Google Shopping Annotations: Complete Guide to Types, Setup & Price Drop

Google Shopping annotations are labels and badges that appear on your product listings alongside the standard title, image, price, and store name. They include tags like “Sale,” “Price Drop,” “Free Shipping,” and star ratings, and they help your products stand out in search results, improve click-through rates, and give shoppers the extra context they need to buy.

This guide covers every major annotation type, how to add each one to your product feed, how the price drop annotation works, and how custom labels help you manage your campaigns.

What Are Google Shopping Annotations?

Google Shopping annotations are visual badges or text overlays (like “Sale”, “Price Drop”, or “Free Shipping”) that appear directly on your product listings and ads to highlight extra information beyond the basic title and price.

While ad extensions add extra text lines or links via your account settings, annotations are high-visibility labels stamped right onto your product image or search result. They are either triggered automatically by Google (based on your pricing history or performance) or generated when you include specific attributes in your product feed.

List of Google Shopping Annotation Types

Product-Specific Annotations

Sale price: Displays a “Sale” tag with the discounted price in green and the original price in strikethrough. Requires the sale_price attribute in your feed.

Promotion: Shows percentage-off badges, free shipping offers, or special offers like “Buy one get one free.” Requires the percent_off attribute or a promotion set up in Merchant Center.

Product ratings: Displays a 1–5 star rating alongside the total review count. Requires at least 50 reviews submitted via a supported aggregator or directly through Merchant Center.

Product highlights: Shows up to 10 bullet points highlighting key product features (e.g., “16GB RAM,” “512GB SSD”). Requires the product_highlight attribute. Each highlight should be under 150 characters.

Other product attributes: Describes key product characteristics such as material, size, or color.

Merchant Badges

Trusted Store badge: Automatically awarded by Google based on your Shopping experience scorecard performance. Covered in detail below.

Business identity attributes: Available for US-based stores only. Allows merchants to display identity labels such as Women-owned, Black-owned, Veteran-owned, Latino-owned, or Asian-owned.

Shipping and Fulfillment Annotations

Free and fast shipping: Shows a free shipping tag with an estimated delivery time. Requires the shipping attribute (Google Format) and, for delivery time, the transit_time_label attribute.

Shipping speed: Calculates delivery time based on the customer’s location.

Estimated delivery date: Calculated from cut-off time + handling time + transit time. Requires the min_handling_time, max_handling_time, min_transit_time, and max_transit_time attributes under Tax & Shipping.

Return policy: Displays return window and conditions (e.g., “30-day free returns”). Set up in Merchant Center under Shipping and returns > Return policies, and add the return_policy_label attribute in your feed.

Minimum order value: Informs customers of the minimum purchase required before shipping. Add the minimum_purchase_amount attribute in your feed.

Automatic Annotations (No Feed Attributes Required)

Price drop: Applied by Google when your product price drops significantly below its historical average. No attribute needed.

Currency conversion: Automatically converts your listed price to the shopper’s local currency.

Local Product Annotations

Local promotions: Store-specific promotions pulled from your local inventory ads data.

Regional availability and pricing: Shows different prices or availability based on the user’s location. Requires a supplemental regional inventory feed with id and region_id attributes.

Pickup today / curbside pickup: Indicates same-day local pickup availability.

Pickup later: Indicates local pickup availability within a defined service-level window.

On display to order: Indicates a product can be back-ordered at a local store.

How to Add Google Shopping Annotations to Your Feed

You need a product feed file to list products on Google Shopping. Most annotations are added by including specific attributes in that feed. The sections below walk through the most commonly used annotations and how to set them up.

How to Set Up the Google Shopping Sale Price Annotation

The sale price annotation is a visual badge that displays a green discounted price alongside a strikethrough of the original price. It highlights price drops directly on the product image to improve click-through rates.

Component	Requirement
Required Attributes	price and sale_price must be present in the same feed entry.
Price Rule	The sale_price must be strictly lower than the base price.
Policy Compliance	The reduction must represent a genuine discount based on historical pricing.
Optional Control	Use sale_price_effective_date to schedule the start and end of the sale.

To add it via the plugin, please don’t just lower your main price attribute. Google needs both values to display the strike-through correctly. If you use WooCommerce product Feed and your products are already marked as on sale, the plugin will automatically populate the sale_price attribute. You can also add it manually by clicking Add New Attribute and selecting sale_price from the plugin’s list.

