What Are the Google Merchant Center Programs?

Google Merchant Center organizes its distribution channels into a set of programs — sometimes called add-ons in the Merchant Center Next interface — that answer one question: where can your products appear, and who pays for it? The answer maps to a decision tree: free listings (organic, no cost, no Google Ads account), Shopping ads and Performance Max (paid CPC, via Google Ads), Local Inventory Ads (paid or free, in-store inventory for nearby shoppers), promotions (offer-annotation layer on free and paid listings), product ratings (aggregated star scores on individual products), Google Customer Reviews (store-level seller badge), and dynamic remarketing (retargeting add-on drawing from the same feed). One program not on this list: Buy on Google — discontinued September 26, 2023. See what Google Merchant Center is for a full orientation to the platform itself.

The single most important thing to take from this programs overview: free product listings are on by default in every new Merchant Center Next account. If you have uploaded products and passed policy review, you are already showing for free across the Shopping tab, Google Search, Images, Lens, YouTube, Maps, and Gemini. Merchants who do not know this leave the organic floor unclaimed while spending budget on Shopping ads for the same queries. Both programs draw from the same product feed and neither uses keyword targeting.

Free Product Listings: What They Are and How to Verify They Are On

Free product listings are the no-cost baseline program in Google Merchant Center. Every approved product in your data source has the organic floor available to it: your products appear in the Shopping tab, Google Search result pages, Google Images, Google Lens, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Business Profile storefronts, and Gemini AI-generated responses — all without a CPC bid, without a daily budget, and without a linked Google Ads account. Google opened the Shopping tab to free product listings on April 21, 2020 (a structural shift away from the previously paid-only Shopping model), and renamed the program from “Surfaces across Google” to “free listings” / “free product listings” in December 2020. Thousands of guides still use the old name. The correct current label is free listings or free product listings. At MB Adv Agency, verifying the free-listings toggle is one of the first checks in every Merchant Center audit — a surprising number of feed management engagements reveal it was inadvertently switched off during an account reconfiguration.

How to verify free listings are enabled: In Merchant Center Next, go to Marketing → Marketing methods and confirm the toggle is on. For new accounts, it is on by default. No Google Ads account is needed; no separate opt-in flow exists. The included_destination feed attribute at the product level can exclude individual products from free listings if needed (use Free_listings — the legacy value Surfaces_across_Google is still accepted in data sources but the program name and UI label are retired). For best practices on improving free-listings performance through data quality, see product feed optimization best practices.

The Shopping Graph that powers free listings has grown from 45 billion product listings (October 2024) to 60 billion as of Google I/O May 2026 (Vidhya Srinivasan, Google I/O 2026). Sundar Pichai at NRF 2026 noted that more than 2 billion of those listings are refreshed every single hour. Free listings feed directly into this index — every approved product becomes a listing Google serves across all eight surfaces listed below. The Shopping feed management work that improves paid Shopping ads (titles, GTINs, image quality, price accuracy) is identical to what improves organic free-listings ranking — the two programs share the same data quality levers.

Free Listings vs Paid Shopping Ads: The Definitive Comparison

The most common framing mistake is to position free listings and Shopping ads as alternatives requiring a choice. They are complementary layers on exactly the same product data, and the correct answer to “free listings vs Shopping ads — which should I choose?” is: both, running in parallel. Neither program uses keyword bidding. Both read the same Merchant Center product data — title, description, GTIN, category, price, availability — and algorithmically match your products to user queries. You optimize by improving the feed, not by building keyword lists. This mechanical identity is why feed quality investment at MB Adv Agency lifts both organic free-listings coverage and paid Shopping performance simultaneously: the data quality levers are the same for both surfaces.

The differences are cost, placement priority, and one prerequisite: free listings are organic (no cost, no Google Ads account required, secondary placement in the Shopping tab, primary in Images, Lens, Maps, YouTube, and Gemini); Shopping ads are CPC-bid via Google Ads (you pay per click, premium top-of-page placement, requires a linked Google Ads account — see how to link Merchant Center with Google Ads). Running only Shopping ads without free listings enabled wastes the organic floor: you pay for premium placement on competitive queries but miss free coverage on long-tail, image-search, and Maps traffic. Running only free listings caps reach to secondary placement. The full-funnel strategy is paid campaigns for the highest-commercial queries plus free listings for the organic surface — both drawing from the same product feed. For the cost breakdown of Shopping ads and how Merchant Center's programs relate to budget, see how much Google Merchant Center costs.

