The document provides 14 tips for optimizing a product feed for Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in order to improve PLA performance and drive more sales. Key tips include promoting top search products and store sellers through PLAs, using top search queries and descriptive titles and images, ensuring accurate pricing and inventory levels, including all required product identifiers, and diagnosing and correcting any feed errors. Clean, optimized product feeds are essential for successful PLA campaigns.

1. 14 WAYS TO
OPTIMIZE YOUR
PRODUCT FEED
LIKE A PRO

2. Google Product Listing Ad (PLA) growth is up because of the way
consumers are shopping today. People are turning to their mobile
devices to research products and services before making a purchase
online and in stores. These image-based ads significantly ease the
mobile shopping experience, allowing consumers to quickly scan
for relevance and price on a small screen while Local Inventory Ad
formats (LIAs) help them find nearby inventory.
And as a result, PLAs appear to be everywhere now, moving beyond
the search engine results page (SERP) and on to image search,
YouTube, Gmail, and even third-party sites on Google’s Search
Network like Walmart.com through AdSense for Shopping. This
expansion is largely due to the success of PLAs, with click share
surpassing that of text ads. Advertisers have responded by allocating
60% (or more!) of their search spend on this ad type.
In addition to expanding the presence of PLAs, Google is working
to increase their exposure with the recent changes they made to
the SERP. By eliminating text ads on the right hand rail, it opened up
space for more PLAs to show. These changes, along with the growth
in mobile, will have a positive impact on PLA traffic.
The foundation of every successful PLA program is a clean and
optimized product feed. You cannot have one without the other.
Unfortunately, feed management and optimization is often listed as
a huge challenge for brands, especially those with a large number of
SKUs, high inventory turnover, frequent price and promotion changes,
and more. Below you’ll find a list of tips from our PLA experts that
will help you get your product feed—and subsequently, your PLA
program—into top form.
Let’s take a look at 14 ways to get your product feed into top shape.
PROMOTE TOP PPC PRODUCTS VIA PLAS
Search and PLA work best hand in hand, so
ensure that the top products sold in search are
also being sufficiently promoted via PLAs.
Pro tip: Fill in any gaps found between these
two ad types. You can use the top product
report to see which products sell the most on
each.
USE TOP QUERIES AT THE FRONT OF
YOUR TITLES
Utilize top queries from PLA and search at the
front of your titles to maximize traffic. This
helps match intent when original titles may be
too exact or unusual. Ensure important product
descriptors such as brand and size, etc. are
included.
Pro tip: It’s helpful to include specific details
from your search queries in your titles and
descriptions especially for clothing retailers.
INCLUDE AS MUCH INFORMATION AS
POSSIBLE IN DESCRIPTIONS
Take advantage of the 5,000-character limit
on descriptions. Include at least as much
information as the landing page description, but
make sure there is no promotional text or code.
For example: Solid red, queen-sized bed sheets
made from 100% woven polyester, 300 thread
count fabric. Set includes one fitted sheet,
one flat sheet, and two standard pillowcases.
Machine washable; extra deep fitted pockets.
Pro tip: Removing code snippets and symbols
is a common issue but a quick find and replace
in Excel can get rid of any unwanted html
language that may have carried over from
product landing pages.

3. GRANULARITY IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND
Be as granular as possible with your Google
categorization. Be very specific when populating
your categories. Bucket all products according
to Google’s taxonomy to improve your chances
of matching.
Pro tip: In this example, instead of classifying
all of your apparel products under “Apparel &
Accessories > Clothing,” continue segmenting
as much as possible into smaller product
families such as “Apparel & Accessories >
Clothing > Baby & Toddler Clothing >
Baby & Toddler Undershirts”
BEEF UP YOUR PRODUCT TYPE
ATTRIBUTES
Ensure that your product type attributes are
consistent and include as many product type
attribute values as possible. This attribute is
a user created categorization and therefore is
customizable. We typically recommend that
you populate this attribute with data specific to
your site categorization. These attributes can
be used to segment your product feed for bid
optimization. For example: Books > Non-Fiction
> Sports > Baseball
Pro tip: We recommend including seasonal or
descriptive words here as well.
USE THE ACTUAL BRAND NAME IN THE
BRAND ATTRIBUTE
Submit actual brands in the brand attribute. Do
not use your company name or manufacturer
for the brand attribute values. For example, use
the actual brand name “Disney” and not the
manufacturer of the branded product.
Pro tip: This is increasingly important to Google
and we have seen numerous accounts flagged
for “missing or ambiguous identifiers” when this
attribute is ignored or not populated correctly.
MAKE SURE INVENTORY LEVELS ARE
CURRENT
Ensure that all in stock products are listed
appropriately and there is no disconnect
between your site data and corresponding
status in the GMC.
Pro tip: Automate your feed update process
if possible to ensure best sellers are eligible
when back in stock.

