Just get access to the new Merchant Center UI? 

Or, perhaps you're just getting into Ecom and trying to get started on Merchant Center? 

In this video, we'll walk you through everything you need to do in order to get your Google Merchant Center Next account set up right from the beginning. As a reminder, this is for GMC NEXT which is Google's new iteration of the UI.

There are definitely things that are different from the old GMC (RIP), but we'll help you set up your new account from A-Z in this walkthrough.

Apologies: my video recording software has been fritzing out on me so I did my best to fix the issues in editing, but you will see some glitches on the screen during the video. Definitely not happy about that, and I'm looking into changing my software for future videos! Thanks for being patient with me, I do the recording, editing, and producing of everything on this channel myself!

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Transcript

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[00:00:02.03]

- All righty.

[00:00:03.01]

Welcome, welcome, welcome

[00:00:04.04]

to Merchant Center

Mastery YouTube channel.

[00:00:07.09]

And in this video today we

are going to set up an account

[00:00:12.03]

with Google Merchant Center next.

[00:00:14.05]

So I've never done this

[00:00:15.06]

before, so I'm just letting

you know I've always worked in

[00:00:17.06]

the original Google Merchant Center UI.

[00:00:19.05]

This is eventually what will take place.

[00:00:23.00]

Google is beginning to put

most, maybe all, I'm not sure,

[00:00:28.05]

new Merchant Center accounts

[00:00:30.01]

to the new Google Merchant

Center next user interface, UI

[00:00:34.03]

and then some old standard

[00:00:38.02]

merchant center accounts have

the option to transition to

[00:00:42.03]

Next, to GMC Next.

[00:00:43.05]

I thought it might

be good for us to just walk

[00:00:46.06]

through this together 'cause

you might have fallen on this

[00:00:48.06]

video because you have learned that

[00:00:52.07]

as you've created an account,

you're in Merchant Center Next.

[00:00:55.03]

You have no idea what to do.

[00:00:56.09]

My hope is to walk you through this,

[00:00:58.08]

taking all the knowledge that I have

[00:01:00.02]

with the original merchant center

[00:01:01.02]

and kind of like thinking

through what to do here.

[00:01:05.04]

A couple, maybe a couple of caveats.

[00:01:08.00]

So one would be, I'm not gonna go into all

[00:01:12.04]

of the super uber-specific

details of every single setting

[00:01:17.03]

and every single thing that we look at.

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That's what the other videos

are for in this channel.

[00:01:21.04]

My goal is to make these videos

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not turn into like hour long

things or two hour long things.

[00:01:26.09]

So we're gonna, we're

gonna go through these

[00:01:29.06]

and walk through steps

and hit high level things

[00:01:32.05]

in some ways to familiarize

ourselves with the interface

[00:01:36.02]

as well as, you know, maybe

give you some tips of, of what

[00:01:38.09]

to do and, and how we're

gonna do it, right?

[00:01:41.08]

But, you know, there might be times,

[00:01:44.01]

like a good instance would be taxes.

[00:01:46.05]

Taxes or shipping.

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We're just not gonna go into

the details of that right now.

[00:01:51.07]

That would take a long time.

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There's lots of complicated

things that go into that.

[00:01:55.07]

We're just not gonna do that.

[00:01:57.00]

So just be aware of that

[00:01:59.05]

and also give me a little grace

as I try to figure this out.

[00:02:02.05]

I'll also, as I edit the

video, try to remove any like,

[00:02:05.03]

major pausing points

[00:02:07.03]

where I'm like, I have

no idea what to do next.

[00:02:09.05]

Right? I'll try to

remove that for you just

[00:02:11.08]

so at least it's a little seamless.

[00:02:13.01]

But also there might be

some times where I'm trying

[00:02:15.07]

to find something, I might

leave it in there just

[00:02:17.05]

so you can see me walk through that.

[00:02:19.01]

'cause that might help you

remember it in that as well.

[00:02:20.09]

Okay, so good to go. Let's dive in.

[00:02:23.06]

Let's learn Google Merchant Center next.

[00:02:25.08]

This is what to do if you

start an account with Google

[00:02:30.01]

Merchant Center next and how

[00:02:31.02]

to get your ecomm brand

rolling with Merchant Center.

[00:02:34.04]

Now as we begin, so you

did not see the first part

[00:02:38.00]

of this in which I simply

typed in Google Merchant Center

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into google.com.

[00:02:43.05]

The search engine followed the prompts to

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set up a Google Merchant Center account.

[00:02:48.07]

So very easy you can find that.

[00:02:50.05]

And then I, I, all I did

was add in my store URL

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and I, maybe a name, something like that.

[00:02:57.01]

I, I just literally followed

like the two prompts there was,

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and that's how I got to this screen.

[00:03:01.02]

So there you go. That's

what's already happened.

[00:03:03.09]

Now what we're gonna do is

[00:03:04.09]

we're gonna go ahead and set this up.

[00:03:06.00]

Like, like I said, I'm, I'm very familiar

[00:03:08.01]

with the original Google

Merchant Center UI,

[00:03:10.07]

still getting familiar with Next,

[00:03:12.05]

so bear with me a little bit here.

[00:03:14.05]

But part of what Google has been trying

[00:03:16.08]

to do a little better, which I kinda like,

[00:03:18.05]

is they've just been

making it a little easier

[00:03:20.09]

to follow along with what's

going on in your setup process.

[00:03:24.02]

So what we might do to begin with is just,

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just literally follow

what they have done here,

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what they've suggested and,

and see where that gets us.

[00:03:33.02]

And then we'll start to

get into the nitty gritty

[00:03:35.01]

of adding products and

things like that as well.

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So let's go ahead and start.

[00:03:39.01]

We're gonna add in the business

address. That is my office.

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That is that, those are

the ZATO offices, the ZATO

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and ZATOWorks Publishing

'cause that's what this is.

[00:03:48.00]

ZATOWorks publishing. I might someday

[00:03:49.08]

actually start selling

some, some just swag

[00:03:52.03]

and things like that and

our books, all that stuff.

[00:03:55.01]

So go ahead and put this in here

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and to add in my work number, (which

[00:04:01.05]

is very screened just in case)

[00:04:05.08]

we're gonna go ahead

and get that verified.

