Best Practice Guide: Google Shopping Feed · 2018-05-24 · template and advanced data mapping features, so marketers can analyze the status of their product feed before they upload

Best Practice Guide:Google Shopping Feed

I. INTRODUCTION 2Contents

II. KEY FEED SPECS AND REQUIREMENTS 4

1. Product ID [id] 62. Title [title] 83. Description [description] 124. Google product category

[google_product_category] 145. Link [link] 166. Image link [image_link] 177. Condition [condition] 198. Product type

[product_type] 209. Mobile link [mobile_link] 2210. Additional image link

[additional_image_link] 24

11. Availability [availability] 2512. Price [price] 2713. Availability date

[availability date] 3014. Sales price [sale_price] 3015. Sales price effective date

[sales_price_effective_date] 3116. Unique product identifiers

[brand] [identifier_exists] [gtin] [mpn] 32

17. Item group id [item_group_id] 34

18. Color [color] 3519. Gender [gender] 3620. Age group [age_group] 3621. Material [material] 3722. Pattern [pattern] 3723. Size [size] 3824. Size type [size_type] 3925. Size system [size_system] 3926. Shipping [shipping] 4027. Shipping weight

[shipping_weight] 4228. Shipping label

[shipping_label] 4229. Product combination labels

[multipack], [is_bundle] 4330. Adult labels [adult] 4431. AdWords redirect

[adwords_redirect] 4432. Custom labels

[custom_label_X] 4533. Unit prices [unit_pricing_

measure], [unit_pricing_base_measure] 47

34. Energy labels [energy_efficiency_class] 48

35. Merchant promotions [promotion_id] 49

36. Additional attributes [expiration_date], [excluded_destination] 50

37. Attributes for specific countries: installment, loyalty points 51

III. UPCOMING GOOGLE SHOPPING FEATURES 54

IV. ABOUT PRODUCTSUP 55

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uide: Google Shopping Feed

www.productsup.io +49 30 60 98 53 55 | +1 415 445 4645Real product data control [email protected]

http://www.productsup.io

Despite all the capabilities when it comes to tracking and bidding in Google AdWords, campaign success in Google Shopping ultimately rests on the quality of your product data feed. Though there are many different types of product data feeds (each of which serves a different purpose) we refer here to Google’s foundational “online products feed”. This contains all the information and attributes about the products themselves and is the data file that you export to the Google Merchant Center. It is essential that your feed is customized to meet the channel’s specific requirements.

IntroductionI.Google Shopping has some of the strictest requirements of all shopping channels when it comes to product data feeds. If the feed fails to meet Google’s Product Feed Specifications, any products carrying incorrect information may be removed from the search results. Depending on the frequency, amount of products or the severity of the error, your account may even be closed down. The product data in your product feed is what Google uses to match consumer’s search terms as best as possible to the right products, so not only is this the key to your products being shown, but the better the quality of your feed, the more visibility you’ll get.

Each of your products will be given a Quality Score (QS), which is assigned to the product ID. This is a 1-10 measure of how good a match the product is for a given keyword search term or set of terms. Having a high QS means that Google considers your Product Listing Ad (PLA) relevant and useful to someone searching by those terms. A high QS is achieved by delivering high quality product data that is consistent with the data displayed on the product landing page.

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https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188494?hl=en


How to understand this guideIn the following pages we will walk you through Google’s detailed Product Feed Specifications, revealing:

ö Important requirements: These specs you must adhere to. Failure to comply can result in penalization by Google

ö Recommendations: Things Google advises you to do, but if you don’t do these Google will still accept your products

ö Notes: Side notes and exceptions that you need to be aware of

ö Tips from the experts: There are some things that Google does not specify (as the algorithm works on machine learning, specific requirements can sometimes be unpredictable). These things we’ve learned through years of industry experience and we’ll share these tips with you here, to help you become experts yourselves.

ö Optimizing with Productsup: We will list some key data edit boxes, platform features, as well as unique services that have been designed to help you simplify your work, optimize your feed and maximize your output.

Simplifying the feed management and optimization process When you have an inventory of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) in the thousands, or the millions, as many merchants do, making sure your product data remains fresh, correct and of the highest quality, is no small task. Given the inherent complexities in managing this data, marketers often find themselves going back and forth between the Google Merchant Center and their IT department in order to correct the errors that have been identified. This makes the whole process frustrating and time consuming. Not to mention, marketers are often left in the dark with no clear overview or understanding of their data, and with limited opportunity to unlock its potential.

The Productsup Platform provides marketers with the technology to take control and ownership of their product data, and to influence the performance of their PLAs (on unlimited shopping channels), with ease and agility.

Marketers can use the platform to create the perfect product data feed quickly and easily, with drag-and-drop logic and data enhancement tools that let them perform mass data edits in minutes. Moreover, the Platform offers an integrated Google Shopping template and advanced data mapping features, so marketers can analyze the status of their product feed before they upload it to the Merchant Center, and fix errors across the whole feed in a matter of clicks.

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http://productsup.io/about/


Key Feed Specs And RequirementsIn September 2015 Google made some updates to their specifications, which have also been incorporated into the guide to ensure you are working from the most up-to-date information.

Disclaimer: this document is intended only as a general guide for creating your Google Online Products Feed. Please make sure to cross reference with the official Google Product Feed Specifications for your specific product attribute requirements and that you comply with the legal regulations for your country. We have also experienced error reports in cases where all relevant requirements have been met. We therefore suggest that you export a test feed first. With the Productsup Platform you get immediate feedback and can make the necessary changes before submitting your final, complete feed to the Google Merchant Center. We have found, in addition, that the time it takes for products to start serving in Google’s results can vary per client. If an error persists, it’s best you contact the Google Shopping team via the Help Forum.

II.Google’s summary of the Feed Specification Requirements

Required RecommendedGeneralid [id] – identifier string of the item

title [title] – title of the item

description [description] – description of the item

google product category [google_product_category] – Google’s category for the item

link [link] – URL directly linking to your item’s page on your website

image link [image_link] – URL of an image of the item

condition [condition] – condition or state of the item

product type [product_type] – your category of the item

mobile link [mobile_link] – mobile landing page URL

additional image link [additional_image_link] – additional URLs of images of the item

Price & availabilityavailability [availability] – availability status of the item

price [price] – price of the item

availability date [availability date] - the day a pre-ordered item becomes available for delivery

sales price [sale_price] – advertised sale price of the item

sales price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] – date range during which the item is on sale

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http://productsup.io/google-shopping-update-2015/

http://productsup.io/google-shopping-update-2015/

https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/Google-Shopping-PLAs-Merchant/bd-p/google-shopping


Required RecommendedUnique Product Identifiersbrand [brand] – brand of the item

identifier exists [identifier_exists] – for highlight products which do not have UPIs

GTIN [gtin] – Global Trade Item Number of the item

MPN [mpn] – Manufacturer Part Number of the item

Detailed product attributes & groupsitem group id [item_group_id] – shared identifier for all variants of the same product

color [color] – color of the item

gender [gender] – gender of the item

age group [age_group] – target age group of the item

material [material] – material of the item

pattern [pattern] – pattern/graphic of the item

size [size] – size of the item

size type [size_type] – size type of the item

size system [size_system] – size system of the item

Required RecommendedTax & Shippingshipping [shipping] – specific shipping estimate of the product

shipping weight [shipping_weight] – weight for the item for shipping

shipping label [shipping_label] – allows you to assign appropriate labels to shipping

