Google Merchant Center has just introduced an exciting new feature, AI-powered product search filters. This update makes it easier for merchants to gain deeper insights into their product data and take smarter action to improve their ad performance.
Here’s everything you need to know about this powerful new tool.
What Is the New “Search for Products” Feature?
When you log into your Google Merchant Center account and navigate to the Products section, you’ll notice a new icon called “Search for Products.”
Clicking this opens a dynamic search experience. Predefined options, written in plain English, help you easily filter and analyze your products.
But this is especially interesting because the system uses AI to create and suggest filters based on written search intent. It’s not just a static search: the filters are intelligently generated and customized to help merchants spot opportunities or issues quickly based on your input.
Some examples of available filters include:
- Manually Added Products: Quickly find products added by hand.
- Products Costing Clicks But Out of Stock: Spot products that drained budget before running out of stock.
- Manually Edited Products Not Showing: Identify manual changes that may have caused visibility issues.
- Visible Products Without Clicks: Highlight listings that are active but not getting traction—ideal for improving titles, images, pricing, or other key attributes.
- High Impressions But Low Clicks: Discover visible but underperforming products, hinting at optimization needs.
Until now, merchants had to set up filters manually. Now, Google’s AI does the heavy lifting for you, suggesting the most relevant filters based on your real-time search sentence.
This saves time and opens up new ways to optimize your product feed, troubleshoot performance issues, and boost your sales and ad efficiency.
Another significant improvement is that when you download filtered data, it now properly respects your filters. A couple of months ago, downloads often exported all data, regardless of the filters applied, making the process inefficient.
Things to Keep in Mind
- Rollout Is Gradual: As with many Google features, the new “Search for Products” tool isn’t available in all accounts yet. It has appeared in Australian Merchant Center accounts but may not yet be live in U.S. or other regions. Expect a gradual rollout.
- AI Works on Your Data: While the AI is powerful, it can only work with your submitted data. Don’t expect it to create insights from unavailable or incomplete information.
- Custom Attribute Potential: The new AI filters could surface even richer insights if you import additional data — such as conversion values from Performance Max campaigns via a supplemental feed. This will be an interesting area to test further.
- Click Potential Clarification: Many merchants misunderstand how “click potential” is calculated. It’s not just about your product titles or descriptions; Google also factors in historical performance data. For a deeper dive, check out our article on Click Potential Insights.