[00:04:08.08]

All right, so next what we

need to do is we need to verify

[00:04:13.09]

our, our store URL.

[00:04:15.04]

And so there are a number of

ways you can do that, either

[00:04:17.03]

with your e-commerce

platform, you might want

[00:04:20.04]

to use Google Tag Manager

for a variety of reasons.

[00:04:23.05]

I'm just going to throw a quick

HTML tag in just, I, I did

[00:04:28.03]

that already just to, you

know, just to make this easy.

[00:04:32.02]

And so we have gone ahead and verified

[00:04:34.05]

and claimed that that is

our store hip hip, hooray.

[00:04:38.07]

Now we want to do some,

some shipping things.

[00:04:42.08]

And here's where, like I said,

[00:04:44.02]

we're not gonna get

real crazy complicated.

[00:04:46.09]

We're just gonna start the

process to help walk you through

[00:04:49.08]

what we need to do.

[00:04:51.03]

For the sake of simplicity,

[00:04:52.07]

we're just gonna have all

products, like I said,

[00:04:55.05]

we'll do maybe more complex one later.

[00:04:59.06]

We might go ahead and

do, you could do carrier

[00:05:03.01]

or you could enter your

specific delivery times

[00:05:05.08]

manually based on, you know,

like to me, if, if you have,

[00:05:10.00]

let's say you have various

warehouses around the US

[00:05:12.09]

where one warehouse gets

shipped to the Midwest and

[00:05:15.06]

therefore it's, it's a little quicker,

[00:05:16.09]

you might want to adjust that.

[00:05:18.02]

Otherwise you can just enter that address.

[00:05:20.08]

Like, let's say we, we

ship out of my office here

[00:05:24.07]

and we, we get it right away

[00:05:27.01]

and we have our order cut

off by 2:00 PM obviously,

[00:05:31.00]

meaning if they purchase

[00:05:32.06]

after 2:00 PM then that's

not gonna ship out.

[00:05:35.08]

We're gonna go ahead and use UPS

[00:05:38.04]

and let's say ground is our main one

[00:05:41.05]

(since USPS loses everything).

[00:05:44.06]

And again, just for the sake,

so here's, here's where,

[00:05:49.00]

here's where there's, there's a little bit

[00:05:50.07]

of information that you can do.

[00:05:52.03]

You can, you can add in some

different things based upon

[00:05:56.07]

your carrier service so that

[00:05:58.05]

that can be really

interesting and helpful.

[00:06:01.05]

Or you can just do a flat rate.

[00:06:03.05]

You also can do free

shipping for orders over.

[00:06:06.07]

So instance, for instance, we

have a client where they have,

[00:06:09.03]

they have a fairly stable list of products

[00:06:11.09]

and they have three tiers.

[00:06:13.08]

I think it's like zero to $25 in price or,

[00:06:18.02]

or sorry, if the total order,

they arrange this according

[00:06:21.03]

to their A OV as well, they

have, it's like zero to 25

[00:06:24.05]

and then it might be like 25

[00:06:25.09]

to a hundred and then a hundred and up.

[00:06:27.04]

And then each of those get a flat rate.

[00:06:30.01]

So that can be a different

way. Obviously there's,

[00:06:31.08]

there's a number of

different ways to ship.

[00:06:33.03]

Just for the sake of,

of this, let's go ahead

[00:06:35.08]

and say we're doing free shipping.

[00:06:37.08]

And now we have sales tax.

[00:06:40.06]

This, this starts to get

pretty complex in terms

[00:06:43.09]

of sales tax.

[00:06:45.00]

So here's the deal is with

Google Merchant Center,

[00:06:46.09]

everything on your site

has to match the backend.

[00:06:49.04]

So Google's not gonna tell

you this is where you need to

[00:06:53.04]

add in your tax or whatever...

[00:06:56.08]

What they do say is this does not

[00:06:59.01]

match what your website is.

[00:07:00.03]

So if your website is charging

[00:07:01.09]

for sales tax in this specific

state, then then you need

[00:07:06.01]

to match that within

Google Merchant Center.

[00:07:08.03]

Now here's where it gets

very complicated, all right?

[00:07:11.06]

Because we've had this happen

[00:07:12.09]

before where we had a major issue

[00:07:14.03]

and we discovered that it's

[00:07:16.01]

'cause our client was

going to the city level

[00:07:18.06]

for taxes as well.

[00:07:20.02]

And so that the taxes was

actually more than simply

[00:07:25.02]

what you would put in for Google.

[00:07:27.01]

And so what we did, just

[00:07:29.04]

because obviously there's not

even an option for city taxes,

[00:07:32.05]

what we did is we made it, I,

[00:07:35.02]

I think we looked up on their site to see

[00:07:37.03]

what the maximum was

that they would charge.

[00:07:39.04]

And I think we used some Google too

[00:07:41.00]

and basically like what

is the highest level that

[00:07:44.07]

that could be charged by this

state plus you know, the,

[00:07:48.02]

the most expensive city, whatever it is.

[00:07:49.09]

And then we simply added that in

[00:07:51.06]

and said, Hey Google, for

[00:07:53.08]

(so Montana, we don't have sales tax.

[00:07:55.04]

Woo yay for us). But let's

just say, so Montana, if it,

[00:07:58.04]

if it's in sales tax, sorry,

if we're selling in Montana,

[00:08:02.02]

set a sales tax of 10% every time because,

[00:08:05.06]

and here's the thing, okay, so

earlier I said sales tax has

[00:08:09.00]

to match your site.

[00:08:10.04]

It actually has to be under.

[00:08:12.00]

So as long as you're

charging, or sorry, over over.

[00:08:16.01]

So as long as you are charging,

let's say you're charging $5

[00:08:20.02]

like sales tax, that's

what it comes out to.

[00:08:22.04]

You have to have told

them in Google Shopping.

[00:08:24.08]

'cause that's where this is showing,

[00:08:25.09]

showing in search engine

result pages, you have

[00:08:28.06]

to show them a number.

[00:08:30.02]

Basically any number higher

than five Google's okay with,

[00:08:33.07]

as long as it's not lower than five.

[00:08:35.04]

Because remember Google

is very concerned about

[00:08:39.04]

user experience.

