Overview of Merchant Promotions API

Use promotions to showcase special offers for products you sell on Google. Promotions display across different Google properties, including Google Search, Shopping, and Chrome.

When you add Promotions to your products, shoppers see a special offer link, for example "15% off" or "Free shipping". Offer links can increase the appeal of your products and encourage shoppers to make a purchase.

For more information, see Promotion basics.

Prerequisites

Google needs you to provide specific information about your business and products prior to displaying your promotions. You must have the following:

In addition, you must enroll your merchant account in the Promotions program. If you are unsure whether you are already enrolled, check the Merchant Center.

If you are not enrolled, complete the request form. The promotions team will let you know when you are ready to start implementation.

For more information, see Participation criteria and policies.

Create a data source

Use the datasource.create API to create a promotion feed. If an existing Promotion feed is available, use the accounts.dataSources.get method to fetch the name of the data source.

The form of the request is as follows:

POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/datasources/v1beta/accounts/{account}/dataSources

Example

The example shows a typical request and response.

Request:

POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/datasources/v1beta/accounts/123/dataSources {"displayName": "test api feed", "promotionDataSource":{"targetCountry":"US", "contentLanguage":"en"}}

Response:

{
  "name": "accounts/123/dataSources/1000000573361824",
  "dataSourceId": "1000000573361824",
  "displayName": "test api feed",
  "promotionDataSource": {
    "targetCountry": "US",
    "contentLanguage": "en"
  },
  "input": "API"
}

Create promotions

You can use the accounts.promotions.insert method to create or update a promotion. The accounts.promotions.insert method takes a promotions resource and a data source name as input. It returns the new or updated promotion if successful.

Creating a promotion requires the name of the data source.

Google reviews and approves your promotions before distributing them. For more information, see Promotion approval process.

The form of the request:

POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/{parent=accounts/*/}promotions:insert

Study the following sample promotions for reference.

Sample 1: A Local promotion applicable for all products and all stores

POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/accounts/123/promotions:insert

{
  "promotion": {
    "promotionId": "buy_2_get_10_off",
    "contentLanguage": "en",
    "targetCountry": "US",
    "redemptionChannel": [
      "IN_STORE"
    ],
    "attributes": {
      "longTitle": "Buy 2 and get 10$ OFF purchase",
      "productApplicability": "ALL_PRODUCTS",
      "offerType": "NO_CODE",
      "couponValueType": "BUY_M_GET_MONEY_OFF",
      "promotionDisplayTimePeriod": {
        "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
        "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
      },
      "promotionEffectiveTimePeriod": {
        "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
        "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
      },
      "moneyOffAmount": {
        "amountMicros": "1000000",
        "currencyCode": "USD"
      },
      "minimumPurchaseQuantity": 2,
      "storeApplicability": "ALL_STORES",
      "promotionUrl": "http://promotionnew4url.com/",
      "promotionDestinations": [
        "LOCAL_INVENTORY_ADS"
      ],
    }
  },
  "dataSource": "accounts/123/dataSources/1000000573361824"
}

Sample 2: An online promotion applying to selected products with a redemption code

POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/accounts/123/promotions:insert

{
 "promotion": {
   "promotionId": "25_pct_off",
   "contentLanguage": "en",
   "targetCountry": "US",
   "redemptionChannel": [
     "ONLINE"
   ],
   "attributes": {
     "longTitle": "10% off on selected items",
     "productApplicability": "SPECIFIC_PRODUCTS",
     "offerType": "GENERIC_CODE",
     "genericRedemptionCode": "SPRINGSALE",
     "couponValueType": "PERCENT_OFF",
     "promotionDisplayTimePeriod": {
       "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
       "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
     },
     "promotionEffectiveTimePeriod": {
       "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
       "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
     },
     "percentOff": 25,
     "promotionDestinations": [
       "FREE_LISTINGS"
     ],
     "itemIdInclusion": [
       "1499860100",
       "1499860101",
       "1499860102",
       "1499860103",
       "1499860104"
     ],
   }
 },
 "dataSource": "accounts/123/dataSources/1000000573361824"
}

Special notes

After promotion creation, it can take a few minutes for the promotion to show up in the Shopping database.

For a list of promotions-related attributes, see Add structured data attributes.

Before creating and managing promotions, see Promotions best practices.

View promotions

To view a promotion, use accounts.promotions.get. This get is read-only. It requires your merchantId and the ID of the promotion. The get method returns the corresponding promotions resource.

For example:

GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/{name=accounts/*/promotions/*}

Study these samples.