4. USE COMMON COLOR NAMES IN THE
COLOR ATTRIBUTE
Use identifiable and common colors in the
color attribute rather than a retailer specific
color name. For example, instead of using the
color name your product team created, such as
“Sea Breeze Misty Morning,” use the color blue.
You can always add the unique color name to
another attribute field, such as description or
title. When indicating multiple colors for a single
item (not product variants), specify a primary
color, optionally followed by a maximum of
two secondary colors, separated by a '/'. For
example, Blue/Green/Grey.
Pro tip: Using terms shoppers would search
for is far more beneficial when trying to be
matched to a search query rather than creative
color names. It’s highly unlikely someone will
remember that a particular shade of blue is
called “Sea Breeze Misty Morning,” so they
will enter blue in the search query and most
importantly, that is what Google will use to
populate your PLA.
MAKE USE OF THE GOOGLE SHOPPING
ASSORTMENT
Report to identify new products
Verify that your top products are present and
utilize the Shopping Assortment Report in
Google Merchant Center to identify key products
that may be missing from your feed and to
expand your product offerings.
Pro tip: Beginning with your top products is a
great place to start optimizing a new feed.
USE THE SAME LANGUAGE AS YOUR
WEBSITE
Ensure the text you use in your feed mirrors that
of your website.
Pro tip: Customers want their online shopping
experience to be consistent. Match the text
used in your ads to the text on your landing
pages.
PROMOTE TOP PRODUCTS SOLD IN
STORES VIA PLAS
Work closely with your in-store team to ensure
that top products sold in stores are also being
promoted via PLAs.
Pro tip: PLAs drive in-store traffic but often
times there is a disconnect between physical
store teams and online teams. Be sure to
close that gap and sufficiently promote top
selling items from physical stores via PLAs
INCLUDE ALL UNIQUE PRODUCT
IDENTIFIERS (UPIS)
Ensure that you include all Unique Product
Identifiers (UPIs), such as GTINs (aka UPCs,
ISBNs etc.), MPNs and brands.
Pro tip: Google has recently expanded their
requirements for GTINs and they must be
included in your feed for all products with a
GTIN assigned by the manufacturer. Starting on
May 16, 2016 ads will be disapproved if they do
not include the correct GTIN.

5. A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS, AND
CLICKS
Use the best quality images you can, avoiding
stock imagery if/when possible.
Pro tip: Focus on products with high revenue
potential first if budgets are limited.
DIAGNOSE PROBLEM AREAS IN YOUR FEED
To identify errors in your product feed use the
diagnostics tab in the Google Merchant Center
where the error type will be listed, such as
“incorrect price.” From there you can download
examples of this error to correct. Once your
disapproved items have been updated with
accurate information and uploaded to the GMC
again, Google will verify that the errors have
been resolved.
Pro tip: If your products have not been re-
approved automatically you can submit a
reevaluation request, or reach out to your
Google Rep.
ABOUT THE PRO
As a Senior Product Listing Ad Manager at Adlucent, Trey is responsible for managing and
optimizing PLA programs for some of the world’s biggest retailers. In order to drive more
revenue at a lower cost of ad spend, he’s constantly looking for new ways to optimize product
feeds to deliver even greater performance results.
Have a question for our Pro? Drop Trey a note at solutions@adlucent.com.
2130 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
1-800- 788-9152
solutions@adlucent.com
www.adlucent.com