When setting up a product feed in the Google Merchant Center, which of the following attributes is optional?
Correct Answer
product_type
Key takeaways
Product type is optional and is your own categorisation.
Availability, price and image link are required.
Supply product type anyway — it is valuable for product group structure.
Why is this the correct answer?
Product type is optional. It is your own categorisation of the item, usually mirroring your site's navigation, and its absence will not stop an item serving. Availability, price and image link are all required, because each changes what the shopper is actually being offered. Supplying product type anyway is worthwhile, since it is one of the most useful dimensions for building product groups.
Why are the other options wrong?
availability
Availability is required — it tells the shopper whether the item can be bought.
price
Price is required, and it must match the landing page or the item is disapproved.
image_link
The image link is required, since the image is the primary element of a Shopping listing.
Frequently asked questions about this topic
What is the practical benefit of supplying product type?
It gives you a bidding and reporting dimension that matches how you think about your catalogue, rather than Google's taxonomy. Subdividing product groups by product type is often the most natural first cut in a Shopping campaign.
Topics in this question
About the Shopping Ads Certification
The Shopping Ads Certification checks that you can run retail campaigns end to end: product data in Merchant Center, linking it to Google Ads, and choosing between Standard Shopping and Performance Max to drive sales and value.
Exam guide and all 407 Google Ads Shopping questions →Related Google Ads Shopping questions
- 1Which of the following attributes is optional when setting up a product feed in the Google Merchant Center?Explained
- 2Your client is working with an agency to set up a product feed in Google Merchant Center, but the agency is not sure which attributes to include. Which attribute is optional?
- 3You’re setting up a product feed in Merchant Center for the first time, and you realise that you don’t have availability for each product. What will happen if you try to upload the feed in Google Merchant Center?Explained
- 4Which of the following situations would be true if you tried to upload a feed in Google Merchant Center that did not have availability for each product?Explained
- 5What will happen if you try to upload a feed in Google Merchant Center that does not have availability for each product?Explained
- 6You work at an agency and manage several retail accounts in Google Ads. One of your clients is new to Shopping Ads and would like to track performance by product category (ex: apparel) and gender. The client is passing the required and optional attributes for apparel in the product feed. Which recommendation would you make to their campaign structure to achieve granular reporting?