Create and manage promotions with third-party partners

Third-party platforms can easily help you set up and track your promotions. This article explains how to connect your promotions from supported third-party partners, currently Shopify, WooCommerce, and the FreshReach program from FMTC, to your Merchant Center account.

Note: Similar integrations may be expanded to other third-party partners in the future.

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Benefits

• Simple integration: Your existing and new discounts (promotions) from supported third-party partners will have a seamless integration with your Merchant Center account to show your promotions on your products.
• Improved performance: Products with promotion annotations often have an increase in clicks and conversions.

Manage promotions using Shopify

Before connecting your Shopify promotions with your Merchant Center account, you’ll first need to ensure that you have downloaded the Google & YouTube app on Shopify. This allows your promotions to automatically sync with your Merchant Center account.

Promotion types supported

The following promotion types can be connected with Merchant Center:

• Discount codes: Fixed value or percentage discounts code on products and variants.
• Automatic discounts: Discounts that apply automatically at checkout and in the shopping cart. You can create automatic discounts for a percentage or a fixed amount.

Note: US, CA, UK, AU, IN, FR, DE, ES, IT, NL, and JP promotions are eligible to be connected to your Merchant Center account. Currently, automatic discounts created on Shopify are only eligible for integration into Merchant Center in the US.

Promotion types not supported

At this time, the following types of promotions and conditions can’t be connected to your Merchant Center account:

• Any free shipping promotions
• Buy X get Y promotions
• All types of discounts on collections in your store
• Local in-store discounts
  • Only online discounts will be connected with Merchant Center
• Discounts targeted to specific users
• Promotions without an end date
• Promotions with a start date older than 6 months

Additionally, promotions aren’t supported if your account has no active US offers regardless of the promotion target country.

Create and manage promotions to show on Google

Promotions in Merchant Center are referred to as discounts in Shopify.

You can create discount codes and automatic discounts directly from your Shopify admin and then sync them to your Google & YouTube channel on Shopify to promote your discounts on products that you use in the app.

1. In the left navigation menu of your Shopify admin page, click Discounts.
2. Click on the name of the discount that you want to publish on Google & YouTube channel.
3. In the “Sales channels” section, click Manage.
4. Select Google & YouTube channel where you want this discount to be visible and promoted.
5. Click Done.

Learn how to sync discounts to sales channels and manage discount availability.

You can manage your promotions in your Merchant Center account. Learn how to Edit a promotion or change promotion status.

Opt out specific Shopify promotions from showing on Google

If you don’t want specific promotions to show on Google, you can opt out directly through your Shopify account and make those promotions unpublished on the Google & YouTube channel. Alternatively you can end those promotions in your Merchant Center account. Removing a specific promotion from your Merchant Center account won’t stop the promotion from appearing on your Shopify store. After you have ended a promotion in the Merchant Center, it can't be restarted.

Note: It may take a few hours after you end a promotion before it's removed.

To end your promotions in Merchant Center:

1. In your Merchant Center account, click Marketing in the navigation menu. You can also find the link to your Merchant Center account under the Google & YouTube app settings in your Shopify account.
   • Note: You should log in to Merchant Center using the same Google account associated with your Shopify account.
2. Click Promotions.
3. Check the box next to the promotion you want to end.
4. Click End promotions.
5. (Optional) You can also end specific promotions from their description page. After you’ve clicked into the specific promotion, scroll to the bottom of the description page and select End Promotion.

Opt out of all Shopify promotions

You can opt out of the promotions program in Merchant Center.

1. In your Merchant Center account, click Growth in the navigation menu. You can also find the link to your Merchant Center account under the Google & YouTube app settings in your Shopify account.
   • Note: You should log in to Merchant Center using the same Google account associated with your Shopify account.
2. Click Manage programs.
3. Navigate to the Promotions card.
4. Click Disable.

Learn more about how to Manage your Merchant Center account with a Shopify integration.

Manage promotions using WooCommerce

To show your coupons and promotions on Google, you’ll first need to ensure that you have the latest version of the Google for WooCommerce extension downloaded and linked to your Merchant Center account. Currently, versions 1.6.0 and above of the extension are supported.

Your WooCommerce promotions won’t sync with Google automatically after you’ve downloaded and linked the extension. For your promotions to sync with Google, follow the steps below in your WordPress dashboard:

1. Click on the Marketing tab in the navigation menu on the left.
2. Then click on Coupons in the dropdown options.
3. If you’re editing an existing coupon, select the coupon you wish to edit.
4. If you’re creating a new coupon, click Add a coupon.
5. Then navigate to the “Channel visibility” section and select the Show coupon on Google option from the dropdown menu.

Editing a promotion

If you edit a promotion in your WordPress account, the changes will automatically sync with your Merchant Center account.

Promotion types supported

The following promotion types can be connected with Merchant Center:

• Fixed product discount: A fixed total discount for selected products only. Customers receive a set amount of discount per item.
• Percentage discount: A percentage discount for selected products only.
• Free shipping with a code: Removes shipping cost when coupon is used.
• Only new promotions created or existing live promotions that are updated to have their channel visibility set to ‘Show on Google’.

Note: Only Shopping ads and free listings promotions targeted to the US are eligible to be connected to your Merchant Center account.

Promotion types not supported

Currently, the following types of promotions and conditions can’t be connected to your Merchant Center account:

• Existing expired promotions
• Promotions that have email restrictions
• Promotions that are set to exclude sales items
• Free shipping without a code

If you face any issues such as a code error, you can trigger a re-review by clicking on the update button in your WordPress account. You can find this option in the “Coupons” section within the “Marketing” tab.

For more information on the integration, visit the WooCommerce help center.

Manage promotions using FreshReach^TM

If you participate in FreshReach^TM powered by FMTC, some of your promotions will automatically sync with your Merchant Center account and will be displayed on your products across Google. After the promotions are synced with Merchant Center, you can make changes or updates to these promotions via your affiliate network or platform.

Google isn't using affiliate links in this experience and won't be tracking conversions via the affiliate network or charging for the display of these promotions.

Promotion types supported

The following promotion types will be selected with Merchant Center:

• Fixed product discount with redeem code: A store wide fixed total discount. Customers receive a set amount of discount store wide, per order.
• Percentage discount with redeem code: A store wide percentage discount per order.

Note: At this time, only US promotions are eligible to be connected to your Merchant Center account.

Promotion types not supported

Currently, the following types of promotions and conditions will not be connected to your Merchant Center account:

• Category specific promotions
• Any free shipping promotions
• Buy X get Y promotions
• Local in-store discounts
• Promotions targeted to specific users,
• Promotions for customers in non-US countries

Opt out of promotions from showing on free product listings and Shopping ads

If you don’t want your FreshReach^TM promotions to be shown in free product listings and Shopping ads, you can end those promotions in your Merchant Center account.

To end a promotion, follow these steps:

1. In your Merchant Center account, navigate to the “Marketing” tab.
2. Click on Promotions.
3. Check the box next to the promotion you want to end.
4. Click End promotions at the top of the dashboard.

You can also end specific promotions from the “Edit promotion” page after clicking into the promotion. To end a promotion from this page, scroll to the bottom of the page and select End Promotion. It may take a few hours after you end a promotion before it's removed. After you've ended a promotion, it can't be restarted.

For more information on promotions reporting, policies, and FAQs, visit the promotions help center page.