Google Ads offers marketers powerful tools to optimise their campaigns, especially when it comes to managing product feeds in Google Merchant Center. One of these tools is the ability to assign custom labels to products, which is especially useful when organising products based on price bands. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up custom labels in Merchant Center using price bands, helping you streamline your Google Ads campaigns and enhance targeting.
By segmenting products into price bands, you can better allocate bids, adjust your strategy based on the selling price of your products, and gain a deeper understanding of how different product price ranges perform in your campaigns.
What Are Custom Labels in Google Ads?
Custom labels are fields you can assign to products in Google Merchant Center that enable you to filter products into specific groups. These labels can be used in your Shopping/Performance max campaigns to differentiate between products based on factors such as seasonality, promotions, or, as in this case, price bands.
For example, you might want to create price band labels like “Below 25,” “25-50,” “50-100,” and so on. This segmentation allows for greater control over your Shopping ads, as you can set different bid strategies or campaign priorities for each group based on performance data.
Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Custom Labels with Price Bands
Now, let’s go step-by-step through the process of setting up custom labels based on price bands in Google’s Merchant Center. For this tutorial, we’ll be using Merchant Center Next, Google’s latest version of the Merchant Center platform.
1. Accessing the Advanced Data Source Management
The first thing you need to do is ensure that Advanced Data Source Management is enabled in your Merchant Center account. This feature is required for managing complex data attributes, including custom labels.
- Navigate to the cog icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Merchant Center dashboard.
- From the dropdown menu, select Add-ons.
- If you haven’t already enabled it, find the option for Advanced Data Source Management and click to add it.
Once this feature is enabled, you’ll see the option to manage it under Your Add-ons. Click Go to advanced data source management to proceed.
2. Selecting Your Primary Feed
With the advanced data management enabled, you’ll need to choose the primary feed where you want to apply the custom labels.
- In the Advanced Data Source Management interface, select your primary feed, the one you use for product listings in Google Ads.
- Once selected, go to the Attribute Rules tab, which allows you to create new rules or modify existing ones.
3. Creating a New Attribute Rule
Next, it’s time to create the attribute rule that will allow you to segment products by price bands using custom labels.
- Click Add new attribute rule.
- In the prompt, select Processed attributes.
- Then, choose Custom label X, where X is the label number you want to assign the updated value to. For instance, you can use Custom Label 0 for price bands.
This will bring you to a screen where you can start defining the conditions for your price bands.
4. Defining the Price Bands
Now that you’re in the rule-creation interface, you can start adding rules that define the price bands for your custom label.
- First, in the edit source section, click the pencil next to the conditions block.
- From the dropdown, select Processed attribute price, as this will be the main variable for your custom labels.
- In the next dropdown, select is less than, and enter your first price band. For instance, if you want to label products under £25, enter 25.
- In the Set to field, enter the label you want to assign. For instance, set the label to “Below 25” to indicate the band for products priced under £25.
- Click OK to save this rule.
Repeat this process for the rest of your price bands. For each subsequent band, make sure to use greater than or equal to for the lower bound and less than for the upper bound to properly define the bandings.
Example:
- For products priced between £25 and £50, create a rule that sets the price attribute to greater than or equal to 25 and less than 50. Set the label value to 25-50.
- For products priced between £50 and £100, create a rule with greater than or equal to 50 and less than 100. Set the label to 50-100.
- Continue this process for as many price bands as necessary for your product catalog.
5. Finalising and Testing Your Custom Labels
Once you’ve set up all the price band rules, make sure to review them carefully to ensure that there are no gaps or overlaps in the conditions you’ve defined. For example, you don’t want a product to fall into both the Below 25 and 25-50 labels.
- After confirming that everything looks good, click Save to apply the rules – You also have the option to preview the changes first, which can be useful to quickly see if your changes will work as expected.
- Depending on the size of your product feed, it may take a few minutes for the changes to propagate. Once applied, your products will be labeled based on the price bands you defined.
- You can now use these custom labels in Google Ads to create more granular perf max campaigns.
6. Using Custom Labels in Google Ads Campaigns
Now that your products have been segmented into custom price bands, the next step is using these labels to refine your Google ads performance max campaigns or traditional shopping campaigns.
- In your Google Ads account, go to your performance max campaign.
- Under the asset groups section, click into the applicable listing group that you wish to segment. You’ll then see a pen/pencil icon which will let you subdivide when hovering over listing group segments.
- on the subdivision screen, select custom label x from the dropdown.
- Select the custom label values you just created (e.g., “Below 25”, “25-50”), and Google will automatically sort your products based on the price bands you’ve assigned.
With your products now grouped by price range, you can use these to adjust your bids on a traditional shopping campaign. For example, you might decide to bid more aggressively on products in the “Below 25” band, as lower-priced items may have a higher conversion rate. Conversely, for higher-priced products, you might opt for a more conservative bidding strategy to avoid overspending. For a performance max campaign, splitting products into the price bands may help Google’s AI to better allocate spend, and boost conversions, as well as help you identify parts of your range that are underperforming.
Best Practices for Using Custom Labels with Price Bands
Now that you know how to set up custom labels for price bands, here are a few best practices to help you get the most out of this strategy:
- Align Your Price Bands with Your Business Goals: Think carefully about how you segment your price bands. Are you focusing on high-volume, low-margin products, or are you targeting higher-margin items? Tailor your price bands to align with your overall campaign objectives.
- Monitor and Adjust Your Bids: Once you’ve implemented custom labels, be sure to monitor the performance of each price band. You may find that some price segments are outperforming others. Adjust your bids regularly to reflect this performance data.
- Use Custom Labels Alongside Other Attributes: Custom labels are just one way to segment your products. Consider using them alongside other attributes, such as product type, seasonality, or inventory level, to create even more granular targeting.
- Test Different Price Band Ranges: If you’re not sure how to structure your price bands, don’t be afraid to experiment. Start with broader ranges (e.g., Below 25, 25-50, 50-100) and narrow them down as you gather data on what works best for your business.
- Keep an Eye on Competitor Pricing: Pricing is a key factor in Google Shopping performance. Regularly check your competitors’ pricing, and adjust your price bands or bidding strategies to stay competitive.
Custom labels in Google Ads provide an excellent way to categorise and manage your product feed, especially when using price bands. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can create effective price band labels that allow for more precise bidding and campaign management. As always, remember to monitor performance and adjust your strategy based on real-time data to ensure you’re getting the best possible return on investment.