ServiceGrowth: SEO & ads
Google Shopping: a clean product feed first, then the ads
Our Google Shopping service puts your products, with photo, title and price, in front of people searching for them on Google: we build and maintain your Merchant Center product feed, clean your product photos, fix disapprovals, then run Shopping campaigns with a capped budget and a stop/scale rule. With Shopping, the feed does the job keywords do in Search, so most of the work is there.
What we do for you
- Merchant Center setup or clean-up, in your name
- A product feed with every required attribute filled from your real catalogue: id, title, description, link, image, availability, price, and brand, GTIN or MPN where they apply
- Titles and descriptions rewritten to say what the product is, plainly, within Google's limits
- Product photos cleaned and made consistent (cut-out, plain background, square framing) from your own or your supplier's photos — never AI-generated
- Disapproval and warning fixes, product by product
- Free listings switched on, and Shopping campaigns with a daily cap, created paused, launched on your OK
- Multi-country feeds when you sell abroad, with prices in each target country's currency
Who it is for
- Fits: online shops with a stable catalogue and real stock, from a few dozen products to several hundred
- Fits: shops already on Shopping whose feed is full of warnings or disapproved items
- Fits: merchants selling in several countries who need one feed per market
- Does not fit: products Google restricts or prohibits for Shopping (for example counterfeit or dangerous goods), or a shop without clear prices and delivery information
Why the feed is the campaign
In Google's words, Shopping ads "use your existing Merchant Center product data (not keywords) to decide how and where to show your ads". The ad shows a product photo, title, price and store name. So if a title is vague, a photo is poor or a price is wrong, no bid will fix it. We spend most of our effort on the data, and only then on bids.
The same feed also powers free listings. Google says that with a free listing your products can appear at no cost on Google Search, Google Maps, Gemini, YouTube, the Shopping tab, Google Images and Google Lens. A good feed therefore earns visibility before you spend anything on ads.
What Google requires for each product
Apparel sold in some countries needs more (age group, gender, colour, size), and variants need an item group id. We check which apply to your catalogue and markets.
| Attribute | Rule (Merchant Center product data specification) |
|---|---|
| id | Required; unique; up to 50 characters |
| title | Required; up to 150 characters; must clearly identify the product |
| description | Required; up to 5,000 characters; accurate and matching the landing page |
| link | Required; the product's landing page |
| image_link | Required; the main product image |
| availability | Required; in stock, out of stock, preorder or backorder |
| price | Required; with an ISO 4217 currency code, matching the landing page and checkout |
| brand / gtin / mpn | Required depending on the product: brand for most new products; GTIN where one exists, otherwise MPN |
| condition | Required when the product is used or refurbished |
Photos and prices: where most disapprovals come from
Google's image rules are strict and sensible. No promotional overlays such as "Buy now", prices or words like "Best"; no watermarks, barcodes or borders; no placeholder saying "No image available". Google has announced that images of at least 500 × 500 pixels will be required for all products from 31 January 2027, and already recommends about 1,500 × 1,500 pixels or more. We clean supplier photos into consistent, plain-background, square images that respect these rules, and we never generate product images with AI: the photo must show the real item.
Prices must match. Google asks for an amount and currency that match the price on your landing page and checkout, shown in the target country's currency. A price that changes on the site but not in the feed is one of the fastest ways to get items disapproved, so we make the feed read from the same source as your shop.
How we work
- Audit your Merchant Center diagnostics and your catalogue: missing attributes, disapprovals, image problems, price mismatches.
- Build the feed from your shop's data, with a title and description per product written from facts you confirm.
- Clean the photos, product by product.
- Submit and fix until the products are approved, market by market.
- Launch Shopping campaigns created paused, with a daily cap and a stop/scale rule read at day 14, after you approve.
- Maintain the feed as your catalogue, stock and prices change.
What we have done
For an online shop client we built a product feed of 345 products covering 16 countries, approved in Merchant Center. Campaigns are built and adjusted through the official Google Ads API from our own tools, with the same rules as our Google Ads service: paused until you say yes, a daily cap, an agreed stop/scale rule, your account and your ad spend paid by you to Google.
Mistakes we avoid
- Keyword-stuffed titles that no longer say what the product is
- Feeding prices from a different system than the checkout
- Promotional text or badges on product images
- Listing products that are out of stock as in stock
- Launching ads on a feed that is still half disapproved
Questions we get
Do I need Google Ads to appear in Shopping?
Not always. Google offers free listings that can show your products at no cost on several Google surfaces, from the same Merchant Center feed. Shopping ads add paid placements on top.
Can you use my supplier's photos?
Yes, after cleaning: cut-out, plain background, square framing, no logos or overlays. We never replace them with AI-generated images.
Why were my products disapproved?
Common causes are missing required attributes, images with overlays or too small, and prices that differ between the feed and the site. Our audit lists the exact reason for each product.
Can you handle several countries?
Yes. Each target country needs prices in its currency and products that comply with its rules; we have built a 16-country feed for a shop client.
Who owns the Merchant Center account?
You do. The account, the feed and the data stay in your name.
Sources
- Google Ads Help — About Shopping ads (checked 2026-10-06)
- Merchant Center Help — Product data specification (checked 2026-10-06)
- Merchant Center Help — Image link [image_link] (checked 2026-10-06)
- Merchant Center Help — Price [price] (checked 2026-10-06)
- Merchant Center Help — Shopping ads policies (checked 2026-10-06)
- Merchant Center Help — About free product listings (checked 2026-10-06)