Google Merchant Center Framework

Diagnose feed health, optimize product listings, resolve disapprovals, analyze price competitiveness, and assess Shopping campaign readiness. A decision-framework for agents working with Google Merchant Center accounts of any size.

How This Skill Works

Step 1: Collect context from the user's message — merchant category, product count, known issues, goals (fix disapprovals, improve performance, launch Shopping ads, etc.).

Step 2: Ask one follow-up with all remaining questions using multiple-choice format. Key questions:

• a) Account size: (1) \x3C500 SKUs, (2) 500-10K, (3) 10K-100K, (4) 100K+
• b) Primary goal: (1) Fix disapprovals, (2) Improve feed quality, (3) Boost Shopping performance, (4) Launch new campaign, (5) General audit
• c) Feed method: (1) Direct API, (2) Scheduled fetch (XML/CSV), (3) Shopify/WooCommerce plugin, (4) Supplemental feeds, (5) Not sure
• d) Current disapproval rate: (1) \x3C2%, (2) 2-10%, (3) 10-25%, (4) >25%, (5) Unknown

Allow shorthand answers (e.g., "1a 2c 3b 4e").

Step 3: Analyze using the frameworks below. Prioritize by impact: disapprovals first (products not showing), then data quality (products showing poorly), then performance (products showing but underperforming).

Step 4: Deliver structured output with specific fixes, benchmarks, and priority order.

Integration Note

This skill works best when paired with a Google Merchant Center MCP for live data access. Without live data, the agent applies frameworks to data the user provides (exports, screenshots, descriptions of issues). With live data, the agent can pull product statuses, diagnostics, and price insights directly.

1. Feed Health Analysis

Health Score Framework

Calculate a feed health score from these weighted components:

Score interpretation:

• 90-100: Excellent. Focus on performance optimization.
• 75-89: Good. Fix remaining disapprovals and fill attribute gaps.
• 50-74: Needs work. Systematic issues present. Prioritize disapprovals, then required attributes.
• \x3C50: Critical. Feed is substantially broken. Triage disapprovals by volume.

Required vs Recommended Attributes

Always required (all products):

• id, title, description, link, image_link, availability, price

Required for most categories:

• brand (required except for movies, books, musical recordings)
• gtin (required for all products with a manufacturer-assigned GTIN)
• condition (required if used or refurbished)

Conditionally required:

• color, size, gender, age_group — required for Apparel & Accessories
• item_group_id — required for product variants
• shipping — required if not set at account level
• tax — required in the US if not set at account level

High-impact recommended attributes:

• additional_image_link (up to 10 images; products with 3+ images get ~15% higher CTR)
• product_type (your own categorization; helps with campaign structure)
• sale_price + sale_price_effective_date (triggers sale badge in Shopping)
• custom_label_0 through custom_label_4 (essential for campaign segmentation)
• product_highlight (up to 10 bullet points; shown in free listings)
• product_detail (section_name + attribute_name + attribute_value tuples)

Diagnostic Priority Order

1. Account-level suspensions — nothing shows until resolved
2. Item-level disapprovals — products removed from serving
3. Item-level warnings — products serve but with reduced visibility
4. Missing required attributes — will become disapprovals
5. Missing recommended attributes — reduces competitiveness
6. Data quality issues — poor titles, descriptions, categorization

2. Product Optimization

Title Optimization

Titles are the single highest-impact attribute for Shopping performance. Google uses titles for query matching more heavily than descriptions.

Structure formula by category:

Title rules:

• Max 150 characters; first 70 characters are most critical (truncation in mobile)
• Front-load the most important keywords in the first 70 characters
• Never use ALL CAPS or promotional text ("Free Shipping", "Best Price")
• Include color, size, material when relevant — these are matching signals
• Use the actual brand name, not abbreviations
• Separate attributes with hyphens or commas, not pipes

Title quality scoring:

Description Optimization

• 1,000-5,000 characters optimal (minimum 500)
• First 150-200 characters most critical (may be shown in free listings)
• Include keywords naturally — Google does use descriptions for matching, but less than titles
• Include specifications, materials, dimensions, use cases
• No HTML tags (stripped by Google), no promotional language, no links

Image Requirements

Image optimization checklist:

• Main image: product only, white background, high resolution
• 3+ additional images (lifestyle, different angles, scale/size reference)
• Apparel: show product on a person or flat-lay (not hanger)
• Consistent image style across product line

GTIN/MPN Completeness

• GTIN is critical. Products with valid GTINs get ~20% more impressions than those without.
• Google cross-references GTINs against the GS1 database. Invalid GTINs cause disapprovals.
• If a product genuinely has no GTIN (custom, handmade, vintage, parts), set identifier_exists to no.
• Never fabricate GTINs. Never reuse GTINs across different products.
• MPN is required when GTIN is not available and the product has a manufacturer part number.

