Google Shopping Feed Product Descriptions – Should they be different from the product page?
Hi everyone, I’m struggling with the performance of my Google Shopping Manual CPC campaign.
I’ve recently migrated from Bigcommerce to Woocommerce, with BigCommerce I used the Meta Description as the content for description attribute in my Google Product Feed.
With Woocommerce I can use the full description, the short description or even map the Meta description from the Yoast SEO plugin.
What is the best option to use? is it better to have a description in the feed that is different from the actual product page? and is it better to have simple text or have it formatted with bullet points etc.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
The short answer is:
Your Google Shopping feed description should ideally be different from your main product page description and be highly optimized for search relevancy and click-through rate, which directly addresses your struggle with Manual CPC performance.
The best option from your WooCommerce setup is to utilize the Meta Description from the Yoast SEO plugin, or a dedicated custom field, as this data is typically shorter and easier to tailor for the feed’s search-engine-first purpose.
The feed description is used primarily by Google’s algorithms for ad matching and is often truncated in the ad itself, so the first 150-200 characters must be keyword-rich and feature-focused.
Use simple text and line breaks for formatting, not HTML bullet points, as most feed processors will strip or misinterpret them.
You can achieve this separation and granular control by leveraging a dedicated feed management solution or by using the Merchant API to programmatically update or supplement your product data in Google Merchant Center, overriding the standard WooCommerce feed export.
The long answer is:
The shift from BigCommerce to WooCommerce requires a strategic adjustment in how you handle product data for your Google Shopping campaigns, and yes, it is highly recommended to have a product description in your feed that is distinct from the one on your actual product page.
Your product page’s full description is designed for customer conversion, often containing rich formatting, storytelling, and in-depth details, whereas the feed’s description attribute, which can be up to five thousand characters, should be engineered for Google’s ad-matching algorithm.
Since the primary goal of the feed description is to tell Google which search queries are most relevant to your product, it should be a keyword-rich, detailed, and non-promotional text block, with the most important product features and attributes placed in the first one hundred fifty to two hundred characters.
This targeted approach directly impacts your ad relevance, which in turn improves your Quality Score and the cost-effectiveness of your Manual CPC bids.
To execute this effectively on WooCommerce, mapping the Yoast Meta Description is a superior option to the full or short description, as it offers a controlled, dedicated field for SEO-focused text that you can optimize specifically for the feed.
However, for maximum control and future-proofing your integration, I strongly advise transitioning to a server-side solution utilizing the Google Merchant API.
This API allows you to programmatically manage your product feed data in Google Merchant Center, bypassing limitations in standard WooCommerce feed plugins.
You could build a small application on Google Cloud Platform, or a similar cloud environment, to pull the Yoast Meta Description and other key attributes from WooCommerce’s REST API, apply transformation and optimization rules (like ensuring all promotional language is removed and critical keywords are front-loaded), and then push the updated, optimized description value directly to the corresponding product in Merchant Center via the Merchant API.
This API-driven, server-to-server synchronization is cost-effective because it automates the critical process of feed optimization, reducing manual effort and minimizing errors that lead to ad disapprovals.
Furthermore, integrating the Google Ads API can provide richer campaign performance data to your cloud environment, allowing you to use machine learning or rule-based logic to iteratively refine your feed descriptions based on search term reports and conversion metrics.
Regarding formatting, Google Merchant Center accepts simple text and recognizes basic HTML line breaks (the
tag), but explicitly discourages rich formatting like HTML bullet points; for a high-performing feed description, simple, dense paragraphs or line-break-separated feature lists are the best practice for optimal ad serving and matching.
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