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Product Catalog Feed for WooCommerce / Creating and Managing Feeds / Google Merchant Feed

Google Merchant Feed

Last updated: February 12, 2026

A Google Merchant feed is a file (usually XML) that contains your WooCommerce products in Google’s required format. You add the feed to Google Merchant Center as a product data source, then Google regularly fetches it and uses it for:

  • Free listings (where available)
  • Google Shopping / Performance Max product ads
  • Dynamic remarketing (using the products from your catalog)

How you connect the feed to Google Merchant Center

  1. In Product Catalog for WooCommerce, copy the feed URL (the plugin hosts it on your site).
  2. In Google Merchant Center, create a product data source and choose Scheduled fetch.
  3. Paste the feed URL and set the fetch schedule. Google will pull the file from your URL (must start with http:// or https://).
  4. After the first fetch, fix any diagnostics in Merchant Center (missing GTINs, wrong categories, shipping, etc.).

Feed settings (what each section in your screenshot does)

Feed basics

  • Feed Name: internal name (helps when you have multiple feeds).
  • Feed Type: selects the channel/format for Google Merchant.
  • Feed file name: the output file name (also used in the feed URL).
  • Regenerate feed / Start regeneration: how often + when the feed is rebuilt on your site so Google always fetches fresh data.

Good default: regenerate daily, and also regenerate after big catalog updates.

Cost of goods sold / Google Automated Discounts

  • Cost of goods sold: pulls your COGS (if you use a COGS plugin) so the feed can include profitability-related attributes where supported.
  • Google Automated Discounts: feed-side support for Google features that rely on product pricing/cost context (best used only if you actually run those programs and your costs are correct).

If you don’t use COGS, you can usually ignore these.

Multicurrency

Lets you control which currency is used in the feed and how currency conversion is handled (important if your store shows different currencies by country/language).

Tip: for Google Merchant, keep it simple: one feed per target country/currency unless you really need multi-country logic.

ID settings

These decide what becomes the product id in the feed:

  • ID source (SKU vs product ID, etc.)
  • Prefix / Suffix

Why it matters: Google treats id as the primary key. Changing it later can “reset” product history and approvals.

Prices & tax

  • Price source (regular/sale)
  • Include tax / Tax behavior
  • Sale price schedule (when applicable)

Important: in many setups, shipping and tax are configured in Merchant Center (or via other attributes). Your feed must still send correct item prices.

Inventory / availability

Controls how availability is exported:

  • Include/exclude out-of-stock products
  • How to treat backorders
  • How variations are handled (when applicable)

Tip: keep availability accurate—Google is strict about mismatches.

Filters (include/exclude products)

This is your “feed curation” toolkit:

  • Filter by category
  • Filter by product types
  • Include only specific products, only in-stock, etc.

Use filters when you don’t want everything in Merchant Center (for example: exclude low-margin items or certain brands).

Smart Tags

Smart Tags are dynamic placeholders you can inject into fields (usually titles/descriptions) to build consistent naming rules across the feed.

Example uses:

  • Add brand/category to titles
  • Add size/color when available
  • Build cleaner titles without manually editing every product

Product title settings

Controls how titles are built:

  • Use product title as-is, or enrich it (brand, attributes)
  • Avoid duplicated or messy titles

Tip: keep titles readable first; stuffing keywords often backfires in approvals and performance.

Product description settings

Choose which content is exported:

  • Short description vs full description
  • Fallback logic (if one is empty)
  • Strip HTML / formatting behavior (depending on options)

Tip: aim for clear, factual descriptions (materials, compatibility, what’s included).

Product image settings

Controls which images Google sees:

  • Main image source (featured image)
  • Additional images
  • Variation images (where relevant)

Tip: ensure the main image is clean and matches the landing page product.

Product condition

Sets condition (usually new). Only change if you sell used/refurbished items.

Google taxonomy

This is the Google product category mapping:

  • Set a global Google category for the feed, or map categories more specifically.

Why it matters: better taxonomy = better matching + fewer issues.

Product type (from WooCommerce categories)

This typically controls Google’s product_type field:

  • Use WooCommerce categories
  • Use a custom taxonomy (if you have one)

Rule of thumb: use categories for product_type, and Google taxonomy for google_product_category.

GTIN / MPN / Identifier exists

These are critical for approvals:

  • GTIN: barcode (EAN/UPC/ISBN). Best when you have it.
  • MPN: manufacturer part number (common for non-barcoded items).
  • Identifier exists: set to “no” only when you truly can’t provide GTIN/MPN/brand.

Tip: missing identifiers are one of the most common reasons for limited performance or disapprovals.

Custom Labels (0–4)

These are for campaign structure in Google Ads (very useful):

  • Label by margin tier, season, best-sellers, price bucket, etc.

Examples

  • custom_label_0 = margin_high | margin_mid | margin_low
  • custom_label_1 = season_summer | season_winter
  • custom_label_2 = bestseller

Enable UTM for this feed

Adds UTMs to your product URLs in the feed so analytics sees traffic clearly.

Example outcome in GA4

  • source/medium becomes google / shopping
  • campaign becomes something like pmax_brand_ro

Keep UTMs consistent across all shopping campaigns.

Metadata for this feed

Lets you attach extra structured metadata (advanced use):

  • Either none (safe default)
  • Or add custom metadata in a defined format/namespace (useful for special setups and debugging)

If you’re not sure you need it, leave it off.