How to connect your online store to Google Merchant Center, and check if you already have one

Shopping ads, the product ads with a picture and a price, aren't built from keywords. They're built from your product data in Google Merchant Center, and Merchant Center gets that data from your shop.

So before any Shopping campaign can run, four links have to hold: your shop sends its products to Merchant Center, Merchant Center approves them, Merchant Center is linked to Google Ads, and whoever runs the ads can read both. This guide goes through them in that order, with Shopify and WooCommerce as examples.

The short version

• Check first. Many stores already have a Merchant Center from an old app, plugin or agency. Reuse it rather than create a second one.
• Connect your shop with its Google app or plugin, or with a feed URL. The principle is the same everywhere: one feed, updated automatically, with the same prices and stock as your site.
• Verify in Merchant Center that every product came over and is approved.
• Link Merchant Center to Google Ads, the account that will run the ads.
• Connect Bavian to Google Ads, then to Merchant Center. Both take about a minute.

Step 0: Check whether you already have a Merchant Center

It's more common than you'd think. A previous agency set one up. The shop app was installed once and removed. A colleague tried free listings two years ago. If you create a new account on top of that, Google may tell you your website is already claimed by another account, and you lose the old account's history and approvals.

Four quick checks find most old accounts:

1. Sign in at merchants.google.com with every Google login the business has used: the company login, the owner's private one, and any login an agency used. Each account you have access to shows with its name and ID.
2. Look in Google Ads. Open Tools, then Data manager, and choose Google Merchant Center. It lists the Merchant Center accounts already linked to this Google Ads account, and any link requests waiting for approval.
3. Look in your shop. In Shopify, the Google & YouTube app shows the connected Merchant Center under its settings. In WooCommerce, open Marketing, then Google for WooCommerce, and look under Settings.
4. Watch for the claim warning. If Google says your website is claimed by another Merchant Center account, an old account exists somewhere. Google lets the new account take over the claim, but find out whose the old one is first.

If you find an account and you're an admin of it, use it. If someone else owns it, such as a former agency, ask them to give your company login admin access instead of starting over.

Step 1: Connect your shop to Merchant Center

Whatever your shop system, the goal is the same: one product feed that fills Merchant Center from your shop and updates by itself whenever a price, a product or the stock changes. The Google login you connect with must be an admin of the Merchant Center account, or the app won't find it.

Before you connect, make sure your site shows what Merchant Center checks a store against: contact details, a working checkout, shipping costs, and a return and refund policy that's easy to find.

Shopify

Shopify's own Google & YouTube app does most of the work. Google's onboarding guide has the full steps.

1. Install the Google & YouTube app from the Shopify App Store.
2. Connect your Google account. Use the company login that is admin of your Merchant Center.
3. Choose your existing Merchant Center from the list, or create a new one. The list shows only accounts where your login is an admin.
4. Choose how to set up shipping: import your Shopify shipping rates, or set them up manually in Merchant Center.
5. Let the products sync. The app syncs every product in your online store, and keeps syncing when a product changes.

The app also claims your domain in Merchant Center for you. One Shopify store connects to one Merchant Center account; connecting a second store moves the connection.

WooCommerce

On WooCommerce, the official plugin is Google for WooCommerce (formerly Google Listings & Ads). WooCommerce's setup guide covers each screen.

1. Install and activate Google for WooCommerce from Plugins, then Add New.
2. Open Marketing, then Google for WooCommerce, and start the setup.
3. Connect your Google account and accept every permission Google asks for. The plugin doesn't work with fewer.
4. Check the Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts the plugin finds, and click Connect next to each. If it found the wrong one, enter the right account ID.
5. Choose your language, the countries you sell to, and how shipping should be set: synced from WooCommerce, flat rates you enter, or set directly in Merchant Center.
6. Finish the setup. You can skip the plugin's own campaign step.

