Your quick guide to the Google Merchant Center Product Data Fields
If you want your products to be listed in Shopping ads and shown on surfaces across Google, your product feed needs to adhere to Google’s requirements. Specifically, Google has a product data specification list, which specifies which data they need and which format they need it in.
The specification helps Google to match the right customer queries to your products. In another words, following the specification can enhance the visibility of your products and get you more sales.
However, the list of specification is long and you must spend a fairly long time digging through it. To shorten your process of trial and error, we will describe all of the required attributes, along with their minimum requirements and best practices.
If you have a hard time getting your products approved, this list might partly help you to solve the errors/warnings.
Let's start with the required fields for all products.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Submit feed in the drop down next to each feed.
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
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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, ...
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
The attributes in this article are the most common ones, you can find the rest here. 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: 17/04/2024
The specification helps Google to match the right customer queries to your products. In another words, following the specification can enhance the visibility of your products and get you more sales.
However, the list of specification is long and you must spend a fairly long time digging through it. To shorten your process of trial and error, we will describe all of the required attributes, along with their minimum requirements and best practices.
If you have a hard time getting your products approved, this list might partly help you to solve the errors/warnings.
Let's start with the required fields for all products.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Submit feed in the drop down next to each feed.
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
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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, ...
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
The attributes in this article are the most common ones, you can find the rest here. 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: 17/04/2024
Updated on: 25/04/2024
Thank you!