Know what you need to price your SaaS products and create listings for the Google Cloud Marketplace. Once you have these prerequisites ready to go, manage (including edit) your Google Cloud listings in Tackle. Additionally, you can enable Google Cloud listings for future dated agreements (FDAs) or multiple orders (currently in "Pre-GA" from the Google Cloud).
Price your product
Google Cloud Marketplace requires at least one public plan when publishing a product listing. The plans you put on your listing will be your options when creating private offers. This means you will want to create plans that reflect the way you sell your products. You can also create private plans for SKUs you do not want to show publicly. Google requires that you list all of the information about what you are offering (public and private) on the plans you create.
Features
The first step in creating your plans is defining the features that will be included in the plans you offer (public and private). The list of features should be detailed yet flexible enough to accommodate the way you sell. When creating a private offer, you will first select a plan and then select the features included in the offer. You can also add short text for each feature for additional detail.
Tips for creating your feature list:
Do not include a quantity in the feature description, if the quantity varies per deal. You can add the quantity in the detail section when you create a private offer.
Example: The description “users” should be used instead of “includes 10 users”.
List anything you would like to be included in a private offer. If it is not detailed in the plan or feature list, you can not sell it via a private offer.
All features will be visible on your public listing, even if they are only selected for private plans.
If you have more than one plan set to public, your features will be displayed as a table. If you only have one plan set to public, then they will display as a bulleted list.
Plan visibility
Public
Public plans are visible to anyone who visits your listing. You can still create private offers using your public plans.
Protected
Protected plans are not publicly visible. They are used for creating a private offer.
Pricing strategy
Private offer pricing
Private offer pricing is recommended to sellers just starting their Marketplace journey. Managing public orders is an entire process on its own, so we recommend starting with private offers to see the quickest return on value. Private offer pricing uses public plans to display general offerings and directs customers to reach out for a private offer. The key is to make sure the public plans are priced high enough to deter potential buyers from clicking to buy before talking to your sales team. You also want the product description to be flexible enough to accommodate creating private offers the way you sell.
In the Product Overview section of the listing, you can add the following phrase to direct potential buyers to your sales team before they purchase:
To talk with a <Company Name> sales representative, reach out to <Sale Email Alias>.
When you create a private offer, you will have the opportunity to adjust the price of the plan and attach a custom EULA.
Public SKUs for auto-provisioning
This strategy is recommended for sellers who are already putting deals through GCM. This strategy is good for a product-led growth seller who is willing to spend engineering resources to set up auto-provisioning on the listing.
To set up auto-provisioning, you will need to set up webhooks🔗 and your self-hosted registration page.
There is the option to allow a “free trial” that applies to all of your public plans.
Additional usage fees/metrics
If your product pricing is usage-based and you would like to charge your buyer during the contract term without having them accept a new private offer, you can set up some additional usage SKUs. The usage SKU can be used on each of your plans and you can set a specific SKU price for each plan you enable it on. You can always set a discount on the SKU price when creating private offers. For sellers setting up auto-provisioning, you may also want to use the Metering API too to fully automate the provisioning and billing process.
Create a Google Cloud product listing
When you are first using Tackle, you'll be guided to connect to the Google Cloud Marketplace and create a new listing. You must publish at least one listing to make transactions on the marketplace.
In Tackle, go to the left menu and click Listings.
Click Click here to configure your listing.
Select Google Cloud and then click Add new.
Important: You must already be connected to the Google Cloud Marketplace to add a listing.
Click on each of the steps, enter all required information and be sure to click Save changes.
When you have completed all required fields, you will see a confirmation banner. Click Submit to send your listing for review by a Tackle Marketplace architect, make suggestions, and complete the next step in the listing process.
Edit Google Cloud listings
After you create a Google Cloud Marketplace listing in Tackle, you can edit information for that listing once it goes live. You can make changes based on the marketplace for that listing, listing status, and type of update.
Before you get started
Only listings with a Published status in Tackle can be edited.
Listings are locked once they are created and before they go live to prevent different parties from making changes at the same time, which could interrupt order flow.
