Google Shopping Products Not Getting Impressions: 8 Fixes

You've uploaded your products to Google Merchant Center, connected your Shopping campaign, and... nothing. Some or all of your products are showing zero impressions. It's one of the most frustrating problems in Google Shopping advertising, and the causes aren't always obvious.

This guide covers the 8 most common reasons products don't get impressions and how to fix each one. We'll work through the issues systematically, from the most common culprits to less obvious problems, so you can get your products showing again.

What Does "This Product Is Showing on Google but Has Limited Discoverability" Mean?

If you see the warning "This product is showing on Google but has limited discoverability" in Google Merchant Center, it means your product is technically active and eligible to appear in Shopping results, but it's not reaching its full visibility potential.

This is different from a product that's disapproved or not showing at all. Products with limited discoverability are live but underperforming - they might get occasional impressions, but far fewer than they could.

Common Causes of Limited Discoverability

• Missing GTIN or product identifiers: Products without GTINs are harder for Google to match to searches
• Poor product titles: Titles that don't include searchable terms limit how often products match queries
• Uncompetitive pricing: Products priced significantly above market benchmarks get fewer impressions - see our price competitiveness guide
• Missing product attributes: Size, color, material, and other attributes help Google match products to specific searches
• Low quality images: Poor images reduce click-through rates, which can affect future impression allocation
• Low bid levels: Even with good data, low bids mean losing auctions to competitors

The fixes below address all of these causes. Start with the most impactful: product identifiers (GTINs), titles, and competitive pricing. For context on what impression share levels to expect, see our impression share benchmarks by industry.

1 Check Product Approval Status in Merchant Center

The most common reason products don't get impressions: they're not approved. Disapproved products cannot show Shopping ads, period. Even products with warnings may have limited visibility.

How to Check

1. Go to Google Merchant Center
2. Navigate to Products → Diagnostics
3. Review the breakdown: Approved, Approved with warnings, Pending, Disapproved
4. Click on any category to see affected products and specific issues

Common Disapproval Reasons

Issue	Fix
Price mismatch	Sync feed price with landing page price
Availability mismatch	Update feed when products go out of stock
Missing required attributes	Add brand, GTIN, condition as required
Policy violation	Review Shopping ads policies
Image issues	Use high-quality images without watermarks or promotional text

2 Increase Bids for Non-Competitive Products

Shopping ads work on an auction system. As Google's Ad Rank documentation explains, if your bid is too low, you'll never win auctions and never get impressions -- even if your product is approved and your feed is perfect.

Signs Your Bids Are Too Low

• Products are approved but have zero or near-zero impressions
• Impression share metrics show high "Lost IS (Rank)"
• Similar products in your account have impressions with higher bids
• You're using manual bidding with very conservative CPCs
• Your product-level impression share is significantly lower than account average

How to Fix

1. Check bid simulator: In Google Ads, select a product group and click on the bid simulator to see estimated impression impact at different bid levels
2. Review competitive landscape: Look at CPC benchmarks for your category—are you bidding at or above average?
3. Test higher bids: Temporarily increase bids by 50-100% on zero-impression products to gather data
4. Use automated bidding: Target ROAS or Maximize Clicks strategies can find appropriate bid levels automatically

Remember: getting impressions at a higher CPC is better than getting zero impressions at a low CPC. You can always optimize bids down once you have performance data.

3 Check Budget Limitations

If your campaign budget is too low, Google will limit how many products show and how often. Products with lower expected performance may get deprioritized, resulting in zero impressions.

How to Check

1. In Google Ads, go to your Shopping campaign
2. Look for "Limited by budget" status in the campaign table
3. Check Impression Share Lost (Budget) metric—anything above 0% means budget is limiting you

Solutions

• Increase campaign budget: The direct fix if budget is limiting impressions
• Segment products: Create separate campaigns for high-priority vs. low-priority products with appropriate budgets
• Lower bids on some products: If budget is fixed, lower bids on poor performers to free up budget for others
• Use shared budgets strategically: Pool budgets across campaigns, but be aware this can cause unpredictable allocation

For a complete approach to distributing spend across your catalog, see our budget allocation guide.

4 Fix Feed Quality Issues

Even approved products can suffer from low visibility due to feed quality problems. As outlined in Google's product data specification, Google uses your product data to match searches -- poor data means poor matching and fewer impressions.

Critical Feed Attributes

Attribute	Impact	Best Practice
GTIN	High—helps Google match to searches	Always include valid GTIN/UPC/EAN
Title	High—primary matching signal	Include brand, product type, key attributes (color, size)
Brand	High—brand searches are common	Use exact manufacturer brand name
Product Type	Medium—helps categorization	Use your own category hierarchy
Google Product Category	Medium—auction segmentation	Use most specific category available

Title Optimization for Impressions

Your product title is the primary signal Google uses to match searches. Poor titles = fewer matches = fewer impressions. See our complete product title optimization guide for detailed best practices.

