Finally, it's time to add your dropshipping products. If you connect your Google Merchant account with a third-party ecommerce platform such as Shopify, your products will be automatically added. You just need to confirm if you want to feature all of those products on Google Shopping.

Without a third-party ecommerce platform, you need to upload your dropshipping products. There are three ways to do this:

• Add products from a file: You may need some technical know-how for this option. This is if you have an existing product file or you import it from another website.
• Use a Google Sheets template: This allows you to add product information using a simple spreadsheet. Useful if you have a lot of dropshipping products.
• Manually add products individually: Use this option if you don't have many dropshipping products. Add your product details, product URL, and images. This is easy if you don't have any technical knowledge.

Step 6: Integrate with Google Ads

To start getting the products promoted with Google Shopping, we need to set up Google Ads. Look at the bottom of the left-hand menu in your Google Merchant Centre. You will see the "Ad campaigns" tab.

Click "Get started."

Click "Link to Google Ads." On the next screen, you can choose to link to an existing Google Ads account or create a new one.

Step 7: Create a Google Shopping Ad

Lastly, you need to create a Google Shopping ad to get your products featured at the top of Google Shopping results. These are also known as sponsored ads. Go into your Google Ads account to create a Google Shopping campaign. You can track the success of your paid advert by viewing the analytics in your Google Merchant Centre.

Google Shopping is a fast way to promote your dropshipping products and increase your credibility as an online retailer. Online shoppers trust Google and the Google Shopping platform. It's an easy way for shoppers to compare products, retailers, features, and seller reviews.

Setting up Google Shopping looks more complicated than it is. You can get your products featured on Google Shopping with only half a day of effort. Simply follow the prompts from Google and you'll be ready in a jiffy.