Two things to know. The plugin doesn't support Merchant Center multi-client accounts. And it overwrites existing settings in the Merchant Center you connect, such as shipping, so check those in Merchant Center afterwards. If the connection seems broken later, WooCommerce has a connection test page at yourdomain.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=connection-test-admin-page.

Some stores use a separate feed plugin instead, such as CTX Feed or Product Feed Manager. That works too, as long as only one feed per country and language sends the same products.

Any other shop system

Magento, Shopware, PrestaShop, Wix, Squarespace and most others either have a Google channel built in or can export a product feed as a URL. In Merchant Center, add a data source that fetches the feed URL, and schedule it to fetch daily.

Step 2: Check that every product came over

Don't trust the app's green tick alone. Open Merchant Center and go to Products.

• Compare the count. The number should roughly match the products in your shop. Each size or colour is usually its own product in Merchant Center, so the number can be higher than your shop's product count. If it's much lower, products are missing from the feed.
• Look at the status. Google flags products it won't show and says why: a missing identifier, an image that's too small, a price that doesn't match the page. Fix those in your shop, not in Merchant Center, so the next sync doesn't undo it.
• Spot-check a few products. Open two or three and compare the price and stock with your site.
• Check shipping and returns. Both must be set in Merchant Center for every country you sell to.

A new account's first review can take a few days. A product Google won't show can't sell, however good the campaign is, so get this right before you spend money on ads.

Step 3: Link Merchant Center to Google Ads

The Shopify app and the WooCommerce plugin can make this link during their setup. If they didn't, or you use a feed URL, link the accounts in Merchant Center. Google's guide shows each screen.

1. In Merchant Center, open the settings (the gear icon), then Access and services, then Apps and services.
2. Click Add service, choose Google Ads and click Next.
3. Choose the Google Ads account that will run your ads, and click Link. If you only want to link it to this Merchant Center, and not to the rest of your Google business tools, choose Link to Merchant Center only.

If you're an admin of both accounts, the link is active straight away. If not, an admin of the Google Ads account must approve it: in Google Ads, open Tools, then Data manager, choose Google Merchant Center, and approve the request that says Needs your approval.

Link the Google Ads account that will actually run the ads, not an old test account. A Google Ads manager account can't be linked to Merchant Center; link the client account under it.

Step 4: Connect Bavian to Google Ads and Merchant Center

Bavian needs to read both: Google Ads to run your campaigns, and Merchant Center to build your Shopping ads from your products.

First, connect Google Ads. After you create your Bavian account, Bavian asks you to connect Google Ads. How do I connect my Google Ads account to Bavian? shows each step, with a video.

Then, connect Merchant Center. Set your project up as an online store, and Bavian asks for Merchant Center as the last step. Click Connect on the Merchant Center card, choose the Google login with access, and click Continue in Google's window. Back in Bavian, choose the Merchant Center account that says Linked to your Google Ads account, check that your feed is ticked, and click Complete. How do I connect my Merchant Center account to Bavian? shows the five steps, with a one-minute video.

If Bavian asks you to link Merchant Center to Google Ads first, step 3 isn't done yet, or the link is still waiting for approval. Link the accounts, then click Refresh in Bavian.

Connecting only reads your products. Once you turn on Autopilot, Bavian builds its Shopping campaigns from your feed and fills in attributes Google asks for that your feed leaves empty, through a supplemental data source in Merchant Center. Your titles and prices stay as they are.

What we'd do

1. Check all your Google logins, Google Ads and your shop for an existing Merchant Center before you create one.
2. Connect the shop with its official Google app or plugin, using a company login that's admin of Merchant Center.
3. Compare the product count, fix what Google flags in the shop itself, and check shipping and returns.
4. Link Merchant Center to the Google Ads account that will run the ads, and check that the link is active.
5. Connect Bavian to Google Ads, then to Merchant Center, and turn on Autopilot.

Steps 1 to 4 are a one-time job, usually under an hour. After that, your feed keeps Merchant Center current by itself, and Bavian runs the ads.