Feeds & Shopping
Product Feed
A product feed is the structured file or API connection that sends your catalog attributes (id, title, description, price, availability, image, GTIN, category) to Merchant Center.
In practice
The feed is the ad. In Shopping and Performance Max there are no keywords; Google matches queries against the words in your product titles and descriptions and the attributes that describe them. A title that reads Blue Widget 2 will never match the searches a buyer types. A title that reads Brand, Product Type, Key Attribute, Size, Color will.
Most platforms generate a feed automatically: Shopify's Google channel, the Google for WooCommerce extension, or a feed management tool. Automatic feeds get products listed but rarely get them competitive, because they pass raw titles and leave attributes empty. Feed optimization means rewriting titles for search, filling product type and Google product category, supplying GTINs, and adding custom labels so campaigns can segment by margin, season, or performance tier.
Feed changes take effect on the next fetch, so the feed is also the fastest lever in an e-commerce account.
Why it matters
Every Shopping impression is decided by what is in the feed, not by a bid.
RELATED TERMS
Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center is the platform where retailers upload and manage product data that powers Shopping ads, Performance Max retail campaigns, and free product listings across Google.
Supplemental Feed
A supplemental feed is a secondary data source in Merchant Center that adds or overrides attributes on products already in your primary feed, matched by product id.
Shopping Campaign (Standard Shopping)
A standard Shopping campaign serves product ads built from your Merchant Center feed on Google Search and the Shopping tab, with bidding and targeting controlled at the product group level rather than by keywords.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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