[00:08:40.04]

And what they don't want

is for a user to see

[00:08:43.05]

in this search engine result

page, Hey, you charged,

[00:08:48.01]

or you told us it was only

gonna be $3 for shipping

[00:08:51.01]

and $2 for taxes and

now we land on your site

[00:08:53.04]

and it's $10 for shipping

[00:08:54.06]

and $5 for taxes, we're

really angry, right?

[00:08:57.00]

Google wants to avoid that.

[00:08:58.03]

So at the very least they

figure, hey, if someone

[00:09:01.03]

sees the shipping and tax and it's over

[00:09:04.05]

and then they land on the site,

[00:09:05.07]

at the very least they're

just gonna be happy.

[00:09:07.00]

They're gonna be like, oh cool.

[00:09:08.01]

It's actually less than I intended.

[00:09:09.04]

And that's, that's very

good. That's good to know.

[00:09:11.09]

Another thing to be aware of,

[00:09:13.08]

and this can catch you, I said

I wasn't gonna go deeply into

[00:09:16.03]

some of this stuff, but I

kind of am with shipping,

[00:09:17.08]

but it's, it's, or tax,

but it's hard not to.

[00:09:20.04]

Another thing with taxes, just to be aware

[00:09:24.03]

of is the taxable shipping.

[00:09:25.08]

So some stores do charge,

[00:09:27.07]

and I think this has to

do with states as well.

[00:09:30.04]

I believe some states

require you to tax shipping.

[00:09:33.02]

And it might be, it's been a

while since I've dug into this,

[00:09:35.03]

but it might be that some

states actually require you not

[00:09:38.05]

to charge taxes on shipping, I think.

[00:09:41.07]

And so like, like again,

like this is, this is where,

[00:09:45.00]

this is where a, a tax company like

[00:09:49.06]

Avalara I think.

[00:09:50.07]

Yeah. Do you see how kind of

complicated this starts to get?

[00:09:52.08]

And this, this is why having

an automated solution such as,

[00:09:56.02]

you know, like some people use Avalara,

[00:09:57.09]

some use others, right?

[00:09:59.02]

That's why sometimes they use it

[00:10:00.08]

'cause it just starts

to get really complex.

[00:10:02.05]

So yeah, but oh, oh but taxable shipping.

[00:10:05.05]

So the idea being, hey,

if you are charging,

[00:10:09.03]

if you are charging tax

only on your products

[00:10:13.08]

and then you calculate shipping

[00:10:15.05]

after that, then you do

not have this checked.

[00:10:20.00]

If you have your product

and you add shipping

[00:10:23.01]

and then you pull tax on both of those,

[00:10:26.01]

then you're taxing shipping.

[00:10:27.05]

You gotta make sure that this

is checked so it'll match,

[00:10:29.06]

otherwise it won't and

then Google will be upset.

[00:10:32.02]

So let's go ahead and then,

[00:10:34.02]

and then obviously then you

have all of these states

[00:10:36.01]

and you can make your adjustments

[00:10:37.06]

and all that, blah blah blah.

[00:10:39.07]

You know, like 45% or

whatever it might be.

[00:10:42.08]

And then you can, you

can go on from there.

[00:10:45.01]

So let's go ahead and we will go back.

[00:10:48.09]

We're gonna just say no

taxes for right now, no taxes

[00:10:52.07]

and now, so those were kind of the basics

[00:10:55.02]

and there are some other things

too that we'll look into.

[00:10:58.02]

But those are at least the

initial things that Google says,

[00:11:01.03]

Hey, this is how you get your products on

[00:11:03.07]

and then we will add our products.

[00:11:07.04]

So let's go ahead and click that.

[00:11:09.07]

Now what you can do here,

[00:11:11.07]

and again this is Google

Merchant Center next.

[00:11:13.03]

So this is, this is different.

So Merchant Center next.

[00:11:15.05]

So you have, you have some

different options for actually

[00:11:19.06]

syncing your, your product

data into merchant centers.

[00:11:23.05]

'cause remember your website,

you're selling things, all

[00:11:27.09]

of your product data is there.

[00:11:29.06]

You need to get that data in the correct

[00:11:31.06]

format to merchant centers.

[00:11:33.03]

So then Merchant Center

can connect with Google Ads

[00:11:35.09]

and then you can put

this into Google Shopping

[00:11:37.05]

and start advertising or the

free Google product listings.

[00:11:40.04]

So how you do that is you

need to send a product feed

[00:11:43.07]

to Google Merchant Center.

[00:11:45.02]

And there are different ways to do that.

[00:11:46.09]

You can, you can upload a specific file

[00:11:50.03]

and there are, there are different

third party services such

[00:11:53.00]

as DataFeedWatch, I like them.

[00:11:56.01]

I won't click on the ads

so I don't waste the money.

[00:11:58.01]

But DataFeedWatch is a

good third party service.

[00:12:01.05]

They're, they're relatively,

they're priced relatively well.

[00:12:04.07]

Feedonomics is another one

[00:12:06.08]

that we have used quite a bit in the past.

[00:12:09.07]

The only thing I'll note with

them is they're, they're,

[00:12:11.09]

they're definitely on

the higher end of price

[00:12:14.04]

and it's, it depends on what you need.

[00:12:16.02]

If you don't need them to do

a lot, you don't have a lot

[00:12:18.04]

of complexity to your,

your products, then,

[00:12:20.08]

then it might not be worth it.

[00:12:22.04]

You might wanna look into

something like DataFeedWatch.

[00:12:24.07]

'cause you can still do editing,

[00:12:26.01]

you can do bulk editing

of the product data.

[00:12:28.03]

'cause that's, that's part of

the thing is when your product

[00:12:30.06]

data comes from your, your site, then

[00:12:35.04]

it's, it's typically

not, it's typically not,

[00:12:38.03]

not only is it not optimized

for Google Merchant Center,

[00:12:41.03]

it's not even always in the

right shoot, what's the word?

[00:12:45.00]

It's not even like, I

was gonna say framework,

[00:12:46.08]

but it's, it's not even,

[00:12:48.04]

it's not even like it's

not correct alright

[00:12:51.01]

for Google Merchant Center.

[00:12:52.06]

And so what you need

[00:12:54.01]

to do is determine is

is actually make sure

[00:12:56.06]

that your data is in the correct format.

[00:12:58.01]

There's the word I was

looking for: "format".

