Google Shopping Image Overlays: What's Now Allowed After Google's 2025 Policy Shift

For years, promotional image overlays were one of the clearest rules in Google Shopping: no text, no price badges, no discount banners on your product photos. Violate it and your products got disapproved in Merchant Center. The policy was documented in Google's image_link specifications and enforced through automated diagnostics.

In 2025, that changed. Merchants started noticing that images with "20% OFF" banners and "NEW PRODUCT" badges were staying live without disapprovals. PPC practitioners began documenting the shift. And then Google rolled out Asset Studio — a tool built into Google Ads that actively generates product images with promotional overlays.

The contradiction is difficult to ignore: Google's own tooling now creates the exact elements its Shopping policy technically still prohibits. This article explains what changed, which overlay types are now being tolerated versus which remain risky, and how to test without putting your feed health at risk.

What Are Image Overlays in Google Shopping?

Before getting into what changed, it helps to be precise about terminology. "Image overlays" refers to any visual element added on top of or composited into a product image — as distinct from the system-generated annotations that Google applies on the search results page.

Common overlay types include:

• Promotional text — "SALE", "20% OFF", "NEW", "Free Shipping", discount percentages, and other marketing copy placed directly on the image
• Price callouts — showing the price visually on the image itself, separate from the price listed in your feed data
• Brand logos and watermarks — store or brand logos stamped onto the product photo to prevent image theft or for branding purposes
• Lifestyle cutouts — product images composited into background scenes, common in fashion and home décor
• AI-generated creative overlays — badges, text elements, and promotional graphics added using tools like Google's own Asset Studio

These are distinct from Google's system annotations — the Sale Price Badge, Price Drop Badge, and Merchant Promotions labels. Those appear as visual overlays in Shopping results, but they are generated and applied by Google based on your feed data and pricing history. They are always compliant and are covered separately below.

The Old Policy: Why Google Banned Overlays

Google's prohibition on promotional overlays has been part of the Shopping image policies for years, applying to both the primary image_link attribute and additional images submitted via additional_image_link. The policy also covered watermarks, logos, borders, and decorative elements. For a full breakdown of the underlying image specifications, see our Google Shopping image requirements guide.

The reasoning made commercial sense for Google: Shopping was designed as a clean, comparative surface where product images showed the actual product without marketing noise. Consistent standards also prevented merchants from gaming visibility through attention-grabbing text that competitors could not include. Promotional messaging was supposed to go through Merchant Promotions, where it would appear uniformly as a "Special offer" annotation.

Violations were caught through image analysis in Merchant Center and flagged in Diagnostics as "Text overlay" or "Promotional overlay" errors under Item Issues. Products with these violations would be disapproved until the images were replaced with clean versions. See our feed errors guide for how to diagnose and fix these types of issues.

What Changed in 2025: The Enforcement Shift

Two developments converged in 2025 to shift the overlay landscape — one informal, one significant.

Enforcement relaxation

Research published by Digital Position documented that Google began tolerating promotional overlays that would previously have triggered disapprovals. Images featuring "20% OFF" banners, "NEW PRODUCT" badges, and brand logos were staying live for extended periods without being flagged. The policy text in Google's documentation remained unchanged, but the enforcement machinery was no longer catching violations the way it had.

The likely driver is competitive pressure from Amazon and other marketplaces where product images routinely feature promotional elements. Loosening enforcement is a de facto acknowledgement that visual differentiation matters in Shopping results — even if the formal policy has not been officially revised.

Google Asset Studio

The more significant development was Google's own launch of Asset Studio at Google Marketing Live 2025. Asset Studio is an AI-powered creative tool built directly into Google Ads that helps advertisers generate product images, including images with promotional overlays.

Asset Studio can generate lifestyle imagery around existing product photos, add promotional text and badges, and produce ad creative at scale using generative AI. The feature is available through the Assets section in Google Ads and has been rolling out to advertisers throughout 2025. It was confirmed live for Google Ads users in mid-2025.

