The most common types of product variations are supported by detailed product attributes for ‘color’, ‘size’, ‘pattern’, ‘material’, ‘age group’, ‘gender’, ‘size type’ and ‘size system’. You might not be able to use these attributes to thoroughly describe your variants if you sell build-to-order custom products or products that vary by other qualities. The best practices here will give you tips for how to submit variants when your products don't fit the detailed product attributes provided by Google.
If you aren't familiar with the terms used here, learn more about detailed product attributes and variants.
Best practices for submitting products that vary by unsupported attributes
- Submit a separate item for each variant, making sure that the title
[title], image[image], description[description], and price[price]reflect the specific product variant you're selling. - Be clear in the 'title' attribute about the part of the product that is different between your variants.
- Do not provide a value for item group ID
[item_group_id].
Example
You sell auto parts, and each component you sell differs based on the make and model of the car that would use it. Since the Products Feed Specification doesn't have attributes for make and model, you can't submit variants with an 'item group ID'. Instead, you can put the information about what makes each item different--the auto part's target make and model--into the title [title] attribute for each item. Shopping ads can use the text you provide in the 'title' attribute to help show your variants to customers.
Best practices for submitting custom products
- In your product data, submit either the complete configured product or the components for a product.
- If you submit a complete configured product, submit items that are readily available and best-sellers.
- If you submit a component of a product, make sure that the image, description, and price reflect the component you're selling.
- If your inventory and prices change frequently throughout the day, you might consider using automatic item updates.
Example
You're a custom jewelry manufacturer, and you allow customers on your website to select from setting and stone options to create the final product. You have so many possible combinations for your products that you don't want to set them all as variants with an item group ID [item_group_id] in your product data. Instead, you decide to promote only your best selling configurations in Shopping ads. When a user sees an ad for your jewelry, they see the price and image for the completely configured product.