[00:12:59.08]

It's gotta be in the

correct format, right?

[00:13:01.06]

So that's where some of

these product solutions,

[00:13:04.01]

these feed solutions come

in is they say okay, this is

[00:13:07.07]

what you're asking for with product type.

[00:13:10.05]

Here's like we'll take that

[00:13:12.00]

and now we'll spit out the correct format

[00:13:14.04]

for Google Merchant Center

[00:13:16.02]

and that that would be oftentimes

where you upload a file,

[00:13:19.08]

you can use a Google Sheets template.

[00:13:21.03]

This is my recommendation.

[00:13:23.01]

If you are a very simple small shop,

[00:13:26.03]

if you're a simple small shop,

[00:13:28.03]

well there's actually

one more recommendation,

[00:13:30.00]

especially if you're using Shopify,

[00:13:31.02]

which is really the easy button,

[00:13:32.04]

which most people should do.

[00:13:33.08]

But we'll come, we'll

get to that in a second.

[00:13:36.03]

Let's say like, like let's

say that I'm selling a couple

[00:13:39.02]

of products on my website,

like maybe I'm selling my book

[00:13:42.05]

and then like a mug that

I've made like a PPC mug.

[00:13:45.08]

Oh I was thinking I had one somewhere.

[00:13:48.04]

Okay, see, so here's one mug I made.

[00:13:50.06]

See there's the ZATOWorks publishing logo

[00:13:52.06]

but PPCers unite separately

in your own homes.

[00:13:55.08]

I like that. But this is my favorite.

[00:13:58.02]

Even like, you can stain it

inside and you don't even know.

[00:14:01.02]

So that's cool with the

black, but this is a ZATO mug

[00:14:03.09]

but it's "introverted but

willing to discuss PPC".

[00:14:06.05]

So can you tell there's

a common theme anyways,

[00:14:09.02]

let's say I wanna start selling those,

[00:14:11.04]

I could just literally create

a Google Sheets document

[00:14:15.08]

and you can use the template

for that and it's really handy.

[00:14:19.05]

I'll go ahead and sign in here. Yes.

[00:14:24.07]

And then it's going to make an actual,

[00:14:29.09]

like an actual Google

Sheets file that you can do.

[00:14:33.05]

So here is the Google Merchant

Center, this is the actual feed

[00:14:36.05]

and it's a template

which is really awesome

[00:14:38.01]

and it tells you, it even gives

you like helpful information

[00:14:41.06]

and examples of all this stuff,

[00:14:43.05]

which is really fantastic and cool.

[00:14:45.07]

So that is an option.

[00:14:46.09]

Like if I had like three products,

[00:14:48.05]

I would use a Google sheet

just to throw it up there.

[00:14:50.04]

You're not changing,

changing much. You know,

[00:14:51.06]

Google Sheets is great, I

just add products one by one.

[00:14:55.03]

I don't know, I guess you

could do that, you know,

[00:14:59.00]

and then edit it within Merchant Center.

[00:15:00.07]

That might be an option in the future.

[00:15:02.01]

I guess I'm a little old

school in in terms of like,

[00:15:04.04]

I actually like having a

document that I can, I can see

[00:15:08.04]

and adjust and change

[00:15:10.00]

and that I know it is, it's just one place

[00:15:12.09]

that I know I can go

and edit it everything

[00:15:14.07]

and ever edit it all in bulk and,

[00:15:16.05]

and all that sort of stuff.

[00:15:17.07]

So, and then adding

products using the API means

[00:15:23.03]

you are actually interfacing

directly to like,

[00:15:26.07]

let's say Shopify or BigCommerce, right?

[00:15:29.03]

So within Shopify.

[00:15:30.07]

So every time that product,

[00:15:32.01]

if something gets changed in the product

[00:15:34.01]

that sends like this trigger

using an app within Shopify,

[00:15:38.02]

we'll talk about that using an app.

[00:15:40.01]

But it sends this trigger

to Google to the app

[00:15:42.09]

and then app sends this to

Google Merchant Center saying,

[00:15:45.00]

hey this price changed on this product.

[00:15:46.05]

Like instantaneously. Whereas

these other options like the

[00:15:49.07]

ad products from a file that

is typically every 24 hours

[00:15:54.05]

and you can change that.

[00:15:55.05]

Yeah, yeah. You don't, you do not want it.

[00:15:58.04]

I mean I do not think it's good

[00:16:00.02]

to have it weekly, especially not monthly.

[00:16:01.09]

'cause that it expires

in about a month anyways.

[00:16:04.05]

In the old days I'm not, I

haven't heard the latest of this,

[00:16:07.03]

but just be aware of this in the old days

[00:16:09.00]

and I, I wouldn't be surprised

if it's still like this.

[00:16:11.05]

In the old days Google would

actually give a little bit

[00:16:15.02]

of like ranking benefit to

feeds that were, that feeds

[00:16:19.02]

that were uploaded more often

[00:16:20.04]

because it was fresher content.

[00:16:22.01]

It was fresher information.

[00:16:23.04]

I mean that makes a lot

of sense to me actually.

[00:16:25.08]

And, and so I just, I just think

[00:16:28.00]

that there's benefit in sending

your products, you know,

[00:16:31.05]

more, more often.

[00:16:34.00]

And that's one of the

reasons why I like the API.

[00:16:36.00]

And again, on that whole like

Google ranking benefit thing,

[00:16:38.02]

I, I don't, I don't remember if

[00:16:40.02]

that was a specific in a document

[00:16:41.09]

or if that was just told me

by a Googler at one point.

[00:16:44.01]

That was like one of the,

like years ago in the brain

[00:16:46.04]

of Kirk sort of a thing.

[00:16:47.06]

But it also, it also makes sense

[00:16:50.00]

that Google would appreciate fresh

[00:16:52.02]

information, fresh content.

[00:16:53.06]

That's kind of how Google rolls.

[00:16:55.05]

So kind of like, you know,

sometimes with that sort

[00:16:58.01]

of thing, common sense is the way to go.

[00:16:59.07]

So anyways, API... that's one

[00:17:02.01]

of the reasons I really like it is

[00:17:04.00]

'cause it, it just keeps things updated.

