Advertisers are moving from search-based channels to social media for eCommerce ads, according to a new report by DataFeedWatch.

The research found that the use of search channels has dropped by over seven percentage points from 2022 to 2023.

However, around 7% of all products submitted to Google Shopping were disapproved due to critical errors.

Below is an overview of the biggest issues impacting merchants, including invalid GTIN values and violation of Google policies.

Invalid GTIN errors affect almost half of all merchants (48.43%) and over 4% of submitted products. Google penalizes accounts for wrong GTIN values, so it’s crucial for merchants to fix identification problems to avoid listing rejections.

Violation of Google policies impact 44%of all merchants. This means that Google’s algorithm flagged a policy violation in your feed. To identify the issue, contact Google for a review. Once you know the problem, make the required changes to your product feed or website.

Common reasons for seeing this error on the product level include:

• Products that aren’t allowed to be advertised on Google network.
• Having banned words in titles and description.
• Images that go against Google’s policies.

Swiftly resolving these problems is essential to minimize their adverse effects on your account and advertising performance.

Promotional overlay on image impact 40% of merchants. If you spot this error, it indicates that one or more of your images have promotional overlays, which Google strictly prohibits. There are three key ways to resolve this issue:

• Remove the promotional overlay: If you discover images with promotional text, you can utilize Google’s Automatic Image Improvement feature. It will remove the text automatically, providing you with approved product images. Don’t forget to review the final result to ensure they appear fine.
• Replace the image: If most of your product images are free of promotional overlays, it’s quicker to replace the image. The simplest method is to alter the image assignment through a feed management service. Look for the ‘image_link’ attribute and update the provided link.
• Create new images: If the previous two solutions are not applicable, you’ll have to generate new images. While obtaining these new images, consider pausing the affected products to prevent them from being listed and safeguard your account from potential harm.

Once you have them, map your feed with the correct image URLs under the ‘image_link’ attribute.

What DataFeedWatch is saying. A spokesperson for DataFeedWatch commented on the report’s findings, saying:

• “Disapproved products can harshly hinder your online sales performance, especially when they are bestsellers. Not only will your performance be affected, but the risk of getting your account suspended increases the more you upload products with errors in them.”
• Troubleshoot your feed before sending it to a sales channel in order to avoid this issue altogether. Using a data feed tool to catch any errors before submitting your feed makes it a quick and easy process.”

What is DataFeedWatch? DataFeedWatch by Cart.com is a leading Feed Management Solution that helps global brands and agencies, like Adidas, Decathlon, and KENZO, to maximize campaign performance on more than 2,000 integrated shopping channels, affiliate networks, and marketplaces, including Google, Meta and Amazon.

Deep dive. Read the DataFeedWatch Multichannel Marketing Report 2023 by in full for more information.