In this session we are going to cover creating your Microsoft Merchant Center Store within the Microsoft Advertising platform.
Creating a store in Merchant Center and the subsequent steps are required for creating Shopping campaigns.
So let’s get started.
Stage 1
Go to Microsoft Ads and login to your account.
Select Tools
Select Microsoft Merchant Center
Select Create Store
Enter your store name: This is publicly seen in your ads and should match the name of your site, but feel free to leave off any extraneous business designations like LLC, Inc. or Corp.
Stage 2
Select the Domain Validation drop down.
You’ll have 2 options.
Validated via Bing Webmaster Tools
Validated via UET Tag.
Both options will yield the same result, but for today’s session we will select Validated via UET Tag. To use this option you’ll have had to setup a UET Tag and add to your website. See our other sessions to learn how to accomplish this.
You may see multiple options, so select the URL that most closely matches your public website domain. Microsoft will not allow subdomains tied to other sites not owned by you such as your-website.myshopify.com
Stage 3
Enter a description of your store (optional): This is not not seen publicly so it is completely optional.
Select Yes for SSL Checkout, as you should definitely should have a secure checkout process.
Select Next
Stage 4
Leave the Block Aggregators unchecked unless you have a reason otherwise.
Select Next
Stage 5
Select your preferred contact language
Enter your email: You’ll want this to be accurate as this is how Microsoft Ads notifies you about issues and opportunities to improve your shopping campaign results.
Select Create Store
Your store setup is now complete. We'll cover creating a catalog in another session.