FAQs
We know that there’s a lot to learn about the Feedonomics platform. That’s why we’ve put together a collection of questions that we get asked the most.
If you have any other questions not listed here, feel free to ask us. We would be happy to have a chat!
What is a data feed?
A data feed is a file that contains all of your product information. This can be present in a number of different formats, such as delimited (.txt, .csv) or .xml. Without a data feed, it is impossible to promote your items on Google Shopping or any other shopping engine..
Can Feedonomics handle complicated and large feeds?
Do you have ridiculously complicated feeds with hundreds of thousands or even millions of products? We built Feedonomics to be extremely robust and scalable, and can even process feeds with millions of products.
What ad channels and marketplaces does Feedonomics support?
Feedonomics supports hundreds of shopping engines and marketplaces, including Google Shopping, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and more.
What ecommerce platforms are supported?
Feedonomics supports product feed exports from dozens of different ecommerce platforms, including Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce. For custom platforms, we can also create a dynamic product feed by crawling.
How is Google Shopping managed?
Google Shopping is controlled by managing bids on the product or product group level, not on the keyword level. We are sending traffic to individual product pages, not category pages.
How can we be successful on Google Shopping?
First, your product data has to meet Google’s editorial guidelines. The next most important step is to properly optimize your feed. This doesn’t just mean every attribute is filled in. This means that your attributes, like title, actually match the way users are searching for them.
An excellent read is the Secret Math Behind Google Shopping.
How do I get my data feed to Google?
You will need a Google AdWords account and a Google Merchant Center account. Both of these accounts can share the same login information. Your analyst will assist in uploading your data feed to Google once they have made the necessary changes and upgrades to the feed and have ensured that your data meets Google’s specifications.
How long does my data feed last on Google?
Your data feed will be active for 30 days as of the day the data is uploaded. This means that the data feed needs to be reuploaded at least once every 30 days, even if the data is the same.
My prices are constantly changing. Does this mean I can’t do Google Shopping?
Not at all. As long as your data feed file is kept up-to-date, your analyst can upload your data feed to Google daily if necessary. It’s best if you can have your data feed scheduled to upload daily.
What happens if data in my feed is inaccurate (such as prices or destination URLs?)
If there is inaccurate data for any product, it will be temporarily disapproved. If there is an overabundance of issues, your entire data feed will be temporarily suspended. All suspensions and item disapprovals can be fixed relatively quickly and your data can be reapproved.
What do I need to do to get started?
Your analyst will need access to your Google Merchant Center and Google AdWords accounts, as well as your data feed.
How can I provide access to my data feed?
In order of convenience:
- Your data feed is hosted on an URL. This allows the analyst to automatically update your data feed daily, ensuring the most accurate and up-to-date information available.
- Your data feed is easily exported in a delimited format from your shopping cart. In this instance, your analyst needs access to the backend of your site to manually download the data feed. Another option is to have the feed exported to an FTP folder, where we can pull the data from.
The least desirable (and not really a good recipe for success) way is to do a local upload from your computer, as this file is not refreshed and can become outdated.
What feed formats does Feedonomics accept?
Feedonomics can import feeds of just about any format:
- Delimited (CSV, TSV, etc.)
- XML
- JSON
- NDJSON
We accept delivery via URL or FTP/SFTP (or FTPS and LFTP).
Check out our direct platform integrations here: https://feedonomics.com/supported-shopping-platforms/
Is your data not accessible easily? We can also crawl your site to generate a feed!
Who can sell on Google Shopping?
More easily answered is who can’t sell on Google. Merchants who sell vehicles, guns, ammo, knives (not multi tools, necessarily), tobacco/cigarettes, gambling products, paintball guns (not equipment), or products that requires a software purchase are prohibited.
What is the best advantage of using Google Shopping?
Google shopping is great because it drives a ton of great, relevant traffic to direct product pages, rather than general categories. This gives great insight into which of your products are truly performing the best online and helps you manage your budgets. On top of that, Google Shopping is shown to increase total sales, not just cannibalize text ad sales, as some skeptics may have pointed out.
