Feed rules give you the ability to transform your data to match our product data specification requirements. Use feed rules to resolve errors and help us interpret the data in your feed. This article explains how to set up feed rules for your product data.
Before you begin
In order to use the feed rules feature, you'll need to first create and submit a feed in your Manufacturer Center account so that there is data to create rules with.
Note: To set up feed rules for the ID [id] attribute, use the ID rules section. Learn more about setting up rules for the id attribute
Use feed rules
To create a new feed rule for your feed:
- Sign in to your Manufacturer Center account.
- From the page menu, click Products and then Feeds.
- Select the feed you’d like to create rules for.
- Click the "Feed rules" tab at the top of the page.
- If you have more than one country of sale and target language connected to this feed, be sure to select the country that you would like to apply the rule to.
- If you haven't created feed rules for the attribute you want to edit, click the “Add” button
and select the corresponding attribute from the drop-down list.
- If you want to edit an existing set of feed rules, you can search for the attribute using the search bar and click the attribute you want to edit.
- Configure your "Data Sources".
- Add "Modifications" (optional).
- Click the “Save as draft” button.
- The changes made to your rules are in draft mode. Click Test changes to test your draft rules before they’re applied to your product data.
- Click Apply to save and apply any new or updated rules. Click Discard to remove the draft rules.
and select the corresponding attribute from the drop-down list.The feed rules page contains an "Attributes" table which provides an overview of target attributes covered by rules.
The default rule is the rule Google assigns for each attribute in your feed by taking the value from either your supplemental or primary feed. If you’d like to customize the rule, you may alter how the attribute is defined.
Add Data Sources
Configure your data sources to identify from where the data for the attribute should come. Use conditions and operations (Set to, Extract, and Take latest) to specify how to retrieve your data. These operations allow you to define a target using an existing data source or extract data from a source.
Use data source operations
Use "Set to"
The "Set to" option allows you to populate a target attribute with a combination of inbound columns, from any of your primary or supplemental feeds, and static values. This lets you append your existing product data and augment it with additional values. For example, adding a brand to a title. You can use the "Set to" rule in the following ways:
- Set an inbound column name to a specified Google attribute.
- Example: Set Product Detail to: my_first_feed.detail
- Populate a target attribute with a single, set static string value.
- Example: Set Age Group to: “Adult"
- Populate a target attribute with any combination of inbound columns, static values, or processed values. Use the concatenation (or combination) feature to create a string from multiple columns or values.
- Example: Set Title to: my_first_feed.brand + " " + my_first_feed.title
Keep in mind: "Set to" concatenation rules fail only if all feed references fail. For example:
- Set Title to: my_first_feed.brand + " " + my_first_feed.title fails, if both feed references cannot be resolved.
- Set Title to: my_first_feed.brand + " " + my_first_feed.title doesn’t fail, if only my_first_feed.brand cannot be resolved. Instead, it will become Set title to: my_first_feed.title.
Use "Extract"
- Case sensitive: Match words and phrases in the exact case entered here.
- Keep only first matching value: If the attribute you’d like to extract returns 2 or more possible matches, only the first value that you list will be extracted. For example, if you’d like to extract “yellow”, “red”, and “blue” from a title, and the title is “Blue-striped shirt in yellow”, only “yellow” will be extracted.
- Search as a regular expression: Match all values that follow a search pattern (or “regex”). You’ll need to enter your regular expression into the text field. For example, to remove everything other than the first 6 digits in an attribute, use:
find: '^(.{6}).*$' replace: '\1'. - Whole words only: Match only entire words as entered. For example, prevent detecting the word “male” inside the word “female”.
Use "Take latest"
Example:
- Take latest of: my_first_feed.suggested_retail_price and my_supplemental_feed.suggested_retail_price
Add Modifications
Modifications allow you to add additional steps to change your data for a given attribute. Use conditions and modification operations to help you optimize your data. For example, you may alter certain words in your product title or update your data to meet product data specifications.
Use modification operations
Use "Prepend"
Example:
- You may want to add a brand value to any title that does not contain one.
Keep in mind: "Prepend" modifications fail only if all feed references fail. For example:
- Prepend "color: " + f1.color fails, if f1.color cannot be resolved.
- Prepend "color: " + f1.color + " " +"material: " + f1.material doesn't fail, if f1.color cannot be resolved. It only fails, if f1.color and f1.material both cannot be resolved.
Use "Append"
Example:
- You may want to add a color value to any title that does not already contain one.
Keep in mind: "Append" modifications fail only, if all feed references fail. For example:
- Append "color: " + f1.color fails, if f1.color cannot be resolved.
- Append "color: " + f1.color + " " +"material: " + f1.material doesn't fail, if f1.color cannot be resolved. It only fails, if f1.color and f1.material both cannot be resolved.
Use "Standardize"
Example:
For the age_group attribute, only the values “newborn”, “infant”, “toddler”, “kids”, and “adult” are accepted, so you may change all instances of “child” to “kids”.
To apply "Advanced options", click the arrow.
- Case sensitive: Match words and phrases in the exact case entered here.
Use "Add repeated field"
Use “Add repeated field” to add additional data to attributes that accept multiple values (for example, additional_image_link, product_detail, and feature_description). In other words, add a second value to a repeated field that is already populated with a first value. It may also be used for custom attributes.
Use "Optimize URL"
- If you add a new parameter that already exists, it will be automatically replaced.