The contradiction is hard to avoid: Google built and shipped a first-party tool that creates the exact type of images its Shopping policy technically prohibits. Whether this represents a planned policy evolution or an inconsistency across product teams, the practical effect is the same — overlays are in active use, and Google's own tooling enables them.

Google Asset Studio: What It Does

Asset Studio sits inside Google Ads under the Assets section. It uses Google's generative AI models to help advertisers create and iterate on creative assets without relying on external design tools.

For product images specifically, Asset Studio can:

• Generate lifestyle imagery around existing product photos — removing white backgrounds and placing products into contextual scenes
• Add promotional text, discount badges, and branded visual elements to product images
• Scale creative production across large catalogs through AI-assisted variation
• Produce multiple creative variants quickly for A/B testing in Performance Max campaigns

Assets created in Asset Studio are primarily used as image assets in Performance Max campaigns. Product images can also be exported and uploaded to Merchant Center as additional_image_link images, giving shoppers alternate views that may include promotional context alongside the clean primary image.

Official Annotations: What Google Has Always Allowed

Before getting into the riskier territory of merchant-uploaded overlays, it is worth clarifying what Google has always allowed: system-generated annotations. These appear as visual elements in Shopping results but are applied by Google — not by the merchant — based on feed data and pricing history. They cannot violate image policies because they are not part of the image file.

See Google's full annotations and badges reference table for everything currently supported.

• Sale Price Badge — Shown when your product has a sale price 5–90% lower than the original, and that original price has been stable for at least 30 days. Activate by adding both price and sale_price attributes to your feed. See Google's sale price annotation documentation.
• Price Drop Badge — Shown automatically when Google detects a significant price reduction (typically 20%+) relative to a previously stable price. No merchant action required — Google's systems apply this based on price history. See Google's price drop badge documentation.
• Merchant Promotions — Coupon codes, discounts, and percentage-off offers displayed as a "Special offer" label. Configured through Merchant Center or a dedicated Merchant Promotions feed. Zero risk of image disapproval.

Overlay Type Guide: Safe, Risky, and Prohibited

The table below summarises the current state for the most common overlay types. "2025 status" reflects observed enforcement behaviour, not official policy — the formal policy has not been updated.

A few practical notes on the riskier categories. Brand logos carry the highest disapproval risk because Merchant Center's image analysis is specifically tuned to detect them — they were the original enforcement target. Promotional text and price callouts sit in a middle zone: actively tolerated on many accounts, but not guaranteed. Asset Studio overlays carry the lowest risk of any overlay category because the images are generated by Google's own tools.

The Click-Through Rate Case for Overlays

Research from practitioners who have tested overlay images against clean product controls has shown click-through rate improvements of 15% or more for products with promotional badges — specifically elements like "NEW PRODUCT" and "SALE" corner badges. The mechanism is straightforward: in a row of visually uniform product thumbnails, any differentiation draws the eye. A coloured badge in the corner breaks the pattern.

Overlays work best in categories where products are visually similar — electronics accessories, household goods, apparel basics — and where promotional framing aligns with buyer intent. In premium or highly differentiated product categories, clean images often outperform promotional ones because the visual noise undermines perceived quality.

The practical implication: given that enforcement has relaxed and Google itself generates overlay images through Asset Studio, the CTR upside from testing overlays has become more accessible without the same downside risk that existed before 2025. For competitive categories where every marginal CTR improvement matters, this is worth testing. Measuring the impact at the product level is straightforward with product-level analytics — compare CTR on modified products against a control group over the same period.

How to Add Overlays to Your Shopping Images

There are two practical approaches in 2025, with meaningfully different risk profiles.

Option 1: Google Asset Studio (Recommended)

Using Google's own tooling is the lowest-risk path. Images generated by Asset Studio are unlikely to be penalised by Google's systems — and if they are, it reflects a genuine policy clarification rather than an enforcement ambiguity.