How are products ranked on Google Shopping?
Products are ranked based on product bids, as well input from the Google Shopping algorithm, which pulls information from your data feed to help it match products to relevant user searches. This is why the more data rich (and honest) your data feed is, the better your performance will likely be.
That said, there is still a heavy emphasis on proper bid management. Being able to quickly identify product performance and adjust bids and budget accordingly is still the most important skill required to effectively manage your product listings.
How can I optimize my feed for more relevant rankings?
This requires a bit more finesse and strategy. What you want to do is take relevant search queries that you want your product to show up for, and insert them within the product title and product description so that it makes sense semantically. Google allows 150 characters in your product title. Utilize this space to show up for search queries that you want to show up for.
What if I want to list my products in multiple countries?
To do this, you will need a separate feed that has all of the prices updated for that countries currency. In addition, you need a domain for that country that the product listings point to. You cannot send U.K. users to a page that contains the U.S. price.
I own a Shopify store and make changes to my items on the website regularly. How does your platform update my product listings? Does it happen automatically?
Feedonomics can pick up your products and updates via our Shopify API. We can set the frequency inside of Feedonomics to be every day, hourly, or even every 15 minutes.
I have 10,000 products listed on Amazon, and my feed file is an Excel document that I update manually. I would like to use your platform to get onto eBay, Walmart, and Newegg, but I do not have a website. Can you help me?
We can! So long as you have any kind of feed file, we can use it to create feeds for those channels.
My website sells around 70% of all the Nike basketball shoes ever made. There is an affiliate site where I would like to get the remaining 30% of Nike basketball shoes. Can I combine my feed file with both websites inventory?
Yes, we can create a master feed out of multiple feeds as part of our aggregation capabilities.
Can you give me more details on how your work with affiliate sites in terms of pushing and pulling data between my site and the affiliate site?
We typically pull data from your website and push it to an affiliate site after optimizing the product data.
I am interested in trying dynamic text ads. Are there any guidelines with Feedonomics that I need to meet in order to get approved? What is the turnaround time to get my ads live?
Our specialists provide feedback about what we’ve seen work well with other clients. The turnaround time is typically between two to three weeks, depending on the complexity of campaigns.
I have been using ChannelAdvisor for two years. What are the advantages of using Feedonomics?
- At a high level, ChannelAdvisor is an expensive solution, and its UI isn’t well-suited for feed optimization.
- ChannelAdvisor charges a percentage of ad spend, a percentage of revenue, and a separate fee for setup
- If you want to learn more, speak to one of our specialists about the benefits of working with Feedonomics versus Channeladvisor. Join the thousands of brands, retailers, and agencies who choose Feedonomics.
If I sign up with your platform, will I be locked into the quoted price without increases for at least 12 months?
Yes. If your SKU count grows, there is usually an additional fee.
I have sensitive product information. If I use your self-serve option, will my data be secure and unreadable by your employees?
Yes, we have actually built Feedonomics to have multi-user login, so your team can have completely separate and private logins.
Is there a suggested minimum amount of products needed that would justify using Feedonomics?
There isn’t! We have helped clients even with a single product (a diet kit), by creating dozens of variations of that product to capture more search traffic for terms like “weight loss plan” and “dieting kit.”
Can I take my products from one marketplace and list them on another marketplace (e.g. taking my Amazon listings and putting them on eBay)?
Feedonomics uses your ecommerce platform as the source of truth, so you would need to have your products listed on a platform like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, or another source that we can pull from. Then we can optimize and list your products for another marketplace.
How long does it take to get on Amazon, eBay, etc.? (Is it a turn-key solution?)
It typically takes six to eight weeks, depending on the quality of your product data.
What is a “template” in regards to Amazon and eBay? Does Feedonomics provide us with these templates?
Many Amazon categories have different product listing templates like clothing and electronics. Feedonomics provides and supports all of the different Amazon and eBay category templates.
If I have some of my products already posted directly to marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, how can Feedonomics help me?
We can help if you have your products on an ecommerce platform like Shopify, Magento, or BigCommerce. We can then list them on other marketplaces.