• Include searchable terms: What would someone type to find this product?
• Front-load important words: Google truncates long titles; put key info first
• Avoid keyword stuffing: Natural, descriptive titles perform better than keyword spam
• Include product identifiers: Model numbers, sizes, colors in the title help matching

Example: Instead of "Blue Shirt" use "Nike Dri-FIT Men's Running T-Shirt - Navy Blue - Size Large"

5 Review Negative Keywords

Negative keywords that are too broad can accidentally block your products from showing. This is a common issue when negative keyword lists are shared across campaign types or when generic terms are added without thinking about Shopping implications.

How This Happens

Unlike Search campaigns where you control keywords, Shopping campaigns match based on your product feed. If you add a negative keyword that appears in your product titles or descriptions, those products won't show.

Example: You sell "cheap furniture" but added "cheap" as a negative keyword to avoid low-quality traffic in Search. Now your Shopping ads for products with "cheap" in the title won't show.

How to Audit

1. Go to your Shopping campaign → Keywords → Negative Keywords
2. Export your negative keyword list
3. Compare against your product titles and common search terms for your products
4. Look for broad match negatives that could match product attributes

Common Problematic Negatives

• Generic terms like "free," "cheap," "best," "used"
• Color names that match your products
• Size terms (small, large, xl)
• Material names (cotton, leather, plastic)
• Brand names you actually sell

6 Verify Targeting Settings

Overly restrictive targeting can prevent products from getting impressions. Check both campaign-level and Merchant Center settings.

Location Targeting

• Verify your campaign targets locations where you can actually sell and ship
• Check for accidental exclusions (e.g., excluding a city instead of targeting it)
• Ensure Merchant Center shipping settings match your targeting—products won't show in locations you don't ship to

Inventory Filters

If you've set up inventory filters in your campaign or ad group, products that don't match those filters won't show.

1. Go to campaign Settings → Shopping campaign settings
2. Check Inventory filter—is it filtering to specific custom labels, brands, or product types?
3. Verify the filter values match your actual feed data (case-sensitive!)

Merchant Center Settings

• Target country: Products must target the country where you're advertising
• Content language: Must match the feed language to the target market
• Shipping: Products without valid shipping configurations won't show

7 Check Campaign Structure and Product Groups

Products might be technically approved and have good bids but still not show due to how they're organized in your campaign.

Common Structure Issues

• Products in paused ad groups: If the ad group is paused, products in it won't show
• Excluded product groups: Products can be explicitly excluded from bidding
• Everything Other than subdivision: If you've subdivided products and set "Everything else" to excluded or $0 bid, some products may fall through
• Campaign priority conflicts: Higher-priority campaigns can capture all impressions for overlapping products

How to Audit

1. Go to your Shopping campaign → Product Groups
2. Look for product groups with $0 bids or "Excluded" status
3. Check the "Products" tab to see individual product status
4. Filter for products with zero impressions and trace their path through your product group structure

8 Address Low Search Volume Products

Some products simply don't get searched for very often. If nobody is searching for your product, there are no auctions to enter and no impressions to win.

Signs of Low Search Volume

• Niche or specialty products
• New products not yet widely known
• Technical products with jargon names
• Products where people search for the category, not the specific item

Solutions

1. Optimize titles for discoverability: Include terms people actually search for, not just technical product names
   Example: "Industrial Widget XR-500" → "Heavy-Duty Pipe Connector - Industrial Grade - 2 inch"
2. Add product to broader categories: Make sure Google Product Category is appropriate and product type reflects how people search
3. Use related Search campaigns: Bid on category keywords in Search to build awareness, or consider Performance Max campaigns that can reach users across more surfaces including YouTube and Display
4. Accept the reality: Some products won't get significant Shopping traffic. Focus budget on products with proven demand.

Systematic Troubleshooting Process

Use this checklist to systematically diagnose zero-impression products:

Using Analytics to Identify Problem Products

Finding which products have zero impressions is the first step. Here's how to identify them:

In Google Ads

1. Go to your Shopping campaign → Products tab
2. Add the "Impressions" column if not visible
3. Sort by impressions ascending
4. Filter for products with 0 impressions over your selected date range

For Large Catalogs

If you have thousands of products, use the Google Ads report editor or scripts to identify patterns:

• Which brands have the most zero-impression products?
• Are there common attributes (category, price range, custom label)?
• When did these products last have impressions?

Tools like SKU Analyzer can help visualize which products are and aren't getting impressions, letting you quickly identify patterns and prioritize fixes across large product catalogs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Zero-impression products represent missed opportunities. Every product sitting invisible in your feed is a potential sale you're not making. The good news is that most causes are fixable once you identify them.

Start with the most common issues:

1. Check approvals: Fix Merchant Center disapprovals first
2. Review bids: Ensure you're competitive in auctions
3. Check budget: Make sure budget isn't limiting reach
4. Improve feed quality: Add GTINs and optimize titles

Then work through the less common causes: negative keywords, targeting settings, campaign structure, and search volume. If impressions dropped after recent changes to your product data, see our feed update recovery guide. Most zero-impression issues can be resolved within a few days once identified.

For large catalogs, consider using analytics tools that can quickly surface products with visibility problems. Catching and fixing these issues at scale is much easier with the right data at hand.