Product feeds
The product feed checklist we run before Shopping
Google matches Shopping queries to product data, not to bids. The feed checklist we work through on every store before spending on Shopping or Performance Max.
By CartKernel · Published
Every Shopping campaign is built on the feed underneath it. Bids decide how much you pay when Google chooses to show a product; the feed decides whether Google chooses to show it at all, and for which queries. On most stores we audit, the feed is the default export from the platform and nobody has opened it since launch. This is the checklist we run before we touch campaign settings.
Eligibility first: is the product even in the auction?
Nothing else matters until products are approved and active.
- Disapprovals and limited items. Open the Diagnostics tab in Merchant Center and sort by affected products. Price and availability mismatches, missing shipping data, and image issues account for most of it. Fix the source, not the symptom: if prices mismatch, the fetch schedule or a currency rounding rule is wrong, and it will happen again.
- Identifiers. Products with a manufacturer GTIN need it in the feed. Missing or wrong GTINs reduce visibility and, for some brands, cause disapproval. Custom or handmade products without a GTIN should set
identifier_existsto false rather than inventing one. - Availability sync. An out-of-stock product still listed as in stock earns clicks that land on an empty page and a policy warning. Check how often the feed refreshes against how often inventory changes.
- Website requirements. Contact details, a return policy, secure checkout and consistent prices between page and feed. These are Merchant Center account-level policies, and a failure suspends everything, not one product.
Titles: the field that decides query matching
Google’s own guidance says the title is one of the most important attributes. It is also the one most stores leave as the product name from the catalog. A title that reads “Trail Runner 3” tells Google almost nothing; “Men’s Trail Running Shoe, Waterproof, Wide Fit, Size 11, Grey” matches the queries a buyer actually types.
Our working structure, adjusted per category:
| Category | Title pattern |
|---|---|
| Apparel | Brand + Gender + Product type + Key attribute + Colour + Size |
| Consumer electronics | Brand + Product name + Model + Key spec + Colour |
| Home and furniture | Brand + Product type + Material + Size or dimensions + Colour |
| Beauty | Brand + Product line + Product type + Size or volume + Variant |
| Food and supplements | Brand + Product + Flavour or variant + Pack size + Quantity |
Put the most query-relevant words first. Titles truncate on mobile, so the first 70 characters carry most of the weight. Build titles as rules in a supplemental feed or a feed tool rather than editing by hand, then roll changes out in batches and watch impression share. Wholesale title rewrites reset product history; a category at a time is safer.
Attributes that filters and queries depend on
Shoppers filter by colour, size, material and gender; Google matches on the same fields. Fill them from your catalog data so every variant carries the values.
google_product_categorymapped to the most specific node that fits, not the top level.product_typeset to your own taxonomy path, which Google uses as a matching signal and which you will use for campaign segmentation.color,size,material,pattern,gender,age_groupon every variant where relevant.item_group_idlinking variants so Google shows the right one and does not treat each colour as a separate product.sale_priceandsale_price_effective_daterather than overwriting the base price during promotions, so price drops are recognised as such.
Descriptions and images
Descriptions matter less than titles for matching but still count, and they show in some surfaces. Replace manufacturer boilerplate with the first 500 characters that describe what the product is, what it is for and what makes it different. Images should show the product on a white or plain background for the main image, at least 800 pixels on the shortest side, without promotional text or watermarks, which are policy violations.
Custom labels: the feed as a campaign strategy
Custom labels are where the feed becomes a bidding tool. We set five on most stores:
- Margin tier: high, mid, low, from actual gross margin per product.
- Price band: so low-price items do not share a target ROAS with high-price ones.
- Performance: bestseller, steady, new, clearance, refreshed weekly from sales data.
- Seasonality: the window in which the product should get budget.
- Stock depth: deep, normal, low, so you stop paying to sell the last two units.
Campaign structure, budgets and target ROAS then follow the labels, and the structure maintains itself as the catalog changes.
Supplemental feeds and rules
Almost everything above can be done without touching the platform’s export. A supplemental feed in Merchant Center, keyed on product ID, overrides or adds attributes. Feed rules apply transformations at the account level. Together they mean title structures, category mappings and labels can be built and tested without a development cycle, and rolled back in minutes if needed.
What to monitor after launch
Feeds decay. Products go out of stock, prices change, new items arrive without attributes. We watch three things weekly: the count of active versus submitted products, new disapprovals, and price-competitiveness reports for the products carrying the most spend. A drop in active products is usually the first sign of a sync problem, and catching it on Monday rather than at month end is the difference between a blip and a lost week.
If your feed is still the default export, this checklist will typically take a few days of work and will change Shopping performance more than any campaign setting could.