Additional case-specific labelsProduct combination labels [multipack], [is_bundle] – information about merchant-defined multipacks and bundles

Adult labels [adult] – ensures appropriate content is shown to an appropriate audience

AdWords redirect [adwords_redirect] – allows you to specify a separate URL that can be used to track traffic coming from Google Shopping

Shopping campaigns custom labels – allows you to subdivide products based on existing data from the category, brand, item ID, condition, product type, and custom label attributes

Unit prices [unit_pricing_measure], [unit_pricing_base_measure] – allows you to price products by a base measure and multiply for selling in bulk

Energy labels [energy_efficiency_class] – for products which fall under a specific energy class

Promotions labels [promotions_id] - allows you to map a specific promotion to a set of products in your products feed

Additional attributes [expiration_date], [excluded_destination] – allows you to control the destination of your products, and for how long they are valid

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ID: tddy123uk

The product ID is a string of letters and numbers that identifies an item, e.g. “tddy123uk”.

Each individual item, a.k.a stock keeping unit (SKU), must be given a completely unique Product ID, as this is what Google uses to assign the product its Quality Score.

Important requirements ö Only use valid uni-code characters – remove any white spaces, control

characters (returns etc.), function characters, private area characters, surrogate pairs or non-assigned code points

ö Always assign new products a completely unique product ID – one that has never been used before for a different item

ExceptionsFor Belgium, Canada, and Switzerland only: If your website is in multiple languages, you need to submit one feed per language. In this case you can reuse the same ID for the same item in each of the different language versions.

1. Product ID: [id]

What does Google mean by “completely unique”?

Every single item in your data feed needs to have its own string of letters and numbers. The same product ID cannot be repeated in the same feed, nor can it be applied to a different product in another feed.

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Optimizing with ProductsupGenerate Unique IDs: This is a service add-on of the platform that creates unique IDs for you. These remain the same throughout time and across your feeds.

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Avoid duplicate IDs from the beginning: assign unique IDs for each product when you create your product data feed. Not only will you make Google happy but when exporting to Google, Productsup only exports one product per product ID: So, even if you were to have multiple products with the same product ID, only one will be exported.

If your own SKU “identifier codes” include both letters and numbers and are unique across your inventory, it is recommended that you use these for the product ID.

Ensure each product ID always remains the same, even when you update your feed Changing a product ID means you would lose all the history for that product, which might take you weeks to build back up.

“tddy123uk” “tddy + uk = d”

EXAMPLES

TIPS

Product ID

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http://platform.productsup.com/help/82


One of the most important elements of your feed is the product title.

On the shopper side:A shopper will scan through pages of results in search of the right thing. The title is one of the first things they see when they come across your ad. This is the critical point that determines whether or not they will click through to find out more. These few words are your opportunity to stop them in their tracks and convince them not to go any further.

On the merchant side:You don’t want wasted clicks. In order to get the shopper as qualified as possible before they click on your ad, it is really important that you highlight the most important information already in the title, so shoppers aren’t disappointed or frustrated when they click through.

Important requirements ö Title length: 150 character limit

ö No promotional text, e.g. “Free Shipping”. There is a dedicated section in the feed for this

ö No exclamation marks!

ö No BLOCK CAPITALS (except for brand names): Google does NOT like uppercase

ö No HTML tags

ö Include the common title for variants of a product: ö E.g. for the following variants:

» Mens Pique Polo Shirt - Red (red variant) » Mens Pique Polo Shirt - Blue (blue variant)

ö Make sure the common title (Mens Pique Polo Shirt) is included for each of the variants.

2. Title: [title]

Note: Pay attention to legal requirements in your country, such as: ö Mobile phone contracts in the US ö Base price declaration for food in Germany ö Age group declaration for Russia

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The Merchant Center will currently display a warning message on the Diagnostics page for titles that exceed 70 characters. Experts however, recommend that you ignore the warning message and fill all 150 characters with as much relevant information as possible, as the additional information will often be factored into the ad’s indexation in the search results.

Include the most important keywords as close to the beginning of the title as possible, preferably within the first 20 characters, as this is what customers will see in most cases.

Include strong, recognized brands as close to the beginning of the title as possible.

Avoid weak brands - adding weak brands to titles could work against you, especially when included at the beginning of the title.

If your titles are not unique enough it could affect your visibility. Customize them with important differentiating attributes such as size, color, gender etc. (as applicable) to more accurately describe and differentiate each product.

Only include the keywords and phrases that people are likely to be searching when they’re looking for the product that you offer. Avoid obscure or vague terms, e.g. “Fifth Avenue lipstick”.

Make sure to include relevant attributes that are not apparent from the image, e.g. product dimensions for a television, or gender for a T-shirt.

Include any keywords which will attract the niche market the product caters for, e.g. “Maternity”, “Petite”, “Shiny finish”, “Waterproof” - these are often the biggest deciding factors and get you more qualified clicks.

Remove any double white spaces – these take up valuable character count and look clumsy.

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Title

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Optimizing with Productsup ö “Append/Prepend Column”

box: enrich the title with key product attributes by “appending” or “prepending” the brand, color, product type, gender, material, etc. from the respective attribute columns

ö “Append/Prepend Value” box: this allows you to manually type in the specific product information that you want to add to the title

ö “Set column if empty” box: only build titles for those products where the title is missing

ö “Map replace” box: this box allows you to edit several different text elements in one go

ö “Replace if Column Contains” box: replace ‘!’ with ‘.’

ö “Separate words” box: separate words that have been merged together (be careful when using this tool, as it may separate words that should be merged, such as “iPhone”)

ö “Remove duplicate words” box

ö “Trim to 150 characters” box

ö “Remove consecutive whitespace” box

ö “Uppercase to human” box: allows you to replace uppercase letters with non-uppercase letters

ö “Remove html tags” box

ö “Translate color” box

Search term: “blue t-shirt”

As the term is very vague, it is important to qualify shoppers using your title:

“H&M Mens Blue T-shirt M plain short sleeve loose fit” This description tells shoppers the brand, gender, color, size, style size and cut. Depending on who the shopper is and what they’re looking for, they know immediately if this product is what they are looking for.

“Blue T-shirt”

This is vague and non-descriptive, it only tells us that the T-shirt is blue but doesn’t give the shopper any other incentive to click through.

EXAMPLES

TitleB

est Practice Guide: G

oogle Shopping Feed



The Search Query Report in AdWords tells you exactly which words and phrases users are searching for to find and click on your ad. To find the report: 1. select “ad group” or

“product target” 2. click the dimensions tab 3. then select “search

terms” from the “view” dropdown.

Useful ResourceFor more tips on how to conduct keyword

research, take a look at Google’s support article.

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Don’t just shove in the words and phrases you find have the highest search volume or repeat phrases needlessly.

Make sure to integrate keywords in such a way that makes sense to a human reading the text, as opposed to just the Google bot.

When testing keywords, start with the most straightforward descriptions, based on what you think your customers are most likely to be searching for, then let your Search Query Report guide the changes.

