There are certain crucial CSS settings that cannot be accessed easily:
- Determining which CSS (and Merchant Center) receives free product listings.
- Specifying which CSS (and Merchant Center) is authorized to run Shopping Ads outside of Europe.
- Identifying which CSS providers are permitted to run Shopping Campaigns for a specific merchant URL.
HERE YOU CAN SEE HOW FREE LISTINGS AND SHOPPING ADS OUTSIDE OF EUROPE ARE CURRENTLY CONFIGURED
- Navigate to your CSS Domain.
- Click on Merchants in the left hand navigation.
- Enter the Primary CSS MCA view by clicking on the blue link showing the number of accounts below “Primary CSS MCA”.
- A list with the Merchant Centers within the MCA is shown. Edit the shown columns to make sure that the column “selections” is shown. The “Selections” column shows for each Merchant Center whether the CSS has the permissions regarding Free Listings (dollar-icon) and Shopping Ads outside of Europe (globe-icon).
WHY ARE THE UNDERLYING SETTINGS HIDDEN?
Merchant centers that are in a CSS that is different from Google Shopping Europe, do not need to properly claim or verify the shop domain. Proper verification is not even possible. This means there can be many Merchant Centers that advertise the same merchant with Google Shopping Ads.
However, certain sensitive settings should only be available in the Merchant Center that genuinely belongs to the shop owner. To ensure this, the shop domain must be properly claimed and verified, a process that cannot be carried out within a CSS Merchant Center.
As a result, important settings are only accessible in Merchant Centers that are not associated with a CSS provider but are within Google Shopping Europe.
HOW CAN I CHANGE THESE SETTINGS?
Essentially, you need an additional “Control Merchant Center” for each shop domain. This Merchant Center must not be linked to a CSS provider but has to remain with Google Shopping Europe. These control Merchant Centers are not utilized for online marketing but serve the sole purpose of enabling advanced settings mentioned above.
Follow these steps to create a Control MC:
- Create a new Google Merchant Center. This MC must not be created within a CSS but should be hosted within Google Shopping Europe.
- In the Control MC, claim and verify the shop domain. Do not configure or set anything else (do not upload feeds, etc.).
- IMPORTANT: Claiming and verifying the website in the Control MC will not impact the existing CSS MC or running ads in any way, as the existing CSS MC no longer requires domain claiming or verification.
- IMPORTANT: Therefore, you must ignore any warnings related to this.
Once claiming and verification are complete, you’re done.
