Search is the primary way your consumers begin shopping. The Consumer Barometer Survey found that more than a third of all US purchases were influenced by search engines. With Google processing more than 40,000 queries a second (that’s 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide!) it is the undeniable leader in the search space. With that sort of reach and influence over buying decisions, it is critical to ensure your brand and products are showing up. 

Our customer research found that product content plays a critical role in shoppers’ decision to buy. The impact of content is not relegated to your brand website or retail partners alone, it’s important to provide consumers with a consistent and robust way to experience your products throughout the shopping ecosystem. In short, showing up on search engines can have a major impact on your sales.  

Google Manufacturer Center, a tool that helps brand manufacturers accurately represent their products to shoppers across google.com, Google Shopping and other Google services, is now available to any brand owner who distribute their products in the United States. Brand manufacturers can improve product listings by supplying content directly to Google and get back analytics on performance. The information shared shows up as detailed product cards in general searches when relevant. This data will also surface as part of a detailed form within Google Shopping. The product content you share can include everything from photos and videos to size and weight, colors, and accurate text descriptions.

Four reasons to use Google Manufacturer Center  

1. Make your products easier to find. You can increase the discoverability of your products by uploading enhanced product descriptions and digital assets. Having this product content broadens Google’s ability to serve your product listing every time the product matches a search query. Ultimately, the more eyes on your brand and product the higher likelihood of driving a sale.  
2. Shorten the path to purchase. The more detailed your product information is, the more likely that customers will click on your products listings, whether they surface in general search or within Google Shopping. In either setting, consumers are given direct ways to make a purchase moments after they have searched for an item.  
3. Improve the accuracy of your product listings. The best source of up-to-date, comprehensive, and accurate product content is your brand. Through Google Manufacturing Center, you can ensuring that consumers see only the best data about the brands' offerings.
4. Get performance insights. Brand manufacturers have access to product level insights directly through the Google Manufacturing Center dashboard. Sophisticated algorithms will give you data you need.

Get started. Manufacturers can upload their product data directly to Manufacturer Center or select an Google Shopping Partner to help with product information management. Salsify helps brands get all of your rich product descriptions and digital assets in a single place and map them to meet Google’s unique requirements. You can then publish your data feed directly from Salsify to Google Manufacturer Center.

Salsify customers Speakman and Bosch saw sales increases after updating content onto Google Manufacturer Center. After providing accurate and descriptive data, power tool maker Bosch saw a 4% uplift in Google network ad conversions for their updated products on retailer sites. Shower and bath product brand Speakman made updates including providing multiple product images and even videos of their products in action. As a result Google was able to increase relevancy for users, and Speakman so an 8% uplift in conversions originating from the search giant, compared to benchmark competitive products that were not updated.

The bottom line is search is still driving the early funnel of your shopper’s journey and Google has found a way to shorten that path to purchase. For more information about how to get involved with Google Manufacturer Center and improve your brand accuracy and sales on the search engine, visit our guide on how to get started.