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Product type

Product type is an optional Merchant Center attribute, product_type, that puts a product in the store's own category tree, which campaigns can use for grouping.

How it works

Unlike Google’s own product category, product type is free text, so the category tree can follow how your store organises its range: by price, material or collection. Each value is a path you write yourself, from the broad level to the narrow one, separated by ” > ”, up to 750 characters. Google recommends including every level, not just the last.

A product can carry up to five product types, but Google Ads Shopping campaigns use only the first one for bidding and reporting. In Google Ads, product type appears as levels 1 to 5, and listing groups can split products by these levels. Our guide to product_type in Google Shopping covers how to build a tree your campaigns can use.

Where you see it

  • Google Ads — product type levels 1 to 5 as a dimension in listing groups and as segments in product-level reports.
  • The portal — the assortment screen lines up product groups by budget share and can show them by product type, category or brand.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop gives a crystal wine glass the product type Glassware > Wine glasses > Crystal. In Google’s taxonomy, crystal and ordinary wine glasses fall into the same category, Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Tableware > Drinkware > Stemware, so Google’s category cannot tell them apart. The shop’s own path can: its level 3 gives the expensive line its own listing group.

Not to be confused with

  • Product category — a value from Google’s fixed taxonomy. Google assigns one to every product automatically.
  • Custom label — five flat fields with one value each, for values such as season or margin. Product type is a path with levels.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Three product types per product give three ways to split campaigns.” Right: Google Ads uses only the first value for bidding and reporting.
  • Wrong: “Renaming product types in the feed relabels last year’s reports.” Right: Google Ads records each product dimension as it was when the impression or click happened, so the old and new names show as separate rows.

Sources