Your guide to Google Shopping feed optimisation

Your product feed is one of the most powerful tools in your performance strategy. It drives every search you appear for on Google Shopping. Yet, many brands still treat their feed as an afterthought, simply pulling content from their website and hoping for the best.  Hope doesn’t win auctions. Feed optimisation does.  Here’s how to turn your Shopping feed into a growth engine. 

Why product feed optimisation matters

Many search queries match against product titles. That means your titles control your visibility. Ignore them, and you hand the competitive advantage to someone else. To prove the impact, here are real examples from our clients who embraced smarter Google Shopping feed optimisation:

Example: Increasing Product Type Depth

• Control: Coats
• Experiment: {Brand Name} > Womens > Clothing > Outerwear > Coats & Jackets > Coats
• Results:
  • +40% impressions
  • +69% revenue
  • +14% ROAS

Example: Strengthening Product Titles

• Control: {Brand Name} Floral Dress
• Experiment: {Brand Name} Floral Dress – Size 14 – Designer Blue Dress
• Results:
  • +73% impressions
  • +127% revenue
  • +17% ROAS

Small tweaks. Big shifts. That’s the power of a feed built for how people actually search.

Top tips for Google Shopping feed optimisation

Titles Your title is your first impression, and often your only chance. 

Use the full 150 characters in a product title and prioritise the attributes that matter most to your customers: brand, category, colour, size, style, material.  If your customers search by brand first, lead with it. If they search by colour, move it upfront. Be intentional. Be relevant.

Descriptions A small but significant amount of searches match through descriptions. Aim for 500-1500 characters and focus on clarity. 

Cut the fluff. Remove promotional lines and styling advice. Keep descriptions clean so you match the right queries and avoid wasting budget on the wrong ones. 

Product Types Google recommends using a minimum depth of three product types. However, we’ve found five levels deep performs far better. The more detail you give Google, the better it understands what you sell. 

Google Product Category Add a Google product category wherever possible. This helps Google understand what your product is to match you with relevant terms.

Colour Use generic, widely recognised colours, like “pink,” not blossom. This will allow you to use the colour filters in the Google Shopping tab.

For multicoloured items, separate colours with slashes (Blue/White/Yellow). Small change. Big uplift in filtering and visibility.

Summary

Optimising your Google Shopping feed is essential for success. Keep testing, refining and adapting to how people search. Stay ahead of trends, analyse your data and use it to make smarter decisions. Investing in Shopping feed optimisation unlocks the full potential of your PPC performance.