Google Automated Discounts

Overview

Google Automated Discounts is a powerful program offered through Google Shopping, designed to help Shopify merchants optimize their pricing strategy. By leveraging Google's advanced market intelligence, this program dynamically applies discounts to products based on various factors. The discounted price is determined using two key attributes submitted in the product feeds:

• auto_pricing_min_price
• cost_of_goods_sold

Those dynamic discounts can help merchants maximize their revenue by presenting competitive pricing in advertisements. Please read more about Google Automated discounts here.

How it works

1. Product feed is submission

A product feed is submitted with key details: the product price (e.g., $10), the minimum discountable price (auto_pricing_min_price, e.g., $7), and the cost of goods sold (e.g., $5).

2. Discount calculation

If all requirements are met and the store is approved for the program, Google calculates a dynamic discounted price (e.g., $8) to display in advertisements. The discount will never fall below the auto_pricing_min_price or the cost_of_goods_sold.

3. Customer interaction

Customers attracted by the discount click on the ad and are redirected to the product page.

4. URL integration

When URL integration is enabled, the product page will display the discounted price (e.g., $8) throughout the customer's shopping session. The discount is session-specific and does not apply to other customers or channels.

5. Checkout process

If the customer proceeds with adding the product to their cart, the discounted price remains active for the next 48 hours, in accordance with Google Automated Discounts requirements.

Enable Google Automated Discounts with the Multifeed Google Shopping Feed app

To participate in the Google Automated Discounts program, you need to complete the following steps for your Shopify store’s Google Merchant Center account:

• Step 1: Required feed attributes
• Step 2: URL integration add-on
• Step 3: Grant additional permissions
• Step 4: Google Automated discount app embed
• Step 5: Purchase conversion tracking with Cart Data
• Step 6: Submit for Google review

Below, we provide a detailed explanation of each step:

Step 1: Required feed attributes

To successfully enable Google Automated Discounts, you need to submit the following attributes in your product feed:

• Cost of goods sold
• Auto pricing min price

These attributes can be added from the Target screen of the feed editor. You can use expressions to set dynamic values, such as calculating the minimum price as a percentage of the regular price.

Step 2: URL integration add-on

The add-on can be enabled in the same screen. Click "Enable feature", review and give consent to the additional cost of the add-on.

The add-on can also be managed (and turned off if no longer needed) in the Information tab

Step 3: Grant additional permissions

The app will inform you of any missing permissions. Since URL integration is integrated in your theme, you might be asked for read_themes permission

And (obviously), permission to create discounts.

Checkout how the app is using different granted permissions.

Step 4: Google Automated Discount app embed

Multifeed's app embed automatically adjusts product prices according to Google’s automated discount calculations. This embed is integrated into your active theme, and the price is dynamically updated based on the program’s parameters.

To access the app embed configuration, you can:

• Navigate to Shopify Admin > Online Store > Customize Active Theme, or
• Inside the app, click the "Check App Embed" button.

App embed options

1. Show discount price

• "Instantly": the product price will be updated to discounted value instantly without validating with the back-end.
• "After confirmed": only update the price value after validating

Should be set to "Instantly" unless there is reason not to.

2. Price-selector

This is the CSS selector for the price element on the product page, which allows the app to locate and update the price to reflect the discounted value. Because theme structures vary, we cannot provide a default value for this. Please contact our support team if you need help identifying the correct selector for your theme.

3. Advanced selector map

This option is helpful when your theme is showing price related elements that need to be updated with the price change.

The app embed make use of the following tokens, which are calculated together with the Google Automated discounted price

- {discountPercent}

- {discountAmount}

Below is a demonstration of how the app would locate the elements on the product page using the entered price selector and advanced selectors.

• ".price-ui .price .money" is the price selector pointing to the price element, which will be updated to the discounted price when applicable

• ".gad-saving-percent" is the selector of the sale text that is showing discount percentage. To have it updated together with the discounted price, it is being "mapped" to the token {discountPercent}

  '.gad-saving-percent':'{discountPercent}'

• ".gad-saving-amount" is the selector of the sale text that is showing discount amount. To have it updated together with the discounted price, it is being "mapped" to the token {discountAmount}

  '.gad-saving-amount':'{discountAmount}'

Note how the advance selectors are separated by commas (,)

It was a rather edge case when the are multiple price-related items on the product need to be updated together with the price. In most of the case, the price is the only element on the page that needs to be updated.

Step 5: Purchase conversion tracking with Cart Data

Integrating purchase conversions with cart data (CwCD) allows Google to monitor, evaluate, and optimize performance across your entire inventory while accounting for cross-sell and cannibalization effects.

If your current conversion tracking solution already support Cart Data submission, you can skip this step.

Otherwise, you can create a 'Purchase' conversion tracking tag with our app Pixel and Tags feature. Have your Merchant ID, feed country and feed language information ready, which can all be taken from your feed settings. You will need them to turn on the Cart data option for the 'Purchase' tag.

Step 6: Submit for Google review

After completing all of the above steps, submit your store for Google's review. Make sure to regularly check the results of the review in your Google Merchant Center account.

By following these steps, you can seamlessly enable Google Automated Discounts for your Shopify store, ensuring dynamic pricing and optimized revenue generation through Google Shopping. If you need assistance at any point, our support team is available to guide you through the process.