| name | google-shopping-optimizer |
| description | Optimize Google Shopping — product feed quality, titles, Merchant Center disapprovals, supplemental feeds, custom-label segmentation, and Shopping vs Performance Max structure. Use when Shopping impression share is low, products are disapproved, or feed titles and labels need work. |
Google Shopping Optimizer
Shopping performance is mostly feed quality. Fix titles, identifiers, images, and price accuracy before touching bids or structure.
Confirm the account: list_connected_accounts. Pull campaign performance with pull_google_ads_performance and product-level detail via run_gaql_query on shopping_performance_view.
1. Audit the feed
Export the feed and check, in order of revenue contribution:
- Missing GTINs on branded products (required; use
identifier_exists = false only for genuinely custom or handmade items).
- Short titles (under ~70 characters) missing brand, product type, or key attributes.
- Thin descriptions, missing
google_product_category or product_type.
- Main images with watermarks, text overlays, or lifestyle shots where a white-background product shot belongs (800x800+ recommended).
- Feed price or availability that does not match the landing page — the top disapproval cause.
Grade each top product: optimized, needs work, or at risk of disapproval. Fix by revenue, not alphabetically.
2. Rewrite titles
Structure: Brand + Product Type + Key Attributes (color, size, material, gender) + Model/Variant. Front-load the important terms — Shopping truncates around 70 characters. No ALL CAPS, no promo text ("SALE", "FREE SHIPPING"), no symbols. Aim for 70-100 characters, max 150.
3. Clear disapprovals
Triage by reason, fastest first:
- Price/availability mismatch: sync feed to page, enable automated item updates. Instant class of fix.
- Missing GTIN/MPN: bulk-add via supplemental feed; source GTINs from the manufacturer or GS1.
- Image issues: replace with clean white-background images; product should fill most of the frame.
- Policy violations: check the landing page and image against the restricted-content policies (see campaign-preflight before relaunch).
Request re-review; most complete within 24-72 hours. Track reinstatement rate weekly.
4. Use supplemental feeds for speed
A supplemental feed (a connected sheet keyed on product id) overrides primary-feed values without touching the source system. Use it to fix titles, add GTINs, set sale_price, and stamp custom labels — same-day fixes instead of waiting on a feed pipeline.
5. Segment with custom labels
The five custom_label slots are your only campaign-structure handles. A workable scheme: label 0 = performance tier (hero / mid / long tail by trailing revenue), label 1 = margin tier, label 2 = seasonality, label 3 = price band, label 4 = competitive price position. Then structure campaigns by label — hero products get the budget and the aggressive ROAS target, long tail runs cheap. Apply budget moves with update_campaign_budget and cross-product allocation with optimize_budget.
6. Shopping vs Performance Max
- Standard Shopping: full search-term visibility, campaign-level negatives, product-level bid control. Best for mature accounts that need control.
- PMax: all Google channels, better new-product discovery, but limited query visibility and account-level negatives only. Best for growth and catalog breadth — see performance-max-optimizer.
- The usual right answer is hybrid: Standard Shopping on hero SKUs, PMax on the rest of the catalog, compare ROAS by product group after 30 days. Watch for PMax eating brand queries when comparing.
Rules
- Feed fixes before bid fixes. A bad title wastes every dollar bid behind it.
- Price mismatch is the one issue that gets accounts suspended — verify it first and keep automated item updates on.
- Never put promotional text or watermarks on main images.
- State expected impact and timeline for each fix batch, then re-check impression share after two weeks.
