Feed optimisation is the work of improving the product data you send to Google Merchant Center and other shopping channels, so your products show for the right searches, look worth clicking and stay approved. It covers titles, descriptions, categories, product identifiers, images, prices and the custom fields you use to organise campaigns.
How feed optimisation works
Shopping ads, the product ads inside Performance Max and Google’s free product listings do not use keywords. Google reads your product data and decides which searches each item is relevant to. In practice the feed does the job that keywords and ad copy do in a search campaign, so weak data means weak matching however much you bid.
The work usually falls into a few areas:
- Titles. The product title carries most of the matching weight. A title such as “Ellis Table” says little; “Solid oak dining table, seats 6, 180 cm, natural oil finish” says what it is, who it suits and the detail people search for.
- Identifiers. Branded products should carry the manufacturer’s barcode, the GTIN, plus the brand. Google uses these to recognise the item and group it with other sellers’ listings.
- Categorisation. Google’s product category and your own product type hierarchy help Google understand the item and let you split campaigns sensibly.
- Images. A clear main image of the product itself, without promotional text or watermarks, which Google disallows.
- Accuracy. Price and availability must match the landing page. For UK shoppers, prices are shown including VAT.
- Organisation. Custom labels mark products by margin, season or best-seller status so you can bid and report on them separately.
Changes can be made at source in your ecommerce platform, through rules inside Merchant Center, through a supplemental feed that overrides specific attributes, or with a third-party feed tool.
Why it matters
UK retailers in Shopping results compete with national chains, marketplaces and the comparison shopping services that place ads for other retailers. Good product data is one of the few levers a smaller shop has that does not depend on budget. Clearer titles bring more relevant impressions and fewer wasted clicks, accurate data keeps products from being disapproved, and the same feed often powers your Meta catalogue too.
Common mistakes
- Sending the website’s internal product names, such as a range name or a stock code, as the title.
- Stuffing titles with every possible search phrase until they read like spam.
- Leaving out GTINs on branded products, or making up numbers for items that have none.
- Letting price or stock in the feed fall out of step with the site, for example when a sale ends but the feed still shows the sale price.
- Using lifestyle images with text overlays as the main image.
- Spending equal effort on every product rather than starting with the items that sell.
How to act on it
Begin with the Merchant Center diagnostics: clear errors first, then the warnings that limit visibility. Next, pick the products that bring in most revenue, or should, and write a title pattern for each category that puts the product type and the details people search for near the start. Fill in identifiers, categories and custom labels, then check images.
Measure by product, not just by account. Compare impressions, clicks and conversion value for the items you changed against the same period before. Feed work is never finished, because ranges, prices and Google’s requirements keep changing, so I build a monthly feed check into Performance Max management for online shops.