Shopping Campaigns.

Shopping campaigns in Google Ads display product listing ads (PLAs) — rich units showing a product image, title, price, and store name — in Google Search, Google Shopping, and partner networks. Listings are generated from a product feed uploaded to Google Merchant Center rather than from keywords.

Standard vs. Smart Shopping

Standard Shopping gives advertisers control over bids, targets, and campaign structure. Smart Shopping (now largely replaced by Performance Max) automated bidding and placement. Most advertisers now run PMax for shopping inventory, reserving Standard Shopping for precise bid control on high-margin products.

Feed Quality

Feed quality directly drives Shopping performance. Google matches queries to product attributes in the feed (title, description, GTIN, brand, category). Optimizing product titles with high-intent keywords, accurate GTINs, and strong product type taxonomy improves impressions, click-through rate, and ROAS.

Shopping Ad Formats

Formats include product shopping ads (single product), showcase shopping ads (multiple products for broad queries), and local inventory ads (which surface in-store availability). Local inventory ads require a local product inventory feed separate from the main product feed.