[00:17:05.08]

And then within Google, within Shopify

[00:17:07.08]

and this, this is what I

really like, I'm a big fan

[00:17:10.01]

of the Symprosys app.

[00:17:11.08]

The Symprosys shopping app.

[00:17:13.09]

And the reason being

it's so doggone cheap.

[00:17:18.02]

So if you have under, I don't

know, it's like 200 products

[00:17:22.00]

or something like that, it's $5 a month

[00:17:25.06]

where know Feedonomics

at their like base level,

[00:17:28.01]

they're like 300 a month I think.

[00:17:29.06]

They might have a cheaper

option than that now,

[00:17:32.00]

but so five bucks a month, right?

[00:17:34.07]

You're doing all of the

management yourself,

[00:17:38.01]

but oh here we go.

[00:17:40.00]

500 products. I think they

might have changed that

[00:17:42.08]

you're doing all the management

yourself in, in Symprosys.

[00:17:45.06]

But because everything is

tied directly into Shopify,

[00:17:48.05]

it's really like you import

everything into Shopify.

[00:17:51.06]

And maybe we should do a

video on Symprosys.

[00:17:54.04]

'cause I'm, I'm such a big fan of it,

[00:17:55.06]

I, I'd like to do a video.

[00:17:56.09]

They have a lot of their

own help videos by the way.

[00:17:58.07]

But you import stuff into your

apps Symprosys or another app

[00:18:04.00]

and so all those products go into it.

[00:18:05.08]

But then the apps allow

you to do different editing

[00:18:09.01]

of your products and that's

why I really like Symprosys

[00:18:11.08]

'cause you can edit a bunch

of stuff in their product type

[00:18:14.00]

and title and and all that sort

[00:18:15.07]

of thing directly within the app.

[00:18:18.02]

And then it gets sent in the

content API to, to Google.

[00:18:21.09]

So let's go ahead for the

sake of this, let's go ahead

[00:18:27.00]

and just use our

[00:18:30.00]

Google Sheets template

just for the sake of this.

[00:18:32.08]

Let's try this test product

[00:18:37.04]

test description.

[00:18:40.08]

I don't have a shopping cart,

I don't have anything, so,

[00:18:44.08]

okay, let's go ahead just

for the sake of that.

[00:18:47.02]

It, it's again like it's

gonna get disapproved here

[00:18:50.01]

but then I believe we can go through now

[00:18:55.08]

and give it a try.

[00:18:58.06]

So Google, yeah, I'm gonna

have to start changing the way

[00:19:01.08]

that I talk about this.

[00:19:03.01]

'cause like Google's

transitioning to this "data sources"

[00:19:07.05]

terminology rather than your

data feed, which is kind

[00:19:10.05]

of interesting to me actually.

[00:19:12.04]

But that's, that's in your

data sources section over there

[00:19:15.06]

used to be over here in the product

[00:19:16.09]

feed section if you remember that.

[00:19:18.05]

And then once there are products in here,

[00:19:20.04]

you'd actually be able to see them here

[00:19:22.03]

and then you'd be able to

start managing them same

[00:19:25.03]

as their shipping and that sort of thing.

[00:19:26.06]

Okay, now,

[00:19:27.07]

now there are gonna be a few

other businessy type things

[00:19:30.06]

just to look into to make sure you do

[00:19:32.04]

in order to set this up.

[00:19:33.05]

But, but overall you're

starting to get, you're starting

[00:19:36.08]

to get close to having things set up here.

[00:19:39.03]

Now one thing that I

need to do is I need to

[00:19:44.00]

go ahead and connect this

[00:19:46.09]

and sync this to sync this to Google Ads.

[00:19:50.03]

So we'll look through some of

that other stuff after that.

[00:19:53.03]

But, okay, so I'm gonna go ahead

[00:19:55.03]

and actually add in another one of my

[00:19:59.05]

main email addresses just

so that we can access this.

[00:20:03.05]

I am gonna go ahead and

make them an admin. Okay?

[00:20:07.00]

Another thing that's very

difficult to find in my opinion

[00:20:10.07]

is your, like you actually have

[00:20:12.06]

to link your Google Ads account

[00:20:14.01]

with your Google Merchant

Center Next account as well.

[00:20:17.00]

This is, this is confusing

[00:20:18.06]

'cause it's not really like

other Google properties

[00:20:20.09]

where they say things like

"linked accounts", right?

[00:20:23.05]

So it's actually in "manage"

in "business manager".

[00:20:26.09]

Manage in business manager

[00:20:28.03]

and that's then where you would,

[00:20:31.01]

where you would actually access

some of your other things.

[00:20:34.01]

So you can, you can, you

know, add in third party apps

[00:20:38.03]

or you can add in Google Ads.

[00:20:40.08]

So that's what we're gonna do here.

[00:20:43.05]

We're gonna go ahead and

link our ZATO ads account

[00:20:49.00]

and we'll go ahead

[00:20:50.04]

and they're telling you

what's being shared.

[00:20:53.05]

Send the link request

[00:20:54.09]

and then within Google

Ads I have that open.

[00:20:57.02]

Another tab here, I'm gonna go ahead

[00:20:59.06]

and go into the linked

account section of Google Ads

[00:21:02.05]

and I can see, hey there is

[00:21:06.06]

a link there and I'm

gonna say manage and link.

[00:21:10.07]

Now I bet if I refresh this

page it'll say connected.

[00:21:14.03]

Cool, there we go. Okay, so

now we have that connected

[00:21:18.07]

and you can add in, you know, other things

[00:21:21.01]

as well, kind of up to you.

[00:21:23.09]

What do you want to add in there?

[00:21:26.01]

But I imagine like, my guess

is there's gonna be more

[00:21:29.02]

and more things that are, that are,

[00:21:30.09]

that are brought into this,

especially apps over time

[00:21:34.01]

as Google starts putting

more into more engineering

[00:21:37.04]

into Google Merchant Center Next.

[00:21:38.08]

I wouldn't be surprised

knowing how Google works.

[00:21:42.00]

So right now they likely have

engineering teams dedicated

[00:21:45.05]

to both Merchant Center

and Merchant Center next.

[00:21:48.05]

And part of the way Google

works is over time eventually,

[00:21:51.04]

like they just start they

just basically shift their

[00:21:54.08]

engineering focus into

[00:21:56.06]

what they wanna do, like

Merchant Center next.

