New Google Ads retail category reporting allows retailers to see product category performance across Search and Shopping campaigns.

The reports show performance across a set of pre-defined product categories based on labels Google “uses to categorize the words that people search for on Google.”

To get started. Create a new custom table report from the Reports tab in Google Ads. The fastest way to start building a retail category report is to just enter “Retail” in the search bar in the report builder.

There are five levels of product categories, each one more granular than the next. You can add any level or stack levels in the rows section. Then add “Campaign type” to be able to see performance by Search and Shopping and add the metrics you want to analyze in the columns section. You an also add other dimensions, of course, including campaign name and campaign subtype which will show you performance for Smart Shopping campaigns.

Why we care. Retail advertisers can then can apply filters and segments to see only those categories that meet certain activity thresholds and dig in to performance differences by bid strategy, targeting, location and more to help inform budget allocations and campaign optimizations.