Editorial and participation criteria guidelines for the merchant loyalty programme

While activating your loyalty programme in Merchant Center, ensure that the programme meets the editorial and participation criteria guidelines.

On this page

• Editorial guidelines
• Participation criteria guidelines
• How it works
• Approval process

Editorial guidelines

Guidelines for programme details

Programme name

• A limit of 25 characters
• Must match the name of your programme on your website
• Must start with a capital letter
• Use correct grammar and spelling
• Use proper spacing
• Use appropriate punctuation and symbols
• Don't use offensive language
• The trademark symbol (™) is supported

Programme label

Use the programme label to specify the loyalty programme label for the product feed or Content API.

• A limit of 25 characters
• To separate two words, use '_'
• List of characters not supported: space
• Supported delimiter: '_'

Programme description

• A limit of 39 characters (90-character limit in Japan*)
• Must start with a capital letter
• Highlight the most attractive perk applying to all your loyalty tiers (mandatory)
• Use correct grammar and spelling
• Use proper spacing
• Use appropriate punctuation and symbols
• Don't use offensive language

Programme URL

• Your landing page must display all the details of your loyalty programme
• You can include URL parameters for the purpose of tracking traffic
• Make sure that your landing page is live
• Use a landing page, not a file or email
• Only link to the domain from your Merchant Center account
• Include an easy-to-find CTA for shoppers to join your programme

Number of tiers

• The number of tiers submitted in Merchant Center should match the number of tiers on your website. Cost-free trials shouldn't be counted as an individual tier and shouldn't be submitted in Merchant Center.

Guidelines for tier benefits

Tier name

• A limit of 25 characters
• Must match the name of your programme tier on your website
• Must start with a capital letter
• Use correct grammar and spelling
• Use proper spacing
• Use appropriate punctuation and symbols
• Don't use offensive language

Tier label

• Limit to 25 characters
• Use correct grammar and spelling
• Use '_' for spacing
• Use appropriate punctuation and symbols
• Don't use offensive language

Tier URL

• This is an optional field
• Landing page should display details of your loyalty programme
• Make sure that your landing page is live
• Use a landing page and not a file or email
• Only link to the domain from your Merchant Center account

Tier requirement

• Make sure that the joining criteria matches the information on your website

Tier benefits

• For each tier, input all the benefits that your members are eligible for
• Each tier benefit should match the information on your website

Participation criteria guidelines

Google supports structured merchant loyalty programmes that provide members with perks based on membership tier. The perks should be available regardless of purchase location such as web, app or in store.

Programmes not considered to be loyalty programmes

• The following aren't eligible as merchant loyalty programmes:
  • Newsletter sign-ups
  • Mobile (SMS) subscriptions
  • App downloads
  • Affiliate or commission programmes
  • Referral programmes

Member pricing

• Member pricing can be expressed as any of the following:
  • A flat discount across the retailer's inventory
  • A discounted amount on selected products
  • A time-bound sales event
• Doesn't include:
  • One-time, new-user discounts: New shoppers get a discounted price for their first purchase. This should be submitted as a new-user promotion (in pilot). Learn more about first-order promotion.
  • One-time, credit card sign-up incentives: Shoppers get a discount on their first purchase if they sign up for a credit card.
  • Subscribe and save: Shoppers get discounted prices if they subscribe to repeated product purchases.
  • App prices: Shoppers become members once they download an app or pay a lower price if they make purchases through the merchant's app.
  • Local-only prices: Shoppers pay lower prices for in-store purchase and collection.
• Ensure that the lowest possible price for members is provided in the feed. If there's a seasonal promotion that can be applied to the evergreen member pricing, provide the post-promotion price in the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] price sub-attribute as the final member pricing.
• Member pricing submitted in the feed needs to match what is shown on the website. Google periodically checks products that have member prices to ensure that the price submitted to Google matches what's showcased on your website. When such mismatch is found, we may temporarily pause your loyalty programme. When the issue has been resolved, you can contact the support team for re-review.

How it works

After you've activated your loyalty programme in Merchant Center, the submission will go through the following sequence.

Google takes up to 48 hours to review your loyalty programme, its associated tiers and associated benefits before surfacing them across Google properties.

Approval process

Policy review: After you've submitted details on the loyalty programme and its benefits, Google will review them within 48 hours to check if they follow editorial requirements.

Note: You'll receive an email if the submission doesn't meet our guidelines. Review the email and our editorial requirements, then edit and resubmit the details. If you're unsure about the reason for rejection, you can contact the support team.

Related links

• About merchant loyalty programmes
• Loyalty programmes [loyalty_program]
• Set up member delivery