Product type is the feed attribute, written as product_type in a spreadsheet feed or as the tag g colon product_type in an XML feed, that carries a merchant's own category path for an item, as opposed to Google's fixed classification captured in google_product_category. It's free text, typically formatted as a breadcrumb from broadest to narrowest category separated by greater-than signs, something like Home, then Kitchen, then Cookware, then Skillets, and unlike Google's taxonomy nothing constrains the values beyond a length limit, so it can mirror a site's actual navigation exactly. A single item can also carry more than one product_type value, letting a merchant represent it under several internal hierarchies at once.

Why Product Type Matters

Shopping campaigns are commonly structured around product_type rather than Google's own taxonomy, because a merchant's internal categories usually map much more directly to how they actually want to allocate budget — a "Clearance" or "Premium Line" breadcrumb, for instance, has no equivalent anywhere in google_product_category. When product_type is missing or inconsistent, campaign structures built on it collapse into a catch-all bucket, and every product inside that bucket ends up sharing one bid regardless of how differently it actually performs. The field also matters downstream of advertising: business rules engines inside a feed platform frequently branch on product_type to apply category-specific transformations, like trimming titles differently for electronics versus apparel, so an inconsistent value silently breaks automation that has nothing to do with Google at all.

How Product Type Works

The field accepts up to 750 characters, and a merchant can submit multiple product_type values on the same item — commonly one per level of hierarchy the merchant wants to expose or one per navigation path if the same product appears in more than one place on the storefront. Google does not validate the string against any external list the way it does with google product category, so there's no risk of an "invalid category" rejection, but there's also no safety net catching typos or inconsistent naming across a large catalog. Best practice is to keep the value identical to the breadcrumb trail already used on the storefront, since that guarantees it stays meaningful without requiring separate maintenance. It's also worth keeping it distinct in purpose from custom labels: product_type describes where an item sits in a category hierarchy, while custom labels tag arbitrary business attributes that have nothing to do with hierarchy at all, like margin tier or seasonality.

Example

<item>
  <g:id>SKU-88213</g:id>
  <title>Cast Iron Skillet 12-Inch, Pre-Seasoned</title>
  <link>https://example-shop.com/products/cast-iron-skillet-12in</link>
  <g:price>39.99 USD</g:price>
  <g:availability>in stock</g:availability>
  <g:google_product_category><![CDATA[Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Cookware > Skillets]]></g:google_product_category>
  <g:product_type><![CDATA[Home > Kitchen > Cookware > Skillets]]></g:product_type>
  <g:product_type><![CDATA[Best Sellers > Kitchen Essentials]]></g:product_type>
</item>

The two g:product_type values here place the same skillet in the merchant's normal navigation and in a promotional collection simultaneously, something google_product_category's single fixed value could never do on its own.

Related Concepts

Product type works best as a complement to google_product_category rather than a substitute for it: the Google taxonomy handles the classification Google itself needs for policy and matching, while product_type carries whatever internal structure actually drives a merchant's own campaign segmentation and feed rules. Custom labels usually sit one layer further down, tagging individual products with attributes that don't belong in either hierarchy. Merchants building out this layering for the first time can find a fuller comparison of the Google-side taxonomy in Navigating Google Product Categories: A Must-Read for Ecommerce Success.