3. Price Competitiveness

Interpreting Price Benchmarks

Google provides price benchmarks in the Price Competitiveness report. Key metrics:

Competitive Visibility Score Framework

Price Strategy Decisions

When price is too high vs benchmark:

1. Can you lower the price? Do it.
2. Can you add a promotion or sale_price? Triggers sale badge, improves CTR even if final price is still above benchmark.
3. Can you differentiate on value (bundle, warranty, fast shipping)? Add to title and description.
4. Is the product a loss leader for competitors? Consider excluding from Shopping.
5. Use custom_label to segment high-priced items into separate campaigns with different ROAS targets.

Price-Landing Page Match — #1 cause of avoidable disapprovals:

• Price shown on page must match price attribute exactly (including currency)
• sale_price must match the visible sale price on the landing page
• If microdata/structured data on the page differs from the feed, the feed value may be overridden or flagged

4. Performance Analysis

Shopping Performance Benchmarks by Category

Performance Diagnostic Tree

Low impressions:

1. Check disapprovals — products not serving at all?
2. Check price competitiveness — priced out of auctions?
3. Check title relevance — titles match search queries?
4. Check bid/budget (paid) — budget exhausting before end of day?
5. Check product ratings — competitors with ratings outranking you?

Low CTR (impressions OK):

1. Image quality — compelling vs generic?
2. Title quality — informative vs vague?
3. Price position — higher than competitors in same carousel?
4. Sale badge — competitors showing sales, you are not?
5. Shipping speed/cost — competitors showing "Free delivery" and you are not?

Low conversion rate (clicks OK):

1. Landing page match — does the page show what the listing promised?
2. Landing page speed — >3 seconds load time loses ~50% of mobile users
3. Price on landing page — any surprise fees or shipping costs?
4. Mobile experience — is the landing page mobile-optimized?
5. Availability — "Add to cart" immediately visible?

Key Metrics to Track Weekly

5. Disapproval Workflows

Top 10 Disapproval Reasons and Fix Paths

Disapproval Triage Matrix

Appeal Process

1. Fix the issue first. Never appeal without fixing.
2. Wait 24-72 hours for automatic re-crawl.
3. If not resolved: Request manual review (Diagnostics > Item Issues > Request Review).
4. One appeal at a time. 7-day cooldown applies for repeated policy violations.

6. Feed Management

Feed Method Decision Tree

Platform has native GMC integration (Shopify, WooCommerce)?
  YES → Use platform plugin as primary feed
        Need to override attributes the plugin doesn't support?
          YES → Add supplemental feed for overrides
          NO  → Plugin-only is sufficient
  NO  → Have developer resources?
        YES → Content API (real-time; best for >10K SKUs or fast inventory)
        NO  → Scheduled fetch (XML/CSV hosted on your server; update at least daily)

Feed Types

Supplemental Feed Strategy

Use supplemental feeds for:

• Custom labels — campaign segmentation (margin tiers, seasonality, priority)
• Title A/B testing — optimized titles without touching your CMS
• Missing GTINs — lookup table mapped to product IDs
• Promotion IDs — linking products to active promotions
• Seasonal overrides — holiday titles, temporary attribute changes

Supplemental feeds match on id — must exactly match the primary feed id.

7. Shopping Campaign Readiness

Pre-Launch Checklist

Standard Shopping vs Performance Max

Custom Label Strategy

ROAS Targets by Category (Starting Points)

Output Format

• Start with a Feed Health Score (0-100) and top-line summary
• Group findings into: Critical (disapprovals, policy) → High (data quality, price) → Medium (optimization) → Low (nice-to-have)
• Include specific product counts and percentages per issue
• Provide exact fix instructions, not general advice
• Mark estimates with ⚠️ when based on incomplete data
• End with a prioritized action plan (numbered, with effort: 5min / 30min / 2hrs / half-day)
• Include a 7-day and 30-day check-in plan