Only select the keywords that really make sense for your products and the shoppers in search of them.

You can also use the Search Query Report to discover irrelevant search queries and apply them to your campaign as negative keywords to ensure your products will not be listed for these. By ensuring they only appear for a relevant search, you can increase your ROI.

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Keyword research: know your shopper

Title

TIPS

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https://support.google.com/AdWords/answer/6167110?vid=1-635754161387547602-14559274218176207668


Important requirements ö Description Length:

Limit of 5000 characters

ö No promotional text, e.g. “Free Shipping”

ö No exclamation marks!

ö No full words in BLOCK CAPITALS (except for brand names)

ö No descriptions of your brand or company

ö No links to your store or other websites

ö No billing, payment, or sales information

ö No references to internal categorization systems, e.g. “Toys & Games > Toys > Baby Dolls”

ö No comparisons to other products beyond the item you’re selling, e.g. “even better/faster/larger than X”

ö No details about other products, accessories, or similar items available

The influence and relevance of your product description cannot be stressed enough.

Although shoppers will rarely actually see your product description, it too needs to be an accurate representation of what it is you are selling. This is because Google crawls the description to get the relevant information about your product that determines whether or not it is listed for a particular search query.

Recommendations

ö Quality is more important than quantity: If you need all 5000 characters to supply rich, relevant, descriptive information about your product, you won’t be penalized. However, avoid padding descriptions with irrelevant or repetitive text in order to fill the space provided.

ö Only include attributes relevant to what shoppers will be searching for, e.g. size, age range, material, technical specs, and specific features

3. Description: [description]

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3Avoid emotional descriptions and flowery language, e.g. “this product will make you feel…” as this will not improve your rankings, and will in most cases not be seen by shoppers anyway.

Ensure the product’s most relevant and attractive attributes are included towards the beginning of the description, as you did with your titles.

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EXAMPLES

New size 5 women’s red, pointed, patent leather high heels. 1950s style. Heel height: 4”. Material: Polyester. Leather sole and heel tip. Narrow toe number. Condition: new, never been worn.

These are the PERFECT heels for the office! These heels will make you walk taller and your legs look longer. If you want to look sharp for a business meeting or great for a first date, these versatile shoes will be sure to turn heads. These beautiful red leather ‘Dolly’ High Heels Pumps are from the 50s, when this style was in fashion!

Optimizing with Productsup ö “Append/Prepend Column”

box: enrich the description with key product attributes by using “appending” or “prepending” the brand, color, product type, gender, material, etc. from the respective attribute columns

ö “Text replace” box: allows you to replace text elements such as ‘!’ with ‘.’

ö “Map replace” box: allows you to several different text elements in one go

ö “Remove consecutive whitespace” box

ö “Remove html tags” box

ö “Spellcheck” box: highlights words (for feeds in English) that the platform believes may be spelled incorrectly. This still requires individual analysis as the tool does not auto correct misspellings

ö “Cut last words” box: ensures you stay within your character limit

It is not necessary to use all available characters for the description. Keep it concise - but don’t leave out vital information.

Use the same keywords in your descriptions as you used in the product title so as not to confuse the shopper. However your description allows you to also use other keywords to broaden the chance of being listed. E.g. “Sapphire” could be used in the title and “a sapphire blue” in the description. This would increase the likelihood that search queries using either sapphire or blue would match the product.

Descri

ption

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The Google Product Category indicates the category in which the product falls based on the Google product taxonomy.

Important requirements ö The value submitted for the

Google product category must match the categories exactly as they appear in the full Google Product Taxonomy (note that categories in the Google Product Taxonomy are often changed by Google, so it is best to check these on a regular basis to make sure your categories are up-to-date)

ö If your items fall into multiple categories, include only one category and make sure it’s the most relevant

ö Make sure to submit categories in a format that includes the full path or category ID. It is not sufficient to provide only the highest or lowest level of the category path

ö For all target countries (except Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Turkey), google_product_category is required for all items that fall within the ‘Apparel & Accessories’, ‘Media’, and ‘Software’ categories.

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Google recommends that you apply categories for all your items, but this is only necessary for items in the apparel, media and software category. For all other categories, if you have already submitted detailed product categories under the product_type attribute, this is not required. Google’s algorithm should be able to automatically allocate the Google_product_category from these anyway.

Google product category is most important for the first 2-3 category levels. It is only really necessary to go more granular than that for leveraging bidding accuracy.

For bundles, where individual products fall into different categories, provide the most appropriate category type for the main item in the bundle.

Submitting the category ID instead of the full category path saves time and makes your feed shorter. It also has the benefit of reducing the amount of maintenance required, as the category ID is less likely to change than the category name.

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4. Google Product Category [google_product_category]

TIPS

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https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/1705911


Optimizing with ProductsupPlatform “lists” feature: Category Mapping: suggests and recommends the latest Google product categories based on terms entered. Can be shared within an account.

“Apparel & Accessories > Handbags, Wallets & Cases > Handbags”

The path is three levels deep helping shoppers find the handbag within Apparel & Accessories.

“Apparel & Accessories”

By only supplying the first level of the google_product_category, it is less likely that the product will be returned for search queries such as “handbag”.

EXAMPLES

Google

Product Cate

gory

Note: When preparing a feed for Google Merchant Center with Productsup, we encourage you not to work in the data-mapping tab for mapping categories. Instead, to get the right value for your product category column, you should work on our dedicated “Categories” tab. B


oogle Shopping Feed



This is the link to the landing page you want users to be directed to when they click on a product ad from Google Shopping.

This is one of the most important elements of your feed. If the URL of your product landing page is incorrect, broken or not accessible by Google, your product will be removed from Google Shopping.

Important requirements URL character limit: 2,000

The URL provided in the link attribute must start with ‘http://’ or ‘https://’ and use the

your Merchant Center account

The landing page must work properly (not be under construction or contain an error message) and it must be accessible for Google (not be password protected or anything similar)

The URL in the link attribute must link directly to the product’s landing page. You may include pixel tracking parameters here, but you may not include the adwords redirect tracking. The adwords redirect link can be supplied in a dedicated [adwords_redirect]

The link must begin with your main domain

If your landing page contains different product variants, make sure the URL you provide for the link attribute pre-selects the variant that the user clicked on in Google Shopping.

Optimizing with Productsup “Skip row if isn’t URL” box:

this allows you exclude any products from your export that do have a valid URL, so your feed will go through

those products which require additional information

Analysis feature: scan this attribute column to check for invalid links

5. Link: [link]

1 It creates a bad user experience if, for example, a shopper is looking at a green jacket and clicks on a product and is then directed to a landing page that shows the jacket in red. What’s worse, however, is that if there are price discrepancies, such as when one item is on sale and the other not, failure to provide a link which leads to the exact product being advertised, can lead to your product being removed from Google Shopping.

TIPS

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Product images can make or break your ad’s CTR. Using high quality, appealing imagery will help you convert searchers into buyers.

Important requirements ö Size: Min 32x32 pixels; Max 64

megapixels (For apparel products the minimum is 250 x 250 pixels)

ö Do not scale up images or submit thumbnails

ö The image must be of the actual product

ö No placeholders, graphics or illustrations - real photographs only. If you haven’t got any, you cannot submit the product to Google.

