The merchant loyalty program covers a range of benefits, such as free shipping, redeemable points, and loyalty pricing for your customers. Show your loyalty program benefits in your free listings and Shopping ads across different Google properties, including Google Search, the Shopping tab, Wallet, and Maps. Note that experiences may differ on desktop and mobile devices. This feature is available to merchants who already have an existing loyalty program and are interested in showcasing their benefits on Google.
On this page
Benefits
- Engage and retain existing customers: A view into the benefits of your loyalty program during a shopping experience on Google can enhance the customer’s association with your brand. They will be able to indicate their status as a member of your loyalty program to enjoy a personalized shopping experience on Google.
- Attract new customers: Customers who aren’t members of your program will be exposed to information on your loyalty program. Then, Google will direct the interested people to your sign-up page to drive membership.
How it works
Everyone will be able to view your high-level loyalty information and benefits. However, to view members-only shipping benefits and points, customers will have to declare their membership status. They can do so by confirming loyalty tier association when prompted on Google Search. Then, listings will show the appropriate perks based on your loyalty program settings.
Types of loyalty programs
- Free to join: Available for everyone. No membership fees or credit card sign ups are needed.
- Spending amount: Available only to customers who have spent a certain amount on purchase in the past year.
- Annual Fee: Available only to customers who pay for a subscription to your program.
- Loyalty credit card: Available only for holders of merchant-branded credit cards.
Note: Google supports merchant loyalty program, which provides members with perks based on membership tier. In line with our current policies, these perks should be available regardless of purchase location (web, app, or in-store).
Types of perks
- Free shipping or delivery: Members enjoy free shipping either with every purchase or on a minimum purchase. You also have the option to add free same-day delivery as a member benefit.
- Note that these benefits will automatically display to all shoppers as a membership benefit regardless of their location. You can also set up member shipping benefits for specific products. Learn more about Configure shipping settings of your loyalty program for US.
- Redeemable points: Members gain points on their purchase, which they can redeem later.
- Loyalty pricing: Members enjoy specific pricing. This will display alongside the non-member price to give shoppers an idea of the benefits of joining your program.
- Note that only national loyalty pricing is supported.
Set up loyalty programs in your Merchant Center account to allow your customers to view the perks associated with their membership with customized content. You don't need to incur any additional fee to set up this program.
How to implement merchant loyalty program
Step 1 of 3: Activate the loyalty program card
For MC Classic
- In your Merchant Center account, go to the navigation menu on the left.
- Click the Growth tab and select Manage programs.
- Find the “Loyalty programs” card and click Get started.
For MC Next
- In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings & tools icon
and click Add-ons.
- Activate the loyalty add-on and get started.
Step 2 of 3: Add details of your loyalty program
- Add the following details under “Program overview”:
- Program name: Customers will find this on Google.
- Program label: It can be the same as the program name but can’t include spaces. You can use underscores instead. The input for this field can be used as the program label
[program_label]attribute when feed changes are made. After you submit your loyalty program label, you won’t be able to edit the program label. - Program description: A brief description highlighting the benefits of your loyalty program. This is the field that will have the most customer visibility, so we encourage you to highlight your key loyalty benefit here.
- Sign-up URL: A valid URL for customers to join your loyalty program. You can customize this URL with UTM parameters to track engagement data. Learn more About URL customization.
- Add program tiers. If you have multiple program tiers, start with the most basic tier as your first and then add the more advanced tiers in an order as you add more tiers. Enter all the tiers for your loyalty program, each one will need a unique name and label.
- Add tier name, tier label (can’t be edited after submitting) and tier URL (Optional), and select one of the tier requirements – Free to join spending amount, or branded card. Learn more about Types of loyalty programs.
- If your loyalty program has multiple tiers of membership, click + Add another tier to add additional tiers.
- Ensure to add the tiers in the order of "barrier to entry". Your loyalty tier with the lowest barrier to entry should come first, and the highest should be last. For example, if you have 3 loyalty tiers - a free tier, a tier that costs $100 per year, and a tier that costs $500 per year; the order should be:
- Free tier
- $100/year tier
- $500/year tier
- Credit card tiers should be added last.
- Ensure to add the tiers in the order of "barrier to entry". Your loyalty tier with the lowest barrier to entry should come first, and the highest should be last. For example, if you have 3 loyalty tiers - a free tier, a tier that costs $100 per year, and a tier that costs $500 per year; the order should be:
- Select the benefits you want to add to the program.
- Set up Loyalty pricing directly in your feed using loyalty program
[loyalty_program]attribute. - Select Loyalty points.
- Select one of the shipping benefits at the tier level: Free shipping on all orders, Free shipping on orders over $, Free express on all orders, and Free express shipping on orders over $.
Note: To display shipping benefits at the offer level, you need to make feed and shipping service changes. Learn more about Configuring shipping settings of your loyalty program.
- If you offer loyalty benefits outside of points and shipping, you can configure them as "Other" benefit type. For example, "Member-exclusive shopping events", "Member-exclusive price", "Free gift on your birthday" and more. Ensure that benefits communicated here match the benefits listed on your website.
Note: You can also add loyalty pricing in “other benefits” in case this is the only loyalty benefit available.
- Set up Loyalty pricing directly in your feed using loyalty program
- Click Submit.
Step 3 of 3: Turn on benefits for specific offers
To display the member prices or number of points a customer can earn for purchasing a specific product, use the loyalty program [loyalty_program] group attribute. The point earning ratio added when setting up level benefits automatically applies to all products. If you want to override the default ratio, make feed changes as outlined in loyalty program [loyalty_program].
The loyalty program [loyalty_program] attribute can also be used to add loyalty shipping benefits to eligible offers. Learn more about Configuring shipping setting of your loyalty program.
In addition to showcasing your loyalty program benefits on your listings from the feeds in your Merchant Center account, Google will also showcase these benefits on your crawled offers. These are offers Google has found on your website that aren’t submitted via the feeds in your Merchant Center account. In an effort to increase customer engagement and personalize the shopping experience, Google may use data from Gmail. The data helps Google understand customers' loyalty relationship status and promotion availability. If you want to opt out of displaying loyalty benefits on crawled offers or loyalty Gmail data sync, contact our support team.
Loyalty Performance Report
Loyalty program performance reports will be sent monthly via email. To ensure you receive this report, check your email preference settings and ensure you're opted into "Tips and best practices".
Understanding Your Loyalty Program Reports
- Loyalty impressions: The total number of impressions of offers with loyalty benefits across Google surfaces.
- Loyalty clicks: The total number of clicks on offers with loyalty benefits on Google, leading to your website.
- Loyalty clickthrough rate (CTR): The percentage of times your offers with loyalty benefits were clicked on after being seen on Google surfaces. For instance, a CTR of 5% means that for every 100 impressions, offers with loyalty benefits displayed received 5 clicks.
Note: Impressions and clicks on special "Join Now" calls to action aren’t included in this report.