Google displays aggregate product reviews compiled from multiple sources on ads and free listings. Participating in the product ratings programme allows you to become eligible to have aggregated star ratings displayed on your Shopping ads. To become eligible to display product rating star ratings on your ads, you must share your product reviews with Google.
How to participate and gain eligibility
There are three ways to participate in the product ratings programme and gain eligibility to show product reviews on your Shopping ads
- If you work with a supported review aggregator, you can ask them to submit your product reviews to Google for you. View the list of supported review aggregators. These data sources are submitted through an integration with Google outside Merchant Center.
- If you don't work with a supported review aggregator, you can sign up for product ratings and submit your product reviews through Merchant Center.
- If you don't currently collect reviews for the products that you sell, you can sign up to collect reviews for free with Google Customer Reviews.
Eligibility requirements
- If you or an aggregator is submitting your reviews data source:
- You must have a minimum of 50 reviews across all of your products. If you have less than 50 reviews, your product ratings will not show on Google Shopping or Google Ads.
- Your product review data source must be uploaded at least once a month and must contain updated reviews.
- The domains in the <
product_url> of the review data source must match the registered domain in your Merchant Center account. - Your data source must be onboarded into the programme. This process can take a few weeks.
- If you're collecting product reviews via Google Customer Reviews, you must be actively collecting product reviews on your site via the Google Customer Reviews survey opt-in.
Learn how to modify the survey opt-in to gather product reviews.
Eligibility status
For merchants submitting product review data sources in Merchant Center or collecting product reviews via Google Customer Reviews, your account will display a product ratings eligibility status for the product ratings programme.
If submitting data sources, the eligibility status in Merchant Center will show a status of 'inactive' during the onboarding process. After your shop has been onboarded and is active in the programme, the status will be displayed as 'active'.
For merchants collecting product reviews via Google Customer Reviews, it can take up to two weeks for this status to update after you've collected your first product reviews through Google Customer Reviews.
For merchants sharing reviews solely through a supported review aggregator, your Merchant Center account will not have a section that displays the product ratings eligibility status. Eligibility can be confirmed by verifying product ratings are appearing on your Shopping ads.
Troubleshooting eligibility issues
- Didn't complete onboarding
- Data source errors or data source no longer processing
- Mismatched domain
- Eligible but reviews aren't matching
Bear in mind
Ratings and reviews are matched to products based on a number of factors, the more important being globally unique product identifiers such as GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers). Without GTIN data, Google will attempt to match a review through other information such as SKU (stock-keeping unit), brand and MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) pairs, and product URLs. However, these identifiers generally don't offer as good a match as GTINs, which can lead to reviews not being matched to products. Without GTINs, Google may not be able to match all of your reviews to products. Learn more about unique product identifiers.
Reviews and star ratings may not always be shown. Google will display star ratings when the system determines that the information is accurate and relevant for customers' needs.
Availability
Product ratings can be used in countries in which Shopping ads and free product listings are available. To be eligible to display star ratings on ads and listings, you must adhere to the product ratings policies.