Understand and use product groups

Product groups are used to specify which products from your Microsoft Merchant Center feed should be included in a particular ad group. In this article will explain more and give a detailed example.

What are product groups?

Product groups are used to specify which products from your Microsoft Merchant Center feed should be included in a particular ad group.

Note

In order to understand product groups, first make sure you are familiar with both product ads and shopping campaigns.

After you create a shopping campaign, you want to create an ad group. That ad group includes a product group containing all of the products in your Microsoft Merchant Center feed. However, you don't typically want an ad group to contain all products. Instead, you likely want each ad group to contain only very closely related products to more effectively manage which ads show, and when. With product groups you can narrow down that default group to a customized list of specific products.

You can use the following attributes from your feed to choose the specific products you want to include in any particular product group.

Category (Up to five for each offer)
Brand
Condition
Item ID (Also known as Merchant Product Identifier)
Product type
Custom label (Up to five for each offer)

You can use multiple attributes to narrow your group even further. For example, you can create a product group based on brand and condition.

An example

The best way to understand product groups is to see an example.

Let's say Matt is the owner of a small toy store and his feed includes the following items:

Merchant Product Identifier	Title	Brand	Category 1	Category 2	Product Type	Custom Label 0
1111	Toy 1	Tailspin Toys	Toys & Games	Indoor	Paint	Ages 1-5
2222	Toy 2	Wingtip Toys	Toys & Games	Indoor	Stickers	Ages 1-5
3333	Toy 3	Tailspin Toys	Toys & Games	Outdoor	Chalk	Ages 6-12
4444	Toy 4	Wingtip Toys	Toys & Games	Indoor	Glitter	Ages 6-12
5555	Toy 5	Tailspin Toys	Media	Indoor	DVD	Teens
6666	Toy 6	Wingtip Toys	Toys & Games	Outdoors	Sports	Teens
7777	Toy 7	Tailspin Toys	Media	Indoor	Books	Ages 1-5
8888	Toy 8	Wingtip Toys	Toys & Games	Indoor	Paint	Ages 6-12

He wants his ad group to contain only toys for ages 1-5. To do that he would simply narrow the default product group down to a product group where Custom label = Ages 1 -5.

As another example, assume that Matt wants to create an ad group that contains only toys from Tailspin Toys for ages 1-5. He simply needs to create a product group where Brand = Tailspin Toys and Custom label = Ages 1-5.

Create a product ad

In the type list from the left pane, select Ads and extensions>Product ads.
From the data view toolbar, select Add product ad.
In the edit pane, enter the required information for your ad.

Create multiple product ads

In the type list from the left pane, select Ads and extensions>Product ads.
In the data view, select the ad group in which you want to create new ads from
In the data view, select Make multiple changes > Add/update multiple product ads.
You can insert data from the Add product ad data section in two ways:
- Paste data using the suggesting headings
  1. Select Insert headings.
  2. Underneath the headings row, paste the spreadsheet data.
  3. Select Edit headings.
  4. Under Edit headings, make sure that the correct heading is selected in the dropdown menu for each column.
- Paste data from a spreadsheet that includes column headings
  1. Paste the spreadsheet data into the text box.
  2. Select Edit headings.
  3. Under Edit headings, make sure that the correct heading is selected in the dropdown menu for each column.
:
Select Next.
From the Import completed window, review your changes and select Close.

Notes

There is a 1 to 1 relationship between ad groups and product groups. In other words, each ad group has one product group and vice versa.
Remember to "exclude" items that you don't want to be in your product group.