Promotion start date [promotion_effective_dates]

Use the promotion start date [promotion_effective_dates] attribute to set a start date and end date for your promotion.

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On this page

• When to use
• Format
• Minimum requirements
• Best practices
• Examples

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When to use

 Required for all promotions.

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Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure Google understands the data you submit.

Type	Unicode characters (Recommended: ASCII only)
Repeated field	No

File format	Example entry
Text data source	Start date and end date are separated by a forward slash (/). The date format is (YYYY-MM-DD), followed by the letter ‘T’, the time of day when the sale starts or ends, and an expression of the time zone for the sale. If your promotion is valid from 3:00 a.m. on July 19, 2009 to 9:00 p.m. on July 26, 2009 EST (Eastern Standard Time), you would submit: 2009-07-19T03:00:00-05:00/2009-07-26T21:00:00-05:00 If your promotion is valid from 3:00 a.m. on July 19, 2009 to 9:00 p.m. on July 26, 2009 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), you would submit: 2009-07-19T03:00:00+00:00/2009-07-26T21:00:00+00:00
XML data source	<g:promotion_effective_dates>2009-07-19T03:00:00-05:00/2009-07-26T21:00:00-05:00</g:promotion_effective_dates> <g:promotion_effective_dates>2009-07-19T03:00:00+00:00/2009-07-26T21:00:00+00:00</g:promotion_effective_dates>

To format your data for Content API, check the Content API for Shopping resource.

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Minimum requirements

These are the requirements that you must meet to show your promotion in Merchant Center. If you don't follow these requirements, your product is disapproved and you get a notification in your Merchant Center account.

• Promotions have a 6-month limit (183 days).

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Best practices

These best practices can help you go beyond the basic requirements to optimize your promotion data for performance.

• GMT is Greenwich Mean Time. -5 hours represents EST while -8 hours represents PST.
• Daylight Savings: -4 hours represents EDT while -7 hours represents PDT.
• If you use the promotion builder, it will only support the promotion start date [promotion_effective_dates] attribute and the time will default to the time zone of your Merchant Center account setting. If you want the promotion to be in a different time zone, adjust the time zone manually.
• You can validate your promotion before it starts by using the promotion display dates [promotions_display_dates] attribute. Learn more about Promotions source formatting and attributes.

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Examples

A promotion that offers half off for New Year