One of the main benefits of selling through Google Shopping Actions is the prominent merchant branding featured on Google Express.
Having your brand featured in Google’s online mall is a great way to set it up for mass exposure. People conduct over 3.5 billion searches per day, and through Shopping Actions, Google organically weaves Express results into those everyday searches.
Not to mention, once approved, your brand would join the ranks of Google-approved brands. That includes the likes of Costco, Target, and Best Buy, just to name a few. Few things convey credibility like approval from Google does.
Sounds awesome, right?
Well it is, but Google’s logo requirements are pretty strict.
For some retailers, meeting these requirements will take some extra effort. Some may need to tweak their logo colors, and some may need to simplify and/or alter their logo design.
Google’s Logo Requirements
Because logos differ greatly, Google had to devise a formula that guarantees some form of consistency. Google requires the following for all brands seeking to utilize Google Shopping Actions:
- Logo must be superimposed over solid 768 x 768 px circle
- Logo cannot contain additional text
- Solid circle color must be darker than hex #cccccc
- Background behind circle must be transparent
- Image must be a high resolution PNG or SVG that doesn’t exceed 5 MB
It isn’t too much to consider, especially if your logo was created with certain design principles in mind.
Regardless, preparing your logo for GSA is relatively simple if you have high quality logo assets readily available.
Common Obstacles & Tips To Consider
The most common obstacle when formatting a logo to be GSA compliant is the lack of high quality logo assets to work with.
Without an original Illustrator/Photoshop document or equivalent source, if not at least a high-quality transparent PNG or SVG, it can be a bit troublesome to prepare your logo for GSA.
In a perfect scenario, you would just take your polished transparent logo and overlay it on the circle, tweak the color, and wrap it up.
But that’s not always the case.
If you find yourself limited by a low quality image, you’re going to have to find someone that knows their way around something like Photoshop’s Pen tool and/or Magic Wand tool – and hope that they can pull something decent from your flattened image. Depending on your logo’s level of detail, this can get complicated.
Otherwise, the second most common issue is having a logo that is too complicated for Google’s standards.
Assuming you do have high quality logo assets but your logo is a bit complicated, you may want to tailor what you have and see if Google approves your logo. If it gets rejected, we recommend that you trim off any extra wording and/or extra detail that your logo might have that is not absolutely integral to your branding.
Here are some other tips to consider when formatting your logo:
- There are many colors darker than #cccccc, but your colors may end up conflicting with many background color options. A quick fix is to make a white variant of your logo and then pick a background color that fits your brands color scheme. Every brand can use a white logo variant for one reason or another, this is a perfect example.
- While formatting your logo, you may notice it doesn’t fare too well when enclosed in a circle. Circle backgrounds work excellently with some logos, but can make others look awkward. Also consider your Logo's scalability – this is important for pages like Google Express’ Stores page (pictured above), where logos are shrunken. If your logo doesn't fare well in some scenarios, your logo may benefit from some sort of alteration. Some logos can be simplified to make a much stronger logo. Check out Logo Lab, a nifty web tool created to gauge logo effectiveness.
- There are no set standards for the spacing within the circle background. Ultimately, what you decide to go with depends on your brand's aesthetic – if not just generic design best practices. Let's take a look at the approved stores (pictured above).Target's logo lends itself to a very unique but obvious approach. Then there's Overstock's logo, which is offset and out-of-bounds, but it works because that's the nature of their regular logo. Finally, consider the presentation of Best Buy's Logo. They use far less padding around their logo than many other brands do, and that's also fine. As important as this padding is, there's no explicitly right or wrong way to go about it.
- Google reviews application sections regularly, but average response time seems to be about 24-48 hours... So plan accordingly!
Want an Even Easier Path to Making the Most of Google Shopping Actions?
While Google did their best to make it as easy as possible for companies like yours to begin leveraging Shopping Actions, our platform can take things a step further.
GoDataFeed makes it easy to get on Shopping Actions. We've integrated directly with the platform so you can use your existing GoDataFeed account to connect with your Google Merchant Center.
Contact us to learn more about how GoDataFeed is helping retailers make the most of Google Shopping Actions!
