Before you run a single Google ad for a store, a few pieces have to be in place. Get them right and Google can show your actual products, with images, not just a line of text. Here is the setup.
Google Merchant Center
This is the piece most people miss. You apply to become a Google merchant, and your products go through a short approval check (that the business is legitimate and nothing prohibited is being sold). Then you submit a product feed from your store, essentially a data file of all your products. The exact method differs between Shopify and WooCommerce, and approval can take anywhere from a day to about a week. This account is what lets Google run Shopping ads, the little product thumbnails you see when searching to buy something.
Google Tag Manager
Next is Google Tag Manager, which lets you add tracking and connections to your site without touching the code. Through it you install Google Analytics 4 (the current standard, now that the old Universal Analytics has been retired) and connect your Google Ads account. Tag Manager is the hub that wires all these tools together so they talk to each other.
Analytics and Ads working together
Once Analytics and Google Ads are connected, the real power shows up. You can build audiences in GA4, such as people who spent more than a minute on your site or visited several times, and feed them straight into targeted Google Ads campaigns. Combine that with the Merchant Center feed and you get Shopping ads plus retargeting: the product images that follow an interested shopper around the web until they come back to buy.
Want this set up for your store?
We put the whole Google foundation in place, from Merchant Center and the product feed to Tag Manager, GA4, and audience-driven campaigns, so your ads show the right products to the right people.