Loyalty programme [loyalty_program]

The loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute allows the setting up of member pricing, member delivery and loyalty points in your Merchant Centre account. Adding the attribute helps Google to accurately represent the benefits of your loyalty programme across Google properties.

When to use

Optional

Loyalty programme [loyalty_program] is a group attribute that is optional for all products. It is used to specify member pricing, loyalty points and member delivery for your product for members of the loyalty programme that you have set up in the Merchant Centre. The attribute is available for US, AU, UK, DE, FR, CA, BR, MX and JP merchants and is only required if you want to display offer-level loyalty benefits. For example, points, member pricing and member delivery.

Note: The price [price], and member price effective date [member_price_effective_date] sub-attributes are only available to US, UK, DE, FR, CA, BR, MX and AU merchants, while the delivery label [shipping_label] sub-attribute is only available to US merchants. To display member delivery benefits, merchants also need to set up a new delivery policy for loyalty members. Learn more about configuring the delivery settings of your loyalty programme.

Sub-attributes

The loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute has seven sub-attributes:

Programme label [program_label] (required in multi-tier programmes): This is the loyalty programme label set in your loyalty programme settings in Merchant Centre. This sub-attribute allows Google to map your loyalty programme to eligible offers. Not required if your loyalty programme only has one tier.
Tier label [tier_label] (required in multi-tier programmes): The tier label [tier_label] sub-attribute differentiates the offer-level benefits between each tier. This value is also set in your programme settings in Merchant Centre. Not required if your loyalty programme only has one tier.
Price [price] (optional): This sub-attribute allows you to add member-specific pricing to your feed. This will be displayed alongside the non-member price to give shoppers an idea of the benefits of joining your programme.
- Note that this is different from the regular price [price] attribute. It is required to use this sub-attribute to submit member prices for both free and paid programmes. Submitting member prices using price [price] or sale price [sale_price] is not allowed.
- Note that if your loyalty programme is free to join and you either sell in countries where the loyalty programme feature is unavailable, or use local inventory ads or free local listings, you can contact the support team to request an exception to submit your member price in [price] or [sale_price].
Cashback [cashback_for_future_use] (optional): Reserved for future use.
Loyalty points [loyalty_points] (optional): Loyalty points [loyalty_points] indicate the points that the members gain by purchasing the product on your website. This needs to be a whole number, as fractions aren't supported. The loyalty points [loyalty_points] sub-attribute can be specified at the tier level.
Member price effective date [member_price_effective_date] (optional): This sub-attribute allows merchants to specify when their member pricing benefit begins and ends.
Delivery label [shipping_label] (optional): This sub-attribute allows merchants to specify which offers are eligible for member delivery. Choose your own definition for this value.
- Note: This is different from the regular delivery label [shipping_label].

For JP merchants, the only applicable loyalty benefit is loyalty points. In Merchant Centre, you can set a default point earning ratio when you set up your loyalty programme. All offers will default to being displayed with this loyalty benefit. If you have products with point earnings that don't match the default earning ratio, you can use the programme label [program_label], tier label [tier_label] and loyalty points [loyalty_points] sub-attributes in your loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute to override the default.

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure that Google understands the data that you're submitting. Learn more about submitting product data

Type	String (Unicode characters. Recommended: ASCII only)
Schema.org property (What's this?)	Learn more about merchant listing (member pricing) structured data on Google Search Central.

File format Example value

Text feeds

Header: Format the attribute header by always including the sub-attributes that you're submitting. Include loyalty programme [loyalty_program], and then, in parentheses, add the names of the sub-attributes that you want to submit separated by a colon ( : ). Don't use quotation marks.

Value: Format the value by submitting the value of each sub-attribute listed in the same order as in the header and separated by a colon (:).

If you have a single-tier programme, program_label and tier_label are not required.

Attribute header: loyalty_program(price:loyalty_points:shipping_label)

Possible value: 10 GBP:10:loyalty_shipping_silver

If you include the programme label [program_label] and tier label [tier_label] in the header, this is also supported.

Attribute header: loyalty_program(program_label:tier_label:price:loyalty_points:shipping_label)

Possible value: my_loyalty_program:silver:10 GBP:10:loyalty_shipping_silver

If you have a multi-tier programme, program_label and tier_label are required. Separate the values for different membership tiers with commas. Don't add a space after the comma.

Attribute header: loyalty_program(program_label:tier_label:price:loyalty_points:shipping_label)

Possible value:

my_loyalty_program:silver:10 GBP:10:loyalty_shipping_silver,my_loyalty_program:gold:9 GBP:20:loyalty_shipping_gold

Note: CSV is not supported for multi-tier programmes. TSV file is recommended.

