> Quick answer: Google Shopping ads run on product data, not manual creative. Set up Merchant Center, upload a product feed with all required attributes, link to Google Ads, and launch a Standard Shopping or Performance Max campaign. Your images are the single biggest creative lever you control.
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What Are Google Shopping Ads?
Google Shopping ads show your product to shoppers who are already searching for it. You see the photo, price, title, and store name right at the top of results.
How they differ from search ads and display ads
Search ads are text. You write headlines and descriptions manually. Display ads are banners you design and place on websites. Shopping ads are different. Google assembles the ad automatically using your Merchant Center product data. There is no ad copy to write. No layout to design.
Where Shopping ads appear
Shopping ads appear across Google Search results, Google Images, YouTube, and Google partner sites. A single product feed can surface your items across all of those placements at once.
Why product data from Merchant Center powers the ads automatically
Per Google's Ads Help Center, Google uses your campaign settings and product data to create ads without any manual creative work on your end. That means your feed quality directly determines your ad quality. Bad data equals bad ads. Good data, combined with strong images, wins.
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Step 1: Set Up Your Google Merchant Center Account
Merchant Center is where your product catalog lives. No account, no Shopping ads.
Create a Merchant Center account and verify your website
Go to merchants.google.com and sign in with your Google account. Complete the business profile setup. Google requires you to verify and claim your website domain before any products go live. You can verify via an HTML tag, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, or a DNS record.
What mandatory product attributes you'll need
Per Google's product data specification, every product requires seven mandatory attributes: product ID, title, description, price, availability, image link, and website link. Missing even one attribute blocks that product from serving. Get all seven right before you submit your feed.
How to structure and upload your product feed
You have three options: a text feed, an XML feed, or the Content API for Shopping. Per Google Merchant Center Help, the Content API is strongly recommended for large catalogs or products with frequent price changes. If you're starting out with a small store, a Google Sheets text feed connected to Merchant Center is the fastest path to your first upload.
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Step 2: Prepare High-Quality Product Images
Your product image is the first thing a shopper sees in a Shopping result. It's also the attribute you control most directly.
Image size requirements
Minimum image size is 100x100 pixels for non-apparel products and 250x250 pixels for apparel. Google recommends 1500x1500 pixels or higher for best performance across all Shopping surfaces.
File size and pixel limits
Keep each image file under 16 MB. Total pixel count must not exceed 64 megapixels. Stay well under both limits and you'll avoid automatic disapprovals.
Image guidelines
Per Google's product data specification, images must accurately represent the product shown in the title. Color, pattern, and material must match. Placeholder images are not allowed and will trigger disapprovals. Google also requires important product content to sit within the center 80% of the image so it displays correctly across all Shopping placements.
How Coinis Image Ads can generate product images at scale
If your current product photos are low-resolution, inconsistent, or just not converting, Coinis Image Ads can help. Paste a product URL and Coinis generates professional, ad-ready product images using cutting-edge AI models. Smart Resize, part of Coinis Revise, automatically resizes those images to the dimensions your placements need. No manual cropping. No guessing at aspect ratios. Coinis currently pairs with your Google Ads workflow as a creative engine. You export the images and upload them to your Merchant Center feed.
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Step 3: Link Merchant Center to Google Ads
Merchant Center and Google Ads are separate accounts. You have to connect them before you can build a Shopping campaign.
How to connect your accounts
In Google Merchant Center, go to Settings, then Linked accounts. Find your Google Ads customer ID (a 10-digit number found in the top right of Google Ads). Send a link request. Then accept the request inside Google Ads under Tools, then Linked accounts. The link usually confirms within a few minutes.
Verify the link and troubleshoot common connection issues
Once linked, your Merchant Center account appears in Google Ads. If the link fails, confirm both accounts share the same admin email. A pending status means you haven't accepted the request on the Google Ads side yet. Admin access to both accounts is required.
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Step 4: Create Your Shopping Campaign
With Merchant Center linked, you're ready to build the campaign.
Sign into Google Ads and start a new campaign
Go to ads.google.com. Navigate to Campaigns and click the plus icon to create a new campaign.
