How to Audit Google Shopping Feed

For e-commerce brands, a well-structured product feed is the backbone of successful Shopping Ads. A comprehensive Google Shopping feed audit helps ensure your product data meets Merchant Center specifications, avoids disapprovals, and aligns with best practices for feed optimization. By conducting a regular Google Shopping feed audit, Shopify and WooCommerce store owners can identify discrepancies, improve product visibility, and ultimately increase conversions.

Steps to Audit Google Shopping Feed:

Access Your Merchant Center and Prepare for Audit

Before diving into feed specifics, confirm you have the necessary permissions to view and edit your Google Merchant Center account. If you’re managing feeds for multiple stores, create separate Merchant Center accounts or sub-accounts to keep data organized. A solid foundation will make your Google Shopping feed audit more efficient and prevent inadvertent changes to live campaigns.

Review Feed Specifications and Schedule

Begin your google shopping feed audit by navigating to the Feeds section in Merchant Center. Verify that:

• Feed type and name accurately reflect your store (for example, “Primary Shopping Feed” or “Supplemental Feed”).

• Fetch schedule is set to run frequently enough—ideally daily—for dynamic stores with frequent inventory updates.

• Shipping and tax settings tied to this feed match your target markets.

Ensure that the feed fetch method (scheduled fetch, manual upload, or Content API) aligns with your technical capabilities. A mismatched fetch frequency can lead to outdated inventory and disapproved products.

Analyze Product Data Quality

Accurate, complete product data is critical for Shopping Ads success. During your google shopping feed audit, evaluate these core attributes:

• Product IDs: Unique, consistent IDs across your feed and store.

• Titles and descriptions:

  • Include relevant keywords without keyword stuffing.

  • Accurately describe the product (brand, model, features).

  • Avoid promotional language or all-caps.

• GTIN, MPN, and brand fields: Required for many categories; ensure they match manufacturer information.

• Product category (Google Product Category): Use the most specific category to help Google match searches effectively.

• Images:

  • First image must show only the product on a white background.

  • Additional images can highlight use cases or angles but must comply with image requirements.

• Price and availability:

  • Reflect live prices on your website.

  • Include proper currency codes (e.g., EUR, USD).

  • Mark out-of-stock items appropriately (“out_of_stock”).

• Item condition: Use “new,” “refurbished,” or “used” accurately.

Create a checklist or spreadsheet to log any missing, duplicate, or non-compliant entries. For large catalogs, export your feed to CSV or Google Sheets, filter by missing values, and apply conditional formatting to highlight issues.

Approved Products In Merchant Center - All Products Should Be Eligible to Show

Identify and Fix Feed Errors and Warnings

Within Merchant Center, the Diagnostics page surfaces critical feed issues. As part of your google shopping feed audit, address:

• Disapproved items: Click on “Disapproved” to see reasons (e.g., missing required attributes, policy violations).

• Warnings: Non-critical but potentially harmful (e.g., missing identifiers, invalid image URLs).

• Feed fetch errors: Ensure the feed URL is reachable, credentials are up to date, and file formatting is correct (UTF-8 encoding, proper delimiters).

For each error or warning:

1. Note the affected product IDs.

2. Research the specific violation (e.g., “incorrect GTIN format”) in Google’s Merchant Center Help Center.

3. Update the source feed or back-end system (e.g., Shopify plugin settings or WooCommerce feed plugin).

4. Re-upload or wait for the next scheduled fetch, then re-run the google shopping feed audit to confirm resolution.

Products In Merchant Center With No Issues

Evaluate Attribute Completeness and Optimization

Beyond compliance, a feed audit is an opportunity to enhance performance:

• Title optimization:

  • Place primary keywords (e.g., brand + model + key feature) at the beginning.

  • Format for readability—use proper capitalization and avoid special characters.

  • Example long-tail variation: “Men’s Black Leather Running Shoes Nike Air Max 2025.”

• Description enrichment:

  • Add unique selling points (e.g., “breathable mesh,” “lightweight design”).

  • Use bullet-point formatting if your feed template allows it.

• Custom labels:

  • Use these to segment products by seasonality, margin, or clearance for advanced bidding strategies.