If only some of your products have sub-attribute values, you can use colons ( : ) as placeholders. Remember to still acknowledge those placeholder fields in your attribute header. For example, if only some of your products are eligible for member price, your data should look like this:

Attribute header:
loyalty_program(program_label:tier_label:price)

Possible value (product with member price)
my_loyalty_program:silver:10 GBP,my_loyalty_program:gold:9 GBP

Possible value (product without member price):
my_loyalty_program:silver:,my_loyalty_program:gold:9 GBP

XML feeds

<g:loyalty_program>

<g:program_label>my_loyalty_program</g:program_label>

<g:tier_label>silver</g:tier_label>

<g:price>10.00 GBP</g:price>

<g:loyalty_points>10</g:loyalty_points>

<g:member_price_effective_date>2017-05-11T00:01:59-0800/2017-06-21T22:13:59-0800</g:member_price_effective_date>

</g:loyalty_program>

<g:loyalty_program>

<g:program_label>my_loyalty_program</g:program_label>

<g:tier_label>gold</g:tier_label>

<g:price>9.00 GBP</g:price>

<g:loyalty_points>20</g:loyalty_points>

<g:member_price_effective_date>2017-05-11T00:01:59-0800/2017-06-21T22:13:59-0800</g:member_price_effective_date>

<g:shipping_label>loyalty_shipping_gold</g:shipping_label>

</g:loyalty_program>

To format your data for Content API, check the Content API for Shopping.

Note: Ensure that the programme label [program_label] and tier label [tier_label] sub-attributes of the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute match one of the programme labels and tier labels configured under your Merchant Centre account. Always provide the sub-attributes that you are submitting in the header in text feeds. Missing sub-attributes in the header will lead to a formatting error and you will see the warning 'Invalid format for sub-attributes [loyalty_program]' on the 'Needs attention' tab.

If you're not able to provide the sub-attribute names in the header, you will need to provide all seven sub-attributes in the value. The order listed above is how you should submit the value.

Format the [member_price_effective_date] sub-attribute:

Google Sheets: Backslashes ('\') are needed in front of colons for the member price effective date [member_price_effective_date] sub-attribute.
Tab-delimited (or tab-separated values) feeds: Quotes (") are needed for the member price effective date sub-attribute.
API or XML: Neither is needed.

Follow the formatting example if you're using text feeds. The format is applicable to both primary and supplemental feeds.

Google Sheets

Header	`loyalty_program(program_label:tier_label:price:loyalty_points:member_price_effective_date:shipping_label)`
Value	`my_loyalty_program:silver:10 GBP:10::,my_loyalty_program:gold:9 GBP:20:2017-05-11T00\:01\:59-0800/2017-06-21T22\:13\:59-0800:loyalty_shipping_gold`

Tab-delimited text file

Header	`loyalty_program(program_label:tier_label:price:loyalty_points:member_price_effective_date:shipping_label)`
Value	`my_loyalty_program:silver:10 GBP:10::,my_loyalty_program:gold:9 GBP:20:"2017-05-11T00:01:59-0800/2017-06-21T22:13:59-0800":loyalty_shipping_gold`

Note: The programme label, tier label and delivery label will be used to set up delivery benefits. Learn more about configuring the delivery settings of your loyalty programme.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements that you'll need to meet to show your loyalty programme benefits on Google. If you don't follow these requirements, we'll disapprove your loyalty programme and let you know in your Merchant Centre account.

Ensure adherence to Google's editorial standards by reviewing the Help Centre and making sure that your benefits and programme data meet requirements.
Ensure that the currency of the price [price] sub-attribute of the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute matches the currency of the price [price] and sale price [sale_price] attributes.
Ensure that the member prices provided to Google are the lowest possible price that they can get. If there's a seasonal promotion that can be applied to the evergreen member price, provide the post-promotion price in the price [price] sub-attribute of the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute as the final member price.
Ensure that the member price for both free and paid tiers is submitted in the price [price] sub-attribute of the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute and not in price [price] or sale price [sale_price].
Ensure that the data provided to Google matches what's showcased on your website. Google will check to make sure that the benefits and programme information submitted in Merchant Centre align with the information displayed on your website.
Ensure that member prices are clearly accessible on your website for members, whether through a loyalty overview page, a dedicated event page or otherwise clearly communicated to members.
Ensure that the member price effective date sub-attribute is provided when the member price is effective only for a certain period. If this is not specified, Google will assume that this is effective all the time and may show an incorrect price to the users when the price is no longer live.
Use the ISO 8601 standard to represent the effective dates for the member price effective date [member_price_effective_date] sub-attribute.

Best practices

These best practices can help you go beyond the basic requirements to optimise your loyalty programme data for performance.

In a single-tier loyalty programme, you can choose not to provide program_label and tier_label. This will make the implementation easier and more straightforward.
Ensure that the price [price] sub-attribute of the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] attribute is not higher than the price [price] attribute. Google will only showcase member pricing in ads when the member discount is >=5% or >=5 unit currency of the regular price or sale price (when available).
Submit exact values for member pricing. For example, submit 1.01 GBP instead of 1.0012 GBP, otherwise we will round the submitted value.
Leverage the price sub-attribute under the loyalty programme attribute and make feed updates for member pricing instead of setting up a feed rule (unless 100% of your products is eligible for flat-rate discount member pricing). This will improve accuracy and decrease the chances of dropping eligibility to show loyalty prices.
If you're selling products with Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) agreements, submit the member price only when it's compliant with MAP.
Show your member prices on your landing page using schema.org. This allows Google to crawl your data.

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Loyalty programme [loyalty_program]

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When to use

Sub-attributes

Format

Minimum requirements

Best practices

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