What Are GMC Promotions (and Why Use Them)?
Google Merchant Center Promotions is a free program that lets merchants attach special offer annotations to their Shopping listings. When active, your product listings display a "Special offer" link that shoppers can click to reveal the details — typically a discount amount, free shipping offer, or coupon code.
Why bother? Because the "Special offer" badge creates a visual differentiation in a grid of competitor ads. Multiple studies and merchant reports have shown CTR improvements of 10-20% when promotions are active — without increasing CPCs or ad spend.
Promotions work on:
- Google Shopping paid ads
- Google Shopping free listings
- Google Shopping Actions (where available)
This is one of the few Google Shopping features that costs nothing extra and consistently improves performance. If you run any kind of discount, free shipping threshold, or coupon code — you should be using GMC Promotions.
Eligibility Requirements
Not all GMC accounts have access to Promotions. You must:
- Have an active, approved GMC account in good standing (no active policy violations)
- Be selling in a supported country (US, UK, Germany, France, India, Australia, and others — check Google's current list)
- Have been running for at least 90 days with a clean record (this requirement varies — some accounts get access sooner)
- Accept and comply with the Promotions program policies
If you don't see "Promotions" in your GMC left menu, your account may not yet have access. Submit a request through GMC's support, or wait until your account matures.
Types of Promotions You Can Run
GMC supports four main promotion types:
- Percent discount — "20% off" or "Buy 2, get 1 at 50% off"
- Amount discount — "$15 off orders over $75"
- Free gift — "Free gift with purchase" (gift must be specified)
- Free shipping — "Free standard shipping on all orders" or "Free shipping on orders over $50"
You can require a coupon code (shown to the customer in the offer details) or make the promotion automatic (no code required, discount applies automatically at checkout).
Step-by-Step: Creating a Promotion in GMC
Step 1: Access Promotions
In your GMC account, look for Promotions in the left navigation. If you see it, click through. If it's not visible, you don't yet have access.
Step 2: Create New Promotion
Click the "+" button to create a promotion. You'll fill in:
- Country of purchase — Where the promotion applies
- Language — Match your store's language
- Promotion effective dates — Start and end date/time (must be a real limited-time window — "forever" promotions are rejected)
- Promotion title — What shows in the "Special offer" details (e.g., "20% off sitewide with code SAVE20")
- Promotion type — Select from the types above
- Redemption channel — Online only, in-store only, or both
- Products — Sitewide or specific products/categories
Step 3: Specify Coupon Code (If Required)
If your promotion requires a coupon code, enter it here. The code will be displayed to customers in the promotion details. Make sure this exact code works at checkout before submitting.
Step 4: Review and Submit
Google reviews promotions before they go live. Plan for 24-48 hours review time. For time-sensitive promotions (e.g., a weekend sale starting Friday), submit by Wednesday at the latest.
Promotions submitted less than 24 hours before their start date may not be reviewed and activated in time. For Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or other major sale events, submit promotions at least 5-7 days in advance.
Using a Promotions Feed for Scale
If you run frequent promotions or need to apply promotions to specific product subsets, the GMC Promotions Feed is more efficient than creating promotions manually.
A promotions feed is a separate feed file (CSV or Google Sheets) with columns for promotion ID, title, long title, description, effective dates, promotion type, products, and coupon code. Upload it to GMC via Promotions → Feeds → Add feed.
The promotions feed is also necessary if you want to link promotions to specific products using the promotion_id attribute in your main product feed. This creates a direct association between a product and a promotion, ensuring the badge appears on the right listings.
Common Rejection Reasons (and Fixes)
Rejection: Promotion not verifiable on website
Google crawls your website to verify the promotion is real. If the coupon code doesn't work at checkout, if the discount doesn't apply as described, or if the landing page doesn't mention the promotion, it gets rejected.
Fix: Test the coupon code as a guest. Make sure the discount reflects correctly in the cart. If it's a sitewide sale, make sure the sale prices are visible on product pages before you submit the promotion.
Rejection: Non-limited time offer
Promotions must be genuinely time-limited. A "free shipping always" message cannot be submitted as a promotion — it should be in your GMC shipping settings. A "sale that never ends" is rejected.
Fix: Set a real end date. Even if you plan to extend the sale, give it an end date. You can create a new promotion before the old one expires.
Rejection: Vague offer description
"Great deals!" or "Special prices available" are rejected. Promotions must state the specific discount, threshold, or offer clearly.
Fix: Be specific. "15% off your first order with code FIRST15" passes. "Special discounts" does not.
Rejection: Promotion conflicts with feed price
If your product is already shown at a sale price in your feed (via the sale_price attribute), and you also have a promotion for an additional discount, make sure the math is consistent. Google checks that the advertised discount reflects what customers actually pay.
Compliance Watch: Promotions and Misrepresentation
Promotions are scrutinized for accuracy because they're a common vector for misleading advertising. Getting promotions wrong can put your entire GMC account at risk — not just the promotion itself.
These are the specific misrepresentation triggers to avoid:
- Listing a coupon code that doesn't work
- Showing "20% off" when the actual product pages don't reflect that discount
- Setting promotions with inflated "original prices" that were never actually charged (fake markdown pricing)
- Free shipping offered in a promotion but charged at checkout
- Promotion expired but still showing as active because you forgot to set an end date
See our full guide on the topic: GMC Misrepresentation: What It Means & How to Fix It
Promotions Best Practices
- Submit early — Always give yourself at least 48 hours before a promotion start date. 72 hours for major sale events.
- Use specific titles — "20% off orders over $50" outperforms "Great deals" in both Google approval rates and shopper CTR.
- Test every coupon code before submitting — As a guest user, in incognito mode, from the same country as your target market.
- Set an end date even for rolling promotions — Then renew before expiry. Never let promotions expire while they're still showing.
- Link specific products when relevant — Using the
promotion_idin your feed ensures the badge only shows on the right products. - Monitor approval status — Check GMC's Promotions dashboard 24 hours after submission. If rejected, fix and resubmit immediately.
For more on feed setup and Shopping performance, see: Product Feed Optimization: 15 Tactics and Google Shopping Free Listings Guide.
Make Sure Your GMC Account Is in Good Standing
Promotions only work on approved, compliant accounts. Run a free scan to check your account health and fix any issues before launching your next promotion.
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