ö Accepted formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP & TIFF

ö No watermarks, logos or text is allowed on the image

ö No promotional text whatsoever

ö Include only one product per image, except for bundles. Images of bundles must show all of the products included in the bundle

ö Do not include borders around the image

6. Image link: [image_link]

EXAMPLES

Recommendations

ö Images should be high resolution and as clear as possible.

ö Try to use images that fill an 800x800 pixel space, or use as much of that space as possible

ö Backgrounds should be white, grey or lightly colored

ö Only update the URL if the actual image of the product has changed

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Optimizing with Productsup ö “Trim image border” box

ö “Skip row if isn’t URL” box: ‘use this rule box and add the condition“if URL not valid”. This allows you to exclude any products from your export that do not meet the Google product specification requirements, so your feed will go through and you still have time to fix those products that require additional information

ö Analysis feature: scan this attribute column to check for invalid links

ö Image crawler service: checks if the image is broken or not available

1 Consider different angles to differentiate your products from those of your competitors and to give the shopper a better idea of your product.

Imag

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7. Condition: [condition]

Optimizing with Productsup“Set condition” box: allows you to set static values for the correct Google terminology. This rule-box is particularly useful if all the items you sell are in the same condition

There are three accepted values when defining the condition of your items:

ö ‘new’: The product is brand-new and has never been used. It is in its original packaging, which has not been opened

ö ‘refurbished’: The product has been professionally restored to working order. It is “as new”, and comes with warranty

ö ‘used’: The product has been used before, or the original packaging has been opened, or is missing

Terms such as “brand new”, “vintage”, “only used once”, “perfect”, “unused” are NOT accepted. B


oogle Shopping Feed



8. Product Type: [product_type]

Product type is your own category taxonomy, rather than the Google category taxonomy. It refers to how your products are grouped in your catalogue or on your website, or the grouping you would consider to be most logical, if they are not grouped already.

Important requirements ö Category path levels must be separated with an > and must have a

space before and after the symbol

Recommendation

As with the google_product_category taxonomy, it is best to submit categories in a format that includes the full path. Including only the highest or the lowest level of the category path will be accepted but it is likely that your product won’t perform as well as it can

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Although product_type is a recommended and not required attribute, we cannot stress its role enough: this is a really important for determining your rankings and should not be ignored. Despite what is commonly thought, product type is even more important than the Google product category.

Product_type is more flexible than the google_product_category so you can include more than one attribute value if your products apply to more than one category, and you can categorize your products in the way you know works best for your target audience. Moreover, when you change your taxonomy structure your campaign structure will change too, to better serve customers looking for your products.

The Google Search algorithm currently appears to use product_type as a factor in determining search relevance. If your product_type is submitted for all products at a granular level (i.e. three or more levels for the path), Google is more likely to list your products for the keywords you wish to rank for.

Make sure your taxonomy path is as granular as it can be.

Build important factors into your product categorization system from the beginning, such as the year (if you’re selling technology, or for products where the model is regularly updated).

Optimizing with Productsup“Split String” box: allows you to split your categories according to the splitter, e.g. the ‘>’ symbol

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EXAMPLES

Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Appliances > Refrigerators

Home & Garden > Refrigerators

Product Ty

pe

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If the mobile-optimized version of your product landing page has a different link to the regular (only designed for desktop) landing page, this must be submitted under mobile_link.

This ensures that your site is properly displayed to shoppers browsing on a mobile device. If your site is responsive, however, this field is not required.

Important requirements ö URL character limit: 2,000

ö The URL provided in the mobile_link attribute must start with ‘http://’ or ‘https://’ and use the domain name you verified either when you created your Merchant Center account

ö The mobile landing page must work properly (not be under construction or contain an error message) and the must be accessible for Google

ö Mobile link must be a clean link with no tracking parameters

ö It must display a product offer that is essentially identical to the product listing you submit to Google in your product feed, regardless of the user’s device, browser, location, cookies or ad targeting choices

9. Mobile link: [mobile_link]

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Not having a responsive or mobile-optimized site will automatically drop your rankings, and can cause your products not to show for shoppers browsing on mobile (phone or tablet) devices. If your site is not already optimized for mobile, treat this as a priority.

Always make sure to test the quality of the mobile experience for users

Show them what you promised in first place. If your landing page contains different product variants, we highly recommend that the mobile_link you provide pre-selects the variant that the user clicked on in Google Shopping. This will likely contribute to higher conversion rates (especially on mobile), because it reduces the clicks required to place an order. It also ensures that the same price and features that convinced the shopper to click in first place appear again, minimizing confusion and possible frustration.

Optimizing with Productsup ö Data crawler service: allows you to check

multiple links/mobile links at once

ö Analysis feature: scan this attribute column to check for invalid links

Mobile lin

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If you have additional images for an item, include them in this attribute.

Important requirements ö A maximum of 10 images can be added per item

ö For tab-delimited links, separate each URL by a comma

ö For XML links, include each URL as a separate <additional_image_link> attribute

ö Refer to point 5 for other rules relating to image link

10. Additional Image Link: [additional_image_link]

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The availability attribute tells Google which items are in stock, which are out of stock and which are available for preorder.

It is very important to make sure this data is always accurate and up-to-date, in order to create a good experience for the shopper. If your item is marked as out of stock, Google will not list it. However, if your item is out of stock, yet listed as in stock, this could not only result in the removal of your products, but your Merchant Center account could be closed too.

11. Availability: [availability]

Important requirements ö The availability attribute has three accepted values:

ö ‘preorder’ - if the preorder value is submitted, it is recommended to submit availability date under the availability_date attribute

ö ‘in stock’ - items identified as ‘in stock’ can be shipped in a timely manner

ö ‘out of stock’ - this can also be assigned to products that you wish to exclude from the feed temporarily

ö Google only wants to know if products are in or out of stock, not how many products are available

ö Make sure you also to include the availability status of the item on your landing page

ö Notify Google of stock changes as they happen

ExceptionsIf a product is custom made and the lead time for availability is longer than usual, display the product as ‘in stock’ but make sure to specify that the shopper will have to wait longer to receive the item. Use the availability_date attribute and the space in your description field to inform shoppers.

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Never delete items from your feed if you plan to continue reselling them at a later point in time, as you will lose the product history. Always continue to include these items, flagged as ‘out of stock’, or simply exclude the items from that particular export. This applies even if your store is temporarily closed, or you wish to pause selling through Google Shopping for a specific time.

If you never plan on selling an item again in the future, remove the product from your feed entirely.

If you export using the Google API, you MUST export out of stock products, otherwise the products will still show in Google Shopping.

Optimizing with Productsup ö “Set availability” box: allows you to

set static availability values using the correct Google terminology. This rule-box is particularly useful if all the items have the same availability status

ö “Skip row if” box: allows you to exclude products that you wish to not sell temporarily from your export

Availa

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As with availability, price is an essential attribute to get right if you don’t want your products to be removed from Google Shopping.

This is the attribute Google is most strict about. If there are any discrepancies between the values you submit under the price attribute and the value displayed on your website / landing page, your product will be removed from Google Shopping. If the discrepancies are found on several occasions, your Google Merchant Center account may be suspended or even closed.

