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Getting started with a retailer-managed Google Merchant Center account
Getting started with a retailer-managed Google Merchant Center account

Connect your own Google Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts to NearSt to manage your Local Listings and Local Inventory Ads internally.

Tom Butcher avatar
Written by Tom Butcher
Updated over a month ago

By default, NearSt creates and manages all relevant Google accounts on your behalf. This alternative setup allows you to manage these accounts yourself, allowing you to create Google Ads campaigns outside of the NearSt dashboard.

Before you get started

A few things to consider before getting started:

  • This setup requires a moderate level of experience with Google Merchant Center and Google Ads. NearSt is only able to provide limited support in the setup of retailer-managed Google accounts.

  • Note that this offering is not available on all plans. Please speak to your NearSt account manager for more information about this offering.

  • Once you've switched to using your own Google accounts, NearSt's dashboard will no longer show analytics information from Local Listings and Local Inventory Ads. However, you can still use the dashboard to manage your feed and edit product data, as well as enabling other channels, like the NearSt Product Locator.

Set up Google Merchant Center account

If you don't already have a Google Merchant Center account, please start by creating one by clicking this link.

👉 The instructions below are for customers using Merchant Center Classic. If you've switched your account to Merchant Center Next, try switching back to Classic to complete this setup. Google hasn't yet added functionality for the steps below in the new experience.

  1. Connect Business Profiles
    In your Merchant Center account, connect the Business Profiles or Business Group of the locations you want to show local inventory for.
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  2. Request POS connection
    Request a POS connection via NearSt in the Merchant Center account you'd like your feed to go to by going to Growth → Manage Programs → Local Inventory Ads. In your Local Ads settings you can then choose 'NearSt' as your POS provider. You'll be asked to enter an account ID, which will be provided by your NearSt account manager.
    ​

  3. Add manager account
    Add NearSt as a manager of your Merchant Center account. You can do so by clicking the Settings icon the top right corner, choosing Account access, and adding [email protected], with 'Admin' access. This will help your account manager verify your account setup.
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  4. Provide store codes
    As a last step, for NearSt to start feeding data into your account, we'll need to know the store codes for the relevant stores. Please provide these to your NearSt account manager to allow them to set up the Google integration.
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You can find more information about the Google Local Feeds Partnership program here:
​Get started with the local feeds partnership program as a retailer

Set up Google Ads

Now that your Google Merchant Center account is set up, you can get started setting up ads for your local stores.

  1. Link Merchant Center and Ads accounts
    Once NearSt has started sending data on your behalf and you have enabled local inventory ads, you can advertise your local products on Google. To show local inventory ads on Google you will need to link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts.
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  2. Enable local products in your campaigns
    For each individual campaign, you need to enable local products in your Shopping campaign settings.
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  3. Add manager account
    Add NearSt as a manager of your Google Ads account to verify the integration. You can do so by going to Admin → Access and security, and adding [email protected] as a user.

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