How to set up the product ratings display in Google Ads
While online competition is constantly increasing, it is crucial to be able to distinguish your product from hundreds and thousands of similar competitors offers. There are many opportunities in Google’s tools arsenal serving this purpose.
In this article, we will discuss in detail how to connect and customize product ratings to make your advertisements more attractive and visible. We will also cover another similarly-working instrument – the seller’s rating.
What is a product rating and how does it look like
Product rating is your product’s feedback and reviews. It is shown as a 1 to 5 star-scale in Product Ads and Google Free Listings. Here is our post where we explain all about Google Free Listings.
Also, next to the scale determining the product’s rating, the total number of product’s reviews is indicated.
Product rating vs seller rating
Don’t confuse product ratings with seller ratings. The last one can also be displayed as a 1 to 5 star-scale, indicating the total number of reviews and showing a characteristic (for example, average delivery time) that explains why you get such a rating (if available).
Seller Rating is a Google Ads auto-extension. The ranking will appear on search text ads. Seller ratings also appear in Shopping Ads and Free Listings.
One of the following requirements must be complied for the seller rating to start appearing:
– Google has received 100 unique reviews in the last 12 months from Google Customer Reviews or from third-party partners.
– Google and / or its partners have analyzed your site;
– Google has rated your site using Google Consumer Surveys.
In addition, the following conditions must be met:
– The average total seller rating must be at least 3.5 stars (but the seller rating can be shown in Purchases, even if it is below 3.5) so that the extension could appear in text ads;
– The domain of the displayed ad URL must match the domain that the rating is specified for.
Unlike seller ratings, linking product ratings is a more controlled and specific process. If you are at the beginning and have not yet set up a product rating, we would recommend to start with it.
Configuration of product ratings in Shopping ads
The main requirement for displaying product ratings: you must have at least 50 product reviews.
Then there are several ways to participate in the program:
- Set up the transmission of product review data through an approved aggregator company. So, if you collect product reviews in one of the third-party aggregators from the Google list, you can easily join the program. The aggregator will find the appropriate functionality and instructions, or you can contact the aggregator’s representatives for help. Here is a list of approved aggregator companies.
- Submit a request to participate in the program and start uploading data to the Merchant Center. This method is relevant if you want to transfer data yourself, or if you work with a third-party service collecting reviews with the required functionality.
- Sign up for Google Customer Reviews and start collecting reviews there. The advantages of this method are that it is free and easy to implement. Also, participation in the program gives you the opportunity to get a seller’s rating. The disadvantage is that your products must have a GTIN-code. It also takes time to accumulate enough data.
Now let’s take a closer look at the technical aspects of the second and third methods. In the first one, the issue is completely resolved through representatives of a third-party aggregator and does not require detailed instructions.
Request to participate in the program
You can apply to participate in the program through the Merchant Center interface. To do so, go to the Manage Programs section, find the Product Ratings program and click Get started.
Fill in the form to participate in the program. If you are using a not-google-approved third-party review aggregator, select Other in the third-party service selection and enter its name in the field below.
If you collect reviews yourself and plan to upload them independently as well, select the following settings.
Application processing will take some time. After submitting and processing your application, Google specialists may additionally ask about the reviews quality. It is important for them to understand that the collected product reviews belong to real customers. If you collect reviews through a third-party service, then often the service matches reviews information with customer’s details itself. And only reviews from real buyers receive verified status.
Also keep in mind, transferring the goods rating this way, after the approval of your application for participation in the program, it may take several weeks for implementation. In our case, 4 months have passed since the approval of the application for connecting the program through a third-party service for collecting reviews (not from the list of aggregator companies) until the actual display of product ratings in ads.
Google Customer Reviews program
This method takes less time at the stage of connecting the program, but has several nuances to keep in mind.
Firstly, the Google Customer Reviews program allows you to collect store reviews. These reviews provide an auto seller rating extension once you have accumulated 100 reviews in the last 12 months (and compliance with the other conditions described in the Product Ratings vs Seller Ratings section above).
Secondly, Google Customer Reviews also collects product reviews to show product ratings (not seller ratings) in your ads. But for this part of the program to function, your products must have an implemented GTIN code.
To get started, connect the program through the Merchant Center interface.
To connect the program, it is important that the website URL is confirmed in your Google Merchant account and its ownership rights are declared. Here‘s an instruction for this step.
After successful program registration, a new section will appear in the settings dedicated to customer reviews.
In the client reviews section you will find two codes:
- The main code. This code must be placed on the thank you page after purchase on your site. To collect product ratings within this program as well, add the following snippet to the standard code of the survey module:
"products": [{"gtin":"GTIN1"}, {"gtin":"GTIN2"}]
The snippet above needs to be placed in the code after the code snippet:
"opt_in_style": "OPT_IN_STYLE"- Icon integration code. This code will display the membership image (optional) on your website.
How to Place the Google Customer Reviews Program Code on Shopify
Below is the expanded code of the Google Customer Reviews program for Shopify platform website. It has several advantages over the standard code of the program, as it allows you to set language settings, specify the time when a review request is sent, and also gives you an opportunity to request feedback only from new customers who are visiting the thank you page for the first time.
{% if first_time_accessed %}
<!-- BEGIN Google Customer Reviews -->
<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js?onload=renderOptIn" async defer></script>
<script>
window.renderOptIn = function() {
window.gapi.load('surveyoptin', function() {
window.gapi.surveyoptin.render(
{
"merchant_id": XXXXXXXXX,
"order_id": "{{ order.name }}",
"email": "{{ order.email }}",
"delivery_country": "{{ shipping_address.country_code }}",
"estimated_delivery_date": "{{ order.created_at | date:'%s' | plus:604800 | date:'%F' }}",
"products": [{% for item in order.line_items %}{"gtin":"{{ item.variant.barcode }}"}{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}{% endfor %}]
});
});
}
window.___gcfg = {
lang: '{{ shop_locale.iso_code }}'
};
</script>
<!-- END Google Customer Reviews -->
{% endif %}
Before using this code, you need to customize it for your purpose. Below are the highlighted code elements where you need / can make changes:
- Shop_locale.iso_code – This object sets the language value for the survey form, according to Shopify settings. For example, en_US. You can replace the Shop_locale.iso_code element with a static value if you want to display the survey in a language other than the Shopify settings. See the local country code reference to set the static value correctly.
- XXXXXXXXX – replace this value with your Merchant ID.
- Change the value of 604800 in estimated_delivery_date to the actual number of days that users receive their order. After this time, your client will receive an email with a proposal to evaluate the order. The value 604800 is 7 days, specified in seconds.
- If you want an email asking for feedback to be sent to the customer every time they are on the thank you page, then remove the {% if first_time_accessed%} and {% endif%} elements from your code.
- products – This element will collect reviews for specific products. You don’t need to make adjustments, but keep in mind that for this item to work properly, you need your products to have a GTIN-code.
Place the corrected code on the Shopify thank you page. To do this, go to the Settings (1) section and select Checkout (2).
Place the tag in the Additional scripts.
How to check whether a tag is working correctly
At least two weeks after the code is implemented to your website, the data will be displayed in the “Customer Reviews setup” section in the merchant center.
The fastest way to make sure that the tag is functioning properly is to have a look at the thank you page for an existing order. When you visit this page, a pop-up survey will appear. Check that the value of the parameter estimated_delivery_date is correct for the order you are checking. If you are using {% if first_time_accessed%}, temporarily remove it so that you can view the status of an existing order.
To get to the thank you page for an existing order in Shopify, go to the Order section in your Shopify account. Select an order and click on it.
In the upper right corner of the order page, find the More actions drop-down menu (1) and select the View order status page (2) action.
