Google Shopping product feed: attributes, titles, GTINs and disapprovals

What a product feed is and where it is used

With search ads you write the text yourself. With Shopping, Google builds the ad from the data you send. The photo, the price and the title a shopper sees all come straight from your feed. That is why data quality decides whether a product appears, for which searches it appears and how convincing it looks.

One feed supplies several surfaces: Shopping ads in standard campaigns, free listings in Google results (in countries where they are available) and Performance Max campaigns that include your products. If you run an online shop, the feed is usually the foundation of your visibility on Google Shopping.

Terms you will see

Merchant Center is the Google account where you upload the feed and check the status of your products. An attribute is a field in the feed, such as price or brand. A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the international barcode number of a product, often an EAN in Europe. An MPN is the manufacturer’s part number. A supplemental feed is a second file that adds or corrects attributes without changing the main source.

Required attributes: the minimum that keeps products live

The exact list depends on the product category and the country you sell in, and Google adjusts it from time to time. For the current specification, always consult the official guidance in the Merchant Center help centre. In practice, almost every product needs the following:

Clothing and footwear need further attributes such as colour, size, gender and age group. For products with variants (the same jacket in several sizes), each variant is a separate row, linked by the item_group_id attribute.

Recommended attributes that improve results

Beyond the minimum, a few fields help you match searches and organise your campaigns. They are not all mandatory, but they are worth completing wherever you have the data:

• google_product_category: the category from Google’s taxonomy, which helps match searches.
• product_type: your own category structure (for example “Footwear > Trainers”), useful for grouping in campaigns.
• additional_image_link: extra images from other angles.
• sale_price: the discounted price, only if the reduction is genuine and visible on the page.
• Product highlights and category-specific attributes: material, dimensions, colour, compatibility.
• custom_label_0 to 4: your own labels for segmentation, such as “high margin”, “bestseller” or “seasonal”.

Custom labels are one of the most useful fields for optimisation: they let you give different budgets to high-margin and low-margin products. For the margin calculation, see our guide to online shop profit margins.

How to create and upload the feed, step by step

1. Check your website. You need visible contact details, return and delivery policies, terms and conditions and a working checkout; missing items can lead to account suspension.
2. Create a Merchant Center account and verify and claim your website domain.
3. Choose the data source. On a WooCommerce store or on Shopify you normally use a plugin or app that generates the feed automatically. Alternatively, use an XML or CSV file, or a Google Sheet filled in by hand.
4. Map the fields. Each field in your shop (name, price, stock, image) is linked to the matching feed attribute.
5. Schedule the fetch. Set up automatic uploads at least daily, and more often for fast-changing stock if your system allows.
6. Check the diagnostics section. Google shows approved products, those with warnings and those disapproved, with the exact reason.
7. Link the account to Google Ads and create a campaign, or include the products in Performance Max.

If you are still choosing a platform, feed configuration is one of the criteria discussed in WooCommerce or Shopify.

How to write titles that match searches

The title is one of the fields with the greatest effect on whether a product appears. Shoppers rarely search for your internal product name. They search for the product type, the brand, the colour or a feature. Google shows only part of the title, usually the beginning, so put the important information first.

Avoid promotional text in titles (“Sale!”, “Free delivery”, excessive capitals, emoji). It goes against Google’s policies and can lead to disapproval. Do not repeat the same keyword five times; it does not help. Use the features that set the product apart from the alternatives, and leave detail, materials and use to the description.

GTIN, brand and MPN: why identifiers matter

For branded products, Google uses the GTIN to recognise exactly which product it is and to compare it with other offers. If the product has a barcode assigned by the manufacturer, fill it in. Do not invent codes and do not copy one from a similar product. A wrong GTIN can lead to disapproval or to incorrect display.

For products without an assigned code, such as handmade, own-brand or customised items, you can indicate that no identifier exists (the identifier_exists attribute), following the current specification. Brand and MPN still matter where they exist. If you import from a wholesaler, ask for the manufacturer’s official codes rather than filling gaps with approximate values.

Common disapprovals and how to fix them

Most disapprovals come down to a handful of common causes. The diagnostics in Merchant Center show you the exact kind of problem, so start there rather than guessing.

After making corrections, allow time for reprocessing; Google may need a while to reassess. If a disapproval persists with no clear reason, look in the current interface for a message asking you to act, and use the review request option.

Feed upkeep: what to check and how often

A feed is never finished once approved. Prices, stock and products change, and every difference from your site can cause disapprovals or send shoppers to out-of-stock pages.

• Daily (automatic): scheduled fetch of price and stock.
• Weekly: look in diagnostics for newly disapproved products or warnings.
• Monthly: analyse which products get clicks and sales, rewrite the titles of weak ones and adjust custom labels.
• After any major change: if you change theme, plugin or URL structure, check straight away that the links in the feed still work.

If the main source is hard to edit, use a supplemental feed for corrections: you can add labels or change titles without touching the export from your shop.

Common mistakes

• Manufacturer titles identical to those of dozens of other shops.
• Invented GTINs used to get past validation.
• Discounts only in the feed, not visible on the product page.
• Images with logos and promotional text.
• A feed updated once a week for a shop with volatile stock.
• No segmentation: every product in the same campaign regardless of margin.
• Missing returns and contact details on the site, although Google requires them.

How we work

We begin with an audit of the existing feed: which attributes are missing, which products are disapproved and why, and how repetitive the titles are. Then we correct the source (in the shop, not only in the feed), rewrite titles according to the structure of each category and add custom labels based on margin and stock. Only after that do we build the campaigns, because a weak feed wastes budget.

Implementation and campaign details are on our Google Ads management page.

In short

• The feed powers Shopping ads, free listings and Performance Max.
• The data in the feed must be identical to the product page.
• Good titles start with brand, type and features, with no promotional text.
• GTINs are real or justifiably absent, never invented.
• Merchant Center diagnostics show exactly why a product is disapproved.
• Check the feed weekly and let it update automatically every day.