How to Set Up Google Ads Dynamic Remarketing in Shopify
In this article, we’re going to explore an advanced type of remarketing — dynamic remarketing — and how to set up Google Ads dynamic remarketing in Shopify.
In general, remarketing is a type of ad technology that allows advertisers to “follow” visitors on other websites. For example, you’re selling ebook readers on your website. Once a visitor goes to your website and browses your product selection, you can transfer the data to Google Ads, and the system will generate automatic ads with your products to show them on other websites to your visitors. So once your visitor goes to another website that runs ads from Google Network to read an article about ebook readers, Google Ads will show them an ad with your products, and if they click on it, they will be taken back to your website.
So let’s find out what dynamic remarketing is, how to set it up and how it can help you increase conversions and drive sales.
What Is Dynamic Remarketing
With Google Ads Dynamic Remarketing, you can show personalized Google Shopping ads to people who have previously interacted with your website. It is a more advanced type of advertising technology that allows an advertiser to show not just a selection of products or random products, but the exact ones the user viewed or added to the shopping cart. This greatly increases their chances to convert.
Dynamic remarketing also allows automatic ad creation instead of manually creating ads for all the products a user might visit, thus saving a lot of time.
If not, drop us a message and let’s change that with our Google Shopping Ads management!
Why You Need Dynamic Remarketing
It’s a great technology that increases the chance of a sale by constantly reminding the visitor about yourself with the exact products they viewed. Multiple tests and cases show that dynamic remarketing is profitable.
If you have an eCommerce store on Shopify, dynamic remarketing is your choice to target past visitors and abandoned shopping carts. Setting up dynamic remarketing requires a little patience and knowledge, and the latter we’re going to provide you with now. We have extensive experience in running PPC for eCommerce businesses and are happy to share our expertise with you.
Check out the video below to learn how to get started on the feed, tag, and remarketing lists needed for dynamic remarketing:
How to Set Up Dynamic Remarketing in Shopify
Before setting up dynamic remarketing, make sure you have the following settings ready:
- Your Google Merchant Center account is linked to your Google Ads account.
- GA4 account is set up and linked to the Google Ads account.
Google Ads dynamic remarketing in Shopify requires additional settings: product IDs, page type, product cost.
All data can be transferred using two methods: to Google Analytics directly or through Google Ads using a remarketing tag. You can use them both at once or separately, depending on your goals. We recommend using Google Ads tag audiences and conversions for dynamic remarketing. So in this article, we will focus on dynamic remarketing with Google Ads tag and detail how to set up tags correctly for data tracking.
To learn how to add GTM to Shopify, check out our article on how to install Google Tag Manager in Shopify where you will find 2 ways to do it.
Warning! The following instruction requires code editing skills. If you don’t have any or don’t have much time to learn, our team is happy to help with setting up dynamic remarketing for your Shopify store.
The Manual Method Is Completely Free
Setting Up Data Transfer to Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 has replaced Universal Analytics as of July 1, 2023. Check out our guide on how to install GA4 on Shopify.
Or you can use the second GA4 setup option if you use Simprosys Google Shopping Feed for product feed submission. Learn about this method in the last chapter of this article.
Setting Up Data Transfer Using Google Ads Tag
Another way to set up data transfer for dynamic remarketing is to use a Google Ads tag.
Place the following code in theme.liquid:
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-XXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'AW-XXXXXXXXX');
</script>
<script>
var _data = {'send_to': 'AW-XXXXXXXXX', 'ecomm_pagetype':'other'};
{% if template contains 'cart' %}
_data["ecomm_pagetype"] = 'cart';
_data["ecomm_prodid"] = [{% for item in cart.items %}'shopify_{{ shopify_store_country }}_{{ item.product.id }}_{{ item.variant.id }}'{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}{% endfor %}];
_data["ecomm_totalvalue"] = '{{ cart.total_price | money_without_currency | remove: ',' }}';
{% elsif template contains 'collection' %}
var _prodid = [{% for item in collection.products limit:5 %}'shopify_{{ shopify_store_country }}_{{ item.id }}_{{ item.variants.first.id }}'{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}{% endfor %}];
_data["ecomm_pagetype"] = 'category';
_data["ecomm_category"] = '{{ collection.handle }}';
{% elsif template contains 'index' %}
_data["ecomm_pagetype"] = 'home';
{% elsif template contains 'product' %}
_data["ecomm_prodid"] = 'shopify_{{ shopify_store_country }}_{{ product.id }}_{{ product.selected_or_first_available_variant.id }}';
_data["ecomm_pagetype"] = 'product';
_data["ecomm_totalvalue"] = '{{ product.selected_or_first_available_variant.price | money_without_currency | remove: ',' }}';
{% elsif template contains 'search' %}
_data["ecomm_prodid"] = [{% for item in search.results limit:5 %}'shopify_{{ shopify_store_country }}_{{ item.id }}_{{ item.variants.first.id }}'{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}{% endfor %}];
_data["ecomm_pagetype"] = 'searchresults';
{% endif %}
gtag('event', 'page_view', _data);
</script>
Adjust the code:
- Replace ‘AW-XXXXXXXXX’ with Google Ads tag ID.
