33 Areas to Audit in Your Google Shopping Campaigns for Superior Results

Google Shopping Ads are a type of online advertising that allows businesses to promote their products directly on Google’s search results pages and other platforms.

In brief, Standard Shopping campaigns best practices contain but not limited to the following:

Bidding
Budget
Product feed
Product type
Google product category
Title
Structured titles
Custom labels
Crawl
Cost of goods sold
Supplementary feed
KPIs
Location
Language
Keywords
Segmentation
Zombie products
Merchant Center
Schema
Cart Data (CwCD)
Account Data
Conversions tracking
Priority
Search Terms
Negative Keywords
Reports
Prices
Policy

Bidding

Bidding in Google Ads refers to the amount you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. This process is part of an auction system where multiple advertisers compete for limited ad spaces in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs)

Auditing Shopping Ads bidding strategies is essential because it allows you

to control ad placement
manage costs efficiently
align with campaign goals
gain a competitive edge
optimize performance
leverage automated bidding strategies to maximize returns.

Budget

Budgets in Google Shopping Ads are extremely important for several reasons, each of which impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of your shopping campaigns.

When auditing shopping campaigns you will need to work through the following:

Spending control
Business Goals alignment
Efficient resource allocation
Performance monitoring
Campaign adjustments
Scaling
Industry competition
Market considerations
Seasonal trends
ROAS optimization
Auction considerations

Feed

Shopping campaigns need a valid feed in order to work and start serving ads. The feed needs to be added to Merchant Center and approved. The criteria for the shopping data feed can be found here

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112

Failure to match the data requirements will result in getting your feed rejected

That said, in order to audit the product feed, you will have to review the following product data

Title
ID
Product data specification
Description
Link
Image link
Mobile link
Additional image link
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
Expiration date
Price
Sale Price
Sale Price effective date
Unit pricing measure
Unit pricing base measure
Installment
Subscription cost
Loyalty points
Google product category
Product type
Google Search index link
Brand
GTIN
MPN
Identifier exists
Condition
Adult
Multipack
Bundle
Energy efficiency class
Age group
Color
Gender
Material
Pattern
Size
Size type
Size system
Item group ID
Product length
Product detail
Product highlight
Ads redirect
Custom label 0–4
Promotion ID
Excluded destination
Included destination
Excluded countries for Shopping ads
Pause
Shipping
Shipping label
Shipping weight
Shipping dimensions
Ships from country
Transit time label
Handling time
Tax
Tax category

More information about Google Ads product feed

Product type

Unlike the Google Product Category, which uses predefined categories set by Google, the Product Type attribute lets merchants use their own categorization system. This means you can choose values that better reflect how you organize your products within your store

When it comes to auditing Google feed product type you should examine if the product data

Uses > to separate multiple levels in a category
Submit this attribute for products used in any campaign type
Includes all the levels in a category
Uses the full “breadcrumb” information
Bidding is dependant on product type
Reporting is dependant on product type

More info on product type

Google product category

Google Product Category is part of Google’s taxonomy, a predefined list of categories and subcategories that help in organizing products on the Google Shopping platform. This taxonomy is designed to ensure that products are correctly classified, making it easier for users to find them

When it comes to auditing Google product category you should examine if the values added are as specific as possible

More info on google product category

Title

A product title in Google Shopping Ads is the text or phrase that describes a product on the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It appears below the product image and serves as a very important element in attracting customers and influencing their purchase decisions.

When it comes to auditing Google product titles you should examine if the values added are:

concise
descriptive
contains important information
relevant to the search terms
compliant with Google’s requirements
localised

More info on title

Structured Titles

A structured title in Google Shopping Ads is a formatted title that includes specific details about the product in a consistent and organized manner.

When it comes to auditing Google product Structured Titles you should examine if the values have elements such as:

brand
product type
size
color

Also, the values should follow a structure such as: ”Brand - Product Type - Size - Color”

More info on Structured Titles

Custom label(s)

Custom labels are user-defined attributes that you can add to your product data feed. These labels can be used to categorize products in ways that are not covered by the standard product attributes

This can be anything from “Best Sellers,” “New Arrivals”, seasonal promotions, “Holiday Deals”, or any other custom categorization that makes sense for your business.

When it comes to auditing Google custom labels you should examine the labels for

Consistency
Simplicity
Manageability
Meaningfulness

More info on Custom Labels

Crawl

Google uses web crawlers (like Googlebot) to discover and index product pages on your website. Crawling helps Google to gather the most current information about your products, including titles, prices, availability, and images. This ensures that the data displayed in Google Shopping ads is accurate and up-to-date.

