How to Use Google Product Category To Optimize Sales and Conversions in 2025?

You’ve listed your products on Google Shopping. You’re spending dollars on Google ads. But there are still no bites. Why? Chances are your Google product listing isn’t optimized.

So, where to begin? Of course, a detailed product description and high-quality images are a must. But did you also remember to choose a specific, accurate Google Product Category in the google_product_category field?

This will clearly define where your product belongs within the vast Google taxonomy of products. It’s one of the fastest, easiest ways to match your product listing with shoppers’ search intent. And in this article, we’ll show you all about how to get the most of the Google Product Category attribute.

What is a Google Product Category?

The Google Product Category attribute is used for product categorization. This determines how Google Shopping categorizes your product. When creating a product listing on Google Shopping, you can either let Google automatically decide your product’s category, or you can manually assign the right category to your product.

With over50,000 businesseson Google Shopping and85% of all product searches starting on Amazon or Google, it’s impossible to stand out without correctly categorizing your products. Well-categorized products perform better and contribute to a stronger ROAS.

What is the Google taxonomy for products?

The product categories on Google Shopping are based on Google’s product taxonomy. This is a complex hierarchical system that precisely defines products based on categories that narrow down into increasingly specific subcategories.

For example, if you’re selling cooking pots on Google Shopping, your product should be classified within the taxonomy asHome & Garden > Kitchen and dining > CookwareThis categorization ensures that your products show up to people looking for “cooking pots”, and doesn’t appear for people looking for “flower pots,” for example.

How does the Google Product Category attribute work?

When you list a product on Google Shopping feed, Google automatically assigns a category[google_product_category]based on data like the product’s title, descriptions, and GTINs. This enables Google to match your product with search queries.

Since Google Shopping is connected to Google Merchant Centre, which is synced with Google Ads, your Google product category directly affects the performance of your Google ad campaigns too.

Google also allows you to target long-tail keywords, which essentially match your product category. These long-tail keywords can lead to higher conversions and lower bounce rates, because they’re more aligned with specific buyer intent.

For example, someone searching for “men’s performance zip black leather pullover” knows exactly what they want and intend to buy, as opposed to someone searching for “black jacket.”

So, the better and more specific your product category…

• the more organic click-through you’ll get from relevant customer search queries, and
• the better your ad campaigns will perform.

What is the difference between Product Type and Google Product Category?

Not sure what the difference is between Google product type and product category? You’re not alone.

Put simply, “product type” is how you categorize your products yourself, and “product category” is how Google categorizes a product according to its taxonomy.

If you feel Google hasn’t correctly or specifically categorized your product, you can fill in this gap by adding your own product category.

You can use Google’sKeyword Planneror a keyword research tool like Ahrefs to come up with the exact terms customers use when searching for your products.

Why are Google Product Categories important for your products?

On Google Shopping, it is not mandatory for you to categorize all your products. Apart from a few categories like Apparel and Software, you can list (and sell) your products without categorizing your products.

However, adding a specific Google product category brings a lot of major advantages, including:

More sales and conversions

Every business loves high-intent shoppers. They know exactly what they want and they’re ready to buy it ASAP. The more specific your Google product category is, the more high-intent shoppers you’ll attract. This results in higher sales and conversions.

Better return on ad spend

The average CTR of Google Shopping Ads is .86%, which means spending dollars on Google shopping ads is great for traffic and conversions.

Sam Baldwin, Founder of KeyCommerce,explains,“The way that Shopping ads are designed, a customer clicking on it has a pretty good idea of what the product is, and exactly how much it costs, which means there’s a higher chance they’re going to buy it. This is why we see that the conversion rates for Google Shopping campaigns are generally higher than the conversion rates for search campaigns.”

To get maximum clicks on your ad, you need to optimize your Google product category. Imagine, every time someone searches for badminton rackets, your tennis racquet shows up and nobody clicks on your ad.

You can target each product category with a different ad campaign. Set different budgets, target audience, and time duration accordingly. This helps to furtheroptimize your ad spend.

Correct tax is applied on products

Choosing the right Google categories for your products also ensures that the correct tax is applied to your product.

Even within the same category, some products may have lower taxes than others and some products are even exempt from tax in some US states. Similarly, other countries have different tax laws depending on the products.

How to set up Google Product Category?

There are three ways to set up your Google Product category.

• Automatic categorization
• Manual categorization
• Smart categorization

Automatic Google categorization

Since filling the Google category section is optional, you can simply let Google automatically assign your product the right category it assumes based on the product data you provide.