- According to the type of Product ID you need, set the desired value for the ecomm_prodid variable, and remove the rest. At the moment the value of ecomm_prodid is set to shopify_US_81191654332_1055121650148.
- If you need the whole value, don’t change anything, just enter the country code instead of {{ shopify_store_country }}.
- If you only need the numeric value 81191654332, leave the brackets between the second and third underscores of each selected code fragment and remove the rest.
- If you only need the numeric value 1055121650148, then leave only the brackets after the third underscore of each code fragment.
Next, place the code for Google Ads in the Shopping cart:
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-XXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'AW-XXXXXXXXX');
</script>
<!-- Event snippet for Web Order conversion page -->
<script>
// Conversion
gtag('event', 'conversion', {
'send_to': 'AW-XXXXXXXXX/{{ google_conversion_label }}',
'value': {{ checkout.subtotal_price | money_without_currency | remove: ',' }},
'currency': '{{ shop.currency }}',
'transaction_id': '{{ order.order_number }}'
});
// Remarketing
gtag('event', 'page_view', {
'send_to': 'AW-XXXXXXXXX',
'ecomm_pagetype': 'purchase',
'ecomm_prodid' : [{% for item in order.line_items %}'shopify_{{ shopify_store_country }}_{{ item.product.id }}_{{ item.variant.id }}'{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}{% endfor %}],
'ecomm_totalvalue' : '{{ total_price | money_without_currency | remove: ',' }}'
});
</script>
{% endif %}
Adjust the code:
- Replace the value AW-XXXXXXXXX with the value of the Google Ads code.
- Replace the {{ google_conversion_label }} value with the Google Ads conversion value.
- According to the type of Product ID, set the value for the ecomm_prodid variable, and remove the rest. Now the ecomm_prodid value is shopify_US_81191654332_1055121650148.
- If you need the whole value, don’t change anything.
- If you only need the numeric value 81191654332, then leave the brackets between the second and third underscores of each selected code fragment and remove the rest.
- If you only need the numeric value 1055121650148, then leave only the brackets after the third underscore of each code fragment.
Setting Up Data Transfer to Google Merchant Center
When setting up Google Ads dynamic remarketing in Shopify, you can submit your data feed using several apps from Shopify App Store. Check out our article on 5 must-have Shopify apps. If you need one feed for a small number of products targeting one country, then a free app should be enough. If you need different feeds for different countries, it’s better to use a paid DataFeedWatch app.
The feed can be created in different ways, depending on the method of transferring the feed from Shopify to Merchant Center. If it’s a free Google Shopping app, the data is loaded via the API. If it is a DataFeedWatch feed, then the feed is loaded through the specified feed URL.
How to Determine the Product ID Type in Google Merchant Center
The type of the transferred Product ID will be different, depending on the app used. It’s important that the Product ID type stays the same for all systems.
You can find out which type of Product ID is passed to Merchant Center. Go to All Products and look at the values in the Identifier column.
How to find out what type of product ID this value corresponds to? The easiest way is to adjust the code for passing the product ID to Google Ads.
- In Google Ads, you need to pass the value for the ecomm_prodid variable, specified in the default code. It looks like this: shopify_US_81191654332_1055121650148.
- Go to your website and use Tag Assistant to check which IDs match the product ID in the Merchant Center.
- Adjust your Google Ads code to match the type of product ID that’s being passed to your feed.
Now that the data feeds are set up correctly, you’re ready to start creating dynamic remarketing campaigns.
You can also contact us for professional Google Shopping Ads management if you have any problems setting up ad campaigns.
Bonus: a Simple but Paid Way
Manually setting up tags is not the only way to set up correct tracking of dynamic remarketing parameters.
There are automated solutions via Shopify applications that allow this customization.
One option is to use this function in the Simprosys Google Shopping Feed application. The main purpose of this application is to create and import product data feeds to Google, Facebook & Microsoft.
If you are using this application to import product data feed, it will be most convenient to set up dynamic remarketing settings through it as well.
