Google Merchant Center – 5 Examples of Using Product Feed Rules

Data feed rules are a simple and convenient way to significantly facilitate running product campaigns. The basis of their operation is a properly constructed main product feed (its structure should correspond to that used on the store’s website, and products should be precisely matched to their categories).

Thanks to rules, we can divide the product feed into additional categories, for example, sorting our assortment into product groups according to specific price ranges.

Rules will also help when the main product feed is not fully completed (for example: clothes are assigned to categories based on type, but not based on gender).

If there are multiple data feeds, rules are created separately for each of them.

Log in to your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account.

Go to Products > Feeds.

Click on the name of the data feed.

Select Feed Rules.

Source: Google Merchant Center

Click on the plus sign on the blue background > Processed Attributes > Select one of the custom labels.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Rules must be created in a way that they do not overwrite each other. For example, women’s and men’s items can be on one label because they do not have common elements, but women’s and bestsellers included on one label might overwrite each other and not work correctly.

Products Divided by Price

Such a division allows us to present the offer more effectively and optimize advertising campaigns. Product feed rules enable automatic classification of products based on price ranges. This allows us to create ads only for products in selected price segments and even exclude the cheapest ones from the campaign (so that advertising costs do not exceed the value of the advertised products). We are also able to more precisely target products according to their price, which should lead to better alignment of offers with customer expectations, a higher conversion rate, and optimization of advertising costs.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Promotional Products

In the screenshot below, we see that each product in the product feed has a standard price label and a promotional price label (Why? This is due to the configuration of the product feed). If a product is not currently discounted, the standard price and promotional price will have the same value. The client wants to sort promotional items and non-promotional items to see which ones are more popular.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

In this case, we need to create a new rule to separate products with standard prices from those with promotional prices. Below is an example of how to implement a rule that includes items without promotions (in this case, biustonosze=bras). In the “Set to” field, you set the label name yourself (it’s best to describe clearly and concisely which products belong to it).

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

If we want to create multiple rules under one label, we can do so by clicking the “Add source” button.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Additionally, if we want to add multiple titles under one rule with the same name, we need to do it as shown in the screenshot below.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Products Divided by Words in Product Titles

In this case, we can segment products more precisely and create more targeted advertising campaigns. For example, if we sell sports shoes specifically designed for competitive races, we can create a rule that assigns products with titles containing the word “racing” = “startowe” to a specific group. This approach is also effective for dividing products into product lines, such as women’s or men’s.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Products Divided by Word in URL

We can also automatically group products based on the presence of a specific word in their URLs. For example, if your website has multiple language versions, you can divide products by language (e.g., PL, EN, ES). It’s important to use the exact same format in the rule as in the URL, including maintaining case sensitivity.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Adding a Promotional Phrase in the Title

With this feature, we can automatically modify product titles by adding keywords or promotional phrases such as “Sale” or “Promotion”. If we want to highlight products with a special discount, we can create a rule that adds the phrase “20% Discount” or the name of the discount code to the title of each of these products. This approach not only attracts potential customers’ attention but also increases the likelihood of them clicking on the ad, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

In this case, we first need to select the “Add modification” option.

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Source: Google Merchant Center panel

Utilizing product feed rules in Google Merchant Center significantly facilitates management and optimization of inventory in online stores. These rules allow us to automatically segment products based on keywords in titles, specific words in URLs, and add promotional phrases to product titles. This enables precise targeting of advertising campaigns, enhances their effectiveness, and improves advertising budget management. Automating these processes not only saves time but also allows for quick adaptation to market changes and adjustments to promotional offers.

In the above article, we’ve covered only a portion of the rules that can be utilized in optimizing product feeds in Google Merchant Center. However, these rules are particularly useful in the initial stages of working with GMC. Apply them to your product feeds and simplify your campaign management today!