What Is a Product Feed?
A product feed is a file (typically in XML, CSV, or JSON format) that contains a structured, up-to-date dataset of all products a merchant sells, including their attributes: title, description, price, availability, images, brand, GTIN, and category. This feed is submitted to advertising platforms (Google Merchant Centre, Meta Catalogue, Pinterest Catalogue) and comparison shopping engines to power dynamic product ads and shopping listings.
The quality of the product feed - particularly the accuracy of titles, the quality of images, and the completeness of product attributes - is a major determinant of Shopping ad performance.
Product Images in Feeds
Product images are submitted in the feed via image URLs. The quality of these images directly affects how well the product performs on Google Shopping and in Meta Dynamic Product Ads. Feed optimisation services and AI photography tools like Bryft are used to systematically improve the visual quality of every product in the feed.
Some merchants maintain two image URLs per product: a standard image (packshot) for the main image field, and an additional image for alternative images - often used for lifestyle shots in ad placements that support them.
Feed Optimisation Best Practices
- Use descriptive titles that include key attributes (brand, colour, size, material)
- Ensure product images meet platform minimum resolution and format requirements
- Keep price and availability data updated in real time (or at least daily)
- Submit all relevant product attributes - the more data, the better targeting
- Use custom labels to segment products for bidding strategies
Real-World Example
A multi-brand retailer runs a feed optimisation project. They identify 1,800 products with low-quality images in their Google Shopping feed. Using Bryft, they regenerate all 1,800 product images to a consistent, high-resolution standard. Google Shopping CTR for these products increases by 31% on average, and Shopping revenue from these products grows by 52% in the following month.