Below you'll find best practices to make sure your product details, sales, and promotions are approved and running before major retail events, such as holiday shopping or back-to-school sales.
On this page
- Prepare for shopping events
- Add and update promotions in Shopify
- Adjust your strategy in real time
- Year-round best practices for account health
Prepare for shopping events
Having a clear plan for the type of promotions you want to run helps ensure a seamless shopping experience for your customers.
- Determine your discount types: Decide between promotions such as shipping at no cost, bundled discounts, and flash sales, or set sale prices on specific products. Remember that the sale price [sale_price] of a product must be lower than the original price.
- Group your products: Use Shopify collections to group specific products together, making it easier to apply promotions to a targeted set of items.
- Explore customer trends: Go to the Performance section in Merchant Center to review popular products, trending categories, and other insights to help shape your sales strategy.
Add and update promotions in Shopify
Ensure your discount details are configured correctly in Shopify so they automatically update and show on Google without delay.
- Set up manual discount codes or automatic discounts directly in Shopify.
- Go to the Discounts tab of your Shopify admin to check the status of your active promotions.
- Review the status column for each promotion. If a promotion is not approved, the reason will be displayed on the page. You will also receive an email with instructions on how to fix the issue.
Learn how to set up discounts in Shopify
Learn how to sync sale price and promotions from Shopify to Google.
Adjust your strategy in real time
Track your promotion performance during the shopping event and remain ready to make adjustments to your inventory and budget.
- Track performance details Monitor your clicks and impressions to see which promotions are driving the most purchases. Track your promotion performance and adjust your strategies as needed.
- Manage your promotion dates: Change your sale or promotion end dates in Shopify if stock for promotional items is running low.
- Manage budgets dynamically: Allocate your ad budgets where customer interest and search traffic are trending up.
Year-round best practices for account health
Maintaining high data quality and policy compliance throughout the year ensures your products are always eligible to show organically and in ads.
Keep product details accurate
Ensure your product titles and descriptions are accurate and up to date in your product file. High-quality product details help your items show when customers search organically and in ads on Google Search and the Shopping tab. Learn more about how to update product details.
Create high-quality images with Product Studio
Professional images make your products more appealing to potential customers. Use Product Studio, available in the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, to access AI-powered image tools at no cost. You can generate sharp visuals, improve resolutions, and add festive settings to match seasonal themes. Learn more about Product Studio.
Fix issues in the Needs attention section
Products that are not approved will not show on Google. Go to the Needs attention section in Merchant Center to find and fix product data quality violations before your sale begins. Learn more about how to fix product issues
Monitor promotion policies and ad compliance
Review promotion and advertising guidelines regularly to maintain a high promotion approval rate. Following ads policies ensures your campaigns keep running without interruption during peak shopping periods. Learn more about promotion policies.