Edits submitted must go through a review process before they go live. Before they are published, changes are reviewed by Tackle and approved by the cloud marketplace for the listing.
Listings often involve collaboration between multiple parties. Editing a listing could take anywhere from a couple of days up to a few months to complete depending on the changes. For example, changing the pricing on a live listing requires more touch points and conversations than making a marketing change.
Read the requirements for editing a marketplace listing (next section).
Requirements for editing a Google Cloud listing
Note
Edits to a Google Cloud listing may take up to 20 days to go live in the marketplace. Certain pricing edits can take up to 60 days.
Pricing
Note
Certain pricing edits have different implications.
Contract Price increase
Any increase to pricing on a plan that currently has subscribers will have a 45 day turnaround time for the edits to go live in the marketplace. Google requires 30 days to notify existing subscribers of the change (included in the 45 days mentioned above).
Contract Price decrease
Any decreases to pricing on a plan that currently has subscribers will have a 15 day turnaround time for the edits to go live in the marketplace.
Contract Duration Add
Adding new plans will have a 15 day turnaround time for the edits to go live in the marketplace.
Contract Dimension Remove
This is not allowed by Google if your listing has any subscribers.
Remove Feature
This will have a 45 day turnaround time for the edits to go live in the marketplace.
Edit a Google Cloud listing
In Tackle, go to the left menu and click Listings.
Find the published listing you want to edit and click to open it.
Note: The listing must be in Published status to edit. If you need to edit a listing that’s locked or in the review process, contact Tackle Support🔗.Click Edit listing. The listing opens to edit mode.
A copy of the published listing is created to make your edits. The original listing remains as is until the edits are published (go live).
Complete your edits as needed.
When you’re done, click Submit for review. If you need to cancel your edits before submitting or after you submit while in review, click Cancel edits. You can also save your edited listing as a draft and exit and complete it at a later time.
Important: Once you submit your changes, the edited listing is locked for review. You can no longer make changes, but you can cancel your edits. If you need to make changes while in review, contact Tackle Support🔗.
To view all listings that are being edited, go to the Listings home page. The edited listings are under their the original listings as Edit Listing.
Enable Google Cloud listings for future dated agreements
Before you can create an offer for a future dated agreement (FDA) in Tackle, you'll need to enable your Google Cloud Marketplace listing. Make sure you complete this first before you start your offer creation to avoid errors.
Go to the Google Cloud console > Private offer setting page in GCP Project🔗.
Select the listing(s) you want to enable to use for your FDA.
Click Activate Automatic Approval. A pop-up opens.
Agree to confirm your changes to finish.
Ready to create a Google Cloud FDA? See Future dated agreements for Google Cloud.
Google Cloud multiple orders
Multiple orders from the Google Cloud Marketplace allows the same buyer account to purchase product listings from an independent software vendor (ISV) more than once, without requiring any active subscription to be co-termed and amended. Each purchase can exist as a separate transaction.
Note
This offering is currently a “Pre-GA” preview from the Google Cloud Marketplace🔗 and is only available for private offers that select flat-rate plans.
ISVs who are enabled to use this preview feature can create multiple orders for their buyers through private offers. This capability is available in Tackle > Create direct private offers for Google Cloud. This Tackle feature is currently in public preview.
To enable your Google Cloud listings for multiple orders in Tackle, see Enable Google Cloud listings for multiple orders.
Enable Google Cloud listings for multiple orders
Note
Multiple orders is a “Pre-GA” preview from the Google Cloud Marketplace. Learn more.
Before you can create a private offer for multiple orders of the same product for the same buyer in the Google Cloud Marketplace in Tackle, you'll need to enable your Google Cloud listing. Make sure you complete this first before you start your offer creation to avoid errors.
Go to the Google Cloud console > Private offer setting page in GCP Project🔗.
In the Multiple Orders section, select the listing(s) you want to enable.
Click Enable multiple orders. A pop-up opens.
Agree to confirm your changes to finish.
When you're done, go to the Google Cloud console > Reports page🔗.
Ensure that the Detailed Disbursement report is selected from step 3 of the Setting up your Marketplace Reporting bucket.
If not, select it and click Done and then save it.