Optimize Google Shopping Product Titles to Boost Google Ad Performance

Retailers and agency partners must share their product feed per Google’s product data specifications to get a product feed accepted by Google Merchant Center. Retailers need to comply with the specifications along with the enriched and engaging product title in Google Shopping, an important component of any shopping ad’s content to stand out against competitors.

In this article, we will look into how you can optimize for Google Shopping product titles to help showcase your products better to a wider audience and boost your conversions. Also, this article will give you valuable insights into understanding what a product title is, understand the importance of a good product title, and the dimensions of the product title.

In Google Shopping, the product title is the main text or phrase given to a specific product on the Google SERP page. The product title appears below the image of the product that is listed in Google Shopping.

A descriptive and accurate product title will help to show your product to the right customers and drive valuable clicks to the product, making it one of the most important aspects of your product listings in Google Shopping. It is one of the factors that Google evaluates to determine if your listing is relevant to the search query.

Product Title Optimization is the process of enriching your title with keywords like brand name, variants (color, material, size), demography (age, gender), model number, manufacturer part number, etc. Product title not only increases ad impression but also reduces Max Bid for better Ad Rank. It increases your Quality Score for those important keywords that your customer most likely uses in their search queries.

Product titles are one of the most important product feed attributes as they have a direct impact on the performance of Google shopping ads. The titles of your products have the power to engage, influence, and ultimately convince online shoppers to make a purchase. They are a source of leading keywords that help search engines set you at the top of the most valuable results in the search query.

• Product title helps to drive more traffic, increase the Click-Through Rates (CTR), and help to maximize Google Shopping Ad Campaigns ROAS.
• For retailers or eCommerce businesses, effective product titles help you to capture more sales increasing your conversion rate and scaling up click rates.
• Product Title improves product clarity and creates value in the minds of customers.
• Product title draws customers’ attention to the products and helps boost customer engagement.
• It gives your products an advantage compared to competitors’ products and helps customers understand your products better.

Your product title has a huge impact on your audience and your product’s performance so optimizing your product title is crucial. Optimizing your product titles for each shopping campaign is one of the best ways to improve your listings. Product Title optimization in Google Shopping varies depending on the product and category. Well-optimized product titles influence your product’s visibility and ensure that your products closely match the customer search terms and appear for highly relevant search queries.

Here are the 5 best practices for Google Shopping product title optimization:

• Keep Your Product Title Descriptive
• Focus on User Intent
• Add Keywords to Your Product Titles
• Include Key Product Attributes
• Structure Your Keywords Properly

Let’s get into the details.

Google can match your ad to relevant search queries, so using a descriptive title with relevant product information brings more value to your product listings. By using concise and well-described titles, you make it easier for search spiders to classify your products, making them easier to find and boosting your product rankings. It can be said that a descriptive title can be considered as one of the important factors in optimizing your Product detail page.

Ensure that your product titles do not exceed the maximum character length of 150 characters and aim for a length between 50-75 characters for optimal performance. The more specific your title is, the more accurately your Google ads will be shown to potential customers.

Create a search-friendly product title that resonates with your target audience and aligns with the products that attract them. Gain insights into the preferences of your targeted customers and develop a thorough understanding of your buyer personas to effectively describe your product.

Conduct comprehensive keyword planning and research to analyze your audience and optimize your title, ensuring it captures the intent of searchers and entices them to click. Giving suitable details in your titles makes them work well for high-purchase intent searches.

It is very important to integrate relevant keywords into your product title to connect with your customers. This process is very beneficial to optimize your shopping ad campaigns. Integrating keywords to product titles ensures that search spiders categorize your product accurately and match it with relevant search queries. Keyword-rich titles can help you rank for more search terms and make your products visible to a wider audience.

You can do searches for the products you’re selling to find out which keywords work best for you. Use the best keywords in your title to improve the performance of your products in Google Shopping. You can use SEO tools such as SEMrush and Google Search Console for insights on relevant keywords in your niche and your product type.