[00:21:58.04]

I wouldn't be surprised if

that happens eventually like

[00:22:00.01]

that, that's what happened,

you know, at one point

[00:22:02.07]

with like smart shopping campaigns

[00:22:04.02]

and Performance Max, where all

[00:22:05.02]

of a sudden eventually it

was like, look, we're just,

[00:22:06.06]

we're investing in Performance Max

[00:22:09.00]

eventually they killed

smart shopping campaigns.

[00:22:10.09]

So be expecting things to happen there.

[00:22:13.09]

So that's again, that was

in the people and access

[00:22:16.01]

and then manage and business manager.

[00:22:17.05]

And you do need to make

sure you do that in order

[00:22:21.01]

to actually send your, your

ads to Google Ads as you got,

[00:22:24.09]

you have to link that together.

[00:22:29.07]

Okay, add-ons.

[00:22:31.04]

So I believe this is

similar to the programs

[00:22:34.02]

that were in Merchant

center, the programs,

[00:22:38.00]

maybe there might be some differences,

[00:22:41.01]

but, so here would be

things like promotions so

[00:22:43.05]

that you can activate your promotions

[00:22:46.02]

and then also like custom

reports, let's go ahead

[00:22:51.00]

and throw that in just

[00:22:52.06]

because like, hey, who

doesn't like custom reports?

[00:22:54.07]

And then you can actually,

you know, get into that.

[00:22:56.07]

Maybe that's something

we'll do eventually as well

[00:22:58.06]

is create some of those

custom reports, Hey, look at

[00:23:02.06]

that, our product has shown up.

[00:23:04.06]

And believe it or not,

it has a lot of issues.

[00:23:08.03]

So that's where you'd be

able to see that.

[00:23:11.02]

That used to be the diagnostics tab.

[00:23:12.06]

Now it's this and it can

tell you what it's missing

[00:23:15.01]

and obviously we'll have to go in

[00:23:17.09]

and, you know, eventually

we'd fix that if we wanted to.

[00:23:21.09]

Comparison shopping services

for those who are in the EU

[00:23:26.03]

remember comparison shopping

that was CSS was made

[00:23:29.06]

because Google got sued by the EU

[00:23:31.03]

and so this is their way of

making a more fair auction.

[00:23:34.09]

So if, if you're not in

the EU United Kingdom

[00:23:37.08]

or Switzerland, don't

even worry about this

[00:23:40.01]

'cause your CSS is Google shopping.

[00:23:43.04]

If you're in one of those,

if you're in Europe, one

[00:23:46.07]

of those areas, then you

know, definitely dig into

[00:23:50.01]

what a CSS is.

[00:23:51.05]

And like there are different

comparison shopping services

[00:23:54.01]

that you can, you know, look into.

[00:23:55.07]

And there's, there's, there's

a lot to be said about that.

[00:23:58.07]

Mike Ryan is someone that

I've talked to a bit,

[00:24:00.09]

a guy named Andrew Lolk.

[00:24:02.09]

He's, he's a guy who's done quite a bit

[00:24:04.08]

with CSS and that sort of thing.

[00:24:06.02]

So they, they'd maybe be able

[00:24:07.06]

to answer questions if you have those

[00:24:09.01]

specifically online.

[00:24:11.02]

So let's look through

some of just these basic,

[00:24:14.05]

just the overall general account options.

[00:24:16.09]

'cause, so at this point

in this account, you know,

[00:24:19.08]

let's say those products

were actually approved,

[00:24:22.01]

like your account's pretty

much live at this point.

[00:24:25.05]

Like you can advertise, you

know, within shopping ads,

[00:24:28.07]

it's gonna take, you

know, it could take a day

[00:24:30.07]

or two for everything

[00:24:32.01]

to get processed into

Google Ads the first time.

[00:24:35.02]

You know, it could take a

couple days just to see your,

[00:24:37.04]

your, you know, once you do that,

[00:24:38.07]

process them into Google Ads

[00:24:40.08]

and then start, you

know, create a campaign.

[00:24:42.08]

Let's say you create a PMax

[00:24:44.00]

or a shopping campaign, then

it could take, you know,

[00:24:46.05]

a couple days just for

your ads to show just

[00:24:48.05]

because like everything is,

is, is processing through,

[00:24:51.03]

especially that first time.

[00:24:53.05]

But for the most part,

everything is good to go.

[00:24:55.06]

Everything, everything's rolling.

[00:24:57.03]

So let's look at what's on in Merchant

[00:25:00.00]

Center Next general account option.

[00:25:01.03]

So they do have product protection,

[00:25:02.08]

which they added into merchant center.

[00:25:04.05]

And that's basically what that

does is if for some reason

[00:25:08.02]

you, you know, that you're

never gonna have, you know,

[00:25:11.07]

let's say 40% of your

offers that are deleted

[00:25:14.06]

other than like an accident, okay?

[00:25:17.05]

So you know what you might,

what you might want to do

[00:25:21.07]

for sure, like I would

for sure turn this on

[00:25:23.08]

and maybe you could do something like

[00:25:25.00]

90% or that sort of thing.

[00:25:26.04]

If that's, if that's for sure.

[00:25:27.05]

Because if you have

products, if you have a store

[00:25:30.06]

where you have a whole

lot of products that

[00:25:32.00]

for whatever reason are coming in

[00:25:33.08]

or going out, you might

not want to set this

[00:25:35.08]

because what it does is it

actually prevents these,

[00:25:38.04]

these products from getting deleted

[00:25:41.02]

within Merchant center

if a bunch of them are,

[00:25:43.06]

are removed from your feed at once.

[00:25:45.05]

So it's kind of nice just,

[00:25:47.03]

just in case someone accidentally

like deletes a feed

[00:25:50.01]

you know, whatever, they

delete the app within Shopify,

[00:25:52.09]

all of your products go down.

[00:25:54.01]

Google Merchant Center now

has kind of a fail safe

[00:25:56.07]

to prevent that from happening.

[00:25:58.03]

But if you actually want

a bunch of your products

[00:26:00.02]

to be deleted out, then Google

[00:26:01.04]

will prevent that from happening.

