How to Put Your Products in Front of Ready-to-Buy Shoppers

The Truth About Selling Products Online in Brisbane

If you run an online shop, you’ve probably noticed that the top of Google isn't just a list of blue links anymore. It’s a row of pictures, prices, and store names. These are Google Shopping ads, and for most retail businesses in Australia, they are the single most effective way to get your products in front of people who are literally holding their credit cards ready to buy.

But here is the problem: most business owners treat their "shopping feed" (the list of products Google sees) like a set-and-forget task. They upload their products once and wonder why they aren't making sales, or worse, why they are spending $500 on ads to sell a $40 toaster.

At Local Marketing Group, we’ve seen dozens of Brisbane businesses—from boutique furniture stores in Fortitude Valley to tool suppliers in Archerfield—flush money down the toilet because their product information is a mess.

If you want to stop guessing and start seeing more sales, you need to understand how to manage your product feed like a business asset, not a technical chore.

What is a Shopping Feed (And Why Should You Care?)

Think of your shopping feed as your digital shop window. If you had a physical store on Queen Street, you wouldn’t put a sign in the window that just said "Product 12345 - $50." You’d show the item, tell people what it does, and make sure the price was clear.

In the digital world, Google is the landlord. To show your products to customers, Google needs a spreadsheet of everything you sell. This includes the name, the price, the photo, and the description.

"Shopping feed management" is simply the process of making sure that information is accurate, attractive, and updated. If your feed is messy, Google won't show your ads. If it's half-baked, people won't click. If it's wrong, you'll pay for clicks that don't turn into customers because the item is out of stock or the price changed.

Why Your Current Setup is Probably Costing You Money

Most small business owners use a basic plugin on their website (like Shopify or WooCommerce) to send their products to Google. While this is a good start, it’s often where the profit dies.

Here’s why:

1. Bad Titles: Your website might call a product "The Maverick." That means nothing to Google. A customer isn't searching for "The Maverick"; they are searching for "Black Leather Chelsea Boots Size 10." If your feed doesn't say that, you won't show up. 2. Missing Info: If you don't tell Google the colour, material, or brand, you’re invisible to people using filters to find exactly what they want. 3. Wasted Spend on Low-Margin Items: If you are paying $1.00 per click to sell a $5 item, you are losing money. A well-managed feed allows you to stop advertising items that don't make you a profit.

Instead of just hoping for the best, smart owners focus on product bundles to increase the total value of every customer who clicks through from an ad. If you're paying for the click anyway, you might as well sell them three items instead of one.

Focus on the Three Pillars of More Sales

To get results, you don't need to be a tech genius. You just need to focus on three things that actually move the needle on your bank balance.

1. Titles That Match How People Search

If you sell lawnmowers, don't just list the brand. A great title looks like this: Brand + Model + Engine Size + Fuel Type + Lawnmower.

When a bloke in Chermside searches for a "4-stroke petrol lawnmower," your ad will pop up while your competitor (who just named theirs "The Grass-Master 2000") stays hidden.

2. High-Quality Images (That Don't Look Like Catalogues)

I’ve seen Brisbane retailers double their sales just by replacing blurry, manufacturer-provided photos with clean, high-resolution shots on a plain white background. It shows you’re a professional outfit, not some fly-by-night operation.

3. Price Competitiveness

If you can't be the cheapest, your feed needs to highlight why you’re the best—whether that’s "Free Brisbane Delivery" or "5-Year Local Warranty."

How Long Until You See a Result?

This is the best part about shopping ads: it’s fast. Unlike some other strategies where you have to wait months for Google to notice you, shopping ads can start driving phone calls and orders within 48 to 72 hours of your feed being approved.

However, it takes about 30 days to really dial it in. In that first month, you'll see which products people click on but don't buy, and which ones are your "heroes." We usually tell our clients to commit to a 90-day window to truly optimise the spend so you aren't wasting a cent on searches that don't convert.

Don't Forget Your Existing Customers

While getting new people to your site via shopping ads is great, it's expensive to constantly buy new clicks. The real profit in e-commerce comes from what happens after that first sale.

Too many owners get obsessed with the "new" and forget to make more from current customers. Once someone buys from your shopping ad, you should have a system to bring them back without paying for that second or third click. This is how you turn a one-off sale into a long-term, profitable business.

Is This a Waste of Money for You?

I’ll be blunt: Google Shopping isn't for everyone.

It’s a waste of money if: You sell highly custom, one-of-a-kind items that nobody is searching for by name. It’s a waste of money if: Your website is slow or doesn't work on phones. You’ll pay for the click, the user will get frustrated, and they’ll leave before the page even loads.

• It’s a waste of money if: Your margins are razor-thin and you don't have a plan to sell more to that customer later.

What Should You Do First?

If you're ready to stop guessing and start selling, here is your checklist:

1. Check your Merchant Center: This is the free tool Google provides to see if your products are actually being accepted. If you see a sea of red "disapproved" marks, you’re losing money every day. 2. Fix your Top 10: Don't try to fix 1,000 products at once. Pick your 10 best-sellers and rewrite their titles using the formula I mentioned earlier (Brand + Model + Key Feature). 3. Watch the numbers: If a product has had 100 clicks and zero sales, stop advertising it. It’s a dud, or your price is wrong.

How Local Marketing Group Can Help

Managing a shopping feed is a full-time job if you want to do it right. You have to monitor price changes, out-of-stock items, and Google’s ever-changing rules.

Most business owners we work with in Brisbane would rather spend their time running their warehouse or talking to customers than staring at a spreadsheet of product IDs.

We specialise in taking the technical headache away and focusing purely on the result: How much did you spend on ads, and how many dollars came back in sales?

If you want a pro to look at your current setup and tell you honestly where you're wasting money, we should talk. We’ve helped local shops go from struggling to stay online to shipping hundreds of orders a week just by fixing the way they show up on Google.

Ready to get more from your online store? Contact Local Marketing Group today and let’s see if we can turn your product feed into a sales machine.