Select a campaign objective
Choose from: Sales, Leads, Website traffic, or Local store visits and promotions. Per Google Ads Help Center, these objectives shape the bidding strategies and features available in your campaign. For most e-commerce stores, Sales is the right starting point.
Choose Standard Shopping or Performance Max
Standard Shopping gives you product-level bidding and transparent reporting. You see exactly which products drive clicks and conversions, and you control bids per product group. Performance Max is AI-driven and runs across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and Gmail automatically. It trades visibility and control for broader automation. Start with Standard Shopping while you learn your numbers. Move to Performance Max once you have solid conversion history and understand your baseline ROAS.
Select your Merchant Center account and product feed
After choosing Shopping as your campaign type, select the linked Merchant Center account. Then choose the product feed you want to advertise. You can run your full catalog or filter by product type, brand, or custom label.
Set budget, bidding strategy, and targeting
Set a daily budget you're comfortable spending every day. For bidding, Manual CPC is a safe start for new accounts with no conversion data. Target ROAS becomes more effective once you have enough conversion history for Google's algorithm to optimize against. Add geographic targeting to match where you actually ship.
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Step 5: Optimize and Monitor Performance
Launching is the easy part. Consistent optimization is what builds results.
Review which products are performing best
In Google Ads, open the Products tab inside your Shopping campaign. You'll see impressions, clicks, and conversions per product. Pause products that spend budget with zero conversions. Focus your budget on proven converters.
Adjust bids and budgets based on performance
Raise bids on high-converting product groups. Lower or pause bids on products burning spend without returns. Product-level control in Standard Shopping makes these adjustments fast and precise.
Refresh product images and copy with Coinis Image Ads or Revise
Stale images hurt CTR. Coinis Image Ads regenerates product creatives from a product URL when you need fresh visuals. Coinis Revise handles targeted edits: AI Upscale sharpens low-resolution images, AI Erase removes distracting backgrounds, and AI Translate adapts your copy for new markets. Each one runs in a single click.
Use Coinis Creative Library to organize your product assets
As your catalog grows, keeping assets organized matters. Coinis Creative Library stores all generated images and ad creatives with folder organization. Find any asset fast without digging through local downloads.
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Common Mistakes to Avoid
Small errors at setup cost you budget and time later.
Using low-resolution or placeholder product images
Google will disapprove products with images below minimum size requirements or images that don't match the product title. Start at 1500x1500 pixels or higher and stay there.
Missing or incomplete product data in your feed
One missing mandatory attribute blocks the entire product from serving. Run a feed audit before submission. The Merchant Center diagnostics tab flags errors by attribute so you know exactly what to fix.
Not keeping your feed updated
Google's best practice is to update your product feed at least every 30 days. Prices or availability that drift from your website trigger disapprovals and can pull products from serving at the worst time.
Choosing Performance Max without understanding the tradeoffs
Performance Max is powerful, but it removes product-level bid control and limits search term transparency. Learn your numbers with Standard Shopping first. Then decide if the automation tradeoff is worth it for your catalog.
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Or let Coinis do it.
From a product URL to a live Meta campaign. AI-generated creatives. On-brand copy. Direct publish to Facebook and Instagram. Real performance reporting. All in one platform.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Google Merchant Center account to run Shopping ads?
Yes. Google Shopping ads are powered entirely by product data from Merchant Center. You cannot create a Shopping campaign without a linked Merchant Center account that has an approved product feed with all required attributes.
What's the difference between Standard Shopping and Performance Max?
Standard Shopping gives you product-level bid control and detailed reporting per product. Performance Max is AI-driven and runs across Google Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and Gmail automatically. Standard Shopping is better when you want control and transparency. Performance Max suits advertisers with sufficient conversion history who want broader automated reach.
What image size does Google recommend for Shopping ads?
Google recommends 1500x1500 pixels or higher for product images. The minimum is 100x100 pixels for non-apparel and 250x250 pixels for apparel. Images must stay under 16 MB and 64 megapixels. Higher resolution images perform better across all Google Shopping surfaces.
Can I use Coinis to help create Google Shopping ads?
Coinis does not publish directly to Google Ads today. That's on the roadmap. What Coinis does right now is generate and improve the product images that power your Shopping feed, using Image Ads and Smart Resize. Better feed images mean better-looking Shopping ads, regardless of where you manage the campaign.