Sample 1: A local promotion

GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/accounts/123/promotions/in_store~en~US~buy_2_get_10_off

{
 "name": "accounts/123/promotions/in_store~en~US~buy_2_get_10_off",
 "promotionId": "buy_2_get_10_off",
 "contentLanguage": "en",
 "targetCountry": "US",
 "redemptionChannel": [
   "IN_STORE"
 ],
 "attributes": {
   "longTitle": "Buy 2 and get 10$ OFF purchase",
   "productApplicability": "ALL_PRODUCTS",
   "offerType": "NO_CODE",
   "couponValueType": "BUY_M_GET_MONEY_OFF",
   "promotionDisplayTimePeriod": {
     "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
     "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
   },
   "promotionEffectiveTimePeriod": {
     "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
     "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
   },
   "moneyOffAmount": {
     "amountMicros": "1000000",
     "currencyCode": "USD"
   },
   "minimumPurchaseQuantity": 2,
   "storeApplicability": "ALL_STORES",
   "promotionUrl": "http://promotionnew4url.com/",
   "promotionDestinations": [
     "LOCAL_INVENTORY_ADS"
   ],
 }
 "dataSource": "accounts/123/dataSources/1000000573361824"
}

Sample 2. An online promotion

GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/accounts/123/promotions/online~en~US~25_pct_off
{
 "name": "accounts/123/promotions/online~en~US~25_pct_off",
 "promotionId": "25_pct_off",
 "contentLanguage": "en",
 "targetCountry": "US",
 "redemptionChannel": [
   "ONLINE"
 ],
 "attributes": {
   "longTitle": "10% off on selected items",
   "productApplicability": "SPECIFIC_PRODUCTS",
   "offerType": "GENERIC_CODE",
   "genericRedemptionCode": "WINTERGIFT",
   "couponValueType": "PERCENT_OFF",
   "promotionDisplayTimePeriod": {
     "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
     "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
   },
   "promotionEffectiveTimePeriod": {
     "startTime": "2024-2-06T00:47:44Z",
     "endTime": "2024-5-06T00:47:44Z"
   },
   "percentOff": 25,
   "promotionDestinations": [
     "FREE_LISTINGS"
   ],
   "itemIdInclusion": [
     "1499860100",
     "1499860101",
     "1499860102",
     "1499860103",
     "1499860104"
   ],
 }
 "dataSource": "accounts/{account}/dataSources/{dataSource}"
}

List promotions

You can use the promotions.list method to view all created promotions.

GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/promotions/v1beta/{parent=accounts/*}/promotions

Promotion status

To see a promotion's status, you can view the promotionStatus attribute returned by promotions.get and promotions.list.

To understand the approval process, see Promotion approval process.

Sample promotion status

The following samples demonstrate the difference between successful and failing requests.

Sample 1. The following response body shows an online promotion that would be rejected due to missing product mapping.

  "promotionStatus": {
    "destinationStatuses": [
      {
        "reportingContext": "FREE_LISTINGS",
        "status": "REJECTED"
      }
    ],
    "itemLevelIssues": [
      {
        "code": "promotion_sku_unmapped",
        "severity": "DISAPPROVED",
        "resolution": "merchant_action",
        "reportingContext": "FREE_LISTINGS",
        "description": "Unmapped",
        "detail": "This promotion couldn't be tested during review because it doesn't apply to any products that are currently in your Products feed",
        "documentation": "https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/2906014",
        "applicableCountries": [
          "US"
        ]
      },
      {
        "code": "promotion_sku_additional_requirements",
        "severity": "DISAPPROVED",
        "resolution": "merchant_action",
        "reportingContext": "FREE_LISTINGS",
        "description": "Promotion conditions not allowed",
        "detail": "This promotion has additional requirements that are not allowed such as requiring customers to verify additional details like phone number or ID before showing the promotion details",
        "documentation": "https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/2906014",
        "applicableCountries": [
          "US"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }

Sample 2. The following response body shows a promotion that is still being evaluated.

  "promotionStatus": {
    "destinationStatuses": [
      {
        "reportingContext": "FREE_LISTINGS",
        "status": "PENDING"
      },
      {
        "destination": "SHOPPING_ADS",
        "status": "PENDING"
      }
    ],
    "itemLevelIssues": []
  }

Sample 3. An approved and live promotion

  "promotionStatus": {
    "destinationStatuses": [
      {
        "reportingContext": "FREE_LISTINGS",
        "status": "LIVE"
      },
      {
        "destination": "SHOPPING_ADS",
        "status": "LIVE"
 }  ],
    "itemLevelIssues": []
  }

Learn more

For more details, see the Promotions Help Center.

To learn about migrating from Content API for Shopping, see Migrate promotions management.