You’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?
Correct Answer
Availability is a required attribute, so Google’s system will disapprove the feed until all required attributes are included.
Key takeaways
Availability is a required attribute — missing it disapproves the item.
Warnings apply to recommended attributes; required ones cause disapproval.
Failures are item-level, so the rest of the feed keeps serving.
Why is this the correct answer?
Availability is a required attribute, so items missing it are disapproved rather than merely flagged. That severity is deliberate: availability is one of the few fields that changes what the shopper is actually being offered, and advertising an item without knowing whether it can be bought wastes the click and damages trust. Missing required attributes are an item-level failure, so the rest of the feed continues to serve.
Why are the other options wrong?
Availability is an optional attribute, so Google’s system will flag it as a warning for you to resolve in the future.
Availability is required rather than optional, and the consequence is disapproval rather than a warning.
Availability is not an attribute in the product feed, so Google’s system will disapprove the feed.
Availability is very much a product feed attribute, and one of the core required ones.
Availability is a required attribute, so Google’s system will flag it as a warning for you to resolve in the future.
The attribute is required, but the outcome is disapproval, not a warning. Warnings apply to recommended fields.
Frequently asked questions about this topic
What values does availability accept?
In stock, out of stock, preorder and backorder, with the last two expecting an availability date. Keeping the value synchronised with the site matters as much as supplying it, since advertising stock you do not have is a disapproval risk in its own right.
Official documentation: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/2948694
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
- 1What will happen if you try to upload a feed in Google Merchant Center that does not have availability for each product?Explained
- 2Which 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
- 3The feed that Luca exports from his point of sale system needs some cleanup before it will be accepted by Google Merchant Center. To meet the requirements, he needs to consistently change product_state to condition in his exported feed. What’s the best way to do this each time?
- 4Which of the following attributes is optional when setting up a product feed in the Google Merchant Center?Explained
- 5When setting up a product feed in the Google Merchant Center, which of the following attributes is optional?Explained
- 6Ricky is an online golf equipment merchant who just created a new Google Merchant Center account. When Ricky creates his first data feed, he must add unique product identifiers for his products. Which combination of ‘gtin,’ ‘mpn,’ and ‘brand’ is valid?