How to safeguard your performance data from Shopify x Google & YouTube app changes

If Shopify's migration to the Merchant API will affect your products, follow these steps to preserve your performance data with Channable.

This article applies if you:

• Use Shopify with the Google & YouTube app

• Send products to Google Merchant Center

• Manage Google Shopping or Performance Max campaigns

Learn more

If you send data to Google Merchant Center via Shopify's Google & YouTube app connection, Shopify's migration to Google’s Merchant API changes your product IDs in Google.

Google treats new product IDs as new items, so item history and optimizations (like AI-optimized titles and supplemental feed mappings) will be permanently lost once migrated.

This article explains how to configure a rule in your Google Shopping feed in Channable and what to check and adjust in your Google accounts to safeguard your performance data.

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Before you start

You’ll need

• Items imported from Shopify

• A Google Shopping feed channel for each of your product feeds

• To know the format of your item IDs in Shopify (e.g. ‘shopify_NL_123456’...)

Good to know

• These steps only help if your account hasn't been migrated yet. If your account has already been migrated, you can't restore performance history data for the old product ids.

Important: You need to repeat these steps for each product feed you have.

1

Preserve your Shopify product IDs using Rules

1. Go to Channels > [your Google Shopping channel] > Rules.

2. Click Create rule.

3. In Rule templates, select Set Shopify product ID (Google & YouTube app format).

4. The following rule will appear:

If all

Then take id and combine value shopify_NL_parent_id_id_

Important: The ID format must exactly match what you see in Google Merchant Center. If you sell outside the Netherlands, click the textbox and replace 'NL' with your country code (for example, 'DE' for Germany).

1. Click Save rule.

2. Re-run your channel to send the updated information to Google Merchant Center.

2

Adjust your Merchant Center settings

After you set up your channel and add the rule, you need to link your supplemental source to your new primary source (not the Shopify app source).

1. In your Google Merchant Center account, go to Settings > Data sources.

2. In Product sources, open Supplemental sources.

3. Click Add supplemental product data.

4. Select Add product data from a file, then paste the supplemental source URL from Channable → Continue.

5. Select your Feed label (for example, EN-UK-Optimized).

6. Select the Language.

7. Click Select primary data sources. Options that match the same feed label and language will appear.

8. Selecr your primary data source.

9. Click Create data source.

10. Repeat this step for each supplemental source type you use (e.g. Optimizer, Products AI).

Once your supplemental sources are applied to the new primary data source, you can delete the old versions.

Note: Depending on your account size, it can take a couple of hours for changes to appear in Google Ads.

3

Align your Google Ads campaigns

1. In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then select your Shopping or Performance Max campaign.

2. Go to Campaign settings.

3. Open Feeds, then choose one option:

   • Use all available feeds (matches target markets based on feed language), or

   • Select feed label → choose your label (it must match Merchant Center).

4. Click Save.

5. Go to Asset groups → Listing groups.

6. In the table in the Listing group column, next to All products, click .

7. At Subdivide all products by, hover over Custom label.

8. Confirm the correct custom labels are being shown (for example, Custom label 0 for “High margin”), and select the one you want to use.

9. Go to Products > Products.

10. Confirm items are Eligible with no issues.

Some of my products are ineligible with the issue 'Excluded product or listing group'. What do I do?

This often happens if your supplemental source is not correctly linked to your primary data source in Google Merchant Center. If it’s not linked, Google tries to filter on a value that doesn’t exist.

Return to Step 2 and retrace your steps to see if the supplemental source was correctly applied.

4

Deactivate Shopify app sync

Once your items are eligible, you need to stop the Shopify Google & YouTube app from sending its own (unoptimized) product data. This prevents the app from overwriting the optimized attributes you send from Channable.

1. In Shopify, go to Sales channels > Google & YouTube > Settings.

2. At Product feed, click Product sync.

3. Change the sync method to Manual (or turn off Automatic sync)

4. Click Save.

5. In Google Merchant Center, go to Settings > Data sources.

6. In the Actions column, open the ⋮ menu and select Delete source.

This keeps the app connection for conversion tracking and account verification, but stops it from overwriting your Channable data.

Troubleshooting tips

Issue	Possible cause	Solution
0 products in ads	Feed label mismatch	Make sure the feed label in your Merchant Center account matches the feed label in your Google Ads settings.
Labels missing in Google Ads	Supplemental feed not linked	Check that your supplemental feed is linked to the new primary source in your Merchant Center account.
Duplicate products	Double syncing	Confirm that your Shopify app is set to Manual and the old primary feed is deleted/disabled.