What are the requirements to run Google Shopping ads?

Before Google looks at a single product, it checks whether your store is a place it can safely send shoppers. That means a secure site where the URL starts with https, a working contact method a real person answers, a shipping page with honest delivery times, and a returns policy that actually states the terms. A checkout that works on your own domain completes the picture.

None of this is about how big or old the store is. A Shopify store that opened last week passes if the pages are real and consistent. What fails is a store where the feed says one price and the page says another, or where the returns policy is a dead link. Google's whole review boils down to one question: will the shopper get what the listing promised.

Every product needs the core attributes filled: id, title, description, link, image link, price, and availability. Price and availability have to match the live page exactly, sale prices included, because a mismatch is the most common disapproval there is.

Identifiers need honesty, not creativity. If the product has a real barcode, include the GTIN. If it genuinely has none, set identifier_exists to false and leave the field out. Never invent a number and never drop your SKU in there, because a wrong identifier causes more trouble than a missing one.

Images must be yours or cleanly rebranded, with no other brand's logo or watermark in the shot. And the products themselves must be allowed: policy-restricted items follow their own extra rules, and prohibited ones cannot run at all.

The plumbing is three pieces. A Merchant Center account with your domain verified and claimed, so Google knows the store is yours. A Google Ads account with billing set up. And a link between the two, approved from both sides, so campaigns can serve products from your feed.

Once the feed is submitted, expect the first review to take a few business days. Whatever it flags needs fixing fast, because unresolved product issues can escalate to account-level risk. What the review does not need is any track record: no sales history, no reviews, no minimum store age. Clean data on a real store is the entire bar. ZenoX runs this exact pre-flight list before a new client's feed goes live, because passing the first review clean is far easier than appealing a failed one.