When it comes to auditing Google Merchant crawling you should examine

if the website is free from technical issues that might prevent crawlers from accessing the product pages
if the site structure adheres to best practices
that the product pages are loading fast enough
there are no crawl directives that might block crawling
the sitemaps adhere to Google’s best practices

Cost of goods sold (COGS)

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) is a very important metric in the context of Google Shopping Ads.

Including COGS in the product feed unlocks CwCD reporting, which provides insights into the exact products purchased after an ad click. This helps in understanding cross-sell patterns and identifying top-selling items. Advertisers can segment their campaigns based on product profitability, allowing them to allocate budget more effectively.

When it comes to auditing Google Merchant COGS you should examine:

if the data attribute is present in the feed
The values are correctly formatted
Cart data are inside the dataLayer at the checkout

More info on COGS

Supplementary feed

A supplementary feed is an optional feed that works in conjunction with the primary feed to provide additional or missing product information. This feed allows you to add, modify, or override data in your primary feed without altering the primary source

When it comes to auditing Google shopping ads supplementary feeds you should examine:

if the format is correct
if the structure is correct
if the format is optimum
if the attributes are mapped correctly
the update interval
the data is appropriate for the feed
the header row adheres to Google’s requirements
the data aren’t overriding data that they shouldn’t
there is a consistency in the data found in the feed with the data found on the product pages.

KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are important for Google Shopping ads because they provide valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns, enabling you to make informed decisions to optimize and improve your overall advertising strategy.

Tracking KPIs such as ROAS and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) helps you understand the profitability of your campaigns.

When it comes to auditing Google shopping ads KPIs you should examine:

if KPIs are being properly tracked
if there are decisions being made based on said KPIs
How are KPIs being affected by seasonality changes
How are KPIs compare to previous seasons

Location (targeting)

Location targeting in Google Shopping ads is important because it contributes to the effectiveness and the efficiency of your shopping campaigns.

By targeting specific geographic locations, you can ensure that your ads are shown to users who are most likely to be interested in your products. This increases the relevance of your ads, leading to higher engagement rates and better conversion rates

When it comes to auditing Google shopping ads location targeting you should examine:

if the ads reach the right audience
the budget is sufficient for that location
the campaign is optimized for said location

Language (targeting)

Google Merchant Center requires that the language of your product feed matches the target market.

For example, if you are targeting English-speaking users, your feed should be in English. This ensures that your shopping ads are approved and displayed correctly

When it comes to auditing Google shopping ads language targeting you should examine:

if the language inside the feed matched the target audience
if the product pages match the language of the feed
if the language targeting of the shopping campaign matches that of the feed and the product pages

Keywords

In Google Shopping ads, the concept of keywords is different from traditional search ads because, unlike search ads, you cannot directly bid on keywords for Google Shopping ads. Instead, Google uses the data from your product feed to determine which searches your shopping ads are eligible for.

When it comes to auditing Google shopping ads keywords you should examine:

if the titles contain the desired keywords
if the descriptions contain the desired keywords
if the product types match with search intent

Segmentation

Shopping campaigns are grouped by ad groups or product groups. A good Shopping campaign should, ideally, be divided by

Product Type
Category
Brand
Custom label
Item ID
Margin
Query intent
Seasonality

This way it can be easily audited and to some extent provide all parties involved with actionable data.

What you need to be aware of:

You can subdivide up to 7 levels
Each ad group can have up to 20000 product groups
Bids are set to product groups that aren’t subdivided

Zombie products

“Zombie” products in Google Shopping Ads refer to products that have not received any impressions or clicks in a specified period, usually 30 days, often due to various factors such as

low demand
outdated products
misaligned pricing strategy
inventory forecasting
inventory problems
poor product feed optimisation

Additionally, Google’s Shopping algorithm prioritizes SKUs that have performed well historically, which can contribute to the lack of visibility for certain products.

That said, identifying and auditing “Zombie” products is a laboured process which involved anything for Google Ads scripts to data analytics.

More info on Zombie products

Merchant center

Google Merchant Center is an online platform where online retailers upload and manage their product data to ensure their products appear in Google Shopping searches, Google Search, Maps, YouTube, and other Google services.

It allows businesses to upload product information, including product IDs, titles, prices, images, and links to the product pages on their websites. This data is used to create product listings that appear in Google Shopping results.

In order to audit Merchant Center you will have to review elements such as:

language
time zone
business information
linked accounts
feed(s)
feeds(s) updates
marketing programs
disapproved items
expiring items
products with warnings
inadequate product identifiers
incorrect pricing
non-compliant images
Product page information mismatch
product data specification
marketing programs
shipping information
return information
ads-to-organic ratio
organic listings

Schema

Schema is a structured data markup language that helps search engines like Google, Bing, etc understand the content of a webpage more accurately. In the case of product listings, it provides search engines with the necessary information about your products, such as price, availability, and various product identifiers. Structured data ensures that Google can accurately represent your products in shopping ads and other listings (eg organic shopping)

There are multiple ways in which you can audit your product listings schema eg

Detailed (chrome extension)
HTML
online tools (eg Schema Markup Validator)

That said, the Schema markup should abide to the merchant listing requirements specified by Google found in the link that follows

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing

Cart Data (CwCD)

Cart data in Google Ads, also known as “Conversions with Cart Data” (CwCD), is an advanced feature that provides detailed insights into the products sold through your advertising campaigns.

