Articles on: FeedHub

Your quick guide to the Google Merchant Center Product Data Fields

To get your products listed in Google Shopping Ads and displayed across Google surfaces, your product feed must meet Google's requirements. Google has a product data specification list that outlines the necessary data and formatting guidelines.


Adhering to these specifications helps Google accurately match customer queries to your products, increasing visibility and sales. However, the requirements can be overwhelming. This guide will simplify the process by breaking down the essential product attributes and providing best practices for optimizing your feed.


Table of Contents


  1. Required Fields for All Products
  2. Additional Attributes for Shopping Ads


Let's start with the required fields for all products.


Required Fields for All Products


  1. id


This is your product’s unique identifier. Therefore, you need to use the product SKUs as the IDs since the SKUs are unique. Moreover, SKUs help Google to understand the structure of your landing page.


  1. title


Your product’s name. You are able to describe your product in up to 150 characters. However, make sure that the important information are placed at the start, because Google will show only the first 35 characters.



  1. price


The price needs to match with the one from your landing page, and the currency needs to be related to the market you have chosen for the feed. You can check the list of supported countries and currencies here.


  1. image


This is the main product image. If you have many different images, you can use the additional_image_link attribute to list them. The ideal main image should be the one taken with a white background that shows a clear view of the product.




  1. URL


This is your product’s landing page. You should use your verified domain name, and the URL should start with https:// or http://


Besides, Google will often ask for more information. The attributes below are the ones you need to include if you want products to be featured in Shopping ads.


Additional Attributes for Shopping Ads


  1. description


The product description is the part you can show all the product details. Make sure to include the most relevant features such as size, brand, age and gender to keep your target audience informed. Moreover, you can add the visual details (pattern, material, design) to help Google match your product with the search queries better.


Especially, remember to list the most important details in the first 160 - 500 characters. You can include up to 5,000 characters, but buyers will need to go to your product page to view the full description.



  1. google_product_category


The Google product category shows Google what category your products belong to. If you do not set up categories for your products, Google will assign them to your products automatically.


Nonetheless, you should choose the category yourself to make sure it matches your product the best. Luckily, you can do it using FeedHub following this instruction.



  1. condition


This field is required if your product is used or refurbished, and it is optional if your product is new. The supported values are new, refurbised, used.


  1. availability


This attribute tells Google and potential buyers if your products are in stock or not. Make sure the availability in your feed matches with your landing page, otherwise, your products are disapproved by Google.


  1. sale price


This field indicates your product's sale price. If your price and sale price meet certain requirements, your original price may show along with the sale price, allowing people to see the difference between the two.


Similar to the price attribute, the sale price also needs to match the one shown in your store.


Google places importance on your feed's accuracy, so make sure every field you set in the feed matches the data on your website. Especially, these following attributes condition, availability, sales price, and price needs to be updated frequently. Luckily, FeedHub is here to help. You can set your sync schedule and your submit schedule to have your products always updated. If you want to submit your products manually, you can always click on **Resync **in the drop down next to each feed.



  1. GTIN


This is your product's Global Trade Item Number, or its barcode. This attribute is required for all new products with a GTIN assigned by the manufacturer. Usually, your products will need to have either GTIN or MPN to be eligible for enhanced listings.


The format of GTIN depends on the your location or the origin of the product:


  • UPC (in North America / GTIN-12): 12-digit number (convert 8-digit UPC-E codes to 12-digit codes)


  • EAN (in Europe / GTIN-13): 13-digit number


  • JAN (in Japan / GTIN-13): 8 or 13-digit number


  • ISBN (for books): 13-digit number (convert ISBN-10 to ISBN-13). If you have both, include only the 13-digit number.


  • ITF-14 (for multipacks / GTIN-14): 14-digit number



  1. MPN


This field is known as Manufacturer Part Number. MPN is used to uniquely identify a specific product among all products from the same manufacturer. It is required for products that do not have a valid GTIN number.


You should use the most specific MPN possible. For example, different colors of a product should have different MPNs.



  1. brand


This field indicates the brand name of the company that supplies the product. It is used to identify your product and will be shown to customers.


Only provide your store name as the brand in case you manufacture the product, or your product falls into a generic brand category. If you are not the manufacturer, submit the manufacturer or supplier name.


If your product does not have a GTIN, you can submit the other two unique product identifiers, which are brand and MPN. For more details on what to do when your product does not have a GTIN, please refer to Google guide here.


  1. identifier_exists


This attribute indicates that your product does not have any unique product identifier (GTIN, MPN, and brand). In this case, the identifier_exists **needs to be set to **false or no. Since FeedHub uses feed file to submit the feed to Google, you need to set the value as no.



  1. color


Color is required for all Apparel & Accessories items. The value you need to provide to Google must be the a standard color (e.g: yellow, gray, red, green, black) or unique colors (e.g: light salmon, dark tangerine). If your product has multiple colors, you can provide up to three colors by putting a slash ( / ) in between colors (e.g: pink/yellow/white).


  1. gender


The gender attribute indicates the gender the product is designed for. It is also required for all Apparel & Accessories products. The supported values are male, female or unisex.


  1. size


The size attribute describes the product’s size. Multiple values are supported depending on the properties of each product.


For products with multiple dimensions, you can identify multiple dimensions into one size value using a slash. For example, enter 16/34 to represent a neck size of 16 inches and a sleeve length of 34 inches.


Here are some examples for size:


  • Phone storage: 16GB, 32GB, 256GB,...


  • Shoes size: 6, 6.5, 8, 9.5, 10,...


  • Perfume: 195ml. 100ml, 4fl oz, ...


  1. age_group


This field indicates the demographic for which your product is intended. It is required for all Apparel & Accessories products.


Below is the list of supported values:


  • Newborn: 0-3 months


  • Infant: 3-12 months


  • Toddler: 1-5 years


  • Kids: 5-13 years


  • Adult: 13 years & older

Conclusion


The attributes in this article are the most common ones, you can find the rest here. Optimize your feed today and start boosting your sales with Google Shopping Ads! If you are still confused, do not hesitate to drop us a message in the live chat or email us at support@socialhead.io. We would love to help you out!

Updated on: 06/06/2025

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