Price Drop Annotation

The price drop annotation is one of the automatic Google Shopping annotations that you cannot add manually, and there is no feed attribute for it.

Google tracks the pricing history of your products in the feed. When it detects a significant, sustained price reduction from a previously stable price, it may show a “Price Drop” badge next to your listing. The badge displays the previous price as “Was $X” alongside the new lower price.

What triggers the price drop badge:

• A meaningful decrease from a stable historical price (not just a fluctuating price)
• Consistent pricing history submitted through your feed over time
• Google’s pricing algorithm makes the final determination, there is no guarantee of display even after a genuine reduction

How to keep your price history accurate:

• Submit your feed on a daily schedule so Google has a complete pricing record
• Avoid artificially inflating prices before a sale to manufacture a “drop” Google’s algorithm is designed to detect this
• Keep prices consistent in your feed and on your landing pages

Price drop alerts for shoppers: Google Shopping allows consumers to click a “Track price” button on any product listing to receive email alerts when the price changes. This is a consumer-facing feature built into Google Shopping and is not something merchants configure.

Free and Fast Shipping Annotation

Free shipping is one of the strongest conversion drivers in eCommerce. Displaying it as an annotation lets shoppers see it immediately without clicking through.

How to add it: If your WooCommerce store offers free shipping on any product, CTX Feed will automatically include that in the feed. To add it manually, use the shipping attribute in Google Format. To display the delivery time estimate alongside the free shipping label, add the transit_time_label attribute.

Return Policy Annotation

A visible return policy builds purchase confidence. The annotation displays your return window and conditions (such as “30-day free returns”) directly on your listing.

How to add it:

1. In Google Merchant Center, go to Shipping and returns > Return policies > Add Policy
2. Choose a suggested policy or create a custom one, specifying the return window and eligible product conditions
3. Add the return_policy_label attribute to your feed file to connect the policy to your listings

Promotion Annotation

Promotion annotations display offer badges such as a percentage off, free shipping, or “Special offer” on your ads.

Google supports these promotion types:

• Discounts: Percentage off, buy one get one, cash back, buy one get two percent off
• Free gifts: A free product or gift card included with purchase
• Shipping: Free or reduced-rate shipping

How to add it: For discount promotions, use the percent_off attribute in your feed. You can also set up promotions directly in the Merchant Center under Marketing > Promotions. CTX Feed supports dynamic discounts for WooCommerce stores.

Product Ratings Annotation

Product ratings appear as 1–5 stars alongside the total review count on both paid Shopping ads and free listings.

Eligibility requirements:

• Your store must have at least 50 reviews across all products
• Reviews can be submitted through supported review aggregators or directly through Merchant Center

How to add it: Create a separate product review feed using your WooCommerce review data and upload it to the Merchant Center. CTX Feed provides a Google Product Review Feed template that follows the required format.

Product Highlights Annotation

Product highlights appear as short bullet points beneath your product information, letting shoppers see key features without clicking through.

How to add it: Use the product_highlight attribute in your feed. You can include up to 10 highlights per product, each under 150 characters. Focus on differentiating features like specifications, compatibility, or included accessories rather than generic marketing language.

In CTX Feed, search for product_highlight in the attribute library and map it to the relevant product data from your WooCommerce store.

Trusted Store Badge

The Trusted Store badge is automatically awarded by Google through the Shopping experience scorecard program. It is available to merchants in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

How Google evaluates your store: Google tracks these metrics and rates your performance as “Excellent,” “Comparable,” or “Opportunity” compared to other merchants:

• Shipping speed: How quickly orders are delivered
• Shipping cost: Whether your rates are competitive
• Return window: How generous your return policy is
• Return cost: Whether you offer free or low-cost returns
• Seller rating: Overall customer satisfaction from reviews

Once you meet a defined performance threshold across the required metrics, Google may award the badge. There is no manual application process. Products from stores with the Trusted Store badge tend to receive better visibility and higher click-through rates on the Shopping tab.

Business Identity Annotations (US Only)

US-based stores can add business identity attributes to their Merchant Center account to display small identity icons on product description pages. Available attributes:

• Asian-owned
• Black-owned
• Latino-owned
• Veteran-owned
• Women-owned

To set up: Sign in to Merchant Center > Business information > About your business > Business identity attributes.

These attributes also make your store eligible for Google promotions that highlight businesses with specific identities.