[00:26:02.06]

So just make sure, like if you're going in

[00:26:05.06]

and removing half of your

products, do make sure

[00:26:07.06]

that you look into this

product protection option just

[00:26:10.03]

to make sure it's not

set at like, at like 40%

[00:26:13.00]

because then you know,

[00:26:14.06]

then it, then it wouldn't work for you.

[00:26:16.01]

You wouldn't actually delete anything.

[00:26:17.04]

So 90% just that just

kind of makes sure that

[00:26:21.04]

that's like an overall fail safe

[00:26:23.02]

that if anything like goes

down in the entire account

[00:26:26.01]

that all of your, if your

feed tries, you know,

[00:26:28.03]

goes down at all you, you're safe,

[00:26:31.05]

your language and time zone.

[00:26:34.01]

And then, okay, advanced

account setup, there's a CSS,

[00:26:37.09]

we talked about that advanced

account setup, this is for

[00:26:42.07]

like, probably the vast majority

[00:26:44.06]

of people are never gonna have to do this.

[00:26:47.05]

And so this, this would

be, I I think this would be

[00:26:50.02]

what they used to call

multi-client accounts

[00:26:54.09]

MCAs with Google Merchant Center.

[00:26:56.07]

So this might be if you are an

agency, you know, providing,

[00:27:00.09]

you know, service, I actually

don't even like using

[00:27:03.02]

that really frankly because

at least in the old days,

[00:27:06.00]

the MCA had some complexities

to it with even being,

[00:27:09.00]

being difficult to remove, you know,

[00:27:10.09]

clients from it without a Google

rep and that sort of thing.

[00:27:14.02]

I just like getting access directly with,

[00:27:17.05]

with an email access to our clients.

[00:27:20.01]

But you know, that might be one place

[00:27:22.04]

where you might want this

is if you do have kind

[00:27:24.07]

of a mother company and you

have like five companies under

[00:27:28.02]

that, that are all very related

[00:27:29.08]

and you want kind of one source

overall of that you could,

[00:27:33.09]

you know, you could create an

[00:27:35.02]

advanced account set up for that.

[00:27:37.01]

So that might be an option,

[00:27:39.03]

but now you know that that's there and it,

[00:27:41.07]

and they do say the

conversion's permanent.

[00:27:43.07]

So, okay, so that's, that's basically the,

[00:27:48.02]

oh sorry, the conversion settings.

[00:27:50.00]

I forgot about that. Conversion

settings I would say do turn

[00:27:53.01]

on auto tagging because

then you don't have

[00:27:57.08]

to tag for free product listings anymore.

[00:28:00.01]

So at one point I had written on that,

[00:28:01.06]

you don't have to do that anymore.

[00:28:02.09]

So you can do that. And

then again, like this is,

[00:28:06.05]

we're starting to get

into newer stuff as well

[00:28:10.01]

and so, you know, you might want to

[00:28:13.02]

create conversion source,

you can get some of

[00:28:14.08]

that information into merchant

center as well, similar to

[00:28:18.05]

what you have with Google Ads.

[00:28:20.04]

I'm all about, you know, more

information. So that's great.

[00:28:23.07]

So check into that. Now we

already looked at shipping.

[00:28:27.08]

Let's quick look at return. Do

add your return policy here.

[00:28:32.08]

So that's where you'd want your URL

[00:28:36.02]

and then you can give specific information

[00:28:39.00]

and you know, you

can walk through exactly

[00:28:42.04]

which one works for you.

[00:28:44.01]

'cause you do have to

have the right answers.

[00:28:45.05]

But then that's gonna

get, that's gonna get,

[00:28:48.08]

and then fees as well.

[00:28:50.05]

'cause it's a three step process here.

[00:28:52.02]

But that'll get the information to Google

[00:28:54.09]

and then they'll actually

be able to show that

[00:28:57.04]

in SERPs and that sort of thing.

[00:28:58.08]

So shipping to returns.

[00:29:01.05]

And then... do they show the

return stuff in SERPs.

[00:29:06.01]

Now I'm doubting myself, I know

[00:29:09.01]

that it impacts some things.

[00:29:13.01]

Now we get into some of

the business info things.

[00:29:15.01]

So you already have, you

already have your business info

[00:29:17.06]

there that we have that

we've already added.

[00:29:19.09]

Although here's what I'll say

is it looks like it's added,

[00:29:23.00]

go ahead and click into it.

[00:29:24.05]

'cause then you, you can add

in some additional things like

[00:29:26.08]

customer service, live chat support.

[00:29:29.02]

There's, they've added some things.

[00:29:30.07]

This is almost like a Google my Business.

[00:29:32.03]

You can add in some business

identity attributes.

[00:29:35.03]

You can add your social

profiles, that's all new.

[00:29:38.01]

And then adult content, whether

[00:29:40.00]

or not you are selling

adult content, not that,

[00:29:43.09]

that doesn't mean like,

like adult sized shoes.

[00:29:47.02]

All right, that mean, you

know, like, like lingerie,

[00:29:49.05]

erotic lingerie or, or

something like that.

[00:29:52.02]

And so let's see, and then,

[00:29:54.08]

and then we have the logos and colors.

[00:29:59.03]

So get your square and rectangular logo.

[00:30:01.07]

You do really need to

make sure you follow this,

[00:30:03.05]

otherwise Google will disapprove you

[00:30:05.03]

and it can kind of get annoying.

[00:30:06.04]

So just follow these requirements

[00:30:08.02]

and then you should be good.

[00:30:10.00]

And then you can add in the color and,

[00:30:11.05]

and I do like to do that.

[00:30:12.05]

So like, like with ZATO and

this one we might do white

[00:30:14.09]

and then this like teal blue thing.

[00:30:17.07]

And so we'd add that in there.

[00:30:19.09]

I'd, i'd have to grab the hex

code and that sort of thing,

[00:30:22.02]

but we'd get white as the main

[00:30:23.08]

and then that teal blue

is accent color.

[00:30:25.03]

And what that does is,

especially with like PMax

[00:30:29.02]

and as Google does more

[00:30:30.03]

and more with auto-generated

things, they're, they're taking

[00:30:33.06]

what you've given them

[00:30:35.07]

and then they'll, they'll

make ads that have to

[00:30:38.01]

that like match your brand color and,

[00:30:40.02]

and work in some of your product

[00:30:41.04]

images and things like that.

