
Author: Alexander Madonna, Group Head Company iConText
In a previous article I talked about the GMC account, feeds, and their attributes. It is recommended to become familiar with it or with the Google reference, as in this article I will focus more on what happens after the upload feed.
It will focus on the mistakes and processing them, more feeds, GMC rules, as well as other tools and settings that might be useful.
Major errors in GMC
Find a list of all the errors in your account on the tab “Diagnostics”:

On this tab in the GMC, there are three levels of errors:
- Problems with the goods. Here is a graph of the dynamics of the number of loaded goods, goods with expiring products in line with errors, as well as a list of all errors, warnings and advisories for the downloaded feeds.
- Problems with the feed. This includes all errors associated with the format of the feed, formatting errors, problems with loading. For example: “Server not found” when the server is not available, which is a feed or “invalid file name”, if the file, for example, there are gaps.
- Problems with your account. This fall prevention that must be corrected. For example, if your feeds got banned by Google policy items, a warning with a deadline will appear on this tab. If you do not make changes in time, your account may be blocked.

Since many possible errors enough, I will focus on the basic and most common. Below – an example of a list of errors on the tab “The problems with the goods.”

- Errors highlighted in red. They need to pay attention in the first place, as they are critical: the goods are not shown and can lead to errors at the account level.
- The errors highlighted in yellow. This warning. They negatively affect the quality of the feed and can reduce the effectiveness of products.
- The errors highlighted in blue. This recommendation from Google. They make it clear that you can do better to improve the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
Errors can be downloaded from the interface in the slice of item, which is very useful for analysis and further work on the feed.
Invalid Product ID [manufacturer code], as well as warning of “Advertising effectiveness is limited because it does not set to [gtin]»
GTIN – this is a product barcode. Not all of the goods it is, but if there is, Google will send an alert when an incorrect ID or lack thereof. The identifier can be requested from the manufacturer, and there are paid and free databases .
How to fix: add / change gtin.
Invalid value: is the identifier
The error is also associated with gtin. For products that do not have ‘gtin’, in the identifier exists attribute you must put «False». Google will determine in which case the value of «False» correctly and the product actually exists gtin.
How to fix: add gtin and change the value of an attribute identifier exists to «True».
Goods temporarily disapproved image with water marks or advertising text ad overlay on the image [image link]
Google prohibits the use of any associated labels in the image, as well as watermarks.
How to fix: it will help alleviate the problem built-in tool, which appeared in the GMC last year.


Just connect this setting, and Google will automatically delete unwanted text with images. The tool works with an error, so it is necessary to replace part of the images themselves.
Too small image
The error occurs when the image does not meet Google’s requirements: clothes size pictures of subjects should be at least 250×250 px, and for other goods – at least 100×100 px.
How to fix: download images of higher resolution.
Invalid value
The error means that Google has detected a discrepancy of data on the availability of goods on the site and in the feed. There may be two reasons:
- The feed was originally added to incorrect data.
- The data on the site has changed, and in the feed are old.
How to fix it: in the first case, change the data and upload your feed again in the second – most often to update your feed.
Violation of the rules on product ads
Google rejects products that violate its rules. You can read more in the Google help . I recommend to do it, because in some cases, Google rules violation can lead to account suspension. For example, for advertising microcameras can get the error “Advertising hacking equipment” at the account level with the deadline, threatening to lock. Here too there is an error, and it happens that Google imposes a warning in error.
How to fix: If the product does violate the guidelines, to remove it from your feed. If Google erroneously assigned this error on the item card, you can re-check request:

additional feeds
Additional feeds are on the tab “Feeds.” They need to add to the main feed reference attributes or replace the values in the existing ones.

How can I use? From the obvious things:
- modify data in the attributes of the selected goods, to increase the efficiency or to test them;
- add special tags to promotional products;
- add or replace custom labels;
- to exclude certain products or add to complete the term of the products;
- replace attribute values, if they cause an error.
Loading additional feed as well as normal. The main attribute by which Google will search for matching – this item id. To get it, it takes the same ID in the main feed and additional. attribute requirements are the same as in the basic feed.
For example, we have this item:

Suppose I want to add to it more appropriate Google category, as well as add attributes “discount price” and “type of product”, which coincides with the text Google search value.
Creating an additional feed consists of three stages:
- The name of the feed and method of loading.
- Customize.
- Combining additional feed with the base.

I chose the download of Google spreadsheets. In the settings you need to specify whether we want to create a new table or select an existing one, as well as choose the schedule how often the feed should be updated. Further it is necessary to link additional feed with the core. Here you can choose one main feed, and more.

After you create do not forget to upload your feed, if you need the data here and now. Below is an example of how data has changed the product after loading additional feed.

