Google Merchant: How to apply your product data feed

To upload your products to Google Merchant Center, you must first create a feed to upload your data. This step is required for each new feed. Once you have created it, you do not need to register it again, just update it. 

Primary feeds

Your primary feed is a data source used by Merchant Center to show your products in Google ads. As long as your data in your primary feed adheres to all specifications and rules, creating and uploading your primary feed is the only thing you need to do. However, if they don’t follow all of the rules, they can be adapted using advanced feed options. You can also use the supplemental feed to improve or rewrite your product data to improve the performance of your ads.

You can use primary feeds to add or remove product data, set language and country targeting, and set feed rules for your product data. Primary feeds are the only type of feeds that can add or remove products.

Keep in mind – If you have multiple primary feeds for Shopping Ads and Local Inventory Ads, make sure they don’t contain the same products and data.

Create a primary feed

1. Log in to your Merchant account.

2. On your left menu, clock on “Products” then “Feeds“.

3. Click on “+” to start the creation of your primary feed.

4. Fill all the required information and click on “Continue“.

• Country of sale: The country of sale is where your products from this feed are sold. The product data uploaded to a selected country must meet the requirements for the country for which you submit, including the feed specifications and policies. After creating your feed you can add additional countries of sale under Feed settings tab.
• Language: The language in which your product data is written. If you select a country with multiple supported languages (such as Belgium, Canada, or Switzerland), you will be presented with a list of the supported languages of that country.

5. Name and input method. Now it’s up to you which one you will choose.

• Primary feed name: Enter a descriptive name that helps you identify the primary feed. The feed name doesn’t need to match the name of the file you’re submitting.
• Input method: Select the one that fits your needs best.
• Google Sheets: You can upload your data using a generated Google Sheets template, or with an existing Google Sheet with your product data.
• Scheduled fetch: Google can fetch your feed directly from your server.
• Upload: Upload files directly to Merchant Center via SFTP, FTP, Google Cloud Storage, or manually.
• Website crawl: If there are no feeds currently in your account, and you have the appropriate structured data on your website, Google can crawl your website to retrieve your product data.
• File name: Depending on what input method you select, you may be prompted to enter the name of the file you’ll be submitting. This name should exactly match the name of the file you created and include a valid extension.

Create a supplemental feeds

Supplemental feeds are used to supplement data that can be linked to existing product data in the main feed. They are used to update existing product data.

Common use cases for supplemental feeds include, but are not limited to: :

• Add or override custom labels for campaign management
• Add or override promotion IDs for retail promotions
• Override titles
• Exclude specific products (via the excluded_destination attribute)
• Add missing GTINs
• Add local inventory product data for local inventory ads.

1. In your Merchant account, click on  “Products” then “Feeds“.

2. On the bottom, continue with clicking on “Add supplemental feed“.

3. Again you need to fill the required information. It’s up to you which one will you choose.

4. After you choose one of the options, fill all the required fields and click on “Continue“.

5. In the last step, you need to link it with one of your primary feeds. Then click  “Create feed“.

According to the Google Merchant Center Help, it should look like this:

Continue with our next article about how to upload a feed.