How to Use Supplemental Feeds to Optimize GMC Product Info & Boost Conversions? Google Shopping Guide (Part 2)

If you rely solely on Shopify Content API to sync product data to GMC, you'll miss out on massive potential traffic from Google Shopping.

For example, comparing these two T-shirt images, Image 1 clearly has product details added—red box shows Product highlight, blue box shows product details. Image 2 has no optimization, only description in the product page. The visual difference is obvious.

Therefore, we need to optimize and supplement our product feed to make product information more complete, make Google trust your products more, and help users understand your products better.

So how to optimize?

GMC Optimization Method 1: Optimize Products One by One (Not Recommended)

Step 1: Click to edit the product you want to optimize

Step 2: Enter the information you want to optimize for this product one by one

Step 3: Save and done

This method is not recommended—too troublesome and prone to errors.

GMC Optimization Method 2: Use Supplemental Feeds (Recommended)

Step 1: Click Add supplemental feed

Step 2: Set name, choose Google Sheet, choose to create new Sheet, select the Primary feed you want to supplement.

Step 3: After creation, open the blank Google Sheet you just created

Step 4: According to Google product data specifications, edit and optimize based on your product needs.

Step 5: Click Fetch to let Google crawl and sync immediately

GMC Supplemental Feed Product Optimization Tips

How to quickly copy product IDs to supplemental feed?

Remember the previous article about how to quickly import your primary feed data? This method also applies to supplemental feed editing and optimization, which can help you save a lot of time matching and mapping products.

That is, after exporting primary feed data, import it keeping basic attributes like id, title, and then you can directly edit the content you want to edit!

(Similarly, for those using Google Sheet for Primary Feed, you can choose "existing sheet" when creating supplemental feed, which also saves you the trouble of matching product IDs.)

Clever Use of Custom Label

Custom label 0-4 attributes are very important—not only can they help you quickly filter and categorize your products, but most importantly, they allow you to finely adjust bidding strategies when running Google Ads in the future.

You can't put a $10 T-shirt and a $999 down jacket in the same product group for ads, right? Although Google has various smart bidding tools, trust me—manual bidding is a must-learn and must-practice skill.

Understanding Primary and Supplemental Hierarchy

Taking the Title attribute as an example:

• If primary feed is "T-shirt" and supplemental feed is also "T-shirt", it doesn't matter, either works
• If primary feed is "T-shirt" and supplemental feed changes to "Red T-shirt", then supplemental feed takes precedence

This way, you can use supplemental feed to modify your description or any other attribute.

GMC Supplemental Feed FAQ

Q: Damn, this sucks, want to delete this supplemental feed! Can't delete it!

A: Don't worry, if supplemental feed has no information, it doesn't matter. Just treat it as a blank sheet.

Q: Damn, useless, after supplementing, impressions didn't increase, CTR didn't increase, garbage, scam.

A: Don't worry, after 1+ months of optimization, I haven't seen obvious increases either. Hehe. But give it time, do the details well, and you'll reap rewards.

Q: I added a new column attribute in supplemental feed, material, filled it for most products, but one product has this attribute blank—is that okay?

A: Yes, because it's an optional attribute, Google allows it to be blank by default.

Q: Stop talking nonsense, tell me a few must-optimize recommendations!

A: Product highlight, product detail, lifestyle image, size, color, pattern, etc.