Google Product Catalog
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Merchant Center holds the product data behind Shopping ads, free listings and the other Google surfaces that show individual items. How accurate it is decides which of your products appear, at what price, and whether they are shown at all.
Signals writes your product data into a Merchant Center account, so the catalog follows the source your team already maintains rather than a feed someone updates by hand.
For shop-level stock and availability rather than the catalog itself, use Google Local Product Inventory.
Supported sources
Section titled “Supported sources”Sources supported by Google Product Catalog
| Category | Supported |
|---|---|
| Warehouse |
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”Before connecting Google Product Catalog, make sure you have:
- A Google Merchant Center account.
- A Google account with permission to manage that Merchant Center account.
- A Datahash Studio account with the target project selected.
- A source connected in the same project with Product Catalog selected as its data type, holding your product data.
Authentication
Section titled “Authentication”In Studio, open Destinations, find Google, and click the Product Catalog tile. This connector uses single sign-on.
- Click Sign in with Google.
- Choose the Google account associated with your Merchant Center and click Continue.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”- Select the Merchant Center Account ID from the list. Only accounts the authenticated Google account can manage will appear.
- Click Finish.
That is the whole configuration. There is no field mapping on this destination, so the product attributes and the structure your source provides are what reach Merchant Center.
Manage instance
Section titled “Manage instance”One instance covers one Merchant Center account. Writing to a second account needs a second instance, and because there is no field mapping here, a second instance is the only way to send different product data to a different place.
To add another, open Manage Instances and click Add Instance. To change one, open it from Manage Instances, use the menu in the top right and choose Edit, update the fields and click Finish. Cancel keeps the previous configuration running, so updates apply only after you finish.
Deduplication
Section titled “Deduplication”The product ID is the key Merchant Center matches on. An ID it already holds is updated in place; an ID it does not recognize is added as a new product.
That makes a changing product ID the usual cause of a catalog filling up with near-duplicates, because the old item is not replaced, it simply stays. Keep the ID stable across syncs and treat it as a permanent reference rather than something the source can regenerate.
Data & identifiers
Section titled “Data & identifiers”Signals reads the product data your source provides and delivers it to Merchant Center. This destination carries product data rather than personal data, so nothing is hashed and no customer identifiers are involved.
Merchant Center enforces its own attribute requirements, so what has to be present is set by Google rather than by this connector. An item missing a required attribute is rejected individually while the rest of the feed goes through, which is why the instance can look healthy while part of your catalog is absent.
Best practices
Section titled “Best practices”- Keep product IDs stable. They are the key Merchant Center matches on, and changing one creates a new item rather than updating the existing one.
- Fix data quality in the source rather than in Merchant Center, or the next sync will undo the correction.
- Check the Merchant Center account you selected is the one your Shopping campaigns actually use, particularly if you manage several.
- Watch Merchant Center diagnostics after the first sync. Product-level rejections surface there, not in Studio.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Section titled “Troubleshooting & FAQ”No Merchant Center accounts listed. The authenticated Google account cannot manage any. Check its permissions in Merchant Center, then reconnect.
Products are not appearing. Confirm a source is connected in the same project and returning rows, then check Merchant Center diagnostics for item-level rejections.
Duplicate products in the catalog. Product IDs changed between syncs. Merchant Center treats a new ID as a new product and leaves the old one in place.
Products are rejected. Merchant Center enforces its own attribute requirements. Its diagnostics report which attribute failed and why.