Feed label support added to datafeeds service in Content API for Shopping

On September 22, 2022, we updated you on changes to country targeting for shopping products, and how to use the feedLabel field. We’ve made additional changes to help you integrate feedLabel. Here are our previous announcements:

• Country targeting update for products in Content API for Shopping and Google Ads API.
• Feed label replaces target country in Content API for Shopping.
• Country targeting in Shopping Ads campaigns is changing in August 2022.

What’s new
Merchant Center & Content API
As of November 8th, 2022 we’ve added the ability to manage feedLabel for datafeeds. The feedLabel field is now available in the following resources:

• products
• datafeeds
• DatafeedStatus

You can now see which countries a datafeed explicitly targets in datafeedtarget. This applies when you use feedLabel instead of country in the datafeedtarget configuration.

We’ve also added the targetCountries field for datafeeds, so you can configure targeting for datafeeds directly. You can still configure targeting outside the feed, for example, by setting the shipping attribute of the products resource.

Note: You can’t manage Primary and Supplemental API feeds with the datafeeds service. You need to use the Merchant Center UI.

Behavior changes
Here’s a clarification of new API behavior for feedLabel:

Insert and update
You can now call Products.insert and Products.update with a feedLabel set to any valid string, for example “WINTERPRODUCTS”.

You can now use feedLabel without setting targetCountry during insertion and updates. Errors that used to warn of this requirement have been removed.

If you use both feedLabel and targetCountry in these calls, their values must be the same.

See Use feed labels to advertise products from specific feeds for the definition of a valid string for feedLabel.

Targeting
If you don’t use targetCountry for products, you must either set the shipping attribute of the products resource, or use the targetCountries field for the datafeeds resource to ensure your products target the chosen countries.

Opt out of receiving products and datafeeds without a country
If you’re concerned your codebase cannot handle products and datafeeds without a country, and you want to opt out of receiving them via the Content API for Shopping, fill out the following form: Feed label replaces target country in the Content API for Shopping - temporary exemption.

When you’re ready to support feedLabel, you can opt back in to receiving these offers.

If you have any questions about this change, please visit the Content API for Shopping forum.
Ian Ballantyne, Content API for Shopping Team