The product title is the single most important field in your Google Shopping feed. Google's algorithm uses it as the primary signal for query matching — it's essentially your keyword targeting for Shopping. Unlike text ads where you write headlines for humans, Shopping titles are primarily parsed by machine learning for relevance matching, while also being displayed to humans in the Shopping ad unit. Both audiences matter, but in different ways.
There is no official Google-prescribed title format. But extensive testing across UK ecommerce catalogues has converged on a structure that consistently outperforms alternatives.
The UK Shopping title formula
Brand → Gender/Age → Product type → Key attribute → Colour → UK Size/Specification
Examples:
- Apparel: "Barbour Women's Beaufort Wax Jacket — Navy — UK 12"
- Footwear: "Nike Men's Air Max 270 Trainers — White/Black — UK 9"
- Home: "Le Creuset Round Casserole Dish — Volcanic — 24cm"
- Electronics: "Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones — Black"
- Automotive: "Halfords HD Dash Cam — 1080p — Front & Rear"
The 70-character rule
Google Shopping titles can be up to 150 characters. In practice, mobile Shopping ads display approximately 70 characters before truncation. The first 70 characters of your title are the most important — they're always visible. Anything after character 70 may or may not be shown depending on placement.
Implication: put your most commercially important information in the first 70 characters. For most products, that means Brand + Product type + Key differentiator fits within the visible window. Colour and size at the end are still valuable for query matching even if they're truncated in display.
Test your titles: paste them into a text editor and count characters. If your brand name is long ("Margaret Howell" = 14 characters) and your product type is specific ("Wool Herringbone Tweed Blazer" = 28 characters), you're at 44 characters before any variant attributes — well within the visible window. If your brand is short ("H&M" = 3 characters), you have more space for the product type.
UK-specific considerations
UK sizing: For apparel and footwear, use UK size notation explicitly — "UK 10" not "10", "EU 44" not "44". UK shoppers searching for their size use "UK 10 dress" or "women's size 12" — not bare numbers which could mean US, EU, or UK sizing depending on the product type. This is one of the most commonly missed UK optimisations.
GBP and UK terminology: Shopping titles should reflect how UK buyers actually search. "Trainers" outperforms "sneakers". "Jumper" outperforms "sweater". "Trousers" outperforms "pants". "Autumn" not "fall". These seem obvious but catalogues imported from US sources or international brand databases frequently use US English terms that perform poorly in UK query matching.
VAT-inclusive prices: Your Shopping title doesn't include the price, but the price in your feed must be VAT-inclusive to match what UK consumers see on your website. If your feed shows the ex-VAT price and your website shows VAT-inclusive, you'll get price mismatch disapprovals.
What NOT to put in Shopping titles
- Promotional language ("Sale", "Free shipping", "Best price", "% off") — violates Google Shopping Ads Policies
- All-caps words ("BEST SELLER", "NEW") — suppressed by policy and looks spammy in Shopping results
- Competitor names — policy violation
- Store or website name — wasted characters; your shop name already appears in the Shopping ad unit
- Vague adjectives ("Amazing", "High quality", "Luxury") — no query matching value and may trigger policy review
- Product codes or SKUs — only include if buyers actually search by SKU (which is rare for consumer products)
Applying the formula at scale with Trajekt
Manually rewriting titles for a 10,000-product catalogue is not feasible. Feed rules apply the formula automatically to every product:
These four rules apply to every product on every daily feed refresh. New products added to Shopify or WooCommerce automatically get the formula applied before their first Shopping impression. Your store product names stay exactly as written for website visitors.
Measuring title improvement
Before changing titles, export a baseline: impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversion rate for each product group over the last 30 days. After implementing title rules, allow 2–3 weeks for the improvements to flow through (feed processing plus Shopping index update plus enough data to compare). Compare the same metrics period-over-period.
The most direct signal is impression share: if titles improve query matching, impressions increase before clicks or conversions follow. If impression share stays flat but CTR improves, the titles are showing to the same queries but presenting better. Both are positive — just measuring different aspects of title quality.
Trajekt is a UK-built product feed management platform. Our editorial team covers feed optimisation, Google Shopping strategy, ChatGPT commerce, and ecommerce channel management for UK merchants and agencies.