Get started with Mergado

How to start with Mergado

  1. First create an account
  2. Import your XML feeds into Mergado here
  3. Connect Mergado with Comparison shopping engines
  4. Find errors in your feed
  5. Correct the errors
  6. Activate apps

Let’s take a look at how it works:

First steps in Mergado

We prepared a step-by-step guide to help you get started in Mergado and learn how to manage your product campaigns on comparison shopping services.

  • You can register right from the Mergado main page by clicking Create account (image 1) and filling out the registration form (image 2, 3).


    Image 1

    In the first step of the registration (Image 2):

    1. fill in your name, email, password
    2. Check the ‘I agree with the Terms of use’ box and click Register

    Make sure you fill out all the fields correctly. All the required information are important for Mergado to work properly and for you to receive invoices with correct billing details and in a correct mailbox.


    Image 2

    In the next step (Image 3):

    1. Fill in personal detail
    2. Check the newsletter box if you wish to receive a regular newsletter with news and important notifications.
    3. Fill in the billing details and choose the desired billing period. You can change this anytime in the future depending on your or your client’s needs. Click Finish


    Image 3

    After submitting you will receive a confirmation email to complete your registration.

    When you log in you can create your first project and start managing your product campaigns.

    It is important to say that creating an account is free and can be canceled anytime. You pay only after creating one or more projects. This is also when the 30-day free trial starts. The actual tariff depends on the total number of items in all your projects combined (see pricing for more information).

    Learn how edit your profile in the next video:

  • To be able to start optimizing your advertising, first, you need to create an project. Log in to your account and click Create project on the top right (image 3).


    Image 3

    On the next page provide a URL address of your source XML feed (image 4). Mergado will regularly (every 4 – 8 hours) access this file to check for any updates in the feed (new products, price changes etc.). Click Continue and wait until Mergado processes the file (time depends on the number of items in the feed, usually few seconds).

    Slika 4


    Image 4.1

    When finished click Continue again to get to additional settings (image 5). You can choose which project integration you want to create (choose from the list on the right — output integration). To finish click Continue.


    Image 5

    Now you have created an project and you get to an project overview page. Here all your projects for different channels are listed. Note that from one source XML file you can create an unlimited number of output projects. Just repeat the above procedure.

    You can now proceed to edit the project feed by clicking the project name. Once you have finished editing and optimizing your product data, you want to copy and paste the URL address of the optimized output feed into a respective channel (e.g. facebook, google shopping, glami etc.). To find the URL address of the output XML, go to the Summary page of project and scroll down to the bottom of the Summary page. There you can find both the source XML feed address as well as the output feed address (image 6). You can copy the link of the output feed and paste where needed.


    Image 5.1

  • XML Audit is a tool that loads a data XML file with product information from your online store and on this file runs a series of test. A link to audit results is then sent to your email so you can have a nice overview of the major errors of your product feed. You can use this report to optimize your product campaign on comparison shopping services.

    Plus, it’s totally free. You can run the audit as many times as you want!

    Learn how to launch a free feed audit with this video:

    To run an audit, go to Main Menu on Mergado Homepage and click XML Audit (Image 6). Alternatively, you can go directly to audit.mergado.com.

    Mergado Homepage XML Audit Menu
    Image 6

    This leads you to a new audit page (image 7), where you can provide a URL address of your XML file (step 1) and an email address, where a link to your audit results will be sent (step 2). Finally, check that you agree to the terms and conditions and click Run audit (step 3).


     Image 7

    Once the audit is finished, you will receive an email with the above-mentioned link. The report will present you all found errors sorted by their significance (image 8). First are the most serious issues colored in red. These errors would prevent your feed from being accepted by the respective comparison shopping service. Less serious warnings are colored in yellow. These would not cause your feed to be declined, but they would significantly impact your advertising. And colored in green are just recommendations to improve your feed to get even better results from your campaign.

    Image 8

  • Products page

    On the Products page, you can see two columns (image 9). On the left (nu.1) are data coming into Mergado (from your input feed), on the right (nu.2) are data coming out of Mergado (in an output feed).

    Image 9

    By clicking a product title you get to the product details which you can manually edit. You can edit any element of the product — name, description, price… Just choose an element that you want to edit, uncheck the “no change” box and type the desired value in the middle field and click Save changes (a rule is automatically created). However for changes to be applied, you need to go to the Rules page and on the top right click Apply rules.


