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How to fix your Google Shopping product feed and stop disapprovals
Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor
First published Updated 5 min readWe check this page every three months. Next check: .
How Shopping ads work
A Shopping ad is built from your feed, not written by you
A search ad is written headline by headline. A Shopping ad is assembled from the product data in your feed: the title, image, price and availability someone entered for the website.
So there is no ad copy to rewrite, only a feed to fix. Google's product data specification sets out the core required attributes: a unique ID, a title, a description, the landing page link, an image link, availability and price.
Get one wrong, or leave one out where it is required, and the product doesn’t just lose visibility the way a weak search ad might. It gets disapproved and stops showing, which is why feed problems look like a cliff, not a slow decline.
What is required
The core attributes every product feed needs
Google's product data specification lists these as required for essentially every product, with more attributes required depending on category and country.
- A unique product ID, consistent every time that product is submitted
- A title that names the product clearly
- A description of the product
- The link to the product's own landing page
- A working image link in an accepted format
- Accurate, current availability: in stock, out of stock, preorder or backorder
- The price, matching what a customer pays on the landing page
- Brand, and a GTIN or MPN, for most new products
What usually causes it
Four disapproval reasons that come up most often
Most feed problems trace back to one of these. Check the Diagnostics tab before assuming which one applies.
- A required attribute is missing for the product type or country.
- Requirements vary by category and target country: a GTIN required in one product type may be optional in another. Check the specification against the specific product type, not the feed as a whole.
- The product image comes back as "unsupported image type".
- Google's accepted formats are JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF and GIF. A broken link or an image outside that list triggers the disapproval. Fix the image or the link, and allow up to 24 to 72 hours for the change to process.
- The price or availability in the feed does not match the landing page.
- Google's misrepresentation policy covers offers that are not accurate or realistic, and a mismatched price is a common trigger. Automated price and stock syncing between the site and the feed prevents most of this.
- A bulk update introduced an error across many products at once.
- One mistake in a bulk file, such as a formatting change to the price field, can disapprove a large share of the catalogue at once. Check the Diagnostics tab immediately after any bulk update.
How to stop it recurring
A recurring routine for keeping the feed clean
Google checks feeds continuously, so a feed that was clean at launch won’t stay clean without a routine check.
Check the Diagnostics tab on a fixed schedule
Weekly for a large or frequently updated catalogue, monthly for a small, stable one. Don’t wait for a spend drop to reveal a disapproval that has sat there for weeks.
You get: A standing calendar reminder for the check
Fix the attribute named, not the whole feed
Google names the exact attribute and product affected. Fix that attribute using the bulk edit or file update method that suits how the feed was built.
You get: The specific disapproval reason resolved
Re-check after any bulk update to the catalogue
A price change, a stock sync or a platform migration is when a formatting error slips into every product at once. Check the Diagnostics tab the same day.
You get: A post-update Diagnostics check
Confirm automatic feed syncing is running
Google's guidance on uploading products notes that hosted files and platform integrations are checked for updates roughly every 24 hours. Confirm that sync is active, particularly after a platform or theme change.
You get: Confirmed, working automatic sync
What good practice looks like
How to manage a product feed well, and what no one can claim
Good practice
- Audit a feed against Google's current product data specification, attribute by attribute.
- Fix the specific disapproval named in Diagnostics, and check the fix cleared.
- Set up a recurring check, not a one-time cleanup that drifts again within months.
- Confirm automatic syncing between the site and the feed is running.
Avoid
- Promise a specific increase in Shopping ads spend or sales from fixing the feed.
- Submit an invented product identifier to work around a missing GTIN.
- Treat an automatically generated feed as correct without checking it against the requirements.
- Leave a bulk update unchecked and assume it went through cleanly.
Questions
Common questions about fixing a Shopping product feed
What attributes does Google require in a Shopping product feed?
Google's product data specification lists a core set as required for every product: a unique ID, a title, a description, the landing page link, an image link, availability, and price. Attributes such as brand or a GTIN become required depending on the product type and target country.
A missing required attribute is one of the most common reasons a product gets disapproved. The Diagnostics tab in Merchant Center names the exact attribute flagged.
Why do my products keep getting disapproved for "unsupported image type"?
Merchant Center only accepts images in specific formats. Google's help documentation names JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF and GIF as accepted, and anything outside that list, or a broken image link, triggers this disapproval.
Fix the source image or the feed link, product by product or in bulk through a CSV update, and allow up to 24 to 72 hours for the change to process.
Do I need a GTIN for every product?
For most new products in most categories, yes. Google's specification treats a GTIN, or a brand plus MPN, as required for many product types, with exceptions such as certain custom or one-off items.
If a product has a manufacturer-assigned barcode number, use it. An invented or incorrect identifier is worse than leaving it blank, since Google checks identifiers against manufacturer data.
Why did an approved product suddenly get disapproved?
Google checks feeds continuously, not once at submission. A routine price change, a stock update or a landing page redesign can introduce a mismatch, such as the page price no longer matching the feed, which falls under Google's misrepresentation policy.
A monthly look at the Diagnostics tab catches this kind of drift before it costs weeks of lost visibility.
My feed comes from my ecommerce platform automatically. Is that enough?
It gets data into Merchant Center, but does not guarantee every attribute is present, correctly formatted or accurate. Google's guidance on uploading products covers automatic extraction, platform integrations, manual and file-based options, and each still needs the output checked.
Automation reduces manual entry error. It does not remove the need for someone to check the Diagnostics tab against the requirements.
References
Sources for fix Google shopping product feed
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
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