Throughout the year there are many opportunities to promote and participate in a sale period, the obvious being Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As we approach these sale periods we have to consider the best and most effective way to communicate the sale through Google Ads.

Through our experience the following list is our process for approaching an upcoming sale in Google Ads.

Ad Text

Ad text plays an important role in highlighting promotions as the main copy which is why including promotion-related terms directly in your ad copy is one of the most effective and easiest ways to promote your sale. For instance, phrases like “50% Off,” “Limited-Time Offer,” or “Free Shipping” in your headlines will get your sale across.

Promotion Assets

Promotion assets (formerly ad extensions) allow advertisers to showcase specific offers beneath their main ad copy. These assets include:

Discounts: Highlight percentage or monetary discounts (e.g., “Save 20%” or “$15 off”) for your promotion including your start and end dates and promo code if applicable. 

Occasion-Specific Offers: Importantly you can display whether your promotion ties into events like “Black Friday” or “Spring Sale” from a drop-down list.

Details: You can include your minimum purchases with “On Orders Over” to provide users with additional information about the sale. You will also have promotion text up to 20 characters and a selected final URL for your sale.

Sale Price Field in Product Feed

In Performance Max and Shopping campaigns, the sale_price field allows advertisers to display promotional pricing directly in the product listing ad. When your SKU is discounted, the original price will appear with a strikethrough in the results to indicate the sale.

You will need to ensure that your promotional pricing is accurately reflected in your product feed once the sale is live to take advantage of this. This will help with click-through rates and ultimately conversion volume when implemented.

Custom Label

Custom labels in the product feed help segment and manage promotions effectively in Shopping campaigns through your main feed or supplemental feed.

Use any Custom Label field to tag products based on promotional attributes such as “Sale,” “Outlet” or “Clearance.”

Example: Assign a “Black Friday” label to all products eligible for the event-specific discount. This helps refine feed-based campaign targeting, bidding, and reporting.

Leverage these labels to prioritize high-margin or high-performing promotional products in your bidding strategy.

Merchant Center Promotions

Within Merchant Center you are able to manage promotions through Marketing > Promotions by creating promotions directly within Merchant Center or uploading Promotion Sources.

When you create your promotion you will need to apply a Promotion Title and ID and indicate your start and end dates. (GMC) allows advertisers to manage and apply promotions for products appearing in Shopping ads.

These promotions will appear across the products, shopping tab and in the US Google has a Deals Page which these can also appear on.

Conclusion

These simple ways to approach promotions within Google Ads will help amplify your sales and discount periods through Text Ads and Shopping Ads. The key element is these steps are repeatable for every sale through the year and can become a streamlined part of your standard sale process without too much time investment.