Note – if any of the below seems like too much work, I’ll happily do it for you. That’s my job.
1. Make sure your shopping cart is generating a good Google Product Feed.
I can’t provide detailed instructions without knowing which cart you use. Most of the better carts include the Google product feed without additional cost.
By “good” I mean that the feed will be your ad copy, so look it over. Make sure that your ads do a good job getting people to understand what the product is in detail, and provide selling points. They should do that in any case, as these product listings pull from the same data your customers see when they’re thisclose to buying.
2. Create a Google Merchant Account (if you have an AdWords account, use the same email address)
Google Merchant Center
Upload the feed to the merchant center and make sure everything is to your liking there. This alone should boost sales. Creating paid listings for these should not make your feed links invalid or make you stop showing up in natural search results.
3. Create or access a Google AdWords account (using the same email address as the Merchant Account).
If there is an existing AdWords account under that name, there is nothing to do except ensure that your billing info is up to date and make sure that your settings there look the way you want them.
Otherwise, go to AdWords and create one:
Google Adwords Pay Per Click Advertising System
4. Link the AdWords and the Merchant Center accounts together.
Instructions for linking the two accounts are here:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=188479
5. Connect AdWords with Analytics at this point if they aren’t already.
Instructions for doing so are here:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033961
Again, it saves a lot of hassle to use the same email account at all Google services relating to the same store.
6. Double check your Analytics Goals.
Make sure that your store’s checkout completion is an active goal in Google Analytics. If it isn’t, it should be. However, if you’re not going to set this up, or if you run into problems doing so, then you’ll need to do step 8. Otherwise you can skip step 8.
Instructions for creating goals are here:
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55515
7. Turn Analytics “goals” into AdWords “conversions”
Under the Reporting and Tools >> Conversions Tabs in AdWords, import your Google Analytics “Goals” into Google AdWords and convert the store checkout process goal into an AdWords “conversion” – sales only should be counting as conversions, is the point here. Note – if you’re given no option to import goals, then your Google Analytics and Google AdWords are not linked properly.
Instructions for doing so are here:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2009/06/import-your-google-analytics-goals-into.html
8. Conditional – Use AdWords Conversion Tracking
If you don’t actively track successful cart completions (sales) as a Goal in Analytics, then you’ll need to implement the conversion tracking code into your store checkout’s final confirmation page.
Here’s the overview on Conversion code installation from AdWords:
AdWords Conversion Installation Help
9. Tweak settings.
Make sure your settings in the new campaign in AdWords are to your liking, activate it and you’ll have active sponsored links in the product listings at Google. You pay per conversion, so set a price point per conversion that is profitable for you. If you have a $10 price point, don’t set your bid for $10. Also, keep an eye on actual cost per conversion, rather than your bid. Use that as the metric you run your bids off. Most of the time, the cost per conversion and the bid are very disparate.
I highly recommend checking back and seeing whether everything is working properly.
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If you want guidance at any point along the way, let me know.