Step 3: Choose products for your promotions

Before you begin, make sure that you activate the promotions add-on in your Merchant Center.

After you create a promotion, you can apply it to all of your products or specific products in your account. This article outlines how you can apply promotions and map them to different products in your data source.

On this page

• All products
• Specific products
• How to create a promotion for specific products via the promotion builder
• How to create a promotion for specific products via the products data source
• How to resubmit a promotion disapproved for mapping issues

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All products

If your promotion applies to all products that you sell, you can specify this by editing your promotion in the promotion builder. To apply your promotion to all products, select the promotion you would like to edit and check the box next to “All products”.

If you would prefer to apply your promotions for all products via your promotions source instead, use all_products as the value for the product applicability [product_applicability] attribute. You only need to create one promotion ID [promotion_id] for a promotion that applies to all_products (for example, one entry for the set).

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Specific products

To create promotions when multiple promotions apply to specific products that you sell, you can:

• Create custom filters to apply promotions to specific products.
• Map them to the promotion ID [promotion_id] of items in your data source using text or Content API.
• Use specific_products as the value for the product applicability [product_applicability] attribute in your promotions source.

Be sure to avoid excessive or duplicate promotions. You don’t need to create a separate promotion for each item. Instead, you can group promotions by discount amount, titles, and more. Grouping your promotions optimizes your data source and eases the mapping process through the use of the promotion ID [promotion_id] attribute.

How to create a promotion for specific products via the promotion builder

You can choose specific collections or offers from your product data source to include or exclude in your promotions. Select Create a filter to apply this promotion to specific products when you edit your promotions in the promotion builder, and specify the items that should have a promotion applied through these supported attributes:

• ID [id] or item ID [item_id]
• Product type [product_type]
• Brand [brand]
• Item group ID [item_group_id]

Alternatively, to map the promotion to the specific products in your data source based on the promotion, you can select Apply this promotion only to products in my product data source that have this promotion ID. Continue to the next section for more information on how to map your promotion ID [promotion_id] to your eligible products.

How to create a promotion for specific products via the products data source

You can create promotions for specific products either by manually updating your products data source or uploading via XML file or the Content API. To map the promotion ID [promotion_id] to all eligible products in the products data source, follow the steps below according to your setup.

Text (spreadsheet) or tab-delimited files

1. In your promotion sources, locate your promotion’s promotion ID [promotion_id] attribute.
2. In your products data source, add the promotion ID [promotion_id] attribute as a new column.
3. For each product that the promotion applies to, add your promotion’s ID to the promotion ID [promotion_id] attribute in your products data source.
   • You can map multiple promotions to an item by separating each promotion ID [promotion_id] in the cell with a comma.
4. Upload your products data source to Merchant Center.

You should only add the promotion ID [promotion_id] attribute to products that are definitely included in the promotion. If your promotion is tied to a product that is excluded, Google rejects the entire promotion.

Learn more about using Google Sheets as data source or view an example tab-delimited data source.

XML files or API

Data source type	Instructions	Content
XML	Insert the content to the right within an item entry. To add multiple promotion ID [promotion_id] attributes to an item, insert multiple lines. Replace promotion_id with the actual promotion ID [promotion_id] value.	<g:promotion_id>PROMOTION_ID</g:promotion_id>
API	Insert the content to the right within an item entry. To add multiple promotion ID [promotion_id] attributes to an item, insert multiple lines. Replace promotion_id with the actual promotion ID [promotion_id] value.	<sc:attribute name="promotion_id">PROMOTION_ID</sc:attribute>

The Content API is available to merchants in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

How to resubmit a promotion disapproved for mapping issues

If your promotion ID [promotion_id] is not mapped to any items in your products data source, Google rejects your promotion. Once you map your promotion ID [promotion_id] and upload your products data source again, resubmit your promotion in the Merchant Center.

To resubmit your promotion, follow the steps below:

1. In your Merchant Center account, select Promotions from the navigation menu.
2. On the Promotions page, click Add promotion.
3. Create a new promotion and update the promotion rules or settings to follow our policy and SKU requirements.
4. After your updates are complete, click Save.

Note: If you don't correct the mapping issues and upload a new product data source, the promotion will remain as "disapproved" and won't show in search results.

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