Google Automated Discounts Setup

Last updated: February 12, 2026

Google Automated Discounts lets Google show a discounted price in Shopping ads (and other Google surfaces) without you creating coupon codes or changing WooCommerce prices for everyone.

Google generates a discount offer, and your site must be able to apply and display that discounted price consistently when a shopper clicks from Google.

What you need for GAD to work (big picture)

A Google Merchant Center account (and product listings running through Merchant Center).
A product feed that includes cost-of-goods + minimum discount rules
This is required so Google knows what discounts it’s allowed to offer while protecting your margins.
✅ You generate that feed with WooCommerce Product Catalog (by PixelYourSite):

Cost of goods in the feed (via WooCommerce Cost of Goods / PYS COG integration)
Minimum allowed discount / pricing constraints (so Google won’t go below your threshold)

This Smart Prices integration, which:

accepts Google’s discount token
applies the discounted price on the product page
keeps that price stable for the required time window

Settings explained (screen)

Enable Google Automated Discounts (GAD)

Turns the whole feature ON/OFF.
When ON, the plugin will look for Google’s discount token and apply the discounted price when present.

Google Merchant ID

Your Merchant Center ID (the numeric ID of your Merchant account).
Google uses it to validate that discount tokens are meant for your store.

Price persistence rules (important)

Google requires that once a shopper sees a discounted price, that same price stays visible:

Session Timeout (m)

Default shown: 30 minutes.
The discounted price must remain for the entire shopping session (including checkout) for at least this duration.

Cart Timeout (h)

Default shown: 48 hours.
If the shopper adds the item to the cart, the discounted price must remain available in the cart for at least this long.

That note in the UI is basically Google’s policy requirement. These timeouts help you stay compliant.

Variations Discount Inheritance

If enabled, a discount token applied to a variable product can be inherited by its variations (helps when Google lands users on a parent product but the cart uses a variation ID).

Test Mode (for setup only)

Enable Test Mode for GAD

Turns on a testing workflow so you can validate the integration without waiting for Google to send real discount tokens.

Public key for Tokens in Test Mode

A public key used to verify test JWT tokens you generate. (In production, tokens come from Google; test mode is for local verification.)

Testing Data section (how to use it)

Example Payload (JWT Header + JWT Payload)

These are sample pieces for generating a JWT token (the discount token).

In the payload:

exp = token expiration timestamp (example says “current time + 1 day”)
o = product ID used for testing (you paste the test product ID here)
m = merchant ID (taken from the setting above)
p = discounted price (must be lower than product price)
c = currency (must match your store currency)

Testing Keys (Public Key / Private Key)

Provided so you can generate a signed JWT token for testing.

Apply the token

You add the token to a product URL as a parameter, like:

?p2=token

Then open that URL and confirm:

product page shows the discounted price
cart/checkout keeps it
the price remains stable for session/cart timeouts

⚠️ Leave Test Mode OFF in production. It’s only for debugging and the UI warns about that for a reason.

Quick “what to do first” checklist

Generate the Google Merchant feed with WooCommerce Product Catalog.
Make sure the feed includes:
- Cost of goods
- Minimum discount / margin protection field(s)
Turn ON Google Automated Discounts here.
Add your Merchant ID.
Use Test Mode once to validate, then turn it OFF.

If you want, send the screenshot (or fields list) from the Product Catalog feed settings where you set cost of goods + minimum discount, and I’ll write the matching doc section that connects the two steps cleanly.