Customers using Google Shopping only see 4 things on the results page: the image, title, price, and shop name. Your images do a lot of the heavy lifting, but your title also plays a big role in convincing customers to click through.
Your product title should highlight the most important attributes of the product. Users should be able to take it in at a glance and decide if it’s something they’re interested in or not.
It may seem like just a few words, but you shouldn’t underestimate the power of an optimized title. Google looks at your title to determine how relevant it is for a particular search term. So the right title will help you show up for the right audience.
Titles with the right keywords have better click-through rates and titles with the exact search term have even better click-through rates. So it pays to know what your audience is searching for and to craft a title that reflects that.
Ready to start selling more? Here are 7 tactics that our Google Shopping Agency uses to optimize Shopping product titles for better conversion rates!
1. Follow Google’s title rules
Google has guidelines on how to write a title for the best results. You should follow these to make sure Google can read your title and show you to relevant customers. If you don’t meet the minimum requirements, your ad won’t show!
- Length – keep it under 150 characters. In some cases (like on mobile) only the first 70 characters might show. The takeaway? Put the most important information at the start.
- Capitalisation – avoid it as much as you can because it can be interpreted as spam. Just use capital letters naturally, like for abbreviations.
- Attributes – don’t waste your space with attributes that will be shown elsewhere (shop name, shipping info, sale price, etc.) but do add info like color and size in the title. Make these distinguishing attributes clear and specific.
- Landing page – your title should describe the item shown on your landing page. The customer should know what to expect when they click on your ad.
- Foreign language – unless the word is well known (like sushi) don’t put foreign language words in your title. Also, only use the alphabet of your target audience.
2. Dig into your search query report
The golden rule is to think like your target audience. If you know what they’re searching for and how, you can craft your ads to be more compelling.
Figuring out this information shouldn’t be a guessing game. Actually, you can view the search terms for any Google Shopping ad group in a search query report.
This lets you look at what customers were searching when your product showed up and which lead to the most conversions. Use these insights to adjust your title to better match the search intent.
3. Use customer driven keywords
Google Shopping doesn’t use keywords per se, but what you put in your title can act as a keyword proxy. Google reads your title to determine how relevant it is… so the words you choose really do matter.
It takes a bit of close customer analysis – how are your customers searching? Brand first? Unique attribute first? Use the Search Terms report in your Google Ads account to help you discover the search queries that perform the best for your shop. Create your titles accordingly.
4. Pay attention to the order
You don’t have a lot of title space (150 characters max) so you’ve got to make it count. In fact, the order you put your keywords in can influence your click through rate.
The most important information should go first, but knowing what’s the most important can take some trial and error. It depends on what type of product you sell and the primary search method of your target audience.
For example, if you sell apparel, you might structure your title like this:
Brand – Gender – Product Type – Colour – Size
Or like this:
Gender – Brand – Material – Product Type – Size – Colour
Use the information in the search query report to help you structure your titles, and be prepared to conduct A/B testing to figure out what works best.
5. Sound natural
Over the years Google has become better at differentiating between natural-sounding language and spammy language. Customers can smell spam a mile away and avoid it, so Google wants to avoid it too.
You should aim to write your titles and descriptions for a human audience – sound natural, use correct grammar, avoid complex vocabulary. It can take some practice to get it right. Try reading your title out loud to yourself and see if it flows well.
6. Include key features
When searching for products, customers tend to refine their search by using key features like size, colour, material and model. It’s a good idea to include these in your title too – and the more specific you can get, the better the results tend to be.
As above, research what terms are being searched the most and pay attention to the order. It’s worth noting that particular features will be important in some markets but totally useless for others. For example, the unique product identifier (UPI) might help you sell more tech products, but it’s irrelevant for clothing products.
7. Monitor performance and adjust
Although it would be nice to be given a foolproof title formula that works every time, there are too many factors involved for things to be that neat. In reality, it takes careful research, testing and monitoring to find what works best.
The best thing to do is develop a strategy for split testing different titles. A/B testing is when you trial two titles with a single variable different. Examine the data and see if one outperforms the other. Get rid of dead tactics and double down on what is bringing you the most profit.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to get right when it comes to optimizing Google Shopping ads. Crafting a compelling product title is a great place to start. Once you’ve got that down pat, move on to optimizing your bidding strategy, using negative keywords, and collecting positive reviews.
Author: Dilate