    Image 10

    Image 10.1
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    Creating filters

    On the products page, you are also able to filter products based on different conditions and create queries. This is really useful when you want to edit a large number of products at once. So first you create a query of e.g. products cheaper than 10 EUR, save this query and then use rules to edit these products (see below for more information about Rules).

    Example

    (image 12) Choose an element (step 1) and a condition (step 2) based on which you want to filter your products. Mergado will try to offer you suggestions of possible values based on the actual values of the element that you chose in step 1. Below you can select if you search in input or output data (step 3).


    Image 12

    This is a basic and most common way to work with a large number of products in bulk. For the more advanced users, the “contains regular expression” condition allows to define a more specific query (image 13).


    Image 13

    Advanced interface

    Those of you that master regular expressions can switch to advanced interface to make a query (image 14). Here you can combine several conditions and elements together to really define a precise query.
    Example: You want to filter products that cost more than 20 EUR, is listed in a category containing “sandals” and is made by Nike. This would be the regular expression:
    PRICE_VAT > “20” AND CATEGORYTEXT ~ “sandals” AND MANUFACTURER = “Nike”


    Image 14

    Remember to always save your query to be able to edit the filtered products (e.g. hide them, overwrite the text in the elements, define availability etc.).

  • In Mergado, rules allow applying bulk changes to products. They can be applied either to all products in your feed, or to a saved query of products. This allows you to first filter those products that you wish to edit, then create a rule and apply it to that product query.

    How to create a rule

    Rules can be created on the Rules page by clicking Create rule on the top right (image 15).

    Image 15

    On the New rule page (image 16), first name your new rule (step 1), choose a query which you want the rule to be applied to (step 2), choose a desired rule type (step 3), choose which element (attribute) will be changed by the rule (step 4), and enter a new value for that element (step 5). The value can be either a static text (i.e. the given element in all products of the selected query will have the same value) or a variable value (e.g. a value from a different element). To do that, type the “%” sign and Mergado will offer you a list of available elements. To finish, click Create (step 6)

    New rule with a variable content - MergadoImage 16

    Important! To confirm and implement the changes, you need to click Apply rules (image 17).

    Image 17

    So now you have your changes implemented in the output feed. They will reflect in your product campaign after an automatic synchronization with a respective comparison shopping service. However, you are able to force an immediate synchronization manually. Just go to project Settings and click Regenerate project (image 18).

  • Mergado apps expand the possibilities and reach of Mergado itself. With their help, you can easily manage bidding or edit product images in your campaigns. All apps can be found in Mergado store. A link to Mergado Store can be found in the main menu when you log in to your Mergado account (image 19).

    Image 19

    The link navigates you to Mergado Store page with a list of available apps and their basic information (image 20).

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    You can click on any app to see a more detailed description (image 21). Here you can learn what the app can do, it’s price and trial period etc. To activate it, use the green “Manage app” button, or the “Activation & administration” link in the app menu.

    Image 21

    On the app administration page, you can choose for which project you want to activate the app. To activate, mark the checkbox on the right and click Save changes below (image 22).

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    Now to start working with the app, go to your project Summary page. Here you can see the activated app icon below the main menu as well as mini info-box in the active apps section (image 23).

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    Clicking any of the above links will navigate you to the actual app page, where you can start working with the app (image 24).

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    If you need help with anything feel free to contact us at mergado@mergado.com.

Using an agency

If you don’t have time or will to study to be able to use Mergado by yourself, you can approach one of our certified agencies. Their specialists work with Mergado every day and can turn their experience into your time and cost savings.

Find agency

 

Launch a free Feed audit

With the help of our Feed audit you can uncover the basic formal errors of the most common feed integrations. Audit is for free and without any engagement. Most of the found errors can be fixed with Mergado. To be able to run an audit you just need a URL address of your product feed.

Launch audit

 

Read through our Help and FAQ

In the FAQ section you can find the most common issues our users usually run into when starting with Mergado.

Or use the Mergado guide and help section to learn step by step all of the Mergado functions.

Reading through paragraphs doesn’t really work for you? Visit our Youtube channel and find our instruction video series.

Some users like to discuss their issues. If that’s your case you can make use of Mergado forum. There are certified specialists ready to help you with your issues.

Read FAQ & Help