---
title: "What is a product feed? | Product Metrics"
description: "A product feed is a file or data source with one row per product and attributes, such as ID, title and price. See an example and how Merchant Center uses it."
canonical: "https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/product-feed"
pageType: article
language: en
publisher: "Product Metrics"
author: "Berend Vrakking"
datePublished: 2026-10-07
dateModified: 2026-10-07
---

> Content index: https://www.productmetrics.io/llms.txt

# Product feed

A product feed is a file or data source that lists your products, one per row, with attributes such as ID, title, price and availability.

## Example

Three rows of a product feed:

| id | title | availability | price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| TR2-BLK-42 | Trail Runner 2, black, size 42 | in stock | €89.99 |
| WB-BRN-44 | Winter Boot, brown, size 44 | in stock | €129.99 |
| ES-WHT-M | Everyday Sock, white, medium | out of stock | €9.99 |

Each row is one product and each column one attribute, including the socks nobody can buy this week. Illustrative data.

## For one product, and for an account

Google reads the feed row by row, and each product’s row decides where that product can show. Google says it uses this data “to match your products to the right queries”.

In Merchant Center a feed is now called a data source, and it can be a file, a Google Sheets template or an API.

Product Metrics is not a feed-management tool and does not edit your feed. It writes each product’s segment to a custom label through a supplemental feed, next to your existing product data.

## Common mistake

Treating the feed as a snapshot you take once. Each row describes a product at one moment, and a row with last week’s price, stock or label describes a product that no longer exists in that form.

## Questions

### What is a product feed in Google Ads?

It is the product data you send to Google Merchant Center: one row per product, with attributes such as ID, title, price and availability. Google Ads campaigns for Shopping and Performance Max use that data to advertise your products.

### What is an example of a product feed?

A tab-delimited text file is one example. Its first line holds the attribute names separated by tabs, and every line after it is one product with its values in the same order. A Google Sheets template or an API connection can carry the same data.

### Is a product feed the same as a data source in Merchant Center?

In practice, yes. Google now calls the place where you submit product data a data source, and feed is the older word. A primary data source holds the products, and a supplemental data source adds to or overrides their details.

## Sources

- [Google Merchant Center Help: Create a data source](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/14990942)
- [Google Merchant Center Help: Tab-delimited data source](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/14989239)
- [Google Merchant Center Help: Product data specification](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112)

## Keep reading

- [Google Merchant Center](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/google-merchant-center): Where the feed is uploaded and managed.
- [Supplemental feed](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/supplemental-feed): A second source that adds to or overrides the primary feed.
- [GTIN](https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/gtin): One of the identifiers a product row can carry.
- [Product Segmentation](https://www.productmetrics.io/product-segmentation): See each product in one of six segments, by volume and return.
- [What is Google Merchant Center? An advertiser’s guide](https://www.productmetrics.io/blog/what-is-google-merchant-center): What Merchant Center does with your feed, from data sources to labels.
- [How to optimise Google Shopping ads](https://www.productmetrics.io/blog/optimize-google-shopping-ads): Seven steps that start with the feed, then each product.

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Written by Berend Vrakking, founder of Product Metrics. Last updated 2026-10-07.

HTML version: https://www.productmetrics.io/glossary/product-feed