Are you seeing those frustrating “missing value” errors in your Google Merchant Center for your Shopify store? Don’t worry, it’s a common issue.
At Launchpresso Digital Marketing, we help clients resolve this issue all the time. Getting these values sorted is super important for making sure your products show up for the right shoppers on Google. Let’s learn how to do that.
Understanding Missing Values in Google Merchant Center
If you see “missing values” on your Google Merchant Center dashboard, it means Google is looking for a little more information about your product.
The missing bits of information impact how well your ads do and how many people see them. Common data points Google might be missing include GTIN numbers (like barcodes), important details like size and color for clothing, the Google Product Category, and whether your item is brand new or used.
To fix these, you’ll need to dive into your product data, fill in those blanks accurately, and then update your feed in Merchant Center.
If you’re unsure about what a specific value means, just hover over the little question mark next to the attribute in Merchant Center. Google gives you a handy explanation right there.
2 Ways to Add Missing Values
Here are two ways to add missing gender and age details to your products in Shopify.
The Manual Method
This way involves going into each product and adding the information yourself. Here’s how it works:
- Log in to your Shopify admin and go to “Products”.
2. Pick the product you need to fix (for example, our “Anti-UV Protection Cap”).
3. Scroll down. You won’t see the gender or age fields right away. You need to edit each variant of the product. Click on a variant.
4. When the screen for a single variant opens, scroll down to the “Metafields” section. Click on it, then select the “Show all” button.
5. You should see fields for “Age group” and “Gender”. Click in each box and type in the right value (like “adult,” “infant,” “male,” or “female”).
While this does the job, it can take a while, especially if you have lots of products.
Using the Google & YouTube App (Speedy Solution)
Using the official Google & YouTube app for Shopify is the fastest and easiest way to update these details for lots of products at once.
- Go to the Google & YouTube app in your Shopify admin.
2. Click on “Manage Products”.
3. In the list of your products, you’ll see drop-down menus for “Age group” and “Gender”. You can easily pick the right values for your products right there on the page.
Let’s Walk Through an Example
Let’s quickly look at a product example, a “multifunctional outdoor buckle”. This product is missing gender and age information on our Google Merchant Center.
We’ll go to the app in our Shopify admin. We’ll then use the search bar in the “Manage Products” section to find “multifunctional outdoor buckle”.
If we hover over the yellow boxed “4 errors”, it will show us the issues with the product.
We’ll click on the dropdown and choose the most fitting option. For example, for the age group, “adult” will be the right choice. For gender, even if the picture shows a guy, it’s something anyone can use, so “unisex” is a good choice.
Lastly, we’ll click “Save” in the Google & YouTube app.
💡 After you update missing values in Shopify, Google needs time to check your product feed again. The changes might not show up instantly in Merchant Center.
What if the Google & YouTube App Isn’t Working?
If you’re having trouble using the app for some reason, you can directly edit the info in Google Merchant Center.
- Go to your Google Merchant Center.
- Find the product that has the missing values.
- Click on the product to see its details.
- You should see options to manually add the gender and age group information.
If you toggle on “Advanced”, you’ll be able to see other attributes as well.
We don’t recommend this for a lot of products. It can take a long time and isn’t the best way to manage things in the long run.
Want to Boost Your Shopify Sales?
We’ve put together a handy free PDF packed with tips to help you bump up your average order value on Shopify. You can grab it right here: tips on how to increase your average order value.
And if you’re looking for some extra muscle to grow your business with Google Ads, that’s our jam at Launchpresso. You can check out what we do over here: grow your business with Google Ads.
