Merchant Promotions Program Policies

To ensure a positive user experience, all promotions must abide by the following policies:

1. Promotions must add value above and beyond the product’s current price
2. Promotion title must be clear and accurate
3. Promotion redemption must be clear and simple
4. Promotions must not be overly restrictive
5. Promoted products must be clear to the user
6. Confirmation of promotion receipt must be clear
7. Promotions for free or discounted shipping must be associated with a redemption code
8. Combined Promotions Policies
9. Promotions must adhere to our Editorial Policies
10. Promotions must adhere to Google Shopping policies

Promotions must add value above and beyond the product’s current price

Promotions should provide a monetary discount or an additional good or service not normally associated with the purchase. Mail-in rebates and promotions that offer reward points are not permissible. The minimum discount amount must be at least $5 or 5% off the current price of the item.

We also do not allow promotions for products or services that are normally offered for free, offers that are sweepstakes, or offers which include text only meant to advertise the product without a discount.

Promotion title must be clear and accurate

Promotion titles should be concise, easy to understand, accurate, and only represent the value of the specific deal being promoted. The title of the promotion should not attempt to trick users by stating different deals or otherwise misleading users. Titles must clearly state any minimum thresholds and/or items if they need to be added to cart.

The promotion title must clearly disclose any redemption requirements, billing expectations, additional charges, minimum purchase limits, etc. as a result of redeeming a deal with the merchant. Hidden fees disclosed upon redemption are not permissible. Offer details should include the conditions of use and/or any restrictions or limitations of the offer. Please see our Editorial Requirements for more information.

Promotion redemption must be clear and simple

Merchants must not impose deal specific costs on users upon redemption if these costs do not apply to non-deal purchases. In other words, when users redeem their promotion, they should not be subject to fees which do not apply to users not redeeming a deal.

Promotions must be redeemable without unspecified additional user requirements. Deals where merchants impose requirements not included in titles in order to redeem are not permissible. Unacceptable additional requirements include, but are not limited to:

• Sign up for store credit card
• Sign up for paid membership
• Take this survey to redeem the promotion

Promotions must not be overly restrictive

Promotions must be generally accessible to all customers. Promotions available only to a subset of users are unacceptable and include, but are not limited to:

• "$10 off for Teachers & Students"
• "10% off for Seniors and Military”
• “$15 off on your birthday”
• First time customers
• “10% Discount with Like”
• "5% off with Visa credit card"
• "10% off when you complete a short survey at check-out"

Promotions must not be restricted to club or loyalty cards requiring paid membership but may be restricted to free club or loyalty card holders as long as it is intuitive for customers to sign up for free club or loyalty card to get the discount. Note that promotions for discounts on paid memberships are acceptable.

Promotions must also not be restricted to specific payment methods which are different from the website's normal payment restrictions.

Promoted products must be clear to the user

Users must be able to redeem promotions for all eligible products. When a promotion is limited to specific products, it must be applicable to only the specific products identified in the Products Feeds.

Bundle promotions must clearly disclose all items: If a combination of products must be added to qualify for the promotion, the title should clearly state all products that must be added

Confirmation of promotion receipt must be clear

Users' receipt of promotions must be clearly confirmed by the point of purchase.

Discounts must not already be shown on the Product landing page, but given in the cart or at checkout. Since prices in your Products feeds must match the prices on the landing page, promotions will not be considered added value and are not eligible for Merchant Promotions. See Shopping Policies.

Receipt of free gifts, gift cards, or e-cards can be displayed on the Product Landing Page but must also be mentioned in one of the following locations:

• Cart or basket
• Checkout page

Free gifts title guidelines can be found in the Editorial Requirements.

Note that free gift cards for stores other than your own are not permissible. Additionally, sample products or trials do not qualify as free gifts. Store credit, reward points or cash back promotions are permissible only in monetary value.

 

Promotions for free or discounted shipping must be associated with a redemption code

Shipping promotions must have a valid redemption code; otherwise, it will not be considered an added value. If free shipping is already offered on your site at a certain threshold without a code, you can still offer free shipping at a lower amount as a promotion as long as it is associated with a code.

Note: If your promotion is offering shipping at a lower threshold, promotions should not be tied to items priced above the normally offered threshold. The promotion must have a product applicability of "SPECIFIC_PRODUCTS" and be mapped only to items that are priced below the offered amount.

For example: if free shipping is already given for orders $45+ (without code) and you would like for free shipping to be given at $35+ with code, the promotion should only be mapped to items that are priced below $45.

Combined promotions policies

Some promotions that are not permissible as stand-alones can become permissible when combined with another promotion to provide further value.

Promotions must adhere to our Editorial Policies

For a list of our editorial requirements and best practices, please see our Editorial Requirements. This includes instructions on how to format your promotion's text. Google may contact your business to request changes based on those guidelines, in order to optimize the quality of your promotion.

Google or its affiliates may modify promotion text to make non-material changes (e.g., size, formatting, punctuation, capitalization and spelling modifications). Google making these changes does not in any way shift the merchant's liability for the content, and Google is not responsible for the accurate depiction of branded terms.

Promotions must adhere to Google Shopping policies

Some products or services cannot be promoted in Google Shopping. For a list of these, please see the Google Shopping policies.

Google reserves the right to remove any promotion from your Google Shopping listing at any time for any reason. This includes, but is not limited to, a response to customer complaints about your promotion or fulfillment thereof and lack of sufficient promotional benefit to the customer.