The Paid Search Podcast | A Weekly Podcast About Google Ads and Online Marketing

HUGE Changes to Merchant Center (Episode 528)

August 31, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Google has rolled out a big batch of new fields in Merchant Center, and the changes are aimed squarely at how AI and conversational search will match products to queries. The core message: none of the old fundamentals are going away, but the new fields—especially the "conversational attributes"—give advertisers a way to feed the algorithm far richer context than titles and descriptions alone ever could. The catch is that you cannot directly measure the impact of most of these fields, and the payoff is speculative. Even so, the host argues that the shift toward data quality over button-pushing is the real change happening in Google Ads right now.

Images and video: size requirements and new creative layers

The most urgent change is a new image size requirement. Starting January 2027, all product images must be at least 500 by 500 pixels, or they will be disapproved. Google recommends going as large as 1500 by 1500 pixels so images can be used across surfaces like YouTube and connected TV without looking pixelated. The host was worried that larger images would slow down websites, but he checked with his network and was reassured that slowdowns come from poor compression and formatting, not from pixel dimensions. So the practical advice is to ask your web team to update image sizes while making sure they are compressed properly.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:19) **Episode Intro & The Big Theme** - Joey Bidner introduces the episode on a "wack load of updates" to Merchant Center, emphasizing new fields for AI-driven conversational search.
2 (01:33) **Sponsor Break: Opteo** - A brief description of Opteo’s AI chat integration and CPC band tool, with a 28-day free trial offer for listeners.
3 (04:12) **Setting the Stage: What's New vs. What Stays** - Joey clarifies that this episode covers new features only, not the fundamentals of feed optimization, which remain unchanged and still critical.
4 (06:54) **Image Updates: More is Better, Size Requirements Loom** - Google now allows up to 10 images per product and a new "lifestyle image" field, but a strict 500x500 pixel minimum is coming in January 2027.
5 (10:46) **Video in Merchant Center: A New Frontier** - Google now allows up to 10 videos per product, a new feature for which the impact is currently unmeasurable but is worth investing in.
6 (16:02) **Introducing Conversational Attributes** - Google has released a suite of new fields designed to provide the rich context needed for conversational search, which will also benefit standard text searches.
7 (17:19) **Product Highlight: Steroids for Your Title** - This field allows up to 100 entries of 150 characters each to write sales-focused features and benefits, acting as a powerful extension of the product title.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Guest host Joey Bidner discusses the huge changes in the Google Ads Merchant Center that have recently been released. If you are an e-commerce advertiser looking to get more out of your shopping and Performance Max campaigns this is an important announcement that you need to hear!

Try Opteo for free for 28 days - https://opteo.com/psp

Joey Bidner - https://joeybidner.com/

Chris Schaeffer - http://www.chrisschaeffer.com

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