- If you add a second parameter, an & instead of a ? will be automatically added.
- Add a new custom tracking parameter for
product_page_url. - Starting
product_page_urlvalue: https://myonlinestore.com/products/item1.html
- Set parameter ‘utm_source’ with the value ‘google-products’.
- Set parameter ‘utm_medium’ with the value ‘shopping’.
Final product_page_url value: https://myonlinestore.com/products/item1.html?utm_source=google-products&utm_medium=shopping
Use "Find & replace"
- Case sensitive: Match words and phrases in the exact case entered here.
- Replace first match only: Match only the first instance of the word in a given attribute. For example, if the description is “silver earrings with silver feathers”, only the first instance of “silver” will be replaced.
- Search as a regular expression: Match all values that follow a search pattern (or “regex”). You’ll need to enter your regular expression into the text field.For example, to remove everything other than the first 6 digits in an attribute, use: find:
'^(.{6}).*$' replace: '\1'. - Whole words only: Match only entire words as entered. For example, prevent detecting the word “male” inside the word “female.”
Use "Calculate"
Use "Split & choose"
The “Split & choose” option allows you to select one or more elements in a comma-separated, arrow-separated, or other list and use that text to populate an attribute value. For example, if your products are categorized using product_type value Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Uniforms > White Coats, you can assign product_type to a custom attribute, and use "Split & choose" to keep only "White coats". Then, you can use this value to append or prepend to other attributes in your feed, such as title.
Split: Signify at which type of node or symbol you'd like to separate your list. For example, ">" "," or ";".
Select: Select which of the elements, or nodes, you'd like to use. You can choose values like "first" or "last", or you can select a range of values, such as "1-second last" or "2-5".
Combine: If you have selected multiple nodes, use Combine to join them together in a single value, using a separator of your choice.
product_type string Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Uniforms > White Coats in order to append it to the title attribute.- Create a custom attribute with the name "last node product type".
- Set the custom attribute to "my_first_feed.product_type".
- Split: Split on ">". This divides the string into four nodes:
Apparel & Accessories,Clothing,Uniforms, andWhite Coats. - Select: Choose "last". This selects the last node in the string, "
White coats". - Save as draft.
- Create a new rule for the title attribute, for example to append the new attribute to the title: "my_first_feed.title" + " " + "last node product type".
Note: In this case, since you are only selecting one node from the string, you won't use Combine. If you want to use two nodes, you will use Combine on "," (for example: Uniforms, White coats).
Use "Clear"
- For attribute
brand, if current value equals "n/a", "Clear"
Note: Once the "Clear" operation has been executed for a specific product, no rules will further act on that product. If the attribute is required by the product data specifications, leaving the value blank may lead to your products being disapproved.
View a preview of your rule changes
As you adjust your rule using the "Data sources" and "Modifications" operations, you’re able to see a preview of your "Draft value" in the top right corner of the screen.
To see how certain items will be affected by the changes, click the magnifying glass to search for an item ID in the catalog, or click the arrow to cycle through your products at random.
If you create multiple rules on the same attribute, you can see how each rule will affect the final value. When you’re finished editing, the intermediate value will appear next to the rule you’ve edited.
Keep in mind:
- If you make multiple changes using a single rule, the intermediate value will account for the combined changes.
- If a rule doesn’t apply to the item you’re viewing, the intermediate value won’t appear.
To see the "Active value" and "Draft value" as it will appear if your rules are applied, hover over the preview box.
Use Conditions
Conditions can be added in front of an operation to filter items in your feed that meet certain criteria of your choosing. For example, to apply a title to all items of a certain brand, you can set a condition for “brand” “equal to” “Google”. If you select an attribute from your feed, the condition will filter out existing values in the value you’ve chosen. For example, if you choose to append:
- From the first drop-down menu, select either a feed attribute or a processed attribute to compare against. Feed attributes are specific attributes from a specific feed. If you select a feed, you’ll be able to specify the attribute name and the select the raw feed value. A processed attribute is the final attribute value which includes any changes from applied feed rules.
- From the second drop-down menu, select the operator for the condition. For example, “contains” or “does not equal”.
- Then enter the value you’d like the condition to compare against. This may be a static value or a processed attribute value from your feed.
To enter a second condition to be combined with the first, select "AND". This can be anything, so long as it doesn’t contradict the first condition. If both of the conditions are valid, the operation will be applied. For example, you may apply the rule to shirts that are red AND size small.
You can also have the rule act on conditions independently. To do this, select "OR" and enter a second condition, so the rule will act on either the first or second condition. If either of the conditions entered are valid, the operation will be applied. For example, you may apply the rule to red shirts OR blue shirts.
Keep in mind:
- When entering a price, use only the number without the currency.
- When using “equals”, make sure the value you enter exactly matches the value in your feed. For example, 13.00 may not be 13, $13.00, etc.
- Values are case insensitive.
Operations such as “set to” and “take latest” will only be applied if your conditions are met.
Save feed rules
To save your rules and apply them to your feed, click the "Apply changes" button. After your changes have been applied, you will need to reprocess your feed. The new rules will appear on the newest upload on your product data, and will be applied to each upload until you make changes to the rules again.
To edit an existing rule, click on the grey box containing the rule in the "Rule" column. Apply any changes to the rule, and then click "Apply changes" to save your changes. Upload your product data to apply the edits.