What you need for a successful setup:
- Install Simprosys Google Shopping Feed application
- Create Google Ads account
- No other Google Ads tags installed manually on the Shopify online store
If you fulfill all three points, further integration looks quite simple.
Find the Google Dynamic Remarketing & Conversion Tracking section:
Next, link your Google Ads account:
Specify exactly what you need to include in Script.
You may choose Dynamic Remarketing and get only this function. But we recommend selecting all checkboxes. In that case, you get both: Dynamic remarketing and Conversion tracking.
You also have the option to choose whether to create new conversions in your Google Ads account or use the existing goals.
If you have created new goals for Google Ads, they will automatically appear in the Google Ads account in the Conversions section. These conversions look like this:
Also, now you have the correct dynamic remarketing settings. You will see the data with dynamic remarketing parameters on the Google Ads audience source.
The integration works if you start to get data for ecomm_pagetype, ecomm_totalvalue and ecomm_prodid parameters:
You can also add GA4 tag to the Shopify store using Simprosys Google Shopping Feed application.
This app automatically inserts the global site tag and the event snippets to the online store.
And also, it automatically links your Google Ads Account with your Google Analytics 4 Property.
Notes
The script for Google Ads dynamic remarketing in Shopify was obtained from digitaldarts.com.au. We’ve used it extensively in our work and it has proven to be very useful. The author has published a single script for dynamic ads remarketing for both Google Analytics and Google Ads. Let us know in the comments which script you’ve used and how it worked for you.
Working with a specialized PPC agency for eCommerce can provide expert insights and strategies to further enhance your advertising effectiveness. Don’t hesitate to contact us for help!
FAQ
How to use Google Ads for Shopify?
To start advertising your online store on Shopify, you need to set up a Google Merchant Center account and the correct product feed. Then you need to link your Merchant Center with your Google Ads account. After that, you can start creating ad campaigns.
How to troubleshoot uncommon issues that arise after setup, particularly those that involve integration between Shopify and Google Ads?
For advanced troubleshooting, one approach is to carefully review the integration settings and error logs within both Shopify and Google Ads platforms, and also check for updates or common issues reported by other users in forums or support centers.
What is the difference between remarketing and dynamic remarketing?
Dynamic remarketing is more personalized. It allows you to show the products and services that people have already viewed on the site. There is also an option to show discounts or special offers that increase the chances of converting leads into customers.
How do you check if dynamic remarketing is working?
Dynamic remarketing settings are correct if you have the dynamic product parameters tracking (product id, page type, total value). You can use Google Tag Assistant to check it.
Also, these parameters should be successfully tracked in your Google Ads account.
You can check if dynamic parameter values are being tracked in your Google Ads account here: Tools & Settings => Shared Library => Audience Manager => Your Data Sources.
There you will be able to see statistics for eCommerce dynamic parameters.
How do you measure the success of Google Ads dynamic remarketing campaigns specifically for a Shopify store?
The success of such campaigns can be measured through key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR), cost per conversion, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Utilizing Shopify’s analytics in conjunction with Google Ads reporting tools allows for a detailed analysis of how well the remarketing efforts are converting visitors into customers. Adjustments can then be made based on this data to optimize campaign performance continuously.
What are the best practices for optimizing dynamic remarketing campaigns to improve ROI?
To optimize performance of your dynamic remarketing campaigns, consider segmenting your audience based on their interaction level, adjusting bids for higher-value segments, and using A/B testing to refine ad creatives and messages.
Can you add GTM to Shopify?
Yes, there are 2 ways to add Google Tag Manager to an online store on Shopify — you can add GTM to a Shopify theme or use one of 3 apps (Easy Tag — GTM & Data Layer, Elevar Conversion Tracking, Analyzify). Read the detailed instructions on how to do it in our article How to Install Google Tag Manager on Shopify.
Can you integrate Google reviews with Shopify?
Reviews play a decisive role for buyers during online shopping. There are 2 ways to add Google reviews to your Shopify store. You can either use Tagembed Shopify App or integrate reviews without this tool. Check out our article on Google Product Ratings or contact our team for help.
What is UTM Shopify?
UTM allows us to track the performance of marketing campaigns. The obtained data can be used later to optimize other campaigns. If you want to create a UTM link, you should use Google Analytics URL Builder. Contact our team for a consultation.
Xenia Volokitina
Performance Marketing Specialist working with PPC since 2016. Specializes in Google & Microsoft paid traffic for eCommerce & B2B projects. In love with analysis. When not launching effective PPC campaigns, she is reading about the latest eCommerce and data tracking trends.