12. Price: [price]

ö If you use “Automatic Item Updates”, Google will update your product if the crawler finds a discrepancy in the price or availability

ö If you don’t use “Automatic Item Updates”, Google will suspend the product if the crawler finds a discrepancy in the price or availability

ö All retailers with a high number of price or availability errors (regardless of whether they use Automatic Item Updates or not) will be at risk of account suspension.

ö

Keep in mind

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Important requirements ö Price submitted under the price

attribute must match the price displayed (prominently) on the product landing page

ö Price value must always include the relevant currency

ö Make sure prices are not only correct, but also displayed in the right format. Incorrect pricing format is a common mistake in product data feeds

ö Products cannot have pricing values of 0.00

ö For products on sale, make sure to submit the regular price (before sale) in the price attribute, and submit the sale price under the sale_price attribute

ö Be sure to check Google’s Specifications as to whether for your country tax must be included in the price or not

ö For pricing requirements concerning specific cases (e.g. products sold in bulk quantities or multiple units) make sure to check Google’s more detailed Pricing and Payments policy

Price

ExceptionsMobile phones and tablets featuring subsidized contracts are the only products can include a price value of 0.00

EXAMPLES

$170.00

$170

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Optimizing with Productsup ö “Make valid price” box:

adjust your pricing format to fit Google’s requirements

ö “Math” box: calculate the minimum price for bulk orders by multiplying (*) by the min_order_quantity value

ö “Append value” box: append the currency to the price

ö “Map-replace” box: replace the pricing symbol

ö “Add VAT” box: allows you to add the VAT amount to the price

ö Price Comparison Service: get key data and insights on competitor pricing to optimize your pricing strategy with the added price watch and comparison service. Market information such as competitor domain, shipping costs and product price is accessible.

ö “Skip row if value in” box: Use this box to skip products that have a value of 0.00

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In order to avoid being penalized for discrepancies, we suggest you consider using the Content API or the product inventory feed (a feed specifically created for inventory management) to export updates more frequently.

Set up automated processing. With more frequent imports from your shop system as well as exports to Google Merchant Center to ensure your prices stay current.

Make sure your pricing strategy is optimized. Assess how your products fare relative to your competitors’ and make necessary internal adjustments (e.g. re-address supplier contracts) to optimize your prices and increase your rankings.

TIPS

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Price

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The availability_date attribute can be used for products identified as “preorder” under availability. It indicates when the item will become available for delivery.

Important requirements ö Character limit: 25

ö Both a date and time must be specified

ö Text format example: 2015-12-25T13:00-0800

13. Availability date: [availability_date] Sales price is a recommended attribute, as promotions naturally draw more shoppers in.

Important requirements ö For products on sale, the sale

price must be submitted under the sale_price attribute

ö Make sure you still submit the regular price (before sale) in the price attribute

ö Sales price must be in the same format as price, and follow the same requirements (see point 12)

ö The values submitted for price and sales_price should not be the same. If sales price and normal price are the same, remove sale_price

14. Sale price: [sale_price]

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This attribute should be used in conjunction with sale_price, in order to indicate the date range during which the sale price applies.

15. Sale price effective date: [sale_price_date]

Optimizing with Productsup ö “Discount: Define Time Range”

box: this allows you to define the time range in which you want your sale to take part

ö “Compare columns” box: this allows you to look at the values and compare them, e.g. compare sale_price with price and if the sale_price is the same as the price it can leave the export column empty

EXAMPLE

2011-03-01T13:00-0800/2011-03-11T15:30-0800

Note: If you are submitting the sale_price attribute and do not also submit the sale_price_effective_date attribute, the sale_price will show for your item as soon as the Google Merchant Center processes your updated feed.

Important requirements ö Sales_price effective date must specify the date

and time in the format: (YYYY-MM-DD), followed by the letter ‘T’, the time of the day when the sale starts, followed by an expression of the time zone for the sale, as defined by the ISO 8601 standard.

ö The end date should be in the same format, separated from the start date with a “/“.

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Unique Product Identifiers (UPIs) pinpoint the product you’re selling in the global marketplace.

As of September 2015 it is an essential requirement to include these in your feed where applicable. UPIs tell Google exactly which products you’re selling, which makes it easier for the search engine to classify and display them, and easier for users to find them. Failure to include the UPI when it exists could result in the item being removed from Google Shopping.

In a blog post Google admitted “Early experiments indicate that offers matched to the catalogue receive up to 40% more user clicks than those that do not”.

Important requirements ö If your product is sold as condition “new” and belongs to one of

the designated brands, it is mandatory* to submit your product’s brand and GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) values

ö GTINs and product identifiers must be valid

*Please check your country specifications.

What Unique Product Identifiers can I choose from?

There are three different attributes available:

Brand [brand] (Manufacturer Brand Name)

GTIN [gtin] (Global Trade Item Numbers) - UPC (Universal Product Number) - EAN (European Article Number) - JAN (Japanese Article Number) - ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

MPN [mpn] (Manufacturer Part Numbers) - MPN is required if the retailer has a valid brand but no GTIN (for categories/brands where GTIN is not required)

16. Unique product identifiers: [gtin], [mpn], [brand]

Learn how to locate your product’s GTIN, with Google’s guide to finding a product’s GTIN.

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http://googlecommerce.blogspot.de/2015/09/reach-more-customers-online-add-gtins.html




ExceptionsThe following products do not require UPIs: ö Custom goods or one-of-a-kind items, like custom

T-shirts, art, and perishables. For custom goods you can supply the identifier_exists attribute

ö Goods produced before UPIs were introduced, such as vintage goods, antiques, books published before 1970, and other special items

ö Products sold as availability “preorder”

ö For products from a designated brand where no valid GTIN exists (e.g. when you are the only merchant selling a product or for replacement parts), there will be a new feature in the Google Merchant Center to allow you to request a review of disapproved offers

Did you know?Including UPIs is also

one of the most effective ways to rank for highly competitive keywords.

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In the case of apparel: manufacturer brand is required for all new products. If you include this at the beginning of your titles, especially if it’s a strong brand, will help improve the ranking of your products.

All other categories (apart from media products) require two of the three UPIs.

Optimizing with Productsup ö “Detect brand” box: detects whether the brand appears in a

particular column

ö Merge feeds: For merchants with product feeds in the thousands, it can be difficult to locate the UPIs for every product. If you choose to outsource this task, you can use the Productsup Platform to merge a separate feed containing the UPIs with your product data.

Unique

product

identifi

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Important requirements ö If you have a “parent SKU” that is shared by all variants of a product,

provide this as the value for item_group_id

ö If variants in your item group differ by more than one attribute, you must submit one item per product variant combination, e.g. if a sofa is available in 4 colors, 2 sizes and 3 different materials, you must submit a total of 24 items

ö The values provided for item_group_id must be unique between products, and only shared by items that are variants of the same product

ö If an item uses item_group_id, make sure the item has at least one detailed product attribute, e.g. color, gender, size

ö The following items are not considered variants under the Google Shopping specifications: condition; or items that form part of a set (e.g. matching jacket and trousers, accessories and their related main products, a set of furniture that matches)

The item group ID is the shared identifier for all variants of the same product.

This attribute can be used to group products which are available in a range of sizes, colors, etc.

