Google no longer able to provide advertisers with Shopping Campaign support

Google will no longer be able to provide advertisers with technical or optimisation support for shopping campaigns after the European Commission’s recent ruling (27th June 2017) that Google’s search results pages must be made available to all Comparison Shopping Services.

Google confirmed:

"Following the European Commission’s June 27, 2017 decision, Google has made Shopping ads on Google general Search results pages in the EEA and Switzerland equally available to all qualifying Comparison Shopping Services ('CSSs').

This is directly impacting the support model for Shopping ads. Our team and Shopping teams are no longer able to provide support for Shopping campaigns. This includes any optimization, implementation and product feed troubleshooting relating to Shopping campaigns.

From now on, we are only able to share best practices and new product information for Shopping."

Historically, Google has offered both technical and advertiser performance support for advertisers and managers who make use of Google's Shopping Ads format. Google Shopping Campaigns are often more technical implementations than standard Search campaigns, due in part to the requirements of maintaining a fully-compliant and up-to-date data feed.

Successful Shopping Campaigns also require a hands-on, proactive optimisation approach in order to maximise return on investment. The change will likely affect many advertisers who lack either the technical or optimisation experience to make full use of the Shopping Ad format.