Product videos you submit to Google Merchant Center are currently stuck in “preview processing”, and they never actually play on your listings. This affects both YouTube links and videos hosted on your own website.
Someone in the community spotted this, and that person is Joey Bidner. Joey is a great guy who knows quite a lot about Google Shopping, so when he flags something, I pay attention. I checked it myself, and he was right.
What the issue looks like
In Merchant Center, open a product that has a video attached and you will see the video status sitting in preview processing. It does not move forward.
I checked several accounts to make sure this is not a one-off. Every single one showed the same thing:
- YouTube videos are stuck in preview processing
- Third-party video links (videos hosted on the website itself, not on YouTube) are stuck as well
Then when you search for the product on Google, you can see the video thumbnail on the listing, but there is no video. You cannot click on it and nothing plays. So there is clearly an issue on Google’s side where the videos are not being processed as expected.
The problem is that this looks a little bit weird for shoppers. A thumbnail that suggests a video, but no video behind it, is not a great experience on your product listing.
Please report it to Google yourself
I have already reported this through the Google community. But I also recommend that you submit feedback directly to Google.
Here is why. When I alone submit feedback, it can take years for Google to resolve an issue, and I want this one fixed much quicker. The more people that report the same problem, the faster Google is likely to act on it. That is my hope, of course.
If you see this issue in your account, sending feedback only takes a minute:
- Log in to Google Merchant Center.
- Click the question mark icon at the top right.
- Choose Send feedback.
- Describe the issue: product videos (YouTube and website-hosted) stuck in preview processing, with only a thumbnail showing on listings.
Thank you, Joey
A big thank you to Joey for highlighting this. It is something that really needs to be resolved, and the sooner Google hears about it from many advertisers, the better.
If you have run into this issue, or you found a workaround, let me know in the Feed Army community. I will update this article as soon as Google fixes it.
Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.