Last Updated on May 12, 2022

How to get started:

  • All US retailers with product feeds submitted through Merchant Center are eligible to serve unpaid listing, as an extension of the surfaces across Google program  announced last year.
  • To opt in, select “Growth” and then “Manage programs” in the left navigation menu and select the “surfaces across Google” program card. You can also add products to your product feed, to make even more products discoverable in these free listings.
  • For new users of Merchant Center who are interested in joining this program, it’s open to you today and does not require Google Ads, but we’re working to significantly streamline the onboarding process over the coming months. You can opt into surfaces across Google during the Merchant Center sign up process and start creating your product feed.
  • Paid listings (Shopping Ads + LIAs) will continue to appear on the Google Shopping Tab & Property.
    • Shopping Ads/LIA will serve across reserved slots via a Shopping Carousel above the free listings, & will operate in the same way they do today.

The new Free experience is being rolled out, effective immediately, with 100% ramp by End of Month. Early experiment data indicates that Retailers like yourself will see a 3-5% increase in aggregate clicks. To help you measure the impact of the clicks from Non-Paid offers, new reports in Merchant Center will be launched by April 28th, with additional reporting features to follow in May.

Google Q&As

What is Project Boost?

Boost has three key components:

  • Accelerated launch of products in ss

  • Launch of a higher trust bar for merchant eligibility for free listings on the Shopping Property across all categories for online and local offers

  • Integration of 3P trust signals (starting with Prince) to determine such eligibility (in addition to signals Google may have already).

When is Boost launching?

Full US-launch is April 27 with additional countries to follow sometime in 2020. Reporting in Merchant Center in the US will be available at launch.

What’s the difference between ‘Organic’ and ‘unpaid’ Shopping experiences?

Many different names are used to describe experiences where merchants’ products appear for free on Google: organic, unpaid, free, non-ads. Regardless of naming, there are 3 key characteristics that remain the same:

  • Merchant’s do not pay Google to participate in these experiences

  • Ad spend does not influence ranking

  • Ranking is influenced by merchant quality, product data quality, user engagement, and many other factors.

Are you doing this because of COVID-19? Were you planning to do this before the pandemic?

We have been planning these changes for several months, but we believe that accelerating our efforts can provide some immediate benefit for retailers during these challenging times.

Longer term, our aim is to make Google Shopping the best place for users to find the products they’re looking for, and doing so means showing inventory from as many stores as possible, not just advertisers. In some ways, this is a return to first principles: we’re prioritizing the user experience, so we can make sure that Google is the best place for stores to connect with potential customers, whether that’s through free product listings, through ads, or both.

Why was Google Shopping previously only open to advertisers?

Before today, Google Shopping was powered mainly by product listings from the wide array of brands and retailers who advertise on Google, as a means of ensuring high quality results for our users.

Should a retailer participate in both free listings and Shopping Ads?

These free listings will provide advertisers a way to augment their paid campaigns with no additional cost or setup required for most merchants. Shopping ads drive customers to your website, with a high degree of control through adjustments to bids, budgets, targeting, etc. The free product listings, in contrast, will rank based on a combination of user relevance and offer quality, with no direct impact from advertiser bidding.

Free listings are complementary to your existing Google Shopping ads. It increases your overall presence on Google to drive incremental traffic on top of what you’re getting today with Shopping Ads.

What impact can a merchant expect to see when participating in free listings?

Early experiment data indicates that Retailers see an aggregate of +3-5% increase in clicks traffic across .com and Property.