Local inventory ads allow you to advertise products that are available in nearby stores when a customer searches for items.
Once you have set up local product feeds in your Google Merchant Center account, you can configure your shopping campaigns to display ads for your in-store products.
Here's an overview of the process for configuring a Shopping campaign to include local inventory ads:
- If you haven’t already done so, link your Search Ads 360 and Google Ads accounts to the Google Merchant Center account that you use to advertise your online products.
- Set up local product feeds in the Google Merchant Center account that is linked to your Search Ads 360 and Google Ads accounts.
- In Search Ads 360, enable local inventory ads when you create the Shopping campaign.
- Optionally, in Search Ads 360, filter your campaign to include only products sold online, locally, or both. Or, subdivide product groups by channel and channel exclusivity to set different bids for in-store and online product ads.
Learn more about the channel and channel exclusivity attributes, which help you subdivide your inventory to specify whether your campaign promotes online products, local products, or both.
Create product groups centered on your online or local products
You can set different bids for products sold online, in stores, or through both channels when you subdivide your product group tree by channel and channel exclusivity, in addition to other attributes such as brand and category.
- Channel segments products by online or local availability and indicates the type of ad that is displayed. Note that an online ad may include different information than an ad for an in-store product.
- Channel exclusivity segments products by availability in one of the channels or both.
Learn more about the channel and channel exclusivity attributes, which help you subdivide your inventory to specify whether your campaign promotes online products, local products, or both.
You can also use the channel and channel exclusivity attributes to report on the performance of products advertised in a Shopping campaign. Learn more about reporting on the performance of Shopping campaigns.
Don't use custom parameters
It's recommended that you don't use custom parameters in Google Ads local inventory ads. In most cases, Google will remove custom parameters from the landing page URLs of local inventory ads. This applies to custom parameters you create and to Search Ads 360 custom parameters.
Advertise in-store products
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Navigate to a Shopping campaign.
Steps for navigating to a campaign-
In the left navigation panel, click All accounts.
What if the left navigation pane isn't visible? -
Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.
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In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.
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In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser that contains the engine account.
- In the "Account" list, click on the engine account that contains the campaign.
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In the "Campaign" list, click on the campaign.
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Click Apply or press the Enter key.
Search Ads 360 displays the campaign page.
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- Click the campaign settings icon near the top of the page.
- Select the Enable local inventory ads checkbox.
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Optionally, create a custom filter to display ads for in-store products:
- Next to "Inventory filter", click Create custom filter.
- Click + Attribute or metric, and then click Channel.
- In the “Channel equals” menu, select local.
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Optionally, include products that are available only in a single channel.
- Click + Attribute or metric, and then click Channel Exclusivity.
- In the “Channel exclusivity equals” menu, select single.
- Set other Shopping campaign settings.
- Click Save.
Which type of ad is displayed
Adding the channel or channel exclusivity attribute to a product group can affect the type of ad that is displayed when a product is included in multiple groups. When a product is in more than one ad group in a single campaign, Google Ads uses the bid from the product group with the highest bid to determine which type of ad is shown.
Learn more about product group precedence and setting bids.
For example, a Shopping campaign is configured to display ads for local and online products. It includes two product groups. Product group A displays ads for in-store products and has a max CPC of .05. Product group B displays online ads for a max CPC of .10.
Channel Exclusivity | Channel (Type of ad) | Bid (Max CPC) |
---|---|---|
--- (not set) | Local | .05 |
--- (not set) | Online | .10 |
A pair of red boots is included in both groups because they are advertised online and in-store.
When a nearby customer searches for red boots, the online ad is displayed because of the higher bid.