Minimum Order Value Annotation

If your store requires a minimum purchase amount before shipping, this annotation displays that threshold on your listings, helping customers understand shipping conditions before they click.

How to add it: Use the minimum_purchase_amount attribute in CTX Feed or add it manually to your feed file.

Estimated Delivery Date Annotation

The estimated delivery date is calculated from three components: cut-off time (the order deadline for same-day processing), handling time (business days to process before shipping), and transit time (business days for carrier delivery).

How to add it: In CTX Feed, find the handling time and transit time attributes under Tax & Shipping. Set min_handling_time, max_handling_time, min_transit_time, and max_transit_time to reflect your actual fulfillment process.

Currency Conversion Annotation

This is an automatic annotation. Google’s Merchant Center includes a built-in currency converter that automatically displays your prices in the shopper’s local currency. You only need to submit your products with your standard prices Google handles the conversion.

Regional Availability and Pricing

This feature lets you set different prices and availability by region for Shopping ads and free listings.

How to set it up:

1. In Merchant Center, go to Products > Feeds > Supplemental feeds and add a regional inventory feed
2. Configure the feed with id (offer ID) and region_id attributes
3. Update your landing page URLs to accept a region_id parameter
4. In your primary feed, set availability to in_stock with national pricing
5. In your regional feed, set regional overrides for price, sale_price, sale_price_effective_date, or availability

All required attributes are available in CTX Feed’s attribute library.

Google Shopping Custom Labels: Campaign Segmentation

While annotations and badges appear in the front-end shopping results, custom labels work behind the scenes to help you organize your Google Shopping campaigns and control bidding.

Custom labels allow you to tag products with attributes that are not part of the standard feed specification. You can use up to five labels (custom_label_0 through custom_label_4) to group products by any business logic you choose.

Common uses for custom labels:

• By profit margin: Tag products as “high-margin” or “low-margin” to adjust bids accordingly
• By seasonality: Increase bids on seasonal products during relevant periods and pause them off-season
• By performance: Separate top sellers from slow movers to allocate budget more effectively
• By price range: Segment products by price tier for different bidding strategies
• By clearance status: Run specific promotions or reduce bids on clearance inventory

How to add custom labels in CTX Feed: The custom_label_0 through custom_label_4 attributes are available in CTX Feed’s attribute library. You can map them to existing WooCommerce data, such as product tags or categories, or set custom values manually.

Custom labels and annotations work together as a system: labels control your campaign structure and bidding, while annotations influence how your ads appear to shoppers.

Best WooCommerce Product Feed Plugin for Google Shopping

CTX Feed is a WooCommerce product feed plugin built specifically for Google Shopping and multi-channel feed marketing.

The plugin automatically detects WooCommerce sale prices, shipping settings, and product data, and maps them to the correct Google Shopping attributes without manual configuration. It includes all standard and annotation-specific attributes in its library, supports dynamic discounts, offers Google Product Review Feed templates, and includes a scheduled fetch feature so Merchant Center always has your latest pricing and inventory data.

Key Features

• Automatic sale_price population from WooCommerce sale settings
• Shipping and transit time attribute support
• All Google Shopping annotation attributes available in the attribute library
• Custom label support (custom_label_0 through custom_label_4)
• Google Product Review Feed template
• Dynamic discount rules
• Scheduled automatic feed updates

Pricing and plan details are listed on the official CTX Feed website. A free version is available.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Key Takeaways

• Google Shopping annotations are labels that appear on your Shopping ads and free listings, including sale price, price drop, free shipping, product ratings, trusted store badge, and more.
• Most annotations require specific attributes in your product feed (sale_price, shipping, return_policy_label, product_highlight, etc.). A few, including price drop and currency conversion, are applied automatically by Google.
• The price drop annotation is triggered by Google’s pricing history algorithm, not by a feed attribute. Submitting your feed daily with accurate prices gives Google the data it needs.
• Google Shopping price tracking (the “Track price” button) is a consumer-facing feature. Shoppers set it; merchants don’t configure it.
• Sale price annotations require both price and sale_price attributes in the same feed entry to display correctly in Merchant Center.
• Custom labels (custom_label_0 through custom_label_4) work alongside annotations to give you campaign-level control over bidding and segmentation.
• Daily feed updates are the baseline for accurate annotation display, price history tracking, and inventory availability.