17. Item group ID: [item_group_id_]

1 It is important to provide unique URLs for each product variant as the product displayed on the product landing page should match the product the shopper clicked through from in Google Shopping.

Optimizing with ProductsupSplit / merge variants services: allow you to merge separate variants into one column or split variants into separate columns. This can be useful if you have many variants of one product in one row (i.e. listed as one product) and would like to split them into individual products.

TIPS

Note: For select countries, item_group_id is required for items with variants that use any of the specified detailed product attributes. Please check the Google Product Feed Specifications for your country.

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1 If you are unsure of which color name is most standard, it is best to test several keywords to see which one is searched for most.

Optimizing with Productsup ö “Translate Colors” box: allows you to

translate colors that do not match the attribute language (this rule-box can be used for feeds in English, German and French)

ö “Detect Color” box: if you have missing values in your color column, the Productsup software can detect the color in your description and add it to your color column

18. Color: [color]

The color attribute identifies the main color of the item.

Important requirements ö Make sure all colors are

accurate and correct. Products displaying colors that do not match those featured on the product landing page will be removed from Google Shopping

ö For variants, each different color option must be submitted as its own individual item, both on Google Shopping, and for their corresponding product landing pages

ö Use consistent, standard color names, (e.g. Red instead of Fifth Avenue, which is a popular lipstick color that has come to be associated with a particular red)

ö Multiple colors of an item must be separated with ‘/’ (e.g. red/pink/blue)

ö For items such as jewelry or wooden accessories where finishes or materials are equivalent to color, the finish or material name can be submitted in the color attribute, e.g., ‘Mahogany’, ‘Stainless Steel’, ‘Rose Gold’

ö Color values cannot contain numbers

ö Color values cannot contain non-alphanumeric characters (e.g. #fff000)

ö Color values must be written in full and cannot make reference to the image (e.g. ‘see image’)

TIPS

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Important requirementsThere are only five accepted attributes: ö newborn

ö infant

ö toddler

ö kids

ö adult

Gender is a very valuable and required attribute for some products, particularly apparel and shoes.

Important requirements ö The values accepted for gender are:

ö Male ö Female ö Unisex

ö Terms such as “women”, “woman”, “boy”, “man”, etc. are NOT accepted

19. Gender: [gender]

The age group attribute can be used for items that vary by age group.

20. Age group: [age_group]

Optimizing with Productsup ö “Set Gender by Regex” box: provide regular

expressions for men and women (e.g. female: girl|women|ladies & male: boys|younger men|gentlemen). Everything that doesn’t match will become unisex, everything that does match will be put in its category.

ö “Set Gender” box: sets the gender to the standard values as identified by Google. This is particularly useful if all the products in your feed belong to the same gender

ö “Text Replace” box: use this to replace a specific word with the correct value, (e.g. replace “Men” with “Male”)

Optimizing with Productsup“Set Age Group by Regex” box: allows you to set an age group by a regular expression

Note: For certain items and countries this attribute is legally required. Please make sure you check the requirements for your case.

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Pattern is a recommended feature for all products for which pattern is an important, distinguishing attribute.

22. Pattern: [pattern]

The material of the product is required for all items for which material is an important, distinguishing attribute.

21. Material: [material]

Where a dress might have two patterns available: ‘polka dot’ or ‘striped’, a T-shirt might have two

different prints available: ‘bears’ or ‘tigers’ for the respective U.S. sports teams.

EXAMPLERecommendation

Multiple materials can be submitted using ‘/’ to separate the different materials.

Recommendation

The pattern attribute can also be used to submit either the pattern or the graphic print featured on a product.

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The size attribute is required for all products within an item group that vary by size, e.g. apparel and shoes.

It can also be submitted in conjunction with size_type and size_system attributes for any items where you want to specify further details about the sizing.

For accepted sizing values for your country, please check the Google Product Feed Specifications.

Important requirements ö If sizes contain multiple dimensions,

condense them into one value, e.g., “16/34 Tall” for neck size 16 inches, sleeve length 34 inches, and “Tall” fit

ö For items where the size is “one size fits all” or “one size fits most”, you may submit any the following values: “one size”, “OS”, “one size fits all”, “OSFA”, “one size fits most”, or “OSFM”

23. Size: [size]

Recommendation

The product link should lead to a page that displays the item in the same size as was shown on Google Shopping

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When an item applies to a special size group, such as “Plus”, “Petite”, “Maternity”, or “Big and Tall”, use the size_type attribute in combination with size.

When an item includes an inseam, we recommend you use the following format for the size: 30 Short, 30 Regular, 30 Long.

TIPS

Note: In the case of phones and laptops size specifies the dimensions of the screen, not the storage.

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Size type is a relatively new category for apparel, giving you the opportunity to add terms such as “petite”, “big and tall” etc.

These keyword terms are extremely valuable. Someone searching for “Petite dresses” for example, will likely be a highly qualified lead.

Important requirements ö ‘Size type’ must match the manufacturer’s

sizing of the item.

ö Only use one of the following accepted values for size_type: 1. regular2. petite3. plus

4. big and tall5. maternity

24. Size type: [size_type]

The size_system attribute can be used to indicate the country’s sizing system in which you are submitting your item.

Important requirements

ö There are 11 accepted values: US, UK, EU, DE, FR, JP, CN (China), IT, BR, MEX, AU

1 When the attribute is not specified, the default values are based on your target country. In order to ensure accurate representation of the sizing of your item, we recommend you include this attribute for all apparel items.

25. Size system: [size_system]

TIPS

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The shipping attribute has four sub-attributes:

Country (optional): The country to which an item will be delivered. The default value for this sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.

Geographic area (optional): There are four sub-attributes supported to specify a geographic area where a shipping rate applies: region, postal code, location ID, or location group name required. Only necessary for U.S., Australia and Japan.

Service (optional): The name of the shipping method, specifying the class or delivery speed.

Price (required): This is the fixed delivery price and includes VAT. The shipping price should be provided if you want to specify the exact shipping cost for a particular product, overriding the default shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings.

Important requirements ö Only include direct-to-consumer rates, not ship-to-store delivery rates

ö Shipping costs must be submitted in the same format as the product price attribute

ö The general format is: Country : Region : Service : Price – yet you can exclude any of the three optional values.

26. Shipping: [shipping]

EXAMPLES

DE::Standard:5,DE::Express:12.47

DE::Standard:6.29EUR,AT::Standard:8.99CHF

DE::Standard:0,AT::Standard:8.99

USA:CA:Standard:5.90$

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Adding currency to your shipping price is not mandatory. If you choose to leave it off, Google will default to the currency of the country in question, e.g. the Euro for Germany. To avoid mistakes however, we recommend you include it.

Shipping costs must be submitted in the same format as the product price attribute, i.e. 25.00€

For deliveries to Germany it is not necessary to include the region, as it is small enough, For deliveries in the U.S., however, this becomes very important.

You can include multiple deliveries in one go, separated by a comma

We recommend that you eliminate all free space tabs

If you do not use one of the optional values, such as region, simply leave it blank. This may cause two colons to appear right next to each other.

If a certain shipping method is free, simply add 0 at price.

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Shipping

TIPS

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The shipping weight attribute allows you to enter the product weight that can be used to calculate the shipping cost of the item.