Cart data allows you to track and report the specific products sold as a result of your ads, including quantities and prices. This goes beyond standard conversion tracking, which only indicates that a purchase was made

When it comes to auditing CwCD you should examine:

if the aw_merchant_id is correct
if the aw_feed_country is correct
if the aw_feed_language correct
if the items array contains the data needed
if the product feed contains COGS

More info on CwCD

Account Data

Account data in Google Ads refers to the various types of information and settings that are managed within a Google Ads account to optimize and run advertising campaigns effectively.

Account Data include but are not limited to:

business data
page feeds
product feeds
audiences
customer lists
visitors
first-party data
conversions history
product events
event dynamic variables (eg size)

Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking allows you to see which ads are driving the most conversions, enabling you to evaluate the performance of your campaigns accurately. This helps in understanding what is working and what is not, which is very important for optimizing your campaigns.

Auditing conversion actions involves any of the following:

Conversion action status
quality of data received
quantity of data received
attribution model selected
double counting conversions
Enhanced conversions
conversion action source

Priority

Campaign Priority in Google Shopping revolves around bids, auctions, and product similarity.
Practically this means, that campaigns that share the same products will participate in an auction by the level of priority. There are three priority levels available: High, Medium, and Low. The default setting is Low.

Eg the campaign with the highest priority will enter the auction instead of a campaign with a low priority for the same product and in the same country.

In order to find the priority of the shopping campaign

Sign in to your Google ads account
Click the arrow on the left
Select the Standard shopping campaign you are interested in
Click Settings
Find the Campaign priority section

What you need to be aware of when auditing Google Shopping Ads priority settings:

Highest priority shopping campaigns enter the auction first
Ad spend is spread throughout the day and this means that high priority shopping campaigns will not participate in each and every auction
If multiple high-priority campaigns compete for the same auction, the one with the highest bid will participate in the auction.
When highest priority campaigns run out of funds, then the next lower priority campaign will enter the auction

Search terms

Sign in to your Google ads account
Click the arrow on the left
Select the Standard shopping campaign you are interested in
Click Insights & reports
Click Search Terms

Search terms inform you about the keywords or group of keywords your shopping campaigns appeared and/or gathered clicks.

Here you need to audit the search terms and compare them with the products inside the standard shopping campaigns. If some of the search terms don’t match then you should consider adding negative keywords and/or negative lists

Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are used to exclude certain words or phrases from triggering your ads, ensuring that your ads do not appear for irrelevant search queries

Benefits of Negative keywords and/or Negative keywords lists are:

Reduce Ad Waste
Improve Quality score
Increase conversions
Protects Brand Image

Google Shopping Ads Campaigns and/or ad groups should have negative keywords and/or Negative keywords List attached to them.

Reports

When it comes to reports, Standard Shopping campaigns provide fewer data compared to other campaigns, but significantly more that PMAX campaigns.

In order to audit Shopping campaigns, you will have to connect Google Ads with Google Analytics. You will also have to enable auto-tagging in Google Ads and Merchant Center.

In order to see all the available data from a shopping campaign, you will need to open Google Analytics and then navigate to Acquisition > Google Ads > Shopping campaigns

Price(s)

Product pricing has a direct impact on the sales and profitability of resellers. If your Google Ads account resells products that people can easily find anywhere, then price monitoring and adjusting can be what increase the profitability of you Google Shopping Ads campaigns.

When it comes to price reporting, the price competitiveness report, found inside Merchant Center, will provide you with benchmarks about your prices. It will also provide you with info about the competitiveness of your bids.

That said, when you audit the price competitiveness of the products found inside the feed, you should always visit the price competitiveness report in Merchant Center. This should give you a clear answer if the products meet the price benchmark defined by the market.

More info on the price competitiveness report in Merchant Center

Policy

Product listing Ads need to be safe, secure, and comply with legal requirements.
Google uses an automated system in order to identify potential violations. Items that are disapproved won’t be eligible to appear in Shopping ads.

A brief overview of Shopping ads policies can be found here
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970?visit_id=637865097880684796-3496202820&rd=1

Sometimes, however, items may get flagged as harmful by the system due to search terms similarities with restricted items. When this happens, you have the option to request a manual review for each and every item.