Sounds easy, right?

The problem is: you can't always trust that Google will choose the correct category for your product or be as specific as you like.

For example, if you’re selling “vet-approved cat food,” Google may assign your product toAnimals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Cat Supplies > Cat Food.

But you can manually further specify it and add it toAnimals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Cat Supplies > Cat Food > Prescription Cat Food.

Incorrect classification of your product can lead to,

• Miscalculation of taxes if you’re selling in the US.
• extra fields enforced (especially in Apparel & Accessories, Mobile Phones, or Software categories).
• Less control over your Google ads campaign.

Manual categorization

You can override Google’s automatic product category placement by assigning the right category to your products manually.

The process is simple. Download Google’s product taxonomy, add it to Excel, use the search (ctrl + f) function to quickly find the correct category for your product, and add it to your google_product_category field in your data feed.

Manually categorizing 100s of products is a time-consuming process and can easily result in human errors.

Smart categorization

The #1 organic Google search result is10x more likely to get a clickand gets 27.6% of all clicks.

So, the more optimized your Google product listing is, the more clicks and conversions you’ll get. This is where smart categorization comes in.

With a 98% accuracy rate, AI feed management tools likeChannable automaticallycategorize hundreds of products with precision. Thanks to a powerful machine learning algorithm, tools like Channable match your products on your Google Shopping feed to the most likely product category.

This not only helps you maintain a consistently updated product feed, but also improves your search rankings and gets higher conversions and traffic.

And the learning curve? Almost zero. It’s easy to use and categorizes hundreds of products within minutes. When you create your export feed for a channel, a smart suggestion will directly pop up for each of your products in order to place them in the most logical category.

This is how it looks in Channable:

4 ways to optimize Google product categories to increase conversions
As an eCommerce retailer or digital marketer, your number-one goal is more sales and conversions.

Optimizing your Google product categories can get you more interest, more traffic, and ultimately more sales and conversions, too.

Let’s take a look at 4 simple ways to optimize your Google product categories.

Review all your product categories before hitting publish

Whether Google automatically assigns product categories, or you manually assign them to your products, make sure you review all the product categories once before hitting publish.

Especially if you’re managing a large product portfolio, it’s easy to overlook incorrectly assigned product categories.

Choose the best, most specific, and latest category for your products

Google recommends that you choose the product category that best fits your product’s main function.

For example, while a mobile phone has multiple functions, its main function is as a mobile telephone, so choose the following Google product taxonomy: Electronics / Communications / Telephony / Mobile Phones ID: 267.

Always be as specific and accurate as possible. For example, if you’re selling an unlocked mobile phone or a prepaid mobile phone, add a further level in the product hierarchy and choose the following taxonomy: Electronics / Communications / Telephony / Mobile Phones / Unlocked Mobile Phones.

Choose the latest category. Google translates out-of-date categories to the latest versions, especially when you’re using Google Ads. So, when choosing the product category, make sure you’re using the latest category list to match your products to.

Test different product categories

Suppose you’re selling dog food. You can either assign it to “Dog Food” or “Dog Treats.” Both would work. But which one would get you higher conversions and more traffic?

Test and find out. Compare the results and use the product category that your audience responds to the most.

Match your product details to your landing page

Your target audience searches for a product on Google, and your product shows up. Intrigued, they look at all the product details provided and click on your website. They’re all primed and ready to convert. Your job is to provide them with a seamless shopping experience as soon as they land on your landing page.

How do you do that?

The first step is to make sure your landing page and Google Shopping product details are in sync: from product name and description to price and product category, everything must be the same in both places.

Next, match the product hierarchy on your website’s navigation menu to your Google Shopping Feed. If shoppers are searching for “dog food,” it should be classified the same way in your shop menu similar as it is in Google Shopping. This improves the customer’s shopping experience, which is a must for increasing conversions.

Lastly, make sure your category pages are mobile friendly. Optimize them for speed, user experience, and responsiveness.

Looking for a fast, easy way to optimize Google product categories?

Save time and energy, and start categorizing your Google product categories with Channable.

Our feed management solution helps you organize and optimize your Google product feed data, so you can easily identify top-performing products and categories. Simplify your product feed workflows with Channable so you can boost sales and conversions, get higher ROAS, and automatically keep all your product data up-to-date.

Our solution is unique because we use a tiered process to ensure all products are efficiently and accurately categorized. It makes Google product categorization fast, reliable, and easy.