Your product title should include the exact details of what your product has to offer. Make sure to add all attributes that describe your product. The attributes of a product differ depending on its nature. It improves CTR as searchers will find what they are looking for in your title. The product title should contain the following bits of information:

• Brand Name
• Product Name
• Color and/or Variant
• Size and/or Quantity
• Relevant Keywords

Also, include the features and benefits of your product along with the product USP (Unique Selling point) for more accurate search results and to display the products better and grab the attention of your target consumers.

The structure of keywords may vary depending on the product type you are selling. Google puts more weight into the keywords in the forefront position of the title. So, make sure you arrange the product titles the right way and choose a structure that consists of the most important details at the beginning of the titles to improve the click-through rate (CTR) of your ads. Also, you can add your brand name at the beginning of your product title as many shoppers are looking for specific brand products or categories to make a purchase.

Using GrowByData Search Intelligence Solutions, we collected and analyzed over 410K product ad titles for 1,800 search keywords with a monthly search volume of 23 million per Google Keyword Planner. We analyzed the title from two dimensions in the Sports and Outdoors category on Google Shopping Ads.

Our data shows that it is important to consider the shopper’s search intent and think like a shopper while preparing the product title. In a category like sporting goods, the purpose of the product on the title; adding action words like ‘running’, ‘diving’, ‘training’ etc. could be a more relevant attribute compared to other categories. This goes along with the notion of understanding and catering to the intent of your customers’ searches from keyword funnel concept.  Not using the right keywords on the product title could lead to you missing out on potential sales opportunities.

Per our Google Shopping data on 410K ads, one or more search keywords were present on the ad’s product title 94% of the time. There was a high match between the search keywords and the product title on over 55% of the ads presented by Google as shown in the graph below. And a low match on almost 40% of the ads.

We analyzed the title composition to determine whether brand, variants (color, materials, and size), and demographics (gender, age) are available in the title of the ranked ads.

• Brand Name

The brand name is one of the key product identifiers that shopping platforms like Google use to understand what you are selling. Our data showed that 77% of the product titles included the brand name. When we dug into the rankings, we found that 80% of the ads in the 1st to 5th position had the brand name in their product title. That percentage dropped to 74% for ads ranked below the 20th position as shown on the graph below. The trend line shows a gradual decline in brand names being present on the title as it moves down the rankings.

• Variants like Color, Material, and Size

Variants such as color, material, and product size help in differentiating your product. It is best practice to use standard colors as most people search for them. Shoppers use variants like color, size, & material to refine their searches.

We found that almost 60% of the 410K product ads we analyzed had a variant such as color, material, or size on their product title. On average – color was present in 19% of the product titles, the material was present in 8% of the titles, and size was included in 31% of the product titles. A breakdown by ad rank is shown on the graph below.

• Demographics like Gender and Age Group

Other features/attributes that allow a product title to stand out are demographic attributes like gender and age group. Adding gender and age group to the title makes the searching process easier for the consumer and gives them exactly what they are looking for without having to dig too much.

Especially for a category like Sports and Outdoors, shoppers may be most interested in seeing popular products in Google Shopping by gender and age group. We found that around 33% of product titles had a demography attribute like gender or age. To be specific, 15% of the product titles included gender on the title and about 18% of the product titles included age as shown in the graph below.

When it comes to product titles, making sure they are optimized for Google Shopping should be your top priority. Optimizing your product titles is an important step in improving the search relevancy of your products on Google Shopping. Putting an effort into fully optimizing your Google shopping product titles means that you are taking the right steps to gain an edge over the competition.

A retailer trying to increase their Google Shopping Ad Impressions and Click-Through Rates can greatly benefit from structuring their product titles with the right combination of keywords, attributes, and features. Product title optimization plays a crucial role to boost shopping campaign performance and generate more conversions and sales. In addition, it plays a crucial role in SEO and helps you rank higher in the SERP.

GrowByData Ad intelligence tool under its holistic Search Intelligence solution provides granular shopping ad content data and provides strategic and tactical insights to improve visibility, conversion rates, and ROAS.