Buy on Google: A Legacy Decoder (Discontinued September 26, 2023)

Buy on Google no longer exists. Merchants who encounter it in older guides and search for it in the Merchant Center UI will not find it — because it was discontinued on September 26, 2023 (US, Search and Shopping tab). There is no enrollment path, no toggle in Merchant Center Next, and no “Buy on Google” add-on. Any current guide describing how to enroll is describing a program that was retired over two years ago.

The complete name chain for the record: Google launched Shopping Actions in 2018 — a checkout-on-Google feature that let shoppers complete purchases without leaving Google, routing transactions through Google's payment infrastructure rather than the merchant's own site. In December 2020 (the same month the free-listings rename happened), Shopping Actions was renamed Buy on Google. On June 29, 2023, Google announced via email to US retailers that Buy on Google would shut down. On September 26, 2023, the shutdown completed. Google’s stated rationale: “support an open ecosystem by connecting shoppers directly with merchants” — meaning all purchase intent now routes to the merchant's own checkout rather than Google's. The full account of the shutdown is documented by Search Engine Land and the Google Ads Developer Blog.

This section exists because “buy on google” still registers as a searched term (50 US monthly searches, Ahrefs June 2026, KD 33), and the absorbed zombie “how-to-enroll-in-the-buy-on-google-program” carried direct traffic from merchants following outdated guides. The id=“buy-on-google” anchor here is the definitive correction — a legacy decoder that tells the reader what happened to the program they read about and why it is not findable in Merchant Center. For a fuller comparison of what Merchant Center does versus what Google Ads does, see Google Merchant Center vs Google Ads.

Local Inventory Ads (LIA): Google Merchant Center’s In-Store Bridge

Local Inventory Ads is the one program in the Merchant Center suite that bridges in-store physical inventory to nearby online shoppers. While all other GMC programs serve catalog-level, geography-agnostic product data, LIA lets physical and omnichannel retailers submit a local product feed (what is on the shelves of each location) and link a Google Business Profile — so when a shopper near one of your stores searches for a product you stock, Google shows them that specific item is available nearby, with one of three pickup modes.

LIA runs as a paid program in 93 countries and as free local product listings in 47 countries (both verified from the primary support page at support.google.com/merchants/answer/14615117 as of 2026-06-30). Prior industry sources cited “80+ countries” for paid LIA and “~45 countries” for free local listings — the live support page lists each country explicitly and the correct counts are 93 and 47 respectively. For omnichannel furniture and home-goods retailers running both a physical showroom and an e-commerce channel, LIA is often the highest-ROI program extension — see our furniture PPC service for the in-store + online Shopping approach.

2026 compliance item — pickup_cost attribute: The pickup_cost attribute becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and EEA countries by September 30, 2026 for any merchant using Local Inventory Ads or free local listings that involve an in-store pickup cost or minimum order value. UK, Swiss, and EEA merchants with LIA enabled should add this attribute to their local product feed before the enforcement deadline. (FeedArmy and other feed management resources document this deadline from Google’s Merchant Center spec update. [Operator review — verify the September 30, 2026 deadline and country scope against current support.google.com/merchants docs before publish.])

Promotions: The Offer-Annotation Add-On

Promotions is the program that adds a “Special offer” annotation below product listings — visible on both free listings and Shopping ads. A shopper sees a clickable callout like “10% off” or “Free shipping on orders over £50” attached to your product card. Clicking it expands the offer details. Promotions run as an add-on through a promotions data source enabled under Settings → Add-ons in Merchant Center Next. The program is active in exactly 13 countries (verified 2026-06-30 from support.google.com/merchants/answer/13422697): Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.

The critical policy risk with promotions: submitting expired, invalid, or misleading offers falls under the Misrepresentation policy as the “untrustworthy promotions” sub-category — triggering an immediate Misrepresentation suspension with no grace period. Every promotion must be real, redeemable at the time of display, and accurately described. Google’s automated promotions extraction from merchant websites is in closed beta (not generally available as of 2026-06-30). Plan for a 12–24 hour review window for promotions submitted via data source before they appear on listings — do not submit a time-sensitive offer at the last minute.

Product Ratings and Google Customer Reviews: Two Distinct Programs

A persistent confusion in Merchant Center documentation is the conflation of product ratings and Google Customer Reviews as a single program. They are entirely separate: different data sources, different enrollments, different placements, different what they rate. Product ratings aggregate star scores on individual product listings; Google Customer Reviews collects store-level seller feedback via a post-purchase survey. Google Customer Reviews is documented as active in 69 countries as of 2026-06-30. No wind-down or discontinuation has been confirmed for either program. Any claim of Google Customer Reviews shutting down is unconfirmed and should not be cited.

