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Google Product Feed Setup Guide

Step 1 - a: Register a Data Feed in Legacy Google Merchant Center Account

Use the instructions in this step only for Google Merchant Center Legacy accounts. If you have a newer Google Merchant Center Next account, then complete the instructions in Step 1 - b instead.

  1. Go to Google Merchant Center and sign up for an account, or sign into an existing account.
  2. If you have multiple stores, request a multi-client account so you can manage them all from a single Google account.
  3. On the Business information page, enter the website URL of your store in the Website section. If it does not say "Claimed", please see our Website Url Verification Tutorial for further instructions.
  4. On the Tax and Shipping pages, add your tax and shipping rules. You can add estimated shipping if none of the options exactly matches your shipping policies.
  5. Click the vertical dots icon and select SFTP / GCS. In the SFTP Settings section, generate a new password. Make sure to note the password somewhere, as it will only be displayed once. You can reset it easily if you lose it.
  6. On the Products > Feeds page, click the plus icon in the Primary feeds section. (If you in a new Merchant Account, then click the Create a feed (advanced option) link at the bottom of the Products tab that says "How do you want to add your products to Merchant Center?".)
  7. Once you are on the New primary feed page, enter or confirm the following settings for each step of the setup, and click Continue after each step:

    Step 1: Basic information

    • Target Countries: United States, plus any others
    • Language: English, or the language of your store
    • Destinations: Check all destinations, or disable ones you do not want

    Step 2: Name and input method

    • Primary feed name: Use your store name in lower-case ending with .zip
      Examples:
      www.mystorename.com => mystorename.zip
      www.mystorename.co.uk => mystorename_co_uk.zip
      www.mystorename.com.au => mystorename_com_au.zip
      www.mystorename.com targeting Canada => mystorename-canada.zip
      www.mystorename.com targeting Australia => mystorename-australia.zip
    • How to set up your feed and connect your data: Upload

    Step 3: Setup

  8. The mystorename.zip feed will appear in the list of Primary feeds. Click the mystorename.zip link in the Feed name column.
  9. Click on the Settings tab for the data feed.
  10. Click on Feed settings.
  11. Select the settings below and then click the Save button:
    • Encoding: UTF-8
    • Delimiter: Tab (\t)
    • Use quoted fields: Unchecked
  12. No other changes are needed. Default currency can be left as No default currency, Fetch Schedule can be left as None, and no changes are needed on the Rules tab.

Upon completion of these steps, you will have a data feed file registered in your Google Merchant Account ready for the SFTP upload of the product listings file from our system. To start seeing your products in Google Shopping, you still need to set up the feed in our site, and set up an Adwords Shopping Campaign.

Step 1 - b: Register a Data Feed in Google Merchant Center Next Account

Use the instructions in this step only for Google Merchant Center Next. If you still have a Google Merchant Center Legacy account, then complete the instructions in Step 1 - a instead.

  1. Go to Google Merchant Center
  2. If you are not signed in, then either click the Sign In button or click the Start now button.
  3. Complete all onboarding steps that appear on the page, except Adding products.
  4. Click the Gear Icon > Data Sources link, once you are signed in and have completed on-boarding steps.
  5. Click the Add data source button
  6. Select the Add products from a file tile
  7. Select the Add a file using sFTP radio button
  8. Enter your store name in lower-case ending with ".zip" in the Enter your exact file name input box.
    Examples:
    www.mystorename.com => mystorename.zip
    www.mystorename.co.uk => mystorename_co_uk.zip
    www.mystorename.com.au => mystorename_com_au.zip
    www.mystorename.com targeting Canada => mystorename-canada.zip
    www.mystorename.com targeting Australia => mystorename-australia.zip
  9. Click the View SFTP details link, and make note of the Username and Password, for later entry into the Modify Settings page of your feed.
  10. Click the Continue button
  11. Click the Your setup tab on the feed source details page
  12. Click the pencil icon next to Source Name
  13. Replace the existing Source name with the file name you entered above
  14. Click the Save link
Step 2: Set up your Store Source Settings

Follow the instructions below for your store platform.

BigCommerce

Continue on to Step 3.

