The Google Merchant Center data feed has two supported formats: tab-delimited (spreadsheet) or XML feed. In the vast majority of cases, the XML feed is used – except perhaps when it is difficult for you to create a feed, just want to test something at a speed, or offer a single product (or product units) for which prices and stock change more often.
Feed structure
Feed contains product information. The information for each product is separated by the - tag. It contains additional attributes, such as or <g: id> with a certain value (such as a specific product name or its ID).</p>
<p>Some attributes are required and the product could not be approved for advertising without them at all. E.g. without URL image, title or price it will not work. Others are optional, include extra information that may be used by Google to better classify products or be useful for structuring your campaigns.</p>
<p>Some disciplines have specific attributes (eg fashion or size) that are not used at all for other products. For some product categories or product types, some attributes are additionally required – such as “adult” for items with a sexual context or “is_bundle” if you sell a package of multiple products. In addition, the obligation and optional attributes may vary slightly depending on the country you’re targeting.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, you don’t really need to know the entire feed specification by heart. The important thing is that the programmer can properly feed the feed, so that you know the principles behind it and can find the bug and fix the feed if some products fail approval.</p>
<p>Also in this article I will focus only on the most important and more often problematic attributes. You can also refer to the Google specification for more specific industry specifics and additional information about each attribute.</p>
<p>Basic Product Information<br />
[id] – product identifier<br />
[title] – product name<br />
[description] – product description<br />
[google_product_category] – Google product categories<br />
[product_type] – our own categorization<br />
[link] – landing page<br />
[mobile_link] – mobile landing page<br />
[image_link] – Image URL<br />
[additional_image_link] – URL of the next image<br />
[condition] – status (new, used)</p>
<p>[id]<br />
The product identifier must be unique (no other product in the feed will have the same ID) and fixed (send the product once with this ID, you should never send it again with another).</p>
<p>The [id] attribute is also useful in your campaign structure – you can target a specific product based on the feed ID, and you can assign a higher bid to it.</p>
<p>If you also use dynamic remarketing, keep in mind that the Google Merchant [id] attribute for each product must be the same as the ecomm_prodid parameter in the remarketing code. Without this, the correct pairing will not occur and the user will not be displaying in the banner the products they have already viewed.</p>
<p>[title]<br />
The product name is one of the attributes that can be seen directly in your ad. It can have a maximum of 150 characters, but will typically not show more than 70. When creating it, it’s important to keep this in mind and put the key user information at the top of the headline – some products will be brand, others product category or color etc.</p>
<p>The second meaning of the headline is the chance of showing on search queries. It is from the product name that Google takes information to determine which products are relevant to the search query.</p>
<p>[description]<br />
Your callout can only be up to 5000 characters long and appears only when searching on Google in the Shopping tab.</p>
<p>[image_link]<br />
The image URL must start with http: // or https: // and must have up to 2000 characters. The image itself must be at least 100 x 100 pixels (250 x 250 for fashion), it must be a product image (not a placeholder image), without a watermark, promotion text, or borders.</p>
<p>It is important for the image to be of good quality, occupying as much space as possible in a square box (it was edge to edge, not a slippery picture in the middle of a white box), to characterize the product as well as to attract the user’s attention.</p>
<p>[product_type]<br />
Product type (or more precisely, category) is an optional attribute, but is often important for campaign structure. This is because if you want to create multiple Shopping Ads campaigns by category, you need to include the categorization information in your product feed (in the [product_type] attribute).</p>
<p>In addition, the [product_type] attribute has a hierarchical structure in which you can work with up to 5 category levels. Individual subcategories are separated by> (larger). For example, the attribute value might look like this: Toys> Soft Toys> Teddy Bears (where Toys are Level 1 product type, Teddy Bears are Level 3 product type).</p>
<p>Note that using the correct> delimiter is important when working with campaigns so that you can navigate the category hierarchy correctly. So choose first among the main categories, then go to subcategories of that category, etc.</p>
<p>Because for Zboží.cz this separator is (vertical bar), it sometimes happens that the feed creator just forgets to properly edit the Google Merchant delimiter, and all subcategories (which will require hundreds) will be a product of Level 1. This is extremely confusing and cannot be done well.</p>
<p>You are not limited in what categories you choose, you can choose the category tree and category names you want. Typically by site structure. This typically distinguishes [product_type] from [google_product_category].</p>
<p>[google_product_category]<br />
Sort by Google. The categorization must match Google’s taxonomy, so you can’t think of categories and their names as with the [product_type] attribute. They are clearly given, you just have to fit them on each product. This can help Google better distinguish the product, which can also help you show your ad on a broader range of queries (even if you don’t include “watch” in your product name, Google knows it is).</p>
<p>Therefore, although this attribute is optional for most disciplines, I recommend using it. It is required in the categories clothing, media and software.</p>
<p>Price and availability<br />
Only products that are in stock or pre-ordered can be promoted on Google Shopping Ads. And all products must have the stated final price.</p>
<p>[availability] – availability<br />
[in_stock] – in stock<br />
[out_of_stock] – out of stock<br />
[preorder] – preorder<br />
[price] – price<br />
[sale_price] – action price<br />
[sale_price_effective_date] – the duration of the sale price<br />
[preorder]</p>
<p>You must also use the [availability_date] attribute to advertise goods that can only be pre-ordered so far.</p>
<p>Unique product identifiers<br />
These attributes can distinguish a particular product or its classification worldwide.</p>
<p>[gtin] – GTIN (Global Trade International Number)<br />
[mpn] – MPN (Manufacturer Part Number)<br />
[brand] – the brand<br />
[identifier_exists] – existence of a unique identifier<br />
[Gtin] and [brand] are required for regular products, [mpn] is recommended. For products that do not have GTIN, [mpn] and [brand] are required.</p>
<p>[gtin]<br />
The GTIN product identifier can be UPC, EAN, JAN, or ISBN. Our terms apply to EAN (Europian Article Number) and ISBN (for books). The attribute is required if the product has one. Products that do not have it, for example, antiques – EAN coding was created in 1970, so products older production logically do not.</p>
<p>[identifier_exists]<br />
If the product has neither GTIN nor MPN, the [identifier_exists] attribute is false. This applies to the aforementioned antiques, custom-made goods or own production.</p>
<p>You may only use this attribute correctly if GTIN and MPN do not exist. It’s not that if you sell classic refrigerators, but you don’t know their EANs, you can do it this way.</p>
<p>Item groups<br />
The attribute for groups is useful for similar items that differ in detailed attributes (eg color, size, material, etc.).</p>
<p>[item_group_id] – Group ID<br />
[item_group_id]<br />
Different product variants are grouped into one group using the same group ID. For example:</p>
<p> Product ID Group ID<br />
Blue T-shirt 1 G1<br />
Green T-shirt 2 G1<br />
Red T-shirt 3 G1<br />
Red pants 4 G2<br />
Blue pants 5 G2<br />
Detailed product attributes<br />
Detailed product attributes are industry-specific:</p>
<p>[color] – color<br />
[size] – size<br />
[size_system] – size table<br />
[size_type] – size type<br />
[pattern] – pattern<br />
[material] – material<br />
[gender]<br />
[age_group] – age group<br />
Transport<br />
The shipping price is mandatory. However, the pricing for each shipping option can be set globally for all feed products directly in Google Merchant, then the feed is not required. If it is not filled in Merchant, it is required in the feed. If you fill in both, the feed price is superior – for example, if you have different shipping conditions for some selected items (eg fragile, heavy, bulky).</p>
<p>[shipping] – shipping cost</p>
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