Service Charges Apply. This feature is available to our marketing clients. Requires cost data to be set up on product/variation records and Google Ads Tracking to be enabled. Contact us for details.


Major new feature for ecommerce stores advertising on Google


Google has launched a major new feature to help improve online Retail product sales by dynamically lowering the price of your products shown via Google Ads compared to your competitors. The new product price is displayed on Google's Search Engine Results Pages and once the ad is clicked the price is then automatically lowered on the website product page to match. The amount of discount given can be set as a percentage across all products, or with specific prices on a per product basis. The price offered by Google is honoured for 48 hours only.

Displaying The New Price & Time-limited Discount On The Product Page
The product price shown on the product page is automatically changed to the price set by Google and the following time-sensitive message is displayed as well.



In the above example it says "24 hours only", which is the number of hours remaining since the original 48 hours started if the customer didn't make a purchase straightaway when clicking through the ad and revisited the page later on.  


What Happens When Other Coupons Are In Play

This offer can be superseded by other valid percentage coupon promotions that are in play which are for a greater percentage than that offered by Google, in which case all lines would be discounted by the higher percentage.

However, if the Google discount was higher than other coupon promos, then the higher Google discount would be applied to the specific product which the customer saw in Google Ads, and any other products would have the lower coupon promo discount applied to them.


In other words, there is no double discount when other percentage coupons are in play.

However remember that lump sum discounts will always be applied as they are treated as a cash equivalent.

What Happens When Special Prices Are Set On Products?
If the special price is below the discounted price calculated by Google then the special price will be used instead.

Viewing The Discount Given in Coupon Manager
The discount given is stored in Coupon Manager > Google Shopping Auto Discount tab for all resulting visits, not just successful sales. 


Viewing The Discount Given in Order Manager

You can view orders in Order Manager that originated from the Google Ad discount using Quick Search filters shown below:




NOTE: If the 1st column shows NO coupon symbol for this traffic source, it is because the customer came to the site from an ad for one product but actually purchased a different product.


Looking at the double coupon example we can see which coupons were applied on each order line, plus the amount of discount given:


 


Price Intelligence

A further benefit is being able to see the level of discount that has been offered by Google which indicates how over-priced it considers your products to be on a given date. You can cross-reference this to views and conversion rates in the Top Products Report to adjust your price position further in the market, since you may be losing out on visits not coming via Google Ads.

SETTING UP THIS FEATURE


Cost Data Setup / Excluded Products

Requires the entry of COGS data (Cost Of Goods Sold) in each product's cost field. If cost isn't set on a product then the product will not be included in Google Shopping Ads Discount. 


Use the Export / Import system to update your product / variation data en masse. Alternatively, update the Cost field on individual products via Product Manager > Edit Product > Prices & Delivery > Cost (note this excludes VAT/Tax)


Product Feed Settings & Maximum Percentage Discount For All Products


Set the product feed up for this feature based on which version  you are using (sites established before September 2024 generally use the V1 feed, sites after this date the V2 feed) and set the maximum percentage discount allowed on all products. Google will not go above this level and may be lower than this level based on it's AI comparisons between your price and that of competitors and where to pitch your price to win more sales.


Set this up in Site Settings > Ecommerce > Google Shopping


Setting A Minimum Google Shopping Selling Price For Individual Products

You can set minimum selling prices on individual products that are used instead of the general percentage discount via Product Manager > Edit Product > Google Shopping Min. Price (note this includes VAT/Tax)


Google Ads conversion code setup
Increased integration with Google Ads using Google ads conversion code complete with cart data for the thanks page via this new connect setting.
Admin > Connect > SEO > Google Ads Tracking > Tick: Enable Ads Conversion tracking on the thanks page?
Enter the "send_to" part of the code provided by Google in: Ads Conversion Tracking ID / "send_to"


Template Change
This is required on the product page to display the personalised price message and adjust the product prices on the page.


Documentation
Setup documents are available on Drive to support staff only: Google Shopping Automated Discounts.
Git: 3596, 3645, 3646