What is 'Unsupported Shopping Content' on Google Merchant Center?

Posted on October 27, 2019 (Last Updated: February 21, 2023)

Google Shopping provides retailers the world over with the opportunity to drive sales from their online stores. But to make the most of the resources that Google offers to retailers, you have to follow their rules! The first step in that process? Making sure the feed you provide for Google Merchant Center follows their requirements.

Somewhere down the line you might receive a message from Google Merchant Center telling you that you have 'Unsupported Shopping Content' .

What does this mean?

Google aims to enable businesses to promote a wide variety of products, but some Google products and platforms may not be optimized to appropriately support all content types. For this reason, Shopping ads don't allow the promotion of certain content for which they can't offer an optimal user experience.

If you receive this message it means it won't be eligible to serve in Shopping ads. If the item doesn't comply with Shopping ads policies, it should be removed from your product data.

Some examples of Unsupported Shopping Content

Ticket Sales

Future transport or event tickets

  • Examples: Concert tickets, airline tickets, bus reservation tickets

Vehicles

Motor or sail-powered vehicles used for transport of people on public access ways
  • Examples: Cars, RVs, trucks, boats, catamarans, planes, helicopters, motorcycles, mopeds, jet skis
  • Exception to the policy: Motor-powered bicycles with a motor-assisted speed of 25 km/h or 15.5 mph or less are allowed

Financial Products

Products related to finance management, financial assets, investments, securities, or insurances
  • Examples: Stocks, bonds, investment products, insurance policies, credit cards, money orders, cashiers checks

Currency

Mediums of exchange that are reliant on variable currency market values to determine price, including discounted currencies, currency exchanges, or currency backed by precious materialsExamples: Gold bullion, precious metals, local currency, virtual currency

Services

Labor, time, effort, expertise, or actions, which do not result in ownership of a tangible product. This includes any services sold bundled with physical goods
  • Examples: Maintenance or repair services, accounting services, financial planning services, streaming content, online gaming currency, car repair services sold bundled with purchase of tires

Recurring billing

Payment method that allows users pay for goods on an ongoing basis, at regular intervals in the future
  • Examples: Security or medical alert system with recurring payment for subscription, digital content with recurring payment subscriptions
  • Exceptions to the policy:
    1. Magazines and newspapers subscriptions with recurring billing are allowed.
    2. Mobile phones and tablets: In the countries listedhere, mobile phones and tablets sold with subscription contracts are allowed. Phones and tablets with installment plans that facilitate the purchase of the device are allowed only in the US, UK, Germany, Ireland, France, Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea.
    3. Software subscriptions that are pre-paid and auto-renew only annually are allowed.
    4. In Brazil, recurring billing for all products is allowed.
    Refer to the‘price’ attribute of the feed specificationfor requirements on how to submit prices for these products.

What to do if you receive an Unsupported Shopping Content message?

Account disapproval

For most violations, Google will send you a warning email detailing the policy violation and give you 7 calendar days to update your product data.

  1. Read the policy above to learn what they don't allow.
  2. Remove the violating items from your product data.You’ll receive an email with details about the violation, including examples from your product data. If you have additional items in your data that violate the same policy but aren't included in the email, you'll need to remove those too.
  3. Update your product data in Merchant Center.
  4. If you created a schedule for automatic uploads, update your product data manually or wait for your product data to be automatically updated before requesting a review.
Request a review of your account.
  • If your account is still within the warning period, it will automatically be reviewed again at the end of the warning period. Once the violating items are removed, you don't need to request an account review or take any additional action.
  • If your account is suspended, you’ll need to request an account review.
 

If you believe that one of your items was incorrectly disapproved and would like to request a manual review, click "Why is this item disapproved" in your Merchant Center account from the individual item page in the Products tab to initiate a review from Google.

Find out more about how to Sell on Google Shopping, or talk to our experts to find out about how you can get optimized results for your online sales campaigns today. 

Request a demo

Written by Ben Culpin

Topics:Google Ads

About the WakeupData Blog

Our blog is dedicated to helping brands and retailers improve their ecommerce performance, automate their business processes, and grow internationally. 

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