Google & YouTube

The app is easy to use, but it ended up costing us significant advertising performance.

Our Google Merchant Center feed repeatedly broke and was automatically repopulated. Then, around June 2026, the app migrated our product IDs from the localized `shopify_US_` format to the new `shopify_ZZ_` format. Since Google Ads treats different product IDs as entirely new products, this effectively reset years of product-level performance history and Smart Bidding signals.

Google Ads Support confirmed that there is no automatic mapping between the old and new product IDs, so historical bidding signals and product-level performance cannot be transferred after the IDs change. They also advised ensuring country markets and shipping settings were correctly configured, as this should allow localized IDs (such as `shopify_US_`) to be generated. We verified our market configuration and followed their recommendations, but the app continued generating only `shopify_ZZ_` IDs, with no option to manually restore the original format.

For merchants relying on Performance Max or Shopping campaigns, this is a serious issue because stable product IDs are critical for maintaining optimization history. The app itself is straightforward to use, but this change cost us considerable time, advertising budget, and campaign performance, with no practical way to recover the historical product IDs.

The app is fine if you only run an online store. But the moment you try using Local Inventory Listings, it becomes a complete rabbit hole.

On the Shopify side everything appears fine, mostly because there is barely any control or visibility into what is actually happening behind the scenes.

Meanwhile Google Merchant Center keeps complaining that there is no local inventory feed configured, even though the Google & YouTube app gives the impression that local inventory is supported. Eventually Merchant Center starts threatening suspension warnings.

Then starts the endless cycle with Google support. Most support agents do not seem to understand how the Shopify Google & YouTube app actually works with Merchant Center. Replies are mostly copied templates, and every response takes days. After 2 weeks you usually get an answer that does not solve anything, and then you start the whole process again from scratch.

What makes it worse is that almost every app that actually handles local inventory feeds properly is paid.

It is honestly disappointing that Google created an official Shopify app for navigating their already confusing Merchant Center ecosystem, but only implemented half the functionality needed for physical retail stores.

ruim

Totally annoying and unclear

I can only rate 2 stars so far. I just started using populated store but no sales have happened so not sure of the advantage yet or if there will be one.

koppeling is lastig al paar keer gedaan maar hij blijft zeggen dat ik moet koppelen, is frustrerend, verder moet ik de profijten ervan nog zien

The Google & YouTube app for Shopify works well for basic setup, but there is a major limitation with enhanced conversions and Google Ads tracking.

The conversion value sent to Google Ads includes only the product subtotal and does not include shipping and tax. Because of this, the actual order value is underreported, which results in a lower ROAS in Google Ads, especially for stores with higher shipping or tax amounts.

There is currently no clear option in the app to switch conversion value from subtotal to total order value. This creates confusion for advertisers who rely on accurate revenue tracking and ROAS optimization.

The app is good for beginners, but advanced advertisers will need GA4 or GTM workarounds to track the real total purchase value.

It would be great if Google adds an option to include shipping + tax in conversion value or clearly documents this limitation inside the app.

Great idea, but the local feed partnership files doesn't clear old products, and also if you clear it, never rebuilds with exisitng products. No way to trigger a full sync etc.

App was easy enough to set up - but once completed the 'customer events' app pixel still says 'disconnected' when every part of the app set up has been complete and they all say 'connected' because of this we went 12 hours with no data running from our store to Google ads/analytics etc.

No explanation or help on how to get the app pixel to 'connect'

Yes, it's easy to install. BUT it doesnt report the transactions correctly, have noticed duplicate transactions on many occasions. I've disabled the app and using another app to better manage analytics..