You can find the disapproved items by going to:

Products
Click Diagnostics
Go to the item issues tab
Find the “Violation of Shopping ads policy”

Google Shopping Ads Audit checklist

Due to its enormous size, I have broken down the Google Shopping Ads audit checklist into 5 parts.
The order of the checklist is based on realistic scenarios eg the access a PPC specialist will have in a new Google Ads Account. That said, a Google Shopping Ads audit checklist should focus on the following:

Campaign level

Audit the realistic additional value for new customers
Audit the conversion action (purchases)
Audit the advanced location targeting
Audit ad schedule
Audit (lifestyle) images
Audit the customer-match audience of existing customers
Audit the custom segment audience of converting search terms
Audit in-market audience segment
Audit the bidding strategy
Audit the target of the bidding strategy
Audit seasonality adjustment
Audit if prices remain competitive
Audit low-performing products
Audit low-performing user locations
Audit “Zombie” products
Audit budgets for campaigns with best performing products
Audit audience report
Audit increase/decrease of bidding targets
Audit increase/decrease of budgets
Audit user location report
Audit conversions values (purchases)
Audit the UTM parameters in the asset groups
Audit Auto-applied recommendations
Audit if Auto-applied recommendations are disabled

Feed level

Audit dynamic remarketing in Merchant Center (ecom)
Audit if the product id matches the feed id in Merchant Center (ecom)
Audit the connection of Merchant Center with Google Ads
Audit the optimisation of the product feed
Audit the optimisation of product titles
Audit the optimisation of product descriptions
Audit the optimisation of product short descriptions
Audit the optimisation of product images
Audit the optimisation of product lifestyle images
Audit images in multiple dimensions (landscape, square, vertical, etc)
Audit custom labels for products based on profit margins
Audit custom labels for products based on seasonality
Audit custom labels for products based on stock levels
Audit if the feed is updated hourly
Audit supplementary feeds with “zombie products”
Audit supplementary feeds with best-performing products
Audit supplementary feed with custom labels
Audit Paid product performance in Merchant Center
Audit Organic product performance in Merchant Center
Audit shipping in Merchant Center
Audit if the shipping values found in Merchant Center and the Website are matching
Audit if the shipping values found in Merchant Center and the product pages are matching
Audit returns in Merchant Center
Audit if the return values found in Merchant Center and the Website are matching
Audit if the return values found in Merchant Center and the product pages are matching
Audit if top-selling products are disapproved
Audit if top-selling products are out of stock
Audit stock fluctuations
Audit stock levels

Account level

Audit enhanced conversion tracking
Audit enhanced conversions
Audit conversion actions
Audit if attribution is set to data-driven
Audit if GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is linked to the Google Ads account
Audit account-wide negatives
Audit negative keyword lists
Audit conversions Delay
Audit time to conversion
Audit Data exclusions
Audit seasonality adjustments
Audit active scripts
Audit paused scripts
Audit active Automated Rules
Audit paused Automated Rules
Audit AAR (Auto applied recommendations)
Audit changes in customers lists
Audit active experiments in the account
Audit ended experiments in the account
Audit conversion value adjustments
Audit Value rules adjustments
Audit offline conversion uploads
Audit account changes by other users
Audit account changes by Google

Website level

Audit gtag.js
Audit Google Ads conversion tracking code
Audit hashed email (data layer)
Audit the the new_customer parameter to your Google Ads conversion tracking code (data layer)
Audit the customization of ad_personalization_signals to comply with EU regulations
Audit consent mode modeling (EU)
Audit if the website is mobile friendly
Audit if the product pages are mobile friendly
Audit if the checkout page is mobile friendly
Audit if the landing pages load fast in your target location
Audit if the forms and/or checkouts are working
Audit the lead fraud prevention tactics
Audit the payment fraud prevention tactics
Audit the Schema property of the product pages (Website)
Audit the Schema property of the product pages in Google’s Search Console
Audit the shippingDetails field of the Schema property (product page)
Audit the hasMerchantReturnPolicy field of the Schema property (product page)
Audit the image field of the Schema property (product page)
Audit changes to plugins
Audit changes to page design
Audit changes to checkout design
Audit changes to payment options
Audit hosting provider changes (if applicable)
Audit fluctuations in product views
Audit fluctuations in add to carts
Audit fluctuations in checkout
Audit fluctuations in payment
Audit changes in payment choices
Audit fluctuations in traffic from other marketing channels (eg META)

Enviroment Level

Audit sales of the competition
Audit promotions of the competition
Audit shipping costs of the competition
Audit Product pages of the competition
Audit payment options of the competition
Audit negative reviews off the website (eg Google Business Places)
Audit demand in Keyword Planner
Audit trend in Keyword trends
Audit fluctuations of the general economic situation in your target location