TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• How do Google match products?
• How can I supply strong ID data to Feefo?
  • Recommended option
  • Alternative options
• Supported values:
• Conclusion

Introduction

Google Shopping Ads with product ratings can significantly boost your product visibility and trust among potential customers. However, to ensure accurate matching and attribution of ratings to your products, supplying strong ID data is crucial. This comprehensive guide explains how Google matches products, the importance of GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers), and various methods to supply strong ID data to Feefo.

What are they?

If a you are a retailer, you can use Shopping campaigns to promote online and local inventory, boost traffic to your website or local store, and find better qualified leads. You can see Shopping ads and free listings across the web:

• The Shopping tab on Google Search (in select countries)

• Google Search, next to search results (separate from text ads), and Google Images

• Google Search Partner websites (if your campaign is set to include search partners), not applicable for free listings

Shopping ads and free listings can appear at the same time as text ads because Google want to give users access to the full variety of products that match their search. This means that users can find the best match before clicking through to make a purchase, which might help close the sale. Product listing ads are distinct because they can include product images, real-time pricing information and reviews. This information is always up-to-date because Google pulls it directly from your product feed.

What they look like

You can connect their Google Shopping Feed within your Feefo account to ensure your review content appears against the relevant shopping products - more information about this can be found in our Google Shopping Feed  article.

How do Google match products?

Google matches your review data to products based on various factors, with Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) being the strongest identifier. If GTIN data is unavailable, Google will attempt matching using other metadata, such as SKU, Brand + Manufacturer Part Number (MPN) pairs, or Product URLs. However, GTINs are preferred as they offer the best match accuracy.

How can I supply strong ID data to Feefo?

To ensure accurate matching of your product ratings, you can supply strong ID data to Feefo through various methods:

Recommended option

Set up a connection between your Feefo and Google Merchant Centre accounts.

Alternative options

1. Provide the product GTIN along with each transaction in your sales data:
   • If you send data via a sales file
   • If you send data via our Entersaleremotely API
2. Upload a manual product catalogue to your Feefo account, providing a list of your product SKUs and their corresponding GTINs

If your Feefo account spans multiple language domains we recommend supplying the GTIN data via your transactional feed, alternatively please contact Feefo Support for further guidance.

All of the above methods also support a Manufacturer Part Number (MPN) if your products do not have a GTIN.

Google emphasise that this option does not guarantee as reliable a match

Adding the product GTIN etc to the sales data is the only way that multi language customers can provide this if it is all from one website URL, so that they can ensure the right product description and URL match to the right language.

It is a standard, which means it represents an agreed industry-wide format for expressing something, in this case the number that identifies an item. 

Please be aware that a GTIN is allocated centrally by the organisation GS1, cannot be arbitrarily assigned and are strictly numeric.

Please be aware that a GTIN is allocated centrally by the organisation GS1, cannot be arbitrarily assigned and are strictly numeric. 

The inclusion of gtin or mpn and brand in your sales data or product catalogues will be required in future releases. Maximum character length is 14 characters (see below for the different formats). Mainly used by retail merchants selling branded products to ensure accurate matching of Feefo reviews to products when submitting to Google’s product rating programme.  gtin is not used for unbranded products or for those that do not have a GTIN; use mpn and brand instead. 

Usage is as follows:

Supported values:

UPC (in North America/GTIN-12) 

• 12-digit number e.g. 323456789012.
• 8-digit UPC-E codes should be converted to 12-digit codes.

EAN (in Europe/GTIN-13)

• 13-digit number e.g. 3001234567892.

JAN (in Japan/GTIN-13)

• 8 or 13-digit number e.g. 49123456 or 4901234567894.

ISBN (for books)

• 10 or 13-digit number e.g. 1455582344 or 978-1455582341 (exclude any hyphens). If you have both, only include the 13-digit number. ISBN-10 are deprecated and should be converted to ISBN-13. 

ITF-14 (for multipacks/GTIN-14)

• 14-digit number like 10856435001702.

Schema.org property

• Product.isbn
• Product.gtin8
• Product.gtin12
• Product.gtin13
• Product.gtin14

Conclusion

Google Shopping Ads with product ratings can significantly impact your online business, driving more traffic and conversions. By understanding how Google matches products and providing accurate GTIN data to Feefo, you can ensure that your product ratings appear effectively, gaining customers' trust and boosting sales. Implement the recommended options and alternative methods mentioned in this guide to maximise your product ratings in Google Shopping Ads.