Reasons and solutions for Google Shopping ads not showing

How to check if your Google Shopping ads are not showing?
The only way to confirm that your Shopping ads are not showing is to check your campaign reports. Here are the steps to check:
Access your Google Ads account.
Select “Campaigns” from the left menu.
Find the “Impressions (Impr)” column.
If you don’t see it, click the “Columns” button and select “Modify columns.” The “Impressions” column should appear after you select “Competitive metrics.”
Once you click “Save,” impression data will appear in your statistics table.
If the number in the “Impressions” column is 0 (zero), it means that your campaign’s ads are not showing.
If you find that some of your Shopping ads are not showing, you need to address the issue as soon as possible.

Reasons and solutions for Google Shopping ads not showing

Here is a flowchart to help us identify shopping ads.

Account Issues

If Shopping ads are not showing, there may be a problem with your account.
Please check if any of the following issues exist.

1. Failed to link Google Merchants to Google Ads
   A typical reason why products are not showing in Google Shopping is that there is no normal connection between Google Merchants and Google Ads. This usually happens when the Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts are unlinked or the connection process fails.
   How to solve: First, make sure you have claimed and verified your Google Merchant Center and verified your ownership of the website with Google. Then check if the Google Merchant Center account is linked to the corresponding ad account. Check if the connection is normal and if Google Merchant Center is visible in the list under “Linked Accounts” in your Google Ads account.
2. Google Shopping Rules and Policies

Make sure your products are not listed as “prohibited” or “restricted.”
Dangerous goods: weapons, fireworks, tobacco, etc.
Inappropriate content: bullying or intimidation, crime scene or accident images, self-harm, etc.
Products that encourage immoral behavior: forged documents, etc.

A large number of items are also prohibited (but allowed with restrictions). These items include:
Adult-themed content
Alcoholic beverages
Gambling-related content
Health-related topics High-fat, high-salt, high-sugar food and drinks

3. Google Shopping Violations (Suspension)
   If a Merchant Center account is found to violate Google’s policies, it may be suspended. When this happens, all products associated with the account will no longer appear in Google Shopping ads. The violation may be due to your billing problem.

Solution: If you are billed monthly, please check your account budget carefully. If your overall campaign spend exceeds the amount specified in the account budget before the deadline, all ads in the account will be disabled. Learn how to set or change your account budget. For rejected payments, refer to your billing summary or transaction page.
To prevent account suspension, advertisers must comply with Google’s regulations and ensure that their product data is correct and up-to-date.

Product feed issues
Product feed failures are the most common and complex issues. You should first find and resolve issues in the Google Merchant Center Diagnostics and Feeds section.

There are two ways to check if there are errors in your product feeds:

Navigate to Products > Feeds in your Google Merchant Center account. Navigate to a product in Google Merchant Center and click Diagnose. You’ll get a list of all items with errors found.
Common issues and solutions are listed below.

1. Data is out of date
   Your product information must be updated at least every 30 days. If not updated, the product will expire after 30 days and your ads will no longer appear. Therefore, it is recommended to resubmit updated product information every day or every few days.
   Solution: Go to your Google Merchant Center, select “Products” > “Feeds”, select your feed, click “Settings”, and activate “Daily Crawl”.
   If your product information is out of date, click Get it now.
2. Lack of necessary product attributes

The following fields and attributes need to be included in the feed. Without these fields, your feed will not be approved and Shopping ads will not be displayed: Product ID Product title and description Product image Product link Product price Product category Inventory status Brand Product status

3. Unoptimized feed
   Unlike search campaigns, Shopping campaigns do not use keywords. This also emphasizes the need to optimize feed information. Google uses product titles and descriptions to determine whether the product triggers the user’s search query.
   This also means that if you don’t optimize the feed, your Google Shopping ads may not trigger. Therefore, you need to optimize product titles and descriptions.
   There are some practices you can follow:
   Provide details such as color, gender, size, and model.
   Add the keywords you want to trigger to the title and description of the product. Please put the most important information at the beginning of the title and description.
   Make sure to meet Google’s character limits.
   You can submit a title of up to 150 characters and a description of up to 5,000 characters.
   Provide details of all relevant attributes in the feed to improve optimization results. Google uses all available data to match your shopping with the most suitable potential customers.
4. Product policy violations
   Inaccurate pricing: When Google scans your website, it makes sure that the prices in the product feed match the prices on the website. If there are any anomalies, Google will reject the ad display.
   Product inventory issues: Google provides three availability options: in stock, out of stock, and pre-order. If you set the product inventory of the feed to “in stock”, but the product inventory on the website is “sold out”, Google will stop showing ads.
   There are problems with the landing page URL: The product URL in the feed should correspond to the domain name you declared in your Merchant Center account. Otherwise, your ads will not be displayed. And make sure that all landing pages do not have 404 errors.
5. Image quality violations
   Product photos are an important part of the feed product information. If your product main image is of poor quality, it may be banned from appearing in ads and free listings.
   How to solve: First, you should make sure that your photos meet Google’s quality standards:
   Do not use logos, watermarks, or text overlays in the image.
   Do not use borders on the image.
   The background should be pure white, light gray, or semi-transparent.
   Dark, colorful, or patterned backgrounds are not allowed.
   Images must be at least 100×100 pixels, with a maximum resolution of 64 megapixels.
   Fashion and apparel photos must be at least 250×250 pixels.
   Image file size must not exceed 16MB.
   To ensure that your products have the best chance of appearing in Google Shopping ads, it is critical to use clear, high-quality images to showcase your products. Google recommends using images that are at least 800×800 pixels in size, and your products should occupy more than 75% and no more than 90% of the total image space.
6. Other setup issues
   Return and refund policies: It must be clear how consumers can return or refund. If such policies are not clearly stated, the Merchant Center account may be suspended, and the ads will also be suspended.
   Delivery options: Google Shopping requires you to provide comprehensive and accurate delivery information, including insurance, delivery speed, and any related costs. If you export products from outside the target country, you must be aware of any customs fees that may be incurred.

Advertising competition issues

1. Campaign configuration and targeting issues

There are several parameters that may reduce shopping ad traffic. First, double-check the following:

Audience: Is your target audience large enough (>1,000 users)?

Location: If you target a narrow area, your ads will not generate enough searches or impressions.

Device: Check device bid adjustments to see if any are set to -100%.

Priority: Determine if you have many campaigns with different priorities (high, medium, or low), and pay attention to the low-priority ad impressions.

2. Targeting overlaps with other accounts, campaigns, or ad groups

Due to similar targeting, you may have many shopping campaigns or ad groups in your account that will bid overlapping. Traffic may be concentrated in one campaign or ad group, while others cannot be displayed.

If you want to run multiple shopping campaigns, make sure they are scheduled to run at different times, target different products, and run at different campaign priorities.

3. Titles and descriptions do not match the user’s query