FAQ: Microsoft Shopping campaigns

Note: Starting in August 2024 Microsoft will begin the migration of Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max campaigns. As a result, if you're reporting on Microsoft Smart Shopping campaigns you might find the following changes:

Smart Shopping campaigns will be marked as deleted, but statistics associated with the campaign will still be visible.
A new Performance Max campaign will be created to replace the Smart Shopping campaign and statistics will start over and begin accumulating.

Why do the contents of my Microsoft Merchant Center store and Google Merchant Center account need to match?

To attribute conversions to ads for individual products, Search Ads 360 needs to load products from a single source, which is the Google Merchant Center. If Search Ads 360 is unaware of products that are in your Microsoft Merchant Center store, it will fail to attribute conversions to clicks on ads for those products. Likewise, if products in your Microsoft Merchant Center store have different attributes than products in your Google Merchant Center account, Search Ads 360 conversion counting will not match metrics from Microsoft Advertising.

Does all of my Microsoft Merchant Center feed need to exactly match Google Merchant Center feed?

No, only these fields need to match exactly:

Item ID, also known as SKU
Language
Country
Channel: Online or Local

If you use these fields to define product groups, and the fields don't match, Search Ads 360 may attribute conversions to the wrong product group.

What happens if I don’t have one-to-one correspondence between a Microsoft Merchant Center store and a Google Merchant Center account?

Search Ads 360 will track products that are in the Google Merchant Center account you specify when you set up a Shopping campaign (remember that when you set up a Microsoft Shopping Campaign in Search Ads 360, you'll need to specify both a Microsoft Merchant Center store--which will be used by the Microsoft Advertising campaign--and a Google Merchant Center account--which will be used by Search Ads 360). If the contents of the Microsoft Merchant Store are split across two or more Google Merchant Center accounts, Search Ads 360 will only track conversions for that portion of the products contained in one of the Google Merchant Center accounts. In other words, if the Microsoft Merchant Center account you specify for a Microsoft Shopping Campaign contains more products than the campaign's Google Merchant Center account, Search Ads 360 will only report on the products in the Google Merchant Center account. Set up and add your Microsoft Merchant Center store to Search Ads 360.

Do I need to have the same feed/catalog settings (e.g. filename, sync schedule, etc.) in Microsoft and Google?

No, it is not a requirement that the individual catalogs match the Google Merchant Center feeds themselves. Rather, the set of products sent across all catalogs in a Microsoft Merchant Center store must match the set of products sent across all feeds in a Google Merchant Center store.

Do I need to link my Microsoft Merchant Center store and Google Merchant Center account?

You can use Microsoft's Google Import tool to port the contents of your Google Merchant Center into your Microsoft Merchant Center, thus simplifying the linking process. Using this tool saves you time and ensures consistency throughout the feeds.

No. A link can't be created between your Microsoft Merchant Center store and Google Merchant Center account. If you use different inventory feeds for Microsoft and Google, you're required to manually keep the product feeds in sync. If your Microsoft Merchant Center store and Google Merchant Center accounts contain different products, Search Ads 360 will only report conversions from the products in the Google Merchant Center feed and clicks on the products from the Microsoft Merchant Center feed.

We recommend that you use the same inventory feed for both because Microsoft supports Google feed files.

Why aren't my Microsoft Shopping Campaigns syncing in Search Ads 360?

If you notice that none of your Microsoft Shopping Campaigns are visible in Search Ads 360, your Microsoft Shopping Campaigns' product filter or product groups use values of Category that aren't contained in the standard product taxonomy. Update your product filter or product groups to use Product Type instead of Category or be sure that the values for Category are included in the taxonomy. In any case, you should send the same inventory feed to your Microsoft Merchant Center store and Google Merchant Center account.

When you sync a Microsoft Advertising account, your Microsoft Product Ads campaigns are also synced. Product Ads campaigns don't include a Product groups tab in Search Ads 360 so there's only reporting on the text ads and keywords.

Why do product group reports not match campaign and ad group reports?

This is expected if you've removed products from your inventory feed during the report's time range.

Why is my Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaign data different from the product group data?

Campaign-level and product-level data for Microsoft Shopping campaigns won't match due to the different information used for campaign-level and product group-level reporting.

Campaign-level reporting: Campaign-level reporting uses ad-level statistics. The ad report doesn't need product information and campaign-level statistics are aggregated from ad-level statistics.
Product group-level reporting: To get product group or product dimension statistics, you need matching products in Google Merchant Center. Only products defined in your Microsoft Merchant Center store can be included in a product group. To avoid sync errors or inconsistent reporting, use a single inventory feed to provide data for both your Microsoft Merchant Center store and your Google Merchant Center account.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?