1. Open Google Ads and navigate to Assets in the left sidebar
2. Select Asset Studio (rolling out through 2025 — may not be available on all accounts yet)
3. Select a product image as your starting point
4. Use the AI generation tools to add promotional elements, lifestyle backgrounds, or badge overlays
5. Download the generated asset
6. Upload the image to Merchant Center as an additional_image_link value — not the primary image_link — to reduce disapproval exposure on the main product image

Option 2: Direct overlay (Higher risk)

If you choose to add overlays to images manually using design tools:

• Test on a small batch of 10–20 products first — do not modify your entire catalog at once
• Use additional_image_link rather than the primary image_link for overlay versions
• Monitor Merchant Center Diagnostics closely for the first 7–14 days after upload
• Check the Item Issues section for "Text overlay" or "Promotional text" errors
• Keep clean original versions of all images ready for immediate reversion if needed

The feed optimization fundamentals still apply regardless of which approach you choose: healthy feeds with good baseline quality scores tolerate experimentation better than feeds already struggling with disapprovals.

The Risk: Automatic Image Improvements

Merchant Center offers an Automatic Image Improvements feature that attempts to remove promotional overlays, watermarks, and other non-product elements from uploaded images. This feature uses the same detection systems that powered the original overlay enforcement.

If Automatic Image Improvements is enabled on your account, it may detect and strip overlays you have intentionally added. To check your status, navigate to Growth > Manage Programs in Merchant Center and look for the Image Improvements card.

The feature works in both directions. If you accidentally have old images with overlays from a previous campaign, Automatic Image Improvements may clean them before they generate a manual disapproval — a useful safety net. But if you are intentionally testing overlays and want them preserved, you may need to disable this feature. Doing so means accepting that manual enforcement, though currently relaxed, could resume without warning.

Should You Add Overlays? A Decision Framework

Before modifying any product images, work through these four questions:

• Is your feed currently healthy? If you already have a significant number of disapprovals or policy issues, adding overlay images increases that surface area. Fix existing issues first. Tools like SKU Analyzer's Feed Intelligence track feed health over time, including disapproval trends and availability changes.
• Which products are candidates? High-spend, competitive products with healthy click performance are the right test group — they generate enough traffic to measure CTR impact quickly. Low-impression products will not produce statistically meaningful data.
• Do you have promotional messaging to communicate? If the goal is simply to look more prominent in a crowded shelf, overlays may not outperform a better primary image. If you have a genuine deal, lead with official annotations (Sale Price Badge, Merchant Promotions) first — they are lower risk and often sufficient.
• Can you monitor daily? The first two weeks after adding overlay images are when any enforcement would most likely appear. If you cannot check Merchant Center Diagnostics regularly during that window, delay the test until you can.

Monitor Feed Health After Adding Overlays

Once overlay images are live, track the following for at least two weeks:

• Merchant Center Diagnostics — Check Item Issues daily for new "Text overlay", "Promotional overlay", or "Promotional text" errors. Any sudden spike signals that images are being flagged. See our feed errors guide for how to interpret and resolve these.
• CTR at the product level — If overlays are working, you should see a measurable improvement on the modified products. Compare CTR on test products against a clean control group over the same two-week window using product-level analytics.
• Impression share — A drop in impression share without a disapproval suggests the images may be receiving lower quality scores rather than outright flagging. See our impression share troubleshooting guide for how to investigate unexpected drops.
• Feed Intelligence — Feed Intelligence tracks availability changes and feed stability over time, giving you a clear before/after baseline to measure the impact of image changes on overall feed health.

If disapprovals appear, revert promptly. The current enforcement relaxation does not come with guarantees, and a cluster of overlay disapprovals can affect your overall account quality signals. Keep the clean original versions of every image accessible so reversion takes minutes rather than hours.

Frequently Asked Questions