Product Feed Management Glossary

Product Feed

A structured data file (typically CSV, XML, or TSV) containing product information such as titles, prices, images, and identifiers that is sent to advertising platforms and marketplaces.

GTIN

Global Trade Item Number — a unique identifier for products used internationally. Required by Google Shopping and other channels to match products to their catalog database.

MPN

Manufacturer Part Number — a unique product identifier assigned by the manufacturer. Used alongside GTIN and brand for product identification in feeds.

SKU

Stock Keeping Unit — a unique identifier assigned by the merchant to track inventory. Used as the primary product ID in most ecommerce platforms.

Google Merchant Center

Google's platform for uploading and managing product data for Google Shopping ads, free listings, and other Google surfaces.

Feed Validation

The process of checking a product feed against a channel's requirements — verifying required attributes, formatting rules, and policy compliance before submission.

Disapproval

When a product or feed is rejected by a channel (like Google Merchant Center) due to missing attributes, policy violations, or data quality issues.

Google Product Category

A Google-defined taxonomy used to classify products in Google Shopping. Assigning the correct category improves product visibility and ad relevance.

Product Title Optimization

The practice of restructuring product titles to include key attributes (brand, size, color, material) early in the title to improve click-through rates and search ranking.

Channel Mapping

The process of matching source catalog fields to the required field names and formats of a destination channel like Facebook, TikTok, or Amazon.

Feed Refresh Rate

How frequently a product feed is updated — ranging from real-time to daily. Faster refresh rates keep inventory and pricing accurate across channels.

Attribute

A specific field in a product feed, such as title, price, description, image_link, availability, or brand. Each channel requires a different set of attributes.

Variant

A specific version of a product — such as size, color, or material — that is listed as a separate item in a product feed with its own SKU and attributes.

Availability

A required feed attribute indicating whether a product is in_stock, out_of_stock, or available for preorder. Must match the actual inventory state.

Feed Rules

Configurable if-then conditions that automatically transform, enrich, or exclude product data during feed generation. Used for bulk edits and channel-specific formatting.

Feed Delivery

The method by which a product feed reaches a destination channel — including direct API push, scheduled URL fetch, SFTP upload, or email attachment.

CSV Feed

Comma-Separated Values — a simple tabular format for product feeds. Widely supported but less expressive than XML for complex product hierarchies.

XML Feed

Extensible Markup Language — a structured, hierarchical format for product feeds. Preferred by channels requiring complex data like variants, custom attributes, or rich media.

TSV Feed

Tab-Separated Values — similar to CSV but uses tabs as delimiters. Required by some channels like Amazon and Walmart for product listing uploads.

Feed Source

The origin of product data — could be an ecommerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento), a URL, Google Sheets, a file upload, or an API.

Feed Destination

The advertising platform, marketplace, or marketing channel where a product feed is sent — such as Google Shopping, Meta Catalog, TikTok Shop, or Amazon.

Price_Markup

An optional feed transformation that adjusts product prices upward by a percentage for specific channels, campaigns, or markets.

Sale Price

A feed attribute indicating a discounted price. Requires a sale_price_effective_date to specify when the sale starts and ends.

Identifier_Exists

A feed attribute set to "no" when a product does not have a GTIN or MPN. Required by Google Shopping for custom or vintage products without standard identifiers.

Condition

A feed attribute specifying the product state: new, used, or refurbished. Required by most channels and must match the actual product condition.

Image_Link

A required feed attribute pointing to the primary product image URL. Most channels have minimum size requirements (e.g., 100x100 for Google, 600x600 for Meta).

Additional_Image_Link

An optional feed attribute providing extra product image URLs beyond the primary image. Improves ad quality and click-through rates.

Shipping

A feed attribute group specifying shipping cost, speed, and service. Can be set at the account level in Merchant Center or per-product in the feed.

Tax

A feed attribute specifying product tax rates. Can be configured at account level in most channels rather than per-product in the feed.

Custom Label

Optional feed labels (0-4) that merchants use internally for bidding, reporting, or campaign segmentation — such as seasonal items, best-sellers, or clearance.

Product Type

A merchant-defined categorization field distinct from Google Product Category. Useful for organizing products within a merchant's own taxonomy.

Multipack

A feed attribute indicating when a product listing represents multiple units sold together as a single package (e.g., a 6-pack of socks).

Bundle

A feed attribute indicating when different products are sold together as a single offering (e.g., a camera with lens and case).

Age Group

A feed attribute specifying the intended age demographic: newborn, infant, toddler, kids, or adult. Required for apparel feeds in Google Shopping.

Gender

A feed attribute indicating the target gender for apparel products: male, female, or unisex. Required for clothing in Google Shopping feeds.

Color

A feed attribute specifying the product color. Important for apparel variants and helps with search matching and product discovery.

Size

A feed attribute for product dimensions in apparel. Can include size_system and size_type sub-attributes for accurate matching.

Shopping Ads

Google Ads format that shows product images, titles, prices, and store names directly in search results. Powered by product feeds uploaded to Merchant Center.

Performance Max

Google Ads campaign type that serves across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Discover, and Maps. Uses product feeds from Merchant Center for Shopping placements.

Dynamic Remarketing

Ad format that shows personalized product recommendations to users who previously visited a merchant's site. Powered by product feeds with user-specific identifiers.

Feed-Based Ad

Any advertising format where ad content is dynamically generated from a product feed — including Shopping Ads, Dynamic Search Ads, and Catalog Ads on social platforms.

Meta Catalog

Facebook and Instagram's product feed system for dynamic ads, shops, and tagging. Uses a slightly different field set than Google Merchant Center.

API Push

A feed delivery method where product data is sent programmatically to a channel's API endpoints rather than via scheduled URL fetch — enabling real-time updates.

Feed Approval Rate

The percentage of products in a feed that pass validation and are accepted by a channel. Low approval rates directly reduce ad reach and revenue.

Feed Management Platform

Software that centralizes the creation, optimization, and distribution of product feeds to multiple marketing channels from a single interface.

Ecommerce Taxonomy

The hierarchical classification system used to organize products into categories and subcategories — both for the storefront and for feed destinations like Google.

Product Data Optimization

The ongoing process of improving product attributes — titles, descriptions, images, categories, and identifiers — to maximize feed approval rates and ad performance.