[00:30:42.06]

So they, you know, it kind of depends.

[00:30:44.03]

Sometimes they're hit or

miss on their auto generator,

[00:30:46.04]

but sometimes they can look really good.

[00:30:49.06]

And then we have checkout settings.

[00:30:51.08]

So you might want to consider

having a link directly

[00:30:55.07]

to your cart or checkout page.

[00:30:58.05]

I, you know, I, I have

conflicted feelings on this

[00:31:01.09]

and so I'll let you maybe test it,

[00:31:03.08]

but here are my thoughts

is that if someone is in,

[00:31:07.08]

if someone's searching and

they're in a search engine result

[00:31:10.03]

page and they see your

shopping ad and they can click

[00:31:12.00]

and go directly to your cart,

it just seems to me that

[00:31:15.09]

that's not a bad thing.

[00:31:16.09]

Typically, maybe if you have

a like very clear evidence

[00:31:21.09]

that when people purchase

from you, they have a ton

[00:31:24.04]

of add-ons and they really

increase AOV, maybe you want

[00:31:27.09]

to avoid that, but you may want

to consider, especially for

[00:31:32.06]

businesses where people just buy the thing

[00:31:34.04]

that they looked at, you

may wanna consider testing

[00:31:38.03]

that checkout option so that they go right

[00:31:40.02]

to checkout when they,

when they click on that

[00:31:42.07]

because that, you know, you

could just see like, does

[00:31:45.04]

that increase your

conversion rate or not on those?

[00:31:47.07]

But that's what that checkout is for.

[00:31:50.00]

Here are the free product

listings that Google

[00:31:52.08]

utilizes your products

[00:31:54.00]

and shows them in, in

free spots on Google.

[00:31:57.09]

You're almost always for

sure gonna want those

[00:32:00.00]

because it is just, it's just free clicks

[00:32:01.06]

and free money within

with old merchant center.

[00:32:04.05]

It was in the feed with

Merchant Center next it's here

[00:32:07.03]

directly and you can just throw

[00:32:08.06]

that stop button if you

don't want to show them

[00:32:14.08]

the ad campaigns.

[00:32:16.00]

Here's where it gets a little interesting.

[00:32:17.04]

Google's starting to

morph Merchant Center next

[00:32:20.03]

and ads together here.

[00:32:23.06]

I am actually not a hundred

percent sure when I,

[00:32:26.08]

if I would go through this, whether

[00:32:29.07]

or not it would allow me

[00:32:31.01]

to create a PMax campaign directly here.

[00:32:33.01]

So maybe that's something that

I'll have a better insight

[00:32:35.04]

for you down the road

since this is so new.

[00:32:37.07]

I'm a little scared to

mess with this too much

[00:32:40.00]

'cause I don't want to

impact my current Google

[00:32:42.01]

Ads campaigns and account.

[00:32:44.07]

So again, kind of that

interesting, Google's trying

[00:32:47.00]

to take a bunch of channels

and, and morph them together.

[00:32:49.09]

And then those promotions that we made

[00:32:51.06]

where I'm definitely gonna

get a video out on promotions

[00:32:56.00]

and then eventually we'll need

to do one just to see, hey,

[00:32:59.00]

are there differences between promotions

[00:33:00.07]

in Next as well as in

the old merchant center.

[00:33:02.09]

So definitely be watching for those.

[00:33:04.06]

And then of course we

have the, the performance

[00:33:06.08]

where you can get performance

[00:33:08.05]

and reports where you can

just basically get insights on

[00:33:10.09]

everything that's happened

within, within Google.

[00:33:13.07]

One other thing I want to

draw your attention to,

[00:33:15.07]

which I think is so

cool is Product Studio.

[00:33:20.02]

So Product Studio is, I'm gonna go ahead

[00:33:24.04]

and just like blow through

these. Product studio allows you

[00:33:29.03]

to, to create

[00:33:33.09]

product basically like

AI created product images.

[00:33:38.02]

So, you know, I could upload

an image that I wanted

[00:33:43.01]

and then I could say, Hey,

you know what, I want to

[00:33:47.02]

take this image of this mug

[00:33:49.00]

and I'd like to put it on,

[00:33:51.06]

on a life raft in the middle of the ocean.

[00:33:54.00]

Bam, you could do that here.

[00:33:55.05]

Or I want it on a snowy mountain scene.

[00:33:58.02]

And you could do that

snowy mountain background.

[00:33:59.09]

I just want it on a

white background, right?

[00:34:01.07]

So tons of, tons of, you

know, really interesting

[00:34:05.09]

information or,

[00:34:07.05]

or things that can be made

that I'm, I'm interested

[00:34:10.00]

to start playing around with more.

[00:34:11.01]

But now you have a little

bit of insight into,

[00:34:13.03]

into that, that, that's coming.

[00:34:14.08]

I think it's awesome and

you should know about it.

[00:34:17.04]

So, okay, I think those

are the big things.

[00:34:21.05]

That was a lot I realized,

[00:34:22.09]

but hopefully you have a better idea of

[00:34:25.02]

what Google Merchant Center

next is like, how to set it up,

[00:34:28.09]

how to set up an account

with Merchant Center.

[00:34:31.09]

Be aware that there are no feed rules

[00:34:33.09]

and no supplemental feeds

if you're familiar with

[00:34:36.00]

what those are yet in

Merchant Center next.

[00:34:38.00]

I have been told by Ginny

Marvin, ads liaison of,

[00:34:41.03]

of Google, I've been told

by her directly on Twitter

[00:34:43.08]

that those are coming,

they are on the roadmap

[00:34:45.07]

so like supplemental feeds are coming.

[00:34:48.05]

So we will be able

[00:34:49.06]

to make edits within Merchant Center

[00:34:51.02]

Next, which is a good thing.

[00:34:52.03]

It's not there yet. So

just be aware of that.

[00:34:54.04]

So thanks so much.

[00:34:56.05]

I guess we'll we'll ride this

merchant center next train

[00:34:59.06]

together as we learn more.

[00:35:01.04]

As they change, things

are gonna change in here.

[00:35:03.09]

So we'll just do the best

we can in the meantime

[00:35:06.09]

and keep learning and keep selling.

[00:35:09.01]

Thanks so much.

[00:35:10.00]