Google Shopping is a resourceful tool that puts your products in front of search engine users faster than nearly any other method of advertising. A major benefit of using Google Shopping is that it adds a visual element to attract your buyers. Using powerful imagery helps you stand out against your competitors.

High quality images are recommended for the most effective user engagement and clicks. When showing an image that is optimized using the below rules, you’ll provide your customers with a better shopping experience and improve the performance of your Google Shopping campaigns.

Rule 1: Use the Correct Image

Making sure you’re using the correct image for the correct product seems like a no-brainer. If someone is searching for a blue jacket and an image of a green jacket shows in their results, it will quickly become a missed opportunity as it’s very unlikely that the customer is going to click on it.

The same information applies when you are selling a product with multiple variations. Making sure the correct image is showing up in search engines wil guarantee more engagement and clicks than showing the incorrect color or product.

Rule 2: Use High Resolution Images & Size Them Correctly

An image with poor quality will always underperform when placed next to a high-quality image of a similar product. Ensure you are sizing your images properly and using the highest quality possible.

The current size requirements for Google are below:

• Non-apparel images: at least 100 x 100 pixels
• Apparel image: at least 250 x 250 pixels

Rule 3: Focus on the Image Content

Distracting backgrounds will take away from the product you are selling. Whether you are using a plain white background for your image or using a backdrop, ensure that your product is standing out and is the main focus in your image.

Note: Google recommends your product should take up between 75% and 90% of your image.

Rule 4: Retouch Your Images

Images are more appealing when they look professional and clean. A great way to achieve this look is to get your images retouched. This can include brightening the image, removing unwanted background clutter and shadows, or softening/removing backgrounds to give it a professional look.

Rule 5: Use Additional Images

You can use up to 10 images for one product in your Google Shopping campaigns. This gives shoppers the ability to see multiple angles of your product or any accessories that may come with your product.

This will give shoppers the best possible idea of what they are buying and will help them with better visualization.

Rule 6: Try Different Images – Lifestyle vs Plain Images

Finding images to engage users is important to any Google Shopping campaign. Testing different images and determining what performs best for your brand will lead to a successful Google Ads campaign.

A recent social experiment was conducted to see how people reacted to different images for shopping ads. The participants were shown both lifestyle images and plain images of a clothing item. It showed that 82% of the random people tested would be more likely to first click on the lifestyle shopping ad of someone wearing the product as opposed to an image of the product by itself.

See below examples of both lifestyle and plain images.

Rule 7: Always Be Testing

You should regularly be A/B testing your images to see how trends are changing and to find new and better ways to optimize your Google Shopping campaigns.

Ways you can A/B test include:

• Trying different image variations
• Using different verbiage & descriptions
• Using multiple images vs just one image

Analyze the results of your different tests and take note of what is working for your brand and what is not. Conducting A/B testing can often reveal strengths and weaknesses in your campaigns that you may have never known existed.

Following these rules will help to ensure that you have the most successful Google Shopping campaign running for your product list. Take a look below at a few image practices to avoid when building your campaign.

Image Practices to Avoid

• Don’t submit images smaller than 32x32 pixels or larger than 64 megapixels – review the sizes Google recommends
• Don’t scale up images – this makes your image lose quality
• Don’t use a watermark, put text on your image, or your logo on the image
• Don’t use a “placeholder” image instead of the product image, such as your Logo
• Don’t add borders to your image
• Don’t include more than one product image in the image – unless it’s a bundle
• Don’t use a multicolored, dark, or patterned background
  

Following these guidelines will help to ensure that you will have optimized images for your Google Shopping ads, and providing your customers with a positive online shopping experience is what JET excels at. We know you’re busy doing your job, so contact JET and let us do our job by running a successful Google Shopping Campaign for you.