Dynamic Remarketing: The Feed-Powered Retargeting Add-On

Dynamic remarketing is a Google Ads add-on that draws from the same Merchant Center product feed to show past visitors the specific products they viewed on your site — personalizing retargeting at scale without requiring a separate feed. A shopper who viewed a specific blue sofa on your site and left without purchasing is served an ad featuring that exact sofa (image, price, title) when they browse the Google Display network or watch YouTube. The feed data that drives free listings and Shopping ads is the same data that powers the dynamic remarketing creative. To enable dynamic remarketing, you link a Google Ads account, enable the dynamic remarketing add-on in Merchant Center, and add the Google remarketing tag (or a GA4 tag with remarketing enabled) to your site. For full setup guidance on linking accounts, see how to link Merchant Center with Google Ads.

Five Misconceptions About Merchant Center Programs — Corrected

1. “Free listings is called Surfaces across Google.” That name was retired in December 2020. The current label is free listings or free product listings. In Merchant Center Next the control lives under Marketing → Marketing methods, not “Destinations” (that label is also retired). The included_destination attribute value moved from Surfaces_across_Google to Free_listings; the legacy value is still accepted in data sources but the program name and UI label are gone. Any guide telling you to “enable Surfaces across Google” is describing an outdated label.

2. “You need a Google Ads account before your products show on Google Shopping.” For paid Shopping ads, yes — a linked Google Ads account is mandatory. For free product listings, no. Free listings are on by default in Merchant Center Next and require only a verified, claimed store with approved products. Merchants run free listings for months before linking Google Ads; the Google Ads account is the gateway to paid reach, not to any Shopping presence at all.

3. “Buy on Google is still available for enrollment.” It is not. Google discontinued Buy on Google on September 26, 2023 (US, Search and Shopping tab). There is no enrollment path, no toggle, and no add-on. The program name chain (Shopping Actions 2018 → Buy on Google December 2020 → discontinued September 26, 2023) is a factual record, not a live offering.

4. “Shopping ads use keywords, and free listings do not.” Neither program uses keywords. Both free listings and Shopping ads match the product feed to user queries algorithmically — Google reads the title, GTIN, description, category, price, and availability attributes and decides which searches to match. Merchants who search for “Shopping ads keywords” expecting to build a keyword list will not find one because there is none. Feed quality (titles, GTINs, image resolution, price accuracy) is the optimization lever for both surfaces.

5. “Google Customer Reviews is winding down / being discontinued.” This claim is unconfirmed. Google Customer Reviews is documented as active in 69 countries with no sunset language anywhere on the support pages as of 2026-06-30. The only 2026 Google Merchant Center sunset is the Content API for Shopping (replaced by Merchant API v1 GA August 2025; Content API shutdown August 18, 2026) — a developer API entirely unrelated to the customer reviews feature. Do not conflate the two, and do not cite any claim of Google Customer Reviews discontinuation.

Search Demand and the Two 301-Risk Anchors in This Cluster

This pillar absorbs seven pages from the google-merchant-center cluster. The GSC footprint before consolidation is dominated by two zombie pages: how-to-enable-free-listings-in-google-merchant-center (2,061 impressions over 90 days, position 17.47, top keyword “free listing google shopping”) and difference-between-free-listings-and-paid-shopping-ads (660 impressions, position 12.01, top keyword “product listing ads vs google shopping”). Together: 2,721 impressions and zero clicks — thin-content pages that surface but do not satisfy. The id=“free-listings” and id=“free-vs-paid” sections above are the load-bearing anchors that absorb both footprints. Rollback-watch “free listing google shopping” and bare “free listing” for 7–14 days after 301 redirects go live.

Ahrefs head terms in this cluster: “local inventory ads” (150 US monthly, KD 0, CPC $0.35) is the highest-volume entry and the lowest-difficulty ranking opportunity. “Buy on google” (50 US monthly, KD 33) continues to generate searches from merchants who encountered it in older guides — the id=“buy-on-google” section is the definitive correction for that search intent. Source: Ahrefs keywords-explorer, US, June 2026 (data JSON, 2026-06-30).

How to Enable and Maximize Merchant Center Programs

The setup sequence for Merchant Center programs follows a natural dependency order: the free organic baseline first, then paid amplification, then add-on annotation layers.

