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When it comes to grabbing attention and converting sales, product listings and promotions often spring to mind first. It’s hardly surprising: prices are one of the primary drivers of consumer purchases. But increasingly, fast delivery and good returns policies are becoming a bigger part of the conversation. With consumers today expecting transparency, speed, and convenience, clear and comprehensive shipping information is now a critical factor in purchase decisions.
>70% increase in “next-day delivery" searches globally YoY.1
>75% of shoppers across surveyed countries say they will shop with stores that offer free shipping.2
For e-commerce businesses that use online ads to promote their inventory, it’s about more than just customer satisfaction; it can lead to higher click-through rates, increase traffic to product pages, and ultimately boost sales.
And one of the most effective ways to communicate your shipping and fulfilment information is through your Shopping Ads annotations.
Shopping ads annotations
When browsing, consumers are impatient: they’re constantly scanning for product ratings, shipping price and speed, along with return policy. Annotations and badges make it easier for shoppers to find these details by displaying this information on your Shopping ads or free listings. They help your product stand out and increase the performance of your offers. Along with providing detailed information about your product in your feeds, annotations and badges help differentiate your products and showcase your unique selling proposition (USP).
Displaying shipping information as part of your Shopping ad:
Source3: Google Merchant Centre (2023). Four ways to prepare for the holiday season.
Types of Shopping ads annotations
| Format | Minimum required | Availability |
|---|---|---|
Return policy |
Helps customers review the return timeframes and other return-related information (ie, 30-day return policy, free returns) |
Worldwide |
Free and fast shipping |
Allows you to showcase products that can be shipped fast and/or free |
DE, FR, UK only |
Estimated delivery date |
Calculates the overall delivery time (including cut-off time, handling time and transit time) |
Worldwide |
Note: Google dynamically decides which annotations and badges to display for users to improve performance. Providing all the information doesn’t guarantee the annotation will be displayed for your products. Some annotations are only displayed on specific devices such as mobile and desktop, in Google Search and the Shopping tab, and in specific countries. Annotations may be adjusted at any time.4
a) Return annotations
Displaying a clear return policy can improve the performance of your products by helping customers make a purchase decision. By adding your return policy to your Merchant Center account, your ads will be eligible to show return annotations, such as:
Free returns
30-day return policy
Free returns until 31 January
Returns until 31 January
30-day returns, 10 euro fee applies
Source5: Google Merchant Center Help, Benefits of showing your return policy on Shopping ads and listings
Setting up your return policy
Log into Merchant Center.
In Tools > Shipping and returns > Returns, add your return information.
Note: Google may be able to crawl your return policy on your website. If so, you can simply accept or edit the information found by the crawler.
b) Shipping speed annotations
Shipping costs (mandatory for most European countries) will often be displayed in either your shipping cost or free shipping annotation. You can also display annotations with:
Estimated delivery times
For DE, FR, UK, you can also show fast and free shipping annotations if you meet the following criteria:
a) Free: A product can be shipped free of charge to the customer (or free if the purchase price meets minimum threshold)
b) Fast: A product can be delivered to a customer in less than three business days, including both handling and transit time
1. Setting up your shipping speed annotations
To be eligible for estimated delivery time or fast and free shipping (DE, FR, UK only) annotations, you’ll need to provide Google with your handling time and transit time information.
2. Three setup options for merchants
To trigger annotation, you need to set up both your shipping cost and delivery speed at the same level (account level or feed level).
a) Account Level: Manual setup
For businesses with simple supply chains and static shipping speeds.
Note: If you want to differentiate the transit time for some products, you can use the [transit_time_label] in your feed and set different transit times.
Account Level: Carrier-based
For businesses who want their delivery times to be estimated by Google based on the shipping time of their selected carrier (DE, FR and UK only).
b) Item level: In your feed
For businesses who:
Already provide item-level shipping cost via the shipping attribute
Have a complex supply chain involving shipping speeds that change frequently or prefer to calculate shipping speeds at the item level
Want an easy way to mark three-day or less delivery speeds per product for specific regions to qualify for the 'Fast & Free' or other premium annotations
Prefer providing product data via a product feed or the Product Shipping API
Item-level shipping settings will override any account-level shipping settings.
3. Shipping speed setup tips
| Requirements: | ||
|---|---|---|
min_handling_time |
0 |
The earliest it can be sent for shipping on the same day |
max_handling_time |
1 |
This means the latest it can be sent for shipping is in one business day |
min_transit_time |
5 |
The earliest it will be delivered after shipping is five business days |
max_transit_time |
7 |
The latest it will be delivered after shipping is seven business days. |
4. Best practices
For more information about setting up your Shopping Ads annotations or return policies, reach out to your Google Shopping (CSS) team.
Sources:
