Feeds

Feeds checks your products against the rules of Google Shopping and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) before the platforms complain. It shows which products have errors, what exactly is wrong and how to fix it. You can also load the platforms' own messages, assign Google product categories and download the feed as a file.

Where to find it

Open Shop and customers > Feeds. The area has six tabs:

What you need

• A connected shop. See Onboarding.
• The right permissions. They are listed under the group Feeds. See Access.

• For writing Google categories the shop must not be read-only. A read-only shop refuses changes.
• No AI key is needed. The scan and AI readiness work with fixed rules, not with an AI service.

How do I run a feed check?

1. Open Shop and customers > Feeds.
2. Click Scan now. All products are checked again against the Google and Meta rules. Nothing is written to the shop.
3. Wait until the page reloads. A large shop can take a few minutes. You can follow the scan under Jobs.

After the first scan the check runs every night on its own. The table Scan history shows each run with its trigger (manual or nightly).

Note: If the banner Only some products were scanned appears, the shop did not deliver all products in time. The next scan continues where this one stopped.

How do I read the overview?

The tiles at the top are links. A click opens the matching list.

• Google: products with errors and Meta: products with errors: the platform rejects these products. Fix them first.
• Google: products with warnings and Meta: products with warnings: the products are accepted but shown less often.
• Google: no issues and Meta: no issues: share of products without any issue.
• Google category present: how many products have a Google category ID.
• AI readiness (average): average score from 0 to 100.
• After you loaded platform messages, more tiles appear, for example Flagged by Google (products) and Flagged by Google only.

Below that, Most common issues on Google and Most common issues on Meta list the checks that hit the most products. Click the product count to see the affected products.

How do I find and fix issues?

1. Open the tab Issues.
2. Narrow the list: click the tiles Error, Warning or Tip, or type into Search product, number or brand.
3. Click the arrow at the start of a row to see the issues right in the list. Click the row or Open product for the full view.
4. On the product page read Issues and suggestions. Each issue shows the message, the affected item number, the current value and a suggestion for the fix.
5. Fix the data in the shop or in the matching plinth area, for example Products, Images or Properties.
6. Run Scan now again. Fixed issues disappear from the list.

The three levels mean:

Note: Feeds does not change product texts, images or prices itself. The only thing it writes to the shop is the Google product category.

Hand an issue over as a task

If you cannot fix an issue yourself, click Create task in Quality on the product page. The task form opens with the product number. Nothing is created until you save it. See Quality.

How do I fix many findings at once?

Many issues have one common cause. Work from the cause, not product by product.

1. On the Overview, look at Most common issues on Google and Most common issues on Meta.
2. Click the product count next to an issue. The tab Issues opens, filtered to this one check.
3. Fix the cause for the whole group. For missing Google categories use the tab Google category: one mapping covers all products of a shop category. For data in the shop use Bulk editing.
4. On the tab Platform messages you can use Create tasks (flagged by platform only) or Create tasks (all flagged products) to hand over all flagged products as tasks.
5. Run Scan now and check the figures again.

How do I load the messages from Google and Meta?

The tab Platform messages shows what the platforms really complain about and compares it with the plinth checks. There are two ways.

Upload a report

1. Export the diagnostics as a CSV file in Google Merchant Center or in Meta's catalog diagnostics.
2. Open the tab Platform messages and go to the card Google Shopping or Meta (Facebook/Instagram).
3. Choose the file and click Import report.

Fetch directly

1. Set up the API access once (see the next section).
2. Click Fetch via API on the card of the platform.

After that the card shows a table of messages. The tiles mean:

• Products the platform flags: according to the last report.
• Reported by platform only: the platform complains, no plinth check does.
• Reported by rules only: plinth finds an issue the platform did not report. Only reliable with a complete report.
• Unmatched IDs: items from the report that are not (or no longer) in the shop.

Click a message to see the products with this problem. If the comparison is missing, run a scan first.

How do I connect Google Merchant Center or Meta?

You need the permission Rules and settings and the access data from the platform. Ask your administrator for them if you do not have them.

1. Open the tab Platform messages.
2. On the card of the platform, open API access.
3. For Google: choose the Sign-in type, Service account (JSON key) or OAuth (client and refresh token). Enter the Merchant Center account ID and the matching keys.
4. For Meta: enter the Catalog ID and the System user token. Feed ID (empty = all feeds) is optional.
5. Optional: fill in Automatic fetch (cron, empty = off) to fetch the messages on a schedule.
6. Click Save, then Test connection.

The label next to API access changes from not set up to set up. Keys are stored encrypted and never shown again. A key field you leave empty keeps its stored value. Delete keys removes the stored keys; click it a second time to confirm.

The same place is listed on the Setup page as Connect Merchant Center and feeds.

How do I assign Google product categories?

Without a Google product category Google classifies a product itself. plinth suggests a Google category for each shop category. You decide, then write the result to the shop.

1. Open the tab Google category. Each row is one shop category.
2. Click the tile To review. These rows have no confident suggestion and need your choice.
3. Click a row or Assign category. Pick one of the suggestions or use Search Google category (name or ID, at least two characters). A click on a match assigns it.
4. For rows with a suggestion use Accept, Choose another or Reject.
5. Click Preview. You see what would be written. Nothing changes.
6. Click Write to shop. All confident suggestions and all accepted mappings are written. You need the permission Write Google categories to the shop.

The statuses:

Note: Your decisions are only noted in plinth. The shop changes only with Write to shop.

Undo a write

After writing, the result window lists the changes and offers Undo. You can also undo the job later under Jobs.

If your role needs approval

You then see Submitted for approval. Nothing is changed until a team lead approves. The write runs after the approval. See Approvals.

Set a different category for one product

1. Open the product from the tab Issues.
2. In the card Google product category use Search Google category and click a match.
3. Click Preview to check, then Set for this product.

The choice applies to this product only and wins over the shop category. Remove override makes the shop category apply again.

Make the fields visible in the shop

Create fields in shop creates the custom fields for the Google category once, so they can be seen and edited in the shop admin. It needs the permission Rules and settings and a shop that is not read-only.

How do I check the AI readiness?

1. Open the tab AI readiness.
2. Use the tiles Low, Medium and Good to filter the product list by score.
3. Most common gaps shows what is missing most often and how to fix it.
4. Crawlers and sitemap shows which search and AI crawlers are allowed or blocked by the shop.
5. Open a product. The card AI readiness lists its score and the Missing information.

How do I switch rules on or off and change settings?

1. Open the tab Rules. The table lists every check with platform, field, severity and message.
2. Clear the box in the column Active to switch a rule off. It is no longer reported from the next scan on.
3. For thresholds, field mapping and exceptions open Settings for this shop (advanced), change the values and click Save.

Both need the permission Rules and settings.

Warning: The advanced settings are a technical text block. A wrong value changes the results for the whole shop. Change them only if you know the format, or ask your administrator.

How do I download the feed files?

1. Open the tab Overview.
2. Click Google XML or Meta XML. The current feed is built from the shop and downloaded as a file.

You need the permission Download feed files. Every download is recorded in the Audit log.

Common errors and fixes

See also

• Onboarding
• Setup
• Access
• Jobs
• Approvals
• Quality
• Products
• Bulk editing
• Audit log
• Glossary