Google Shopping Ads: Merchant Center Feed Setup and Campaigns

Google Shopping ads show your product image, name, price and store name, and they run on the product data you upload to Google Merchant Center rather than on keywords. Setup has three steps: a Merchant Center account with product data, a link to your Google Ads account, and then a standard Shopping or Performance Max campaign. Most of the work, and most of the problems, sit in the product feed.

There is also a note for businesses selling in Turkey. Following a decision by the Turkish Competition Authority, Google announced that it would remove Shopping ads from its search pages in Turkey from 10 August 2020. Today, Google's Merchant Center documentation lists Turkey, with the Turkish lira, among the countries where Shopping ads and free listings are supported. We cover both the setup and the Turkey situation below.

Are Google Shopping ads shown in Turkey?

This section matters mainly if you sell to Turkish shoppers. In February 2020, the Turkish Competition Authority fined Google for abusing its dominant position in the online shopping services market. Because it remained unclear whether its proposed remedy package would be accepted, Google announced on 29 July 2020 that it would remove Shopping ads from its search pages in Turkey from 10 August 2020.

Google's current "Supported languages and currencies" page (checked on 30 September 2026) lists Turkey, with the Turkish lira, among the countries where Shopping ads and free listings are supported, and marks it as one of the countries where the Shopping tab is available to users. We did not find a separate announcement from Google about a relaunch in Turkey. So for a campaign targeting Turkey, track in the first days which surfaces (Search, Shopping tab, Images, YouTube) your ads actually get impressions on, using campaign reports, and adjust the budget based on that data.

Free listings are a separate matter. According to Google's documentation, your products can appear for free in the Shopping tab, in some rich results on Google Search, in Google Images, on YouTube and in Google Lens; some surfaces are available only in certain countries. That makes Merchant Center worth setting up even if you do not run ads.

What is Merchant Center and how do you set it up?

Merchant Center is the account where you send your product data to Google and manage how your products appear in ads and free listings. The setup order is roughly:

1. Business information: business name, address and customer service contact details.
2. Website verification and claiming: you prove that your store's domain belongs to you. Most e-commerce platforms handle this through an integration.
3. Shipping and return policy: delivery times, shipping costs and return conditions. These must match what your site says; a mismatch can block product approval.
4. Product data: the source you use to send your products to Merchant Center.
5. Google Ads link: if you will advertise, you link the two accounts.

The choice of target country is decisive here. If you sell abroad, the product data must be in that country's language and currency, and shipping and return policies must be defined separately for that country. For preparing cross-border sales, see our guide to selling on Amazon and Etsy across borders.

Which fields are required in the Shopping feed?

According to Google's product data specification, these fields are required for all products:

• id: the product's unique identifier (up to 50 characters)
• title: product name (up to 150 characters)
• description: product description (up to 5,000 characters)
• link: the product's landing page
• image_link: the main product image
• availability: stock status (in stock, out of stock, preorder, backorder)
• price: price and currency

There are also conditional fields. If the product has a GTIN (barcode number) assigned by the manufacturer, gtin is required; products without a GTIN use mpn. Brand is expected for new products, and condition must be stated for used or refurbished items. Categories such as apparel may need extra fields like size, color and gender.

The problems we see most often: a price shown as discounted on the site but left at the old price in the feed, out-of-stock products sent as "in stock", and images with text or logos on them. Price and stock mismatches lead to product disapprovals, so the feed needs to be updated as often as your site.

How do you send product data to Merchant Center?

There are three ways:

• Platform integration: Google plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce and similar platforms send the data automatically. This is the lowest-maintenance route.
• File upload: you upload an XML, CSV or Google Sheets file to Merchant Center, or have it fetched from a URL at set intervals.
• API: custom-built e-commerce sites and setups fed from an ERP send the data through an API.

If you use the API, pay close attention to one date. According to Google's developer documentation, the Content API for Shopping was deprecated on 18 August 2026, and requests began to fail gradually from 1 September 2026. The Merchant API has replaced it. On a site still running the old integration, product updates may have stopped silently; check the "last updated" times and the error report in Merchant Center, and move the integration to the Merchant API if needed.

How should you write product titles and descriptions?

The title is the strongest field in deciding which searches your product matches, and it is limited to 150 characters. In many placements only the start of the title is visible, so put the most important information first.

A pattern that usually works is brand, product type, then the distinguishing attribute (material, color, size, model, capacity). For example, instead of "New Season Amazing Product", use something like "Brand Name Men's Linen Shirt Long Sleeve Beige Size L". The first title is made of words nobody searches for; the second matches what buyers actually type.

Avoid strings of capital letters, promotional phrases such as "sale" or "free shipping", and features the product does not have. The same honesty applies to the description field: give detailed information on use, dimensions and materials.

Standard Shopping or Performance Max?

According to Google Ads documentation, there are two options:

• Standard Shopping campaign: shown on the Shopping tab, in Google Search results and in Google Images. It gives you more control over product groups, bids and negative keywords.
• Performance Max: goal-driven; it spreads across most Google channels, including Search, the Shopping tab, the Display Network, YouTube, Gmail and Maps, and relies more on automation for bidding, placement and creative.

If you are starting with a new account and few products, a standard campaign gives you more readable results for seeing what drives sales. Once enough conversion data has built up, Performance Max is worth testing. Whichever route you choose, grouping products by profit margin or sales performance helps send the budget to profitable products.

How should you measure performance?

If purchase conversions and conversion value are not measured correctly in a Shopping campaign, no optimization means anything. Before launch, test that the purchase tag sends the correct order value.

Core metrics to track:

• ROAS (return on ad spend): sales revenue for each unit of currency spent.
• Conversions by product: which products the budget goes to and which ones generate sales.
• Search terms: in standard campaigns, filter out irrelevant searches with negative keywords.
• Merchant Center diagnostics: products that are disapproved or carry warnings.

Even when ROAS looks high, a campaign can lose money on low-margin products. Setting target ROAS according to the profit margin of each product group is the healthier approach.

Setup checklist

• In the first days, confirm from campaign reports which surfaces your Shopping ads get impressions on in the target country.
• Complete business information, site verification, shipping and return policy in Merchant Center.
• Send all required fields, with price and stock in sync with your site.
• If you feed data through an API, make sure you have moved to the Merchant API.
• Put the most important information at the start of the title and leave out promotional phrases.
• Test purchase conversion tracking and value before the campaign starts.

For setting up your Shopping campaigns or configuring them for international markets, take a look at our Google Ads service.