• Product types:

  • Create a hierarchical taxonomy reflecting your store’s structure (e.g., “Apparel > Shoes > Running Shoes”) to improve reporting.

• Promotion IDs:

  • If running Shopping promotions, ensure promoIDs are correctly linked in your Merchant Center promotions section.

Incorporating these optimizations during your google shopping feed audit can lead to higher impression share and click-through rates.

Verify Shipping, Tax, and Regional Settings

Incorrect shipping or tax configurations can cause disapprovals or unexpected costs. Check that:

• Shipping settings in Merchant Center match your store’s shipping zones, rates, and carriers.

• Tax settings are correct for each target country (for example, VAT rates in the EU).

• Regional availability: Confirm that products are only submitted to eligible countries where you can ship.

If your store uses dynamic shipping calculations (e.g., real-time shipping), test several products in Merchant Center’s shipping simulator to validate accurate cost calculation.

Check Feed Segmentation and Supplemental Feeds

For larger catalogs or multiple languages:

• Use primary and supplemental feeds to manage different countries, languages, or special promotions.

• Ensure supplemental feeds correctly reference the primary feed’s product IDs.

• Review feed labels to confirm regional variants (e.g., “.com” vs “.de” domains, currency differences).

During your google shopping feed audit, identify underperforming segments or products flagged for manual reviews due to policy changes.

Monitor Performance Metrics and Benchmarking

An audit is also a chance to review performance data:

• In Google Ads, analyze metrics like impression share, click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per conversion for Shopping campaigns.

• Compare performance before and after feed optimizations to measure impact.

• Use custom reports in Google Analytics or Looker Studio to segment traffic by product category, device, or region.

Benchmark against industry averages—for instance, a healthy Shopping Ads CTR might range from 1.5% to 3%, depending on the niche. If your feed optimizations do not yield expected improvements, revisit your attribute choices or bidding strategies.

Establish a Regular Audit Schedule

Consistency is key for maintaining a high-quality feed. Set a recurring calendar reminder—monthly or at least quarterly—for a full google shopping feed audit. Document each audit’s findings and resolutions in a shared spreadsheet or project management tool (e.g., Asana, Trello) to track progress over time. Also, monitor Merchant Center notifications for policy updates that may require immediate feed changes.

Conclusion

A thorough google shopping feed audit ensures your product data is accurate, compliant, and optimized laying the groundwork for effective Shopping Ads campaigns. By routinely reviewing feed specifications, fixing errors, enhancing attributes, and monitoring performance, e-commerce managers can maximize ad relevance and return on ad spend. Ready to take your Shopping feed management to the next level? Contact us at Flomaticx – Your Google Ads Performance Partner!

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I audit my Google Shopping feed? To audit your feed, start by accessing Merchant Center, reviewing feed specifications, and exporting your product data. Check key attributes (titles, descriptions, GTINs, images, pricing) for completeness and compliance. Address errors and warnings in the Diagnostics page, optimize attributes for relevance, and verify shipping and tax settings.
  

• What are common issues found during a Google Shopping feed audit? Common issues include missing or incorrect GTINs, disapproved images, mismatched pricing, unsupported characters in titles, and expired promotions. Feed fetch errors often stem from invalid URLs, authentication problems, or format mismatches (e.g., incorrect CSV delimiters or encoding).

  
  

• How often should I perform a Google Shopping feed audit? Aim for a full audit at least quarterly, with smaller checks whenever you introduce new products or update pricing. Additionally, monitor Merchant Center daily for critical feed fetch errors or policy notifications, and address them immediately.

  
  

• Can I automate parts of the Google Shopping feed audit? Yes. Use Merchant Center’s automated rules to flag products with missing attributes or policy violations. Export feeds to Google Sheets and apply custom scripts to highlight data discrepancies. Some third-party feed management tools offer automated validation and optimization suggestions.

  
  

• Why is a feed audit important for Shopping Ads performance? Search engines rely on accurate, high-quality product data to match user queries. A clean feed reduces disapprovals, ensures correct ad display (pricing, availability), and improves ad relevance, leading to higher impression share and conversion rates.