Additional feeds – a useful tool that will help solve some problems, but we must remember that using it can not be removed from the main item in your feed.
Terms of feed processing
This is another tool to change or add attributes. Some tasks can be solved by additional feeds, as well as with the help of rules feed processing. However, the latter are more suitable for mass changes by a certain algorithm without reference to the item id.
Rules are on the third menu tab and click on the feed:


How to use them
When you create a rule, first select the attribute you want to use. There are two options available:
- Processed attributes – all attributes that can be loaded into the feed, ie everything that is in the specifications in the certificate, even if some of the attribute is not in the loaded feed…
- Processed custom attributes – attributes that the user sets. The name you can choose any. In fact it is the variables that record the edited data we need, that they then can be used in addition. This item can be used for composite rules that are difficult to register with a single variable, and it does not need to get any attribute in fact been changed or added to the feed.
Below are some problems that can occur and that can be solved by using rules:
- Add to the beginning or end of the boilerplate text or text from another attribute.
- Change attribute in accordance with Google’s specifications.
- Find text and replace with another.
- And perform arithmetic operations on numerical data.
As an example, consider two case. The first – the addition of a brand name to the top of the attribute title, the second – to add a price in the range of 0 custom label and the top Google search level in the custom label 2.
Adding a brand name in the beginning of the title attribute
Step 1. Select the attribute that we want to change, in our case – title.
Step 2. We fall into the menu, which will need to create a rule. The menu is divided into two logical components:
1. Sources of data used to fill the data attribute. It is important that the functional use “Data Sources” is necessary only to attributes that are not in the loaded feed. You can fill out an attribute one of the following:
- “Set Value”: static or using data from other existing attributes in the framework of the feed;
- “Import value”: allows you to use the attributes of the other feeds, is available at the same time search with regular expressions, which is very convenient;
- “Use last value”: only available for price and availability attributes.

2. The transformation rules allow you to change the existing attributes. There are several basic steps:
- “Add in the beginning”: adds a value to the top of the attribute;
- “Add = append”: adds value to the end of the attribute;
- “Find and Replace”: finds and replaces the value, including a regular expression;
- “Divide and select”: allows you to first divide the symbol, then select the items you want and merge them.
- “Clear”: clears the value of the selected attribute, then the attribute can not apply different rules.

To solve the problem using the “Add to the start” and put this in it the following expression:

As a result, the right side will be the original title and title added to the brand. This allows you to check whether a rule has been registered correctly:

Step 3. Save the project, we test the changes and apply them to rule applied to all items in your feed.
Adding a price range in the custom label 0
Since the custom label attribute to your feed is not 0, you must use the “Data Sources”. First placed in the empty attribute value:

Then, in the “transformation rules” to create the conditions for the price:

Then add any value in the beginning, e.g. «1k – 2k».

Press «OK», then in the right part of the window will be seen as an added attribute is displayed in the feed.

Most often you need to ask a few bands, and in this case you just need to “Add operation”:

By the way, in the blue box in the upper right corner you can click on the search icon and register there any certain of items in your feed to see the changes in the chosen example.

Adding a top-level type of goods in custom label 1
Custom label 1 can be created by the same logic, using the attribute “type of product.”
Step 1. On the right page, create a new rule, which states have custom label 1. In the “Data Source”, select the attribute that you created earlier, and save the changes.

Step 2. In the “Data Source” is set to “type of product” to fill custom label 1 of its values and then edit them:

Step 3. In the “transformation rules” select “Divide and choose” and divide by the separator and select the last item:

Press “OK” and save the project.
Schema.org and the creation of an automatic feed
Schema.org – is developed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex website layout, which allows search engines to better understand the structure of resources. If we talk about Google Ads, the layout allows DSA-campaign work more effectively, and GMC have the opportunity to create a feed from data site. A prerequisite for this – page layout using Schema.org. In addition, the layout will automatically change the price in feeds.
To check if a site and how well, you can use special tools are marked, such as ” Checking structured data from the Google ». To scan pages of Google also uses your Sitemap.
To feed it was automatic, it is necessary when creating select “Scan website” as a way to download. Then, in the feed will include all attributes that are marked on the site. To change the value in the feed may be by means of additional feeds or feed conversion rules.
This type of loading feed available for new accounts.
feed comments
Feed review allows you to show the star rating of the goods in the search. In the announcement, it looks like this:

This is another way to make your ads more visible and increase their CTR.
Reviews can be assembled both on site and via aggregators or using the service «Google customer feedback.”
To download feeds feedback to Google Merchant Center, you must connect to the program “The ratings of the goods” . To register, you need to answer a few questions. There are restrictions, such as reviews must be at least 50.
After connecting your account to the program in the menu on the right tab “Marketing” will appear, where you can find the “Product Reviews”.

Download feeds comments in two ways:
- According to the schedule, where the configuration is identical to the conventional load feed on schedule.
- Self loading file.
The link example feed reviews .
It is important to note that Google associates feedback and specific product using gtin, mpn and brand. In this case, the main attribute of the ligament – gtin, so it is recommended to specify it correctly and basically feed and feed comments. More details on the structure of the feed reviews can be found in the Product Review, Feeds . Moderation feed can take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks.
All of the above tools extend the capabilities of GMC and help to increase the efficiency of advertising campaigns. Hopefully, these approaches and tools will be understandable and useful, and you can apply them to solve their problems.
No responses yet