How Do I Setup a Google Shopping Feed
With how much volume exists for eCommerce stores, Google Shopping should not be overlooked and maintaining performance that translates into easy revenue uplifts starts with the feed quality. You can make a Google Shopping Feed quickly in five steps.
Step 1 Find Product Attributes
You will need the following attributes for any and all of your products. You can either have a site pull of this together for you in most cases or put them together in a CSV or XML document.
REQUIRED:
<link><![SITE LINK]></link>
<description><![DESCRIPTION]></description>
<g:id>[ID]</g:id>
<title><![TITLE]></title>
<gtn>[GTN]</gtn>
<g:item_group_id>[ITEM GROUP ID]</g:item_group_id>
<link><![PRODUCT LINK]></link>
<g:product_type><![PRODUCT TYPE]></g:product_type>
<g:google_product_category><![PRODUCT CATEGORY]></g:google_product_category>
<g:image_link><![IMAGE LINK]></g:image_link>
<g:condition>[CONDITION]</g:condition>
<g:availability>[STOCK]/g:availability>
<g:price><![PRICE]></g:price>
<g:brand><![BRAND]></g:brand>
<g:gender><![GENDER]></g:gender>
<g:age_group><![AGE GROUP]></g:age_group>
<g:identifier_exists>[IDENTIFIER EXISTS]</g:identifier_exists></item>
You can visit Google for more help on required and non-required identifiers
Step 2 Open A Google Merchant Account
Step 1 Build your product data
There are three options when building your product data.
Single / Individual Product (absolutely painful unless you have one product)
Multi-source feeds
Google Content API for Shopping
Step 3 Create a Feed
Pick a country and language on the first basic information step. Move to input method and adjust whether you want to upload a Google spreadsheet, have an automated pickup, submit a different file type such as CSV or XML - or use the Google Content API for Shopping.
Pick your country and language.
Select your feed type, this is where you can choose to submit in spreadsheet, automated pick up or API.
If you submit Google spreadsheet, your upload screen will look like this
For an automated schedule pick up - this is the screen you will find. Best practice is always to password protect your file generating URL.
Custom file uploads require you to submit a file locally.
If you select API you have to make sure the originating call is setup correctly. As far as Merchant the setup ends here.
Step 4 Upload a Feed
Whatever method you use - make sure to finish uploading your feed as a test. Give it 20-40 minutes before you look for errors.
Step 5 Troubleshoot
Troubleshooting a feed is unique for each company. For some image files will not be retrievable and for others it's a matter of sensitive content being disapproved.
If you require assistance - send a query to readonly@blackdroneconsulting.com or DM us at @BlackDr0n3