Google Merchant: All about product feeds

A feed is a set of products that use different attributes to define each product. At Merchant Center, all your products will be added to your primary or supplemental feed. Once created, it can be added to any program of your choice. 

Creating new feeds

You must have a Google Merchant account to create a new feed. If you don’t have one, read our instructions on how to create a Google Merchant Center account. 1. Log in to your Merchant Center account. 2. Click on “Products” in the left menu, then click on “Feeds“.   3. Now you can choose between the primary or supplemental feed. If you like to know, what is the difference between them, read our article about it. If you are interested in the more specific guide on how to create a feed, check our next guide.

Product attributes

Attributes are data that describe a product. As an example, they may be condition or availability, they may have standardized or accepted values. Other values are id or title, which you can change as much as you want. Accurate item description with the required and suggested attributes helps users find your products more easily. There are many rules on how to use each attribute and how often to update it. Check out Google Merchant terms and conditions, to make sure you don’t have anything against the rules. You can submit your product data in feed format, via Google Content API for Shopping ads, or import it from a supported e-commerce platform. If you’re not comfortable using the API, we recommend that you use feeds or imports from your e-commerce platform.

Suggested file formats

Multiple formats are available when creating a new feed. You need to choose the one that suits you best. The two basic formats are text (.txt) and XML (.xml). If you’re wondering what feed files should look like and which are supported, please continue reading with our next article. Also, you can check product name and a correct XML feed: the key to the success of automated text ads for Google products. If interested, read how to build your product data.