What are Product Attributes?
Product attributes are the structured fields that describe each SKU in your product feed—title, price, brand, category, color, size, availability, rating, and more. Strong attributes help platforms match your products to the right shoppers and placements. Well-formed attributes are the fastest path to cheaper, higher-intent traffic. The cleaner your data, the less guesswork the algorithm does—and the more often your products show up for the right people.
Understanding product attributes
Feeds are spreadsheets at heart. The more complete and precise the product attributes, the better the algorithm understands what you sell and who should see it. Attributes also power creative templates (price badges, review overlays, sale flags) that lift CTR and AOV when they render clearly. Consistent naming and taxonomy prevent mismatches that confuse delivery and reporting. Small fixes compound because attributes touch targeting, creative, and eligibility.
Think of product attributes as both targeting fuel and on‑ad content. The same fields that guide delivery also populate your templates—so fixing attributes pays off twice. Titles, prices, categories, and ratings should be current and standardized so comparisons are easy. Image and video URLs should meet specs to unlock placements without errors. Review attribute coverage regularly to prioritize the fields that move outcomes.
Why product attributes matter
If your feed is thin, performance plateaus early because platforms can’t match products well. Rich product attributes unlock better targeting, cleaner creative, and more placements—often without increasing production work. They also reduce disapprovals and keep pricing/promo information accurate across ads and landing pages.
- Targeting: Rich attributes improve intent matching and discovery.
- Creative quality: Templates can pull price, discount, and reviews directly from attributes.
- Reporting: Attribute-level segmentation (e.g., category, season) reveals where to shift budget.
- Eligibility: Some placements and channels require specific fields to serve.
How product attributes work
Product attributes work by describing each SKU in structured fields that platforms use for matching, ranking, and rendering ads. Start with required fields, then fill high‑impact optional ones that improve matching and on‑ad clarity so more qualified shoppers see the right products. Keep taxonomy consistent so product sets and templates behave predictably across campaigns. Current availability and prices prevent disapprovals and reduce bounce from surprise changes. Clean titles and categories help the system cluster similar products for more relevant delivery. Rich ratings and review counts enable social‑proof templates that raise trust.
Start with required fields, then fill in the high-impact optional ones that improve matching and on-ad clarity. Keep the taxonomy consistent so sets and templates behave predictably.
- Required vs. optional: Each platform has a required set; optional fields often drive big gains.
- Taxonomy: Clean categories (Google taxonomy, custom labels) help the system cluster similar products.
- Freshness: Up-to-date availability and price prevent disapprovals and reduce bounce.
Common high-impact attributes:
- Title, description, brand
- Price, sale price, currency
- Category, product type, custom labels
- GTIN/MPN/SKU
- Color, size, material, dimensions, weight
- Rating, review count
- Image and video URLs
Key Takeaways
- Attributes are the backbone of catalog performance.
- Enrichment powers both targeting and creative.
- Use custom labels to reflect margin and lifecycle for smarter spend.