Shopify

Continue on to Step 3.

Yahoo Store

  1. Log in to your Yahoo Store Manager, and click the Search Engines link.
  2. Scroll down to the Enable Store Contents Export section, and select "Enabled" (or "Enable, but do not syndicate") for both objinfo.xml and catalog.xml export formats. Note the URLs labeled "Download:". These end in catalog.xml and objinfo.xml (not .dtd).
  3. If your exports were disabled, then republish your store.

Magento Community and Enterprise, all versions

Refer to the Magento Shopping Feeds Setup Guide.

Volusion

Refer to the Volusion Data Feed Setup Instructions.

AspDotNetStorefront

Follow the AspDotNetStorefront Store Export Installation Instructions to install the export script on your site.

Step 3: Add a Data Feed for Google Shopping
  1. From My Account, click the Add Feed link.
  2. Enter a store name, select your shopping cart, and create a new Standard feed using the Google Shopping template.
  3. After the feed is created, continue on to the Modify Feed Settings page.
  4. Follow the on-page instructions and enter the Source Settings for your store. Click the question mark icons question mark icon for instructions.
  5. Enter the SFTP settings you configured in Step 1.
  6. For the feed file name, use your store name in lower-case ending with .txt. The zipped file name will appear as you type, and should match the file name you registered in your Google Merchant account.
    Examples:
    www.mystorename.com => mystorename.txt
    www.mystorename.co.uk => mystorename_co_uk.txt
    www.mystorename.com.au => mystorename_com_au.txt
    www.mystorename.com targeting Canada => mystorename-canada.txt
    www.mystorename.com targeting Australia => mystorename-australia.txt
  7. Click Update.
Step 4: Test your Google Feed Settings
  1. Go to My Account > Manage for your Google feed.
  2. Click the Test button to test your store URL and SFTP settings.
    NOTE: It might take up to 15 minutes before Google's SFTP server recognizes a new SFTP username/password.
  3. Go back to My Account > Manage.
  4. Click the Refresh button. Wait for the process to complete. (Closing your browser will not interrupt the process.)
  5. Go back to My Account > Manage.
  6. Go to the Product List, and review some product details to ensure that everything imported correctly.
Step 5: Submit your Google Feed
  1. Go to My Account > Manage for your Google feed.
  2. Click the Submit button. Wait for the process to complete. (Closing your browser will not interrupt the process.)
  3. Log into Google Merchant Center and check the status of the data feed.
  4. Google typically processes your file within minutes, but it may take longer. It then takes about 24 hours for the items to become searchable in Google Shopping. There may be additional lag time before image thumbnails appear.
Step 6: Schedule your Google Feed
  1. Go to My Account > Manage for your Google feed.
  2. Click the Modify Settings link.
  3. Select the Daily update frequency, and click Update.
  4. Add funds to your account from the Purchase Credit page to ensure continuous service.
Step 7: Optimize your Google Feed

The default feed settings work for most feeds, but several optimization steps may be needed for best results.

  1. Configure a filter to exclude items with errors
  2. Configure a default google_product_category
  3. Configure the identifier fields, MPN, Brand, and GTIN/UPC
  4. Go to My Account > Manage > Google Validation Report. If there are any errors listed, click the View and Help links to resolve the error.
  5. Don't forget to set up and fund your Google Shopping Campaign.

We strongly recommend our Google Shopping Optimization Service. For a one-time fee, we will optimize your feed for you and send you a customized optimization report. Click here to Request Data Feed Optimization

Step 8: Set up Adwords Shopping Campaign
  1. Go to Account Linking > Google Ads in your Google Merchant Account
  2. Verify that there is a Google Ads customer ID in the Linked state with a green check mark.
  3. Create a Shopping campaign in your linked Adwords account.
  4. Make sure the campaign is Active
  5. Make sure your Adwords account is funded
  6. Check the Paid clicks graph on your Google Merchant Account Dashboard to make sure you are getting clicks.

Please contact Adwords technical support or a Google Shopping Campaign Management Company for assistance with your Google Adwords Shopping campaigns. Our service is limited to submitting your latest product listings to Google Merchant Center on regular basis.

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