Google Service provider Heart’s automated import characteristic, which the platform claims updates product information each 24 hours, confirmed merchandise that had been 9 to 10 days old-fashioned when examined on January 13, 2026, based on Emmanuel Flossie, a Google Procuring Specialist and Google Adverts Diamond Product Skilled. The discrepancy between Google’s acknowledged replace frequency and precise efficiency raises questions in regards to the reliability of automated imports for retailers managing Procuring campaigns and remarketing methods.
Flossie tested the characteristic by inspecting product replace timestamps in Service provider Heart. “Google claims: Updates each 24 hours. Precise final replace: January 4th. Date I checked: January thirteenth, 2026. That is a 9-day hole, not 24 hours,” Flossie documented in a January 13 LinkedIn publish analyzing the problem. The automated import characteristic detects product info from service provider web sites and populates product feeds with out handbook file uploads, a comfort characteristic introduced during Merchant Center Next’s rollout.
In accordance with Flossie’s evaluation, the outdated information represents solely a part of the issue. “When your product IDs do not match between your website and Service provider Heart, your remarketing campaigns crumble. Show adverts present the mistaken merchandise. Your focusing on turns into guesswork. Your advert finances will get wasted,” Flossie acknowledged within the publish. The product ID mapping inconsistency creates particular challenges for dynamic remarketing campaigns that rely upon correct product identifiers to show related adverts to earlier website guests.
Google’s automated import depends on structured information markup from service provider web sites to detect and replace product info. The system theoretically gives comfort for retailers with out conventional feed administration infrastructure, notably companies working custom-built web sites the place feed era presents technical challenges. Merchant Center Next streamlined this process by robotically populating service provider product feeds with info detected from web sites, although retailers retain capacity to edit or disable the characteristic.
The nine-day delay documented by Flossie contradicts Google’s acknowledged 24-hour replace frequency displayed in Service provider Heart’s information supply settings. When Flossie examined the automated import information supply configuration, the interface indicated that updates happen each 24 hours. This discrepancy between platform documentation and precise efficiency persists regardless of Google engaged on automated import performance for greater than 5 years, based on Flossie’s evaluation.
Product ID consistency issues notably for remarketing tag implementation. Google Adverts remarketing depends on matching product IDs between Service provider Heart feeds and web site remarketing tags to show particular merchandise in dynamic adverts. When automated imports assign completely different product IDs than these utilized in web site structured information, the matching breaks down. Show campaigns can not correlate consumer habits with particular merchandise, leading to generic adverts or mismatched product shows that waste promoting spend.
“The larger problem? Inconsistent product ID mapping,” Flossie emphasised in his evaluation. The FeedArmy founder defined that retailers utilizing automated imports give up management over product identifier project to Google’s detection algorithms. These algorithms might interpret structured information in a different way than retailers anticipate, creating ID mismatches that compromise marketing campaign focusing on precision. The issue compounds for retailers operating a number of marketing campaign varieties that rely upon constant product information.
Google has required increasingly specific product data specifications all through 2025, together with modifications to installment pricing, power effectivity classifications, and delivery attributes. The platform carried out modifications to member pricing and gross sales tax necessities in July 2025. Extra updates required separate product IDs for multi-channel items when attributes differ between on-line and in-store variations, enforcement of which begins in March 2026.
These specification modifications underscore Google’s emphasis on product information accuracy and consistency. The automated import delay contradicts this give attention to exact product info, notably when Google launched protocols for AI agents to shop across platforms requiring correct, present product information for conversational commerce experiences. The platform introduced dozens of recent information attributes in Service provider Heart designed for discovery by AI Mode, Gemini, and Enterprise Agent on January 11, 2026.
Flossie’s advice avoids automated imports totally. “Cease utilizing automated imports. Interval,” he acknowledged within the LinkedIn publish. As a substitute, Flossie advocates for correct feed uploads from e-commerce platforms for retailers utilizing normal platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. For companies working custom-built web sites with restricted product catalogs, he recommends utilizing Google Sheets to take care of management over product IDs and guarantee consistency with remarketing tag implementations.
The technical implementation Flossie describes entails sustaining product IDs constant throughout web site structured information, remarketing tags, and Service provider Heart feeds. This consistency permits Google Adverts to match consumer interactions with particular merchandise, supporting dynamic remarketing campaigns that show beforehand considered objects to potential clients. When automated imports disrupt this ID consistency, your entire remarketing system degrades.
Google Sheets as a feed administration answer gives retailers direct management over product information with out requiring subtle feed administration software program. Retailers manually enter product info together with IDs, titles, descriptions, costs, availability, and picture URLs. The sheet connects to Service provider Heart by Google’s native integration, enabling scheduled updates that retailers management. This method trades automation comfort for information accuracy and ID consistency.
Merchant Center’s advanced data management tools launched in July 2024 included attribute guidelines to determine and rectify frequent product information errors robotically. Supplemental information sources allow retailers to complement main product information with further particulars. These capabilities theoretically deal with information high quality issues, but the automated import delay means that basic replace mechanisms stay problematic regardless of superior options.
The delay impacts a number of points of Procuring marketing campaign efficiency past remarketing. Product availability info that continues to be stale for 9 days causes adverts to show for out-of-stock objects, creating poor consumer experiences and wasted clicks. Value modifications take over per week to mirror in adverts, doubtlessly exhibiting outdated pricing that does not match service provider web sites. This discrepancy violates Google’s coverage necessities that product information in adverts should match touchdown web page info.
Marketing data quality research released September 2025 discovered that 45% of selling information used for enterprise selections incorporates accuracy issues. The examine surveyed 200 chief advertising officers who estimated that incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated information considerably impacts decision-making. Automated import delays contribute to this broader information high quality disaster affecting marketing campaign optimization and efficiency measurement.
