If you’ve ever set up a shopping campaign in Google Ads, you’ve probably noticed the "local inventory ads" feature.
What is it?
This is a display in Google Shopping search results of product items with a sticker of the location of a store that is located within a radius of 50 kilometers from the user.
Google serves as a bridge between online and offline sales by consolidating stock information from physical retail locations.
How does it work, and how can you implement it?
➊ Sync Merchant Center with Google My Business
This step ensures that inventory from your physical stores is linked to your Google Ads and Shopping listings.
➋ Enable the local inventory ads program in Merchant Center
* Additionally, Google has added free placement of local product range items in its products by enabling a separate program called "Free Local Product Offers". Here you simply enable the program.
➌ Create a “local” feed
This feed tracks inventory at specific locations that are synced with Google My Business. It's a more complex feed, particularly for chain stores, as it involves managing stock levels at individual warehouses.
Local product feeds have a slightly different specification than a regular feed. The local product feed is added in the “additional sources” tab. There are mandatory and optional fields, which we will consider below.
Required attributes for the local inventory feed:
🔷 store_code - the store code from Google My Business;
🔷 id - the product identifier;
🔷 availability - product availability, using the following statuses:
🔶 in_stock - available;
🔶 out_of_stock - out of stock;
🔶 limited_availability - limited quantity;
🔶 on_display_to_order - display item, available for order.
Optional attributes for the local inventory feed:
🔷 price - price;
🔷 sale_price - discounted price;
🔷 sale_price_effective_date - sale duration (set the start and end dates in the format -
2024-07-19T09:00-0800/2024-07-26T21:00-0800);
🔷 quantity - stock quantity (just a number);
🔷 pickup_method - pickup option, using the following statuses:
🔶 buy - purchase;
🔶 reserve - reserve;
🔶 ship to store - ship to store;
🔶 not supported - not supported.
🔷 pickup_sla - pickup service level agreement, indicating when the item will be ready for pickup:
🔶 same day - available the same day;
🔶 next day - available the next day;
🔶 *-day - available in * days;
🔶 multi-week - available in more than a week.
🔷 local shipping label - local shipping label.
A local product feed might look like this:
<rss xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" version="2.0" data-tag-assistant-prod-present="pending:">
<channel>
<link>https://holostenko.ua</link>
<description>Simple the best</description>
<item>
<g:id></g:id>
<g:store_code></g:store_code>
<g:availability>in stock</g:availability>
<g:quantity></g:quantity>
<g:price>**** UAH</g:price>
<g:sale_price>**** UAH</g:sale_price>
<g:sale_price_effective_date>2030-01-01T00:00:01+0300/2030-02-01T00:00:01+0300</g:sale_price_effective_date>
<g:pickup_sla>same_day</g:pickup_sla>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
☝ Attention! When creating a local inventory feed, there's one important aspect to consider.
The number of product items in the main Merchant Center feed must match the number of items in the local assortment feed.
If you have a discrepancy in the number of positions, this may be due to two situations, the solutions to which are given below.
👉 If a product is in the main feed but not in the local product feed, then in the Merchant Center main feed, enter the following field in these positions:
<g:excluded_destination>Local_inventory_ads</g:excluded_destination>
This means that this item is not included in local assortment promotions and does not need to be taken into account when checking availability data in physical stores.
👉 If a product is in the local inventory feed but not in the shopping feed, you should either remove it from the local inventory feed or add it to the main feed.
➍ Launch a shopping campaign with the "local inventory ads" label.
After setting everything up, launch the shopping campaign. This gives your store both an online and offline storefront in Google Shopping Plus, if the item is available nearby in an offline store, users will see a label saying “In store”.
This program is still being rolled out worldwide. Google typically introduces such complex changes gradually to allow the market time to adjust. In addition to the feed, you will also face the difficulty of verifying the assortment, namely, the moderator will request from you a selective number of photos of goods from stores with a sticker indicating the price and ID of the product, which becomes extremely difficult for large projects. Additionally, during the setup process, you should be prepared to refine the product card and specify possible pickup dates for the product from the store.
It’s also worth noting that even if you don’t add a local inventory feed, your products can still appear in free listings based on the new feed information, but with limited fields.
Order a service