Table of Contents
Why Software Sellers Use Google Shopping At All
Google Shopping is usually associated with physical products, but a growing number of software companies — particularly those selling boxed-style perpetual licenses, desktop utility software, or consumer-facing subscription apps with a clear per-license or per-seat price point — run Shopping campaigns alongside or instead of standard Search or App campaigns, treating a software license or subscription plan as the "product" in their feed. This works within Google's policies, but it inherits a set of requirements that generic e-commerce compliance guidance does not fully cover, because a software subscription behaves differently from a physical product at the exact points GMC policy cares most about: price and what happens after purchase.
What Price Do You Submit for a "Free" Trial?
The core question software sellers get wrong: if your primary offer is a "14-day free trial," what price attribute goes in the Shopping feed for a product that costs $0 during the trial period? Google's price accuracy policy expects the feed price to reflect what a shopper is actually charged for the item being advertised. If the trial genuinely requires no payment method and no charge occurs until an explicit, separate purchase decision after the trial, the feed should represent the actual subscription price the shopper will pay once they convert — clearly paired with promotional text or a documented free-trial period, not a $0 feed price implying the product itself is free.
A $0.00 or nominal price submitted for a product that is genuinely a paid subscription after a trial period misrepresents the actual cost of the product being advertised. Submit the real ongoing subscription price, and use Google's promotional annotation tools to communicate the free-trial offer as a promotion layered on top of that real price, not as the base price itself.
Auto-Renewal Disclosure Requirements
If your free trial or promotional pricing period automatically converts into a recurring paid subscription unless the customer cancels, this triggers negative-option / auto-renewal disclosure obligations under FTC rules (and increasingly, specific state laws with even stricter negative-option requirements) independent of Google Merchant Center policy — but the disclosure needs to be visible on the exact landing page your Google Shopping ad sends shoppers to, since that page is what Google's misrepresentation review evaluates for accurate representation of the offer. The core disclosure elements expected: the trial length, the price and billing frequency after the trial ends, how and by when the customer must act to avoid the charge, and easy access to a cancellation method — all stated clearly before the point of purchase, not buried in terms of service only.
| Required disclosure element | Where it must appear |
|---|---|
| Trial length | Prominently on the landing page, near the trial signup CTA |
| Post-trial price and billing frequency | Clearly stated before payment method is collected, not only in fine print |
| Cancellation deadline and method | Clearly described, with an actually accessible cancellation flow (not requiring a phone call in jurisdictions that restrict that practice) |
Freemium Tiers and Per-Seat Pricing
Software sold on a per-seat or per-user pricing model creates a related pricing-representation challenge: a Shopping feed generally expects one clear price per product entry, but your actual price varies by number of seats or usage tier. The compliant approach mirrors the loyalty-tier guidance for e-commerce: submit the price for the smallest standard unit (a single-seat, entry-tier price) as your base feed price, and let your own pricing page present the full tiered or volume-based pricing table to shoppers once they click through — rather than trying to submit an averaged or "starting from" price that does not correspond to any single actual purchasable configuration.
Digital Goods Category Requirements
Google's product category taxonomy includes specific categories for software and digital goods, and correctly categorizing your listing (rather than defaulting to a generic category) affects both policy review accuracy and ad relevance. Digital and downloadable software products are also generally exempt from certain physical-product feed requirements (like shipping attributes) but need their own accurate representation of delivery method — how and when the customer receives access (immediate download link, license key email, account provisioning) should be clearly and accurately described, since a delivery-method mismatch (advertising "instant access" when provisioning actually takes 24 hours, for example) is its own category of misrepresentation risk distinct from pricing.
Refund Policy for Intangible Goods
Google's return policy feed requirements and on-site policy page expectations apply to software the same way they apply to physical products, but the actual policy content necessarily differs — software often has no physical return, but should still clearly state refund eligibility (a pro-rated refund window, a satisfaction guarantee period, or an explicit no-refund policy for digital goods, which is legal in most jurisdictions as long as it is clearly disclosed before purchase). The compliance risk we see most with software sellers is simply not having a dedicated, clearly stated refund/cancellation policy page at all, defaulting to a generic e-commerce returns page template that references shipping and physical returns in ways that do not apply and read as inconsistent to both shoppers and a Google policy reviewer checking policy page accuracy.
Compliance Checklist
✅ SaaS / Software Google Shopping Compliance
Feed price reflects the real post-trial subscription price, not $0, with the free-trial offer represented as a promotion
Landing page clearly discloses trial length, post-trial price, billing frequency, and cancellation method before payment collection
Per-seat or tiered pricing submits the entry-tier single-unit price, with full tiering shown on the actual pricing page
Product is categorized correctly under Google's software/digital goods taxonomy, not a generic category
A dedicated, accurate refund/cancellation policy page exists, written for digital delivery rather than a repurposed physical-returns template
When App Campaigns Make More Sense Than Shopping
Not every software product is actually a good fit for the Shopping surface, and part of getting compliance right is recognizing when a different Google Ads product better matches your offer in the first place. Mobile-first apps monetized through in-app purchases or app-store billing (where Apple or Google's own app store, not your website, handles the transaction and refund) are generally better served by Google App campaigns, which are built around app install and in-app-event optimization rather than a product feed with a price attribute mapped to your own checkout. Forcing an app-store-billed product into a Shopping feed built for direct, on-site-checkout transactions creates exactly the kind of price and delivery-method mismatch this guide covers, because the actual transaction and refund process happens entirely outside any page your feed's link attribute points to.
Shopping is the right fit specifically when your own website handles the actual transaction, receipt, and account provisioning directly — a desktop license purchased and activated through your own checkout, or a web-based SaaS subscription billed through your own payment processor. If your billing model routes through a third-party app store or marketplace instead, evaluate whether an App campaign, not a Shopping feed, is the structurally correct advertising product before working through any of the disclosure requirements above.
Trial pricing, billing frequency, and cancellation flows tend to change as a product evolves — a pricing page redesign, a new plan tier, a checkout provider migration. Re-test your own trial signup flow from a fresh, logged-out browser session every quarter to confirm the feed, the landing page disclosure, and the actual billing behavior still all agree with each other.
One last practical note for teams managing this across multiple products or plan tiers: keep a single internal reference document mapping every advertised SKU to its actual trial length, post-trial price, and billing cadence, and treat that document as the source of truth your marketing, legal, and feed-management teams all pull from. Compliance gaps in this area rarely come from a single team getting it wrong — they come from marketing updating a promotional offer, engineering updating the billing logic, and the feed staying on the old configuration, with no single document any of the three teams checked against before shipping their change.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I advertise "free" in my Shopping ad copy for a trial-based product? Yes, if the trial is genuinely free with no hidden charge during the trial period itself, but the underlying feed price and landing page must clearly represent the real ongoing cost that follows, to avoid a misrepresentation determination.
Does this apply to one-time perpetual license software too, not just subscriptions? The auto-renewal disclosure requirements are specific to subscription/recurring billing; a one-time perpetual license just needs standard price accuracy and an accurate refund policy, without the renewal-specific disclosures.
How do I check if my current trial funnel is compliant? Run a free scan at gmcunbanned.com to review your feed pricing, landing page disclosures, and policy pages together against Google's current requirements.
Advertising a Free Trial or Subscription Software Product?
Free trial and auto-renewal claims carry specific disclosure requirements. Run a free scan at gmcunbanned.com to check your feed pricing and landing pages before Google flags a mismatch.
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