Each year, we make changes to the Shopping product data specification with the goal of creating a better experience for people who search for products online. This year, Google is focusing on making changes that relax the way we enforce certain rules.
What’s changing:
Long titles and descriptions truncation: With this change, title and description attributes that exceed the character limit will no longer result in disapprovals. Instead, Google will truncate the input to the correct length. If attribute values are truncated, you’ll receive a warning in your account. Learn more about the title attribute and the description attribute
Condition: The condition attribute is no longer required for new products. If you don’t submit a value for the condition attribute, or if the system doesn’t recognize the value that you’ve entered, Google will assume the product’s condition to be new. However, if Google finds that the product is listed as used or refurbished on the product’s landing page, your offer may be disapproved or you may receive a warning. Learn more about the condition attribute
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): To help improve the quality of reporting, we’re introducing the cost_of_goods_sold attribute, which can be used to calculate approximate gross profit per item. This optional attribute has been added to help you better focus your advertising campaigns to maximize profitability. Learn more about the cost of goods sold attribute
Size, color, and link attributes: Products with more than one size, color, or link attribute input will receive warnings. If your product is multicolored, you will still be able to specify more than one color value using slashes and hyphens, but you may not separate values with commas. If your product falls into a range of sizes, use a range value rather than repeating the attribute. Learn more about the size attribute, the color attribute, or the link attribute
ads redirect: Starting February 1, 2019, the redirect link for Google Ads tracking will need to direct to the same domain as the values in the link and mobile_link attributes. Learn more about the ads redirect attribute
Changes begin June 25th, 2018
These updates will go into full effect beginning June 25, 2018. As a result, some of your products that were previously disapproved may become eligible to serve, which could impact your budget in Google Ads. If you want to prevent these items from serving, go to your Google Merchant Center account and remove these products from your data feed.