Earlier this year, Google made some significant updates to its Shopping campaigns, which includes changes to Smart Shopping campaigns and advanced machine learning capabilities. These updates signal a major shift in the way e-commerce advertisers approach advertising moving toward more automation, performance-based targeting, and simplified campaign management. This means less manual intervention and more reliance on data-driven strategies. For those of us still adjusting to these updates, it’s important to understand how to optimize campaigns to stay ahead in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Whether you're new to Smart Shopping or still getting used to the new features, here are some practical strategies to help you make the most of these changes: Embrace Smart Shopping Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns, which were introduced only a few months ago, combine traditional Shopping ads with display remarketing. This powerful combination allows campaigns to automatically optimize across Google’s entire network including YouTube, Gmail, and Google’s Display Network based on your specific goals, whether that’s increasing sales, traffic, or conversions. It’s an automated, hands-off approach that allows advertisers to focus more on strategy than on constant campaign tweaks. Early results have shown promising ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), proving that this transition to automation is proving successful for many advertisers. Clean Up Your Product Feed As Google continues to rely on machine learning to optimize campaigns, the quality of your product feed has never been more important. Google’s algorithms depend heavily on your product titles, descriptions, and images to match products to relevant search queries. Optimizing your product feed is crucial for maximizing performance. Focus on adding relevant keywords, ensuring your product descriptions are accurate, and making your images as visually appealing as possible. The cleaner and more accurate your feed, the better the algorithm can work for you. Segment Your Best Sellers Even though Smart Shopping campaigns are designed for automation, it’s still valuable to segment your best-selling products. High-performing products should be given special attention, as this allows you to create dedicated campaigns or ad groups tailored specifically to those items. By doing this, you can apply more targeted strategies to your most valuable products and track their performance closely. This can result in better performance and more precise monitoring of ad spend. Don’t Skip Negative Keywords While Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns automate a lot of tasks, one thing that still requires attention is the use of negative keywords. In your standard Shopping campaigns, adding negative keywords is an effective way to control your spending and improve targeting. By excluding irrelevant search terms, you can make sure your ads are only shown to relevant audiences, thus maximizing the effectiveness of your budget. Track ROAS Not Just Clicks With Google’s increased reliance on automation, focusing solely on metrics like clicks may no longer be the most effective way to measure success. Start thinking in terms of return on ad spend (ROAS) rather than just click-through rates. By setting realistic ROAS targets for your campaigns, you allow Google’s algorithm to focus on driving the most valuable actions for your business. This ensures that your budget is being spent where it matters most, ultimately improving campaign performance and driving more profitable results. Google’s 2018 Shopping updates were a major step in the evolution of paid search, signaling a shift toward a smarter, simpler, and more data-driven approach. As we look ahead, it’s clear that these updates are just the beginning. By adapting to the changing landscape and giving Google’s automation tools the right inputs, you can unlock better results and potentially save time in the process. Automation and data-driven decisions are the future, and embracing them can help you stay competitive. If you haven’t tested Smart Shopping yet, now might be the perfect time to start. The more you embrace these updates, the more you can optimize your campaigns for success and leverage Google’s advanced capabilities to their fullest potential.