If you have specified a shipping method that is dependent on shipping weight (set up in the Merchant Center), this attribute will be used to calculate the shipping cost of the item automatically.

Important requirements ö The weight must include a number and a unit of weight

ö The following units are accepted: lb, oz, g, kg

27. Shipping Weight: [shipping_weight]

The shipping label attribute is your opportunity to add any important labels relevant to handling.

Shipping labels can be useful to include if you want to apply different shipping rates for items with certain labels.

28. Shipping Label: [shipping_label]

EXAMPLES

ö 3kg

ö 2oz

EXAMPLES

ö perishable

ö bulky

ö promotion

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The multi_pack and is_bunde attributes allow you to group products together and sell them for a single price.

29. Product combination labels: [multipack], [is_bundle]

[multipack]Multipacks allows for the sale of items in bulk, submitted as one item. Products submitted as multipack items must be a group of identical products sold together, e.g. 6 wine glasses.

Important requirements ö The multipack attribute must only

indicate the number of products that are included in the merchant’s pack

ö Manufacturer-defined multipacks should be submitted as individual products

ö The price attribute for multipack products must contain the total price for the multipack

ö The main image of the multipack must display the base product: the single manufacturer-defined product that is the base item of the multipack

ö The description of the product should also contain the number of products in the multipack and the word “multipack”

[is_bundle]Merchant-defined (note: not manufacturer-defined) bundles are custom groupings of different products defined by a merchant and sold together for a single price. A bundle features a main item sold with various accessories or add-ons.

Important requirements ö Only use the is_bundle attribute for bundles

that clearly have a main item. For items that do not have a main item, such as a gift basket containing cheese and crackers, do not use the is_bundle attribute, instead submit these items as a single product

ö The title, description, image and price refer to the entire bundle

ö For google_product_category, product_type, item_group_id, variant attributes and the UPI must refer to the main item in the bundle

ö A doll sold with a set of clothes that aren’t packed with the doll: the doll is the main item and the clothes complement it

ö A video game console sold with three video games: the video game console is the main item

ö Mobile phones submitted with a contract

ö A phone, a case, and a replacement battery

ö

EXAMPLES

Note: For specific questions regarding products submitted under the is_bundle attribute, please check the Google Feed Specifications.

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The adult attribute ensures appropriate content is shown to an appropriate audience.

Submitting the adult attribute for adult-oriented content (with or without nudity) is essential for products to be shown. Failure to do this means any adult-oriented products will be removed from Google Shopping. If unsure, please check whether your products fall within this category.

AdWords labels allow you to specify a unique URL that can be used to track traffic coming from Google Shopping.

Important requirements ö If this attribute is provided, you must

make sure that the URL submitted under adwords_redirect will redirect to the same page as the URLs provided for the link and mobile_link attributes. These tracking parameters can be added within the AdWords interface or on the Productsup Platform.

ö Character limit 2000

Optimizing with Productsup“Add/change link parameter” box: this can be used to add a campaign tracking parameter to your link

31. AdWords redirect [adwords_redirect]

EXAMPLE

http://www.yourflowershop.com/redroses.html

30. Adult labels [adult]

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[custom_label_0], [custom_label_1], [custom_label_2], [custom_label_3], [custom_label_4]

The best way to organize your inventory is by assigning custom labels to each of your product groups. You have the option to assign up to five of these.

Essentially custom labels are the categories that aren’t already in your existing taxonomy - those you would probably use for internal purposes only.

They help you group products that you are likely going to want to bid differently on, such as “best sellers”, “seasonal products”, “promotions”, “brands” or “profit margins”. If you want to be able to target all of your best sellers with a higher bid for example, you need to make sure you have tagged each product with “best seller”. Products can be subdivided based on existing data from the product_category, brand, product_id, condition, product_type, and custom label attributes.

You will need to assign a definition for each of the five custom labels and specify the possible values for each, assigning them to the appropriate products in your data feed.

Custom labels are numbered 0 through 4.

32. Custom labels: [custom_label_X]

Custom label

Definition / Objectives

Possible custom label values

0 SeasonalSpring-summerFall-winter

1 PromotionsFlash saleClearanceCo-marketing deal

2 Selling rateBest sellerLow seller

3 MarginsHigh marginLow margin

4 Release year20132014

EXAMPLES

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Important requirements ö You should assign a definition for each

of the five custom labels and specify the possible values for each

ö Since custom labels are used to group products, the limit of products in a custom label grup is 1000. If you assign more products (or SKUs) with the same custom label, only the first 1,000 products belonging to one custom label will be allowed.

ö Each of the five custom labels can only have one value per product

ö Include only one custom label per column

ö Character limit 100

1 Use custom labels consistently across the products in your Merchant Center account, assigning appropriate values to each product according to your definition so that you are able to refine your bidding for various groups of products.

Custom la

bels

TIPS

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Unit prices are only relevant for EU countries and Switzerland.

33. Unit prices: [unit_pricing_measure], [unit_pricing_base_measure]

ö 1.5kg

ö 135ml

ö 75cl

EXAMPLES

Note: Make sure to check the legal requirements for your country before submitting data (for EU countries, see the national implementation acts of the EU directive 98/6/EC).

[unit_pricing_base_measure]

Important Requirements ö Format: integer value + unit

ö The unit price base measure must have an integer value of either 1, 10, or 100.

ö 10cm ö 3sm ö 55gEXAMPLES

[unit_pricing_measure]

Important Requirements ö The unit price must refer to the

weight, volume and dimensions of the product without any packaging, or the net drained weight of the product in the case of food

ö Format: numerical value + unit

ö The numerical value must be a positive number

ö Accepted units: Weight (mg, g, kg), volume (ml, cl, l, cbm), length (cm, m), and area (sqm)

Note: The unit price will be rounded to the nearest amount allowed in the local currency. “.5“ values will be rounded up.

Unit_pricing_measure and unit_pricing_base_measure must use the same type of measurement. You cannot use weight units for one and volume units for the other

Keep in mind

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For feeds targeting European Union countries and Switzerland: it is strongly recommended to supply the energy efficiency class where applicable.

Products that might require this attribute include, but are not limited to: refrigerators, freezers, combined washer-driers, wine-storage appliances, washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers, ovens, water heaters and hot water storage appliances, air conditioners, electrical lamps and luminaires, and televisions.

34. Energy labels: [energy_efficiency_class]

Note: In some cases this is a legal requirement. Please check the legal requirements for your country.

ö G

ö F

ö E

ö D

ö C

ö B

ö A

ö A+

ö A++

ö A+++

EXAMPLES

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This attribute specifies the unique ID of a promotion.

For retailers using merchant promotions, the promotions_id allows you to map a specific promotion to a set of products in your product data feed. The values submitted to the promotion_id attribute in your product feed should match the values submitted to the product_id attribute in your promotions feed (a separate feed you need to submit to Google, which you can also export via Productsup). This feed lets Google know which products belong to the promotion.

Important requirements ö The promotion_id is case sensitive. Make

sure the values are an exact match for each of the submitted values

ö To add multiple promotion_id values to an item, submit the values separated by a comma

ö Up to 10 promotion id’s can be mapped to one item in the products feed

ö Do NOT include spaces or symbols in the promotions_id, such as %, !, etc.

