Creating a high-quality product feed is essential to success in Google Shopping. While it’s easy to export data directly from your eCommerce platform, this “set it and forget it” approach rarely delivers strong performance.

Your product feed is more than just a data source — it’s the foundation that powers your Shopping campaigns. Every field you fill in, from product titles to images, contributes to how your ads appear, who sees them, and how likely they are to drive clicks and conversions.

Poorly optimised feeds often lead to wasted ad spend, irrelevant traffic, and missed opportunities. In contrast, a carefully structured feed helps Google better understand your products, improves ad targeting, and increases the likelihood of your ads showing in high-quality placements.

Whether you’re launching your first campaign or fine-tuning an established one, the following six product feed optimisations are critical for improving performance, boosting visibility, and maximising return on ad spend.

1. Optimise Product Titles

Your product title is the single most important element in your Shopping feed. Not only is it the most prominent text in your ad, it also plays a vital role in determining which search queries trigger your product to appear.

Many businesses simply pull their product names from their website CMS, resulting in short or vague titles that lack the keyword depth needed for Google to correctly index and match their products.

To improve relevance and visibility, your product titles should be both user-friendly and keyword-rich. Think of them as your opportunity to “explain” your product to Google and the shopper at the same time.

Best practices for product titles:

• Include the product’s brand, category, type, key features, and variant information such as size or colour.

• Use a logical structure that reflects how people search. For example:

  • Electronics: Brand + Product Type + Model + Key Feature

  • Fashion: Brand + Gender + Product Type + Colour + Size

  • Home Goods: Product Type + Material + Size + Colour

• Prioritise the most important information first — especially for mobile, where titles may be truncated.

• Avoid keyword stuffing or repeating the same phrases, which can make titles hard to read.

A well-structured title not only increases the chance of your ad appearing in the right searches, but also makes the listing more appealing, increasing the likelihood of a click.

2. Add and Refine Product Descriptions

While not as heavily weighted as product titles, descriptions still play a key role in giving Google — and potential customers — more context about what you’re selling.

Too often, product descriptions are either missing entirely or filled with boilerplate content copied directly from the website. This limits their usefulness, both from a targeting and user experience perspective.

An effective product description should provide relevant details that go beyond what’s included in the title. This might include the product’s key features, benefits, use cases, dimensions, care instructions, or compatibility with other products.

Tips for stronger descriptions:

• Expand on the key selling points that make your product unique.

• Avoid overly technical language unless you’re targeting a specialised audience.

• Use natural language that appeals to the end user, highlighting how the product solves a problem or fulfils a need.

• Maintain a clear, consistent tone and avoid large blocks of text that are difficult to scan.

Well-written descriptions can also improve the user experience after a click. By setting clearer expectations, you reduce bounce rates and help guide users toward purchase.

3. Use All Applicable Product Attributes

Google Shopping feeds offer a wide range of required and optional attributes — and the more accurately and thoroughly you complete them, the better your campaign will perform.

Beyond the basics like title, price, and image, there are fields for size, colour, gender, age group, material, pattern, and more — particularly useful for industries like fashion and home decor.

Many advertisers overlook these fields, assuming they’re optional. But Google uses them to determine which ads appear for filtered searches or when users apply product refinements.

Key benefits of filling out attributes:

• Increases eligibility for more search queries

• Enables better segmentation and performance tracking

• Improves relevance and ad quality, especially in highly competitive categories

Attributes like product_type, custom_label, and Google_product_category are also valuable for internal structure and bid strategies. You can use these to group products by price, margin, seasonality, or best-sellers — allowing for more intelligent optimisation down the line.

4. Improve and Maintain Product Imagery

Your product image is one of the first things users notice in a Shopping ad. In many cases, the image is what determines whether someone clicks — or scrolls past your ad entirely.

Even with the perfect title and price, a poor-quality image can lower your CTR and hurt campaign performance.

Google has strict requirements for images — white background, no promotional text, no watermarks — but that doesn’t mean your images can’t stand out.

Ways to improve product images:

• Use high-resolution, well-lit photos that clearly show the product.

• Keep the background clean and consistent across your catalogue.

• For eligible listings, consider showing the product in use (e.g. lifestyle images).

• Ensure image dimensions and proportions are standardised across your feed to maintain visual consistency.

Regularly audit your feed for broken image links or placeholder graphics. These often go unnoticed but can lead to disapprovals and missed impressions.

Refreshing your imagery — especially for key products — is a simple yet powerful way to improve Shopping performance without changing your campaign structure.

5. Provide Accurate GTINs Where Available

Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) are unique identifiers assigned to products by the manufacturer. These include barcodes like UPC, EAN, or ISBN, depending on your product type and region.

Providing valid GTINs in your feed allows Google to connect your product to its broader product database. This unlocks additional ad features such as product comparisons, ratings, and more prominent listings.

Why GTINs matter:

• They signal to Google that your product is a recognised item

• Products with valid GTINs often enjoy improved visibility

• They reduce the chance of misclassification or mismatched search results

Incorrect or missing GTINs can result in limited impressions or even disapprovals. If a product doesn’t have a GTIN, use the identifier_exists attribute correctly rather than entering random or made-up codes.

For retailers managing large catalogues, getting GTINs right at scale can have a huge impact on performance.

6. Regularly Audit and Optimise Your Feed

Product feeds aren’t a one-and-done setup. As your product catalogue, pricing, stock levels, and strategy evolve, your feed should be continuously reviewed and refined.

An out-of-date feed can lead to inaccurate listings, broken links, or policy violations — all of which negatively affect your campaign performance.

Regular feed optimisation tasks:

• Check Merchant Center for disapprovals, warnings, or limited performance flags

• Monitor search term reports to ensure products are matching to relevant queries

• Review click and conversion data by product to identify top performers and underachievers

• Use supplemental feeds or feed rules to make dynamic updates without altering your core data

Regular feed maintenance ensures your listings are current, accurate, and fully compliant with Google’s requirements. It also gives you a competitive advantage by allowing faster adaptation to trends, seasonality, and changes in demand.

Final Thoughts

Product feed optimisation isn’t just a technical exercise — it’s a strategic advantage. By investing time into improving your feed, you give your Shopping campaigns the clarity, accuracy, and depth they need to compete in an increasingly crowded space.

Each of the six areas above — from titles and descriptions to GTINs and attributes — plays a key role in how your products are indexed and presented. When done well, these enhancements lead to better visibility, stronger click-through rates, and ultimately, more conversions at a better cost.

If you’re serious about scaling your eCommerce business through Google Shopping, feed optimisation is not optional — it’s essential.