1. Verify free listings are on (Marketing → Marketing methods). This is the first check in any Merchant Center audit at MB Adv Agency. The toggle is on by default for new Merchant Center Next accounts, but it can be inadvertently disabled. Confirm it is active before spending budget on Shopping ads — you are leaving free organic impressions on the table otherwise. No Google Ads account needed. Source: support.google.com/merchants/answer/13889434.
2. For in-store inventory, enable Local Inventory Ads. Submit a local product feed with your in-store inventory data, link a Google Business Profile, and enable the LIA program in Merchant Center. For paid LIA you also need a linked Google Ads account. UK, Switzerland, and EEA merchants must add the pickup_cost attribute before September 30, 2026. Source: support.google.com/merchants/answer/14615117.
3. For promotions, enable the promotions data source under Settings → Add-ons. Build offers that comply with the Misrepresentation policy — every promotion must be real, redeemable, and accurately described at the time of display. Allow 12–24 hours for review. Available in 13 countries.
4. For product ratings, submit a product reviews feed. A minimum of 50 reviews across your catalog is required for stars to display. Every review must include a review_id (required since July 8, 2024). Stars appear on both Shopping ads and free listings.
5. For paid Shopping ads, Performance Max, and dynamic remarketing, link a Google Ads account. See how to link Merchant Center with Google Ads. Then enable the dynamic remarketing add-on (Settings → Add-ons) and add the Google remarketing tag to your site. The existing product feed powers dynamic remarketing — no separate feed is required.

The highest-leverage action in this sequence for most merchants: investing in Shopping feed quality before scaling paid campaigns. Feed quality is the shared lever for free listings and Shopping ads — it lifts organic coverage and paid performance from the same data work. For a broader ecommerce paid-media strategy layered on top of this organic baseline, see our ecommerce PPC agency service.

The commercial landscape these programs operate in is large and growing. Sundar Pichai at NRF 2026 (January 11, 2026) stated: “It has over 50 billion product listings, including inventory, prices and reviews. More than 2 billion of those listings are refreshed every single hour.” (Google Blog, NRF 2026 remarks.) By Google I/O May 2026, the Shopping Graph had grown to 60 billion products. Free listings feed directly into this index — every approved product in a merchant’s Merchant Center data source becomes a listing Google serves to matching searches across all eight surfaces. The scale of the organic reach available through the free-listings program is not marginal: it is the same index that powers Google’s entire Shopping ecosystem, and it is accessible to any merchant with an approved Merchant Center account at zero CPC cost.

The Google Shopping Graph: Scale Behind the Free Listings Program

Free product listings draw from and feed into the Google Shopping Graph — the index of product listings that powers Google’s entire commerce infrastructure. Three sourced milestones document the scale of this index:

• October 2024: 45 billion product listings — Google Blog, “Google Shopping AI Update,” October 15, 2024 (exact quote: “the 45 billion product listings in Google’s Shopping Graph”)
• January 2026 (NRF): 50 billion product listings plus more than 2 billion refreshed every hour — Sundar Pichai, NRF 2026 remarks, January 11, 2026
• May 2026 (Google I/O): 60 billion products — Vidhya Srinivasan, Google I/O May 2026

Every approved product in a merchant’s Merchant Center data source enters this index. The 2 billion/hour refresh rate reflects the freshness infrastructure underlying price and availability accuracy across all Shopping surfaces. This scale also explains why neither free listings nor Shopping ads use keyword bidding: at 60 billion listings, Google’s matching algorithm operates at a depth no keyword list could replicate. Feed quality — accurate titles, confirmed GTINs, current pricing, high-resolution images — is the lever that determines where in the ranking your products surface across all eight Google surfaces.

Google Merchant Center Programs: FAQ

Methodology

This pillar consolidates seven absorbed pages from the google-merchant-center cluster: the programs overview page (the pillar slug itself, updated in place), how-to-enable-free-listings-in-google-merchant-center (2,061 GSC impressions, position 17.47 — the id=“free-listings” section carries this footprint), difference-between-free-listings-and-paid-shopping-ads (660 impressions, position 12.01 — id=“free-vs-paid” carries this footprint), shopping-ads-vs-free-listings-which-should-you-choose (0 clicks, folds into free-vs-paid), how-to-enroll-in-the-buy-on-google-program (0 impressions; id=“buy-on-google” is the legacy decoder), submitting-promotions-and-offers-in-merchant-center (0 impressions; absorbed into the promotions section), and what-is-the-local-inventory-ads-program (26 impressions; id=“local-inventory-ads” carries this footprint).

All program statuses, country counts, dates, and requirements are sourced from official Google Merchant Center documentation (support.google.com/merchants) and named third-party sources (Search Engine Land, Google Ads Developer Blog, Google Blog), web-verified against live pages on 2026-06-30. Key corrections applied from the enrichment file: paid LIA is available in 93 countries (not “80+”); free local listings are in 47 countries (not “~45”); promotions are available in exactly 13 named countries; Google Customer Reviews is confirmed active in 69 countries. No mbadv client metrics appear anywhere in this pillar — all agency POV is qualitative. Shopping CPC benchmarks are not included here; see the cost pillar for that data. Our Shopping feed management team uses the free-listings toggle check and LIA program audit as standard steps in every new Merchant Center engagement.