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.
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).
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.
Customer interaction
Customers attracted by the discount click on the ad and are redirected to the product page.
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.
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.
To participate in the Google Automated Discounts program, you need to complete the following steps:
Step 1: Activate the Google Automated Discounts program in your Google Merchant Center account
Step 2: Required feed attributes
Step 3: URL integration add-on
Step 4: Grant additional permissions
Step 5: Google Automated discount app embed
Step 6: Purchase conversion tracking with Cart Data
Step 7: Submit for Google review
Below, we provide a detailed explanation of each step:
Log in your GMC account > Settings > Add-ons > Automated Discount > Set up
To successfully enable Google Automated Discounts, you need to submit the following attributes in your product feed:
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.
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 Google tab
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 Write discounts.
Checkout how the app is using different granted permissions.
Multifeeds 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.
To seamlessly show the dynamic discounted prices to the customers, the app needs to identify the corresponding components on the product page.
Auto: let the app detect the component dynamically. Sophisticated product pages might require manual detection, e.g. showcasing discounted amount/percentage.
Manual: When auto detection is not enough, manual detection provide powerful options to deal with different themes and product page customizations. Requires HTML/CSS knowledge, so you might want to resolve to our handy customer support team to help setting it up.
Click on the test links to make sure that the discounted prices are showing as expected.
Test links are composed based on Google Automated Discount settings in feeds. Therefore at least one feed with Google Automated Discounts enabled is required for the test links to show
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.
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 (,)
Selectors for different pricing elements
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.
We know that it is difficult to get the selectors right. Please reach out to our Support team if you have any problem with setting up the Google Automated Discount app embed.
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.
***Please note that when creating product feeds, you must configure a specific item identification scheme. The item IDs in the feeds must match those used in the tags; otherwise, the tags will not function properly.
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.
