Topic: google merchant center

August 14, 2026

Google Merchant Center now allows agencies up to 1,000 accounts

Google has officially documented that agencies can now link up to 1,000 client Merchant Center accounts under a single agency profile, replacing a previously undisclosed limit. The update is purely a clarification of an existing backend cap, not a new feature, but it gives agencies a concrete ben...

August 10, 2026

Google Merchant Center outage under investigation

Google is investigating a disruption to Google Merchant Center that began August 6 at 13:06 UTC, but has not disclosed the root cause, affected features, or a fix timeline as of the latest update. The outage threatens retailers relying on Merchant Center for product feeds across Google Shopping, ...

July 17, 2026

Google adds business data feeds to Demand Gen campaigns

Google's new business data feeds feature for Demand Gen campaigns allows advertisers to dynamically deliver ads based on audience interests and inventory, without requiring a Google Merchant Center account. This update targets non-retail industries like travel, real estate, and automotive, enabli...

July 16, 2026

Google expands Performance Max reporting to all networks

Google updated Performance Max campaign reporting to include data from all eligible networks, not just Search, giving advertisers a more complete view but causing a one-time spike in metrics. The expanded reports now cover product performance across Performance Max, Video, App, and Demand Gen cam...

July 15, 2026

Agentic Commerce Reshapes Google Ads in 2026

Agentic commerce is transforming online shopping by allowing AI agents to handle the entire purchasing process, eliminating friction like forced account creation and pop-ups that cause cart abandonment. AI is shrinking traditional ad landscapes, with a recorded 11% year-over-year decline in impre...

July 7, 2026

Google Merchant Listings Now Support Sale Duration & Product Categories

Google has updated its merchant listing structured data to support sale duration properties (validFrom, validThrough, priceValidUntil), aligning schema.org usage with the Merchant Center feed's sale_price_effective_date attribute. The update also adds support for the Product.category property, al...

June 10, 2026

How to Optimize Your Product Feed for SEO (And Who Should Own It)

Product feeds have evolved from a PPC-exclusive tool into a critical ecommerce data asset impacting paid, organic, and agentic commerce, yet SEO teams remain largely uninvolved despite Google's emphasis on Merchant Center for AI product visibility. Google manages three separate data layers,produc...

May 28, 2026

Google adds AI shopping visibility tools to Merchant Center

Google's Merchant Center now offers AI-powered performance insights, including share of voice, shopping funnel metrics, and product term data, to help retailers track product visibility across AI-driven shopping experiences. These insights enable brands to identify missing structured product attr...

May 13, 2026

Google Tests Merchant Advisor Tool in Merchant Center

Google is testing a new AI-powered chatbot called "Merchant Advisor" in Merchant Center, currently in beta, which proactively guides merchants through setup, troubleshooting, and performance improvements. The assistant aims to reduce friction for smaller retailers by surfacing optimization opport...

May 11, 2026

Google’s UCP Update: AI Shopping for Carts, Catalogs & Loyalty

Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) March 2026 update adds three major capabilities: shopping carts for multi-item purchases, live catalog queries for real-time inventory data, and identity linking for loyalty program integration, bridging the gap from its limited January debut. Google is ...

April 23, 2026

WooCommerce Adds YouTube Video Product Sales Feature

WooCommerce store owners can now sell products directly on YouTube through a new integration, connecting their store to a potential audience of over 2.7 billion monthly users. Merchants can tag products in their videos and Shorts, creating interactive shoppable cards and a dedicated shopping tab ...

March 21, 2026

Google's New Rules for Out-of-Stock Product Pages

Google now requires out-of-stock product pages to display a visibly disabled buy button, moving away from practices like hiding or keeping it active, to prevent customer confusion. The policy also mandates clear availability messaging on the product page, such as "out of stock," which must exactl...

March 19, 2026

Google Adds Vehicle Feeds to Search Campaigns

Google now allows automotive advertisers to integrate real-time vehicle inventory directly into standard Search campaigns, creating visual, interactive ads from existing Merchant Center feeds. This feature enhances ad relevance by displaying key details like price and photos in search results, ai...

March 7, 2026

OpenAI Alters ChatGPT Instant Checkout Strategy

OpenAI is shifting ChatGPT's commerce strategy from direct checkout to prioritizing product discovery and search, as users primarily use it for research rather than completing purchases. This change means brands should focus on optimizing for AI search and discovery within ChatGPT, while transact...

March 4, 2026

Google Merchant Center Launches "Build to Order" for Cars

Google has introduced a new "build to order" availability attribute in Merchant Center, allowing automotive sellers to accurately represent customizable vehicles not on the lot, improving user experience and data quality. To use this feature, sellers must consistently set the availability to "Bui...

March 2, 2026

Google's Universal Commerce Protocol: The SEO Game-Changer

Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) transforms search into a direct transaction layer, enabling AI to discover, compare, and finalize purchases entirely within its own interfaces like Gemini. This shift to "agentic commerce" means competition now occurs in the AI's recommendation layer, wh...

February 25, 2026

GMC Video Assets Section Now Live With Content

Google's Merchant Center now automatically populates a Video Assets section with content from linked sources like YouTube, centralizing commerce-ready creative assets for advertisers. This automation allows brands to potentially increase visibility across Google's shopping surfaces with minimal e...

February 21, 2026

Fix Merchant Center Feed Disruptions Now

Google Merchant Center is experiencing a confirmed service disruption impacting product feeds, which can delay approvals and hurt campaign performance for advertisers. Google is actively investigating the feed problem but has not yet provided details on the cause, scope, or a resolution timeline....

January 6, 2026

Google's New Rule: Separate IDs for Multi-Channel Products

Google will require separate product IDs for online and in-store items if their attributes differ, starting in March 2026, to improve data accuracy for shoppers. This policy shifts feed management responsibility to retailers, who must audit and segment their product data to maintain ad visibility...

November 5, 2025

Google's Smart Cropping May Be Cutting Your Ad Images

Google's Smart Cropping feature in Merchant Center automatically zooms in on product images, sometimes resulting in awkwardly cropped ads that cut off key details. The feature is enabled by default with no direct option to disable it in the interface, requiring advertisers to contact Google suppo...