35. Merchant promotions: [promotions_id]

1 Adjusting your bids according to demand or sales peaks means you stay competitive. During these periods it is particularly important to monitor the click-through rates (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC) of your competitors.

Google automatically highlights price drops and other related promotional messages. However it’s advised you continue to use merchant promotions to highlight special offers on your sites that have offer codes.

Optimizing with ProductsupAdd sale parameters: An easy way to make sure your feed displays the correct price and shipping information during sale periods (and for the correct amount of time) is by setting parameters within the Productsup Platform

2

TIPS

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The expiration_date attribute allows you to specify an expiration date that is earlier than the Google Shopping default: 30 days.

Important requirements ö Format: YYYY-MM-DD

ö Character limit: 10

ö You cannot use this attribute to extend the expiration period to longer than 30 days.

These additional attributes allow you to control the destination of your items, and the period for which your items are valid.

36. Additional attributes [expiration_date], [excluded_destination]

2015-12-22

EXAMPLENote: date based on GMT

The exclude_destination attribute prevents an item from appearing in certain destinations even though it appears in your product data.

ö Case: You might want your products to appear in a dynamic remarketing campaign but not on Google Search.

ö Attribute value: “Shopping”

EXAMPLES

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There are also some additional attributes to bear in mind for specific countries:

ö The installment attribute (for Brazil) allows you to apply payment by installment

ö The loyalty points attribute (for Japan) allows you to specify the number of loyalty points a customer receives when they purchase a product.

Check the Google Product Feed Specifications to see which additional attributes apply for your country.

37. Attributes for specific countries: installment, loyalty points

Optimizing with Productsup“Math” box: price / [amount of months]: allows you to calculate the amount to be paid per installment

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TOP TIPS

General top tips for creating and managing your Google Shopping Feed

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Start by editing only a sample 1000 products as this will be quicker and allow you to get things right before you apply the changes to the rest of the products in your feed.

Make sure column names and values are in the same language, e.g. if your attribute title “condition” is in English, the attribute values, such as “new”, must be in English too.

Be honest and factual, describe products clearly and accurately and include only the most relevant information.

Always submit information that is easy to understand for shoppers.

Use standard spelling and grammar across your feed, as well as standard terms for attributes such as color.

Use consistent size values across products of the same category, e.g. within a group of T-shirts, use “S”, “M”, and “L” as sizes, and not “S”, “Medium”, and “Lrg”.

Don’t use offensive or inappropriate language.

Avoid “keyword stuffing” - forced repetition will harm your placement.

Make sure to include valuable differentiating terms such as “customizable”, “petite” etc.

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Review your Search Query Report to see how your customers are searching and ensure you are including the right keywords.

Check how products are performing on different marketplaces. If you notice a product is becoming a hot sale on Amazon for example, consider editing your Shopping campaign structure or bids to enhance that trend.

Revisit historical performance data to stay ahead of seasonal trends. Last year’s data holds a lot of insight that can drive this year’s strategy.

Export to the Google FTP directly, so the data is not stored in any other place but goes directly to the Merchant Center.

Always export a test feed first. We have found instances where error reports have been delivered even where all of Google’s requirements have been met.

Make sure your export file is in the right coding format. Productsup uses UTF8 as a standard, which is Google approved.

Update your product data feed at the same time that you update your website, e.g. if you update your website every night at 12am, you should send your feed to the Google Merchant Center FTP shortly after 12am too.

If you update your website multiple times per day, submit your feed several times per day too. If the prices and availabilities of your products change even more frequently than that, you should provide updates only for the individual items which have seen changes.

Compress all feeds. There’s no downside to doing this, and the upside is both faster transmission time and a better failure mode when the transmission partially fails. When text files are corrupt they still go through without a warning, but the number of live products can drop by half. When compressed files are corrupt they are not processed at all. Productsup sets this as a standard for all Google Merchant Center exports.

Even though Google regularly checks for feed updates and ensures your latest product data is used, keep in mind that for very large and complex product feeds that are submitted in a file format, it may sometimes take up to 48 hours for updates to start showing in results.

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III.Google will likely be updating its Online Products Feed Specifications and Requirements on a yearly basis, however new features are always being tested.

Here are some of the things we have found to be on the horizon for the near future*: ö More emphasis is to be placed on

automated bid strategies, with more options being introduced for Target Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)

ö Merchants will have more visibility in AdWords about data quality, e.g. they will be able to see the percentage of products which are not eligible to serve due to data issues

ö Local Shopping is set to become only more valuable. Retailers are seeing the value, but often need to work through organization challenges so that store budgets are used to fund Google’s Local Inventory Ads (LIAs) rather than online budgets

ö A better buying experience on mobile. A redesign of the Google Shopping vertical has been recently released to better resemble a mobile app, letting shoppers tap and swipe to navigate through the pages. New features such as Google Wallet have also been introduced.

ö Purchases on Google (Buy buttons) will create big opportunities by raising the bar on the data quality: while the failure mode (bad data) for PLAs is a wasted click and an annoyed consumer, the failure mode for a Purchase on Google is a returned item or cancelled order and a very upset consumer. Purchases on Google is currently being rolled out across the U.S. with plans to have the feature fully rolled out sometime in 2016

ö Google Express has recently been launched for a much faster delivery on a range of products, such as groceries, whereby it aims to take on Amazon Fresh

ö Google is currently in beta phase with Shopping Insights. Shopping Insights will reveal the products that people are searching for across cities, time and devices. As Google reports, this is another “another step towards helping retailers connect with consumers in moments that matter, by making data about shopping habits and preferences more accessible.”

1 Make sure you stay on top of these changes as the earlier you adopt them when they become available, the sooner you can enhance your Shopping campaigns.

A great way to keep on top of changes is with experimentation and testing. Google Shopping utilizes machine learning, so there are no clear rules as the algorithms constantly change. To discover best practices you have to use experiments.

Upcoming Google Shopping Features

*Updated: 09.2015

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http://adwords.blogspot.de/2015/11/google-helps-you-shop-between-holiday.html

https://wallet.google.com

https://wallet.google.com

http://mashable.com/2015/09/08/google-express-fresh-groceries/#GFBDpsV6vSkA

http://mashable.com/2015/09/08/google-express-fresh-groceries/#GFBDpsV6vSkA

http://adwords.blogspot.de/2015/10/shopping-insights-what-are-people-shopping-for-near-your-stores.html


Productsup is the leading solution for product data management and feed optimization.

The SaaS firm introduced a cloud-based platform that has changed the way that product data is being handled. Marketers can quickly and easily distribute high quality, custom product data feeds to unlimited shopping and marketing channels.

About ProductsupIV.

Is your Google Shopping feed the best it can be? If you have any more questions about creating a high quality Google Shopping feed or you’d just like to learn more about how we can help you simplify the product feed management process in general, get in touch at [email protected].

Feel free to continue to the conversation and share your feedback with us:

E-commerce merchants, agencies and data aggregators have improved internal processes and increased the scale and profitability of their global sales through hundreds of online channels, such as Google Shopping, eBay, Amazon, CJ Affiliate by Conversant, Facebook, Criteo and many more.

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Documents

Best Practice Guide: Google Shopping Feed · 2018-05-24 · template and advanced data mapping features, so marketers can analyze the status of their product feed before they upload