The difficulty extends to marketing campaign varieties launched extra just lately. Google enabled fixed budgets for Search and Shopping campaigns on January 15, 2026, offering advertisers marketing campaign complete finances controls for promotional durations. These time-bound campaigns notably require present product information to maximise promotional home windows. 9-day delays compromise time-sensitive promotions when product availability or pricing modifications do not seem in adverts till promotional durations finish.
Efficiency Max campaigns incorporating Procuring stock face related challenges. These automated campaigns use product feed information to generate adverts throughout Search, YouTube, Show, Uncover, Gmail, and Maps. Stale product information limits Efficiency Max optimization, notably for seasonal merchandise or objects with frequent inventory turnover. The automation can not optimize successfully when working with info that is over per week previous.
Flossie’s documentation included a YouTube video demonstrating the problem by Service provider Heart interface examination. The video, titled “Google Service provider Heart’s Automated Import is BROKEN,” walked by checking product replace timestamps and evaluating them to Google’s acknowledged replace frequency. The demonstration confirmed a number of merchandise with an identical January 4 replace dates checked on January 13, confirming the systematic delay moderately than remoted incidents.
“Google has been ‘bettering’ this characteristic for five+ years. And it is nonetheless this unreliable,” Flossie famous in his evaluation. The five-year timeline suggests automated imports existed earlier than Service provider Heart Subsequent’s August 2024 rollout, although the characteristic gained prominence as a part of the Subsequent platform’s simplified product information administration method. Google positioned automated imports as lowering limitations for smaller retailers or companies with out technical sources for conventional feed administration.
The suggestions mechanism Flossie recommends entails clicking the query mark icon in Service provider Heart’s prime proper nook and choosing “Ship Suggestions.” This in-platform suggestions system permits retailers to report particular points on to Google’s Service provider Heart workforce. “The extra voices they hear, the higher,” Flossie emphasised, suggesting that amassed suggestions may immediate Google to prioritize fixing the replace delay.
Business practitioners have documented different Service provider Heart challenges all through 2025. Google Shopping smart cropping distorted product images with out service provider management in November 2025, requiring Google assist contact to disable the characteristic. Brand usage restrictions in product titles clarified in October 2025 required resellers to make use of producer model names moderately than their very own firm names in short_title attributes.
These recurring Service provider Heart points distinction with Google’s broader platform modernization efforts. Google launched Merchant API in August 2025, establishing it as the first device for programmatic Service provider Heart entry whereas setting an August 18, 2026 shutdown date for Content material API for Procuring. The brand new API options simplified interfaces and enhanced capabilities together with gRPC assist and improved batch processing, suggesting give attention to technical infrastructure enhancements.
The automated import delay issues for advertising professionals managing retail promoting as a result of it undermines basic assumptions about information freshness in automated promoting programs. Trendy Procuring campaigns rely upon present product info to operate successfully. 9-day delays create mismatches between service provider stock, marketed merchandise, and consumer experiences that injury marketing campaign efficiency and waste budgets on outdated info.
Third-party feed administration options keep away from these delays by producing feeds straight from service provider databases or e-commerce platforms. Companies like FeedArmy, DataFeedWatch, and GoDataFeed question service provider product databases on scheduled intervals, usually every day or extra regularly. These options preserve full management over product ID project and information formatting, making certain consistency with remarketing implementations and different Google Adverts options.
The advice towards automated imports applies notably to retailers working subtle remarketing methods. Dynamic remarketing campaigns require exact product ID matching to show related merchandise primarily based on consumer habits. Any inconsistency in ID project breaks the connection between consumer interactions and advert shows. Retailers investing in remarketing ought to prioritize feed management over comfort.
For retailers with out technical sources to implement conventional feeds, Google Sheets gives an accessible different. The spreadsheet method requires handbook information entry however ensures full management over product info and replace timing. Retailers can refresh sheet information instantly when costs change or merchandise exit of inventory, avoiding multi-day delays that compromise advert accuracy.
The automated import problem illustrates broader challenges in balancing automation comfort towards information accuracy. Google’s effort to simplify Service provider Heart entry for non-technical retailers created a characteristic that trades reliability for ease of use. Retailers counting on automated imports assume their product information stays present primarily based on Google’s 24-hour replace promise, however Flossie’s testing demonstrates this assumption proves false.
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Abstract
Who: Emmanuel Flossie, Google Procuring Specialist and Google Adverts Diamond Product Skilled at FeedArmy, documented the automated import delay affecting all retailers utilizing Google Service provider Heart’s automated import characteristic for product information administration.
What: Google Service provider Heart’s automated import characteristic, which Google claims updates product information each 24 hours, confirmed merchandise that had been 9 to 10 days old-fashioned when examined. The delay causes outdated pricing and availability info in Procuring adverts whereas creating product ID mapping inconsistencies that break remarketing marketing campaign focusing on.
When: Flossie examined the characteristic on January 13, 2026, discovering merchandise with January 4 final replace timestamps. He documented the problem by LinkedIn posts and a YouTube video printed January 13, 2026, noting that Google has labored on automated import performance for greater than 5 years.
The place: The difficulty impacts Google Service provider Heart’s automated import information supply globally, impacting retailers utilizing the characteristic for Procuring adverts, free listings, and Efficiency Max campaigns throughout all markets the place Service provider Heart operates.
Why: The nine-day delay issues for advertising professionals as a result of it creates mismatches between service provider stock and marketed merchandise, wastes promoting spend on outdated info, breaks dynamic remarketing campaigns by inconsistent product ID mapping, and contradicts Google’s emphasis on correct product information specs. The delay undermines assumptions about information freshness in automated promoting programs whereas compromising time-sensitive promotional campaigns.
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