How important is color in Google Shopping feed for multi-colored products?

[Manos50]

Some of my products have so many colors. Do I need to put the color in the feed too?

For the example.

If I sell a satchel bag that has an elephant photo on it and has at lease 3-4 colors, but blue is the main color.

Should i set it as "Blue"? I mean it's not that blue, it's pretty colorful.

[Josh_Uebergang]

The attribute is only required for certain product categories like apparel (166). If you have the data there, it's wise to use the value as a means to optimize your feed, increasing impression share and possibly sales. The default rule we use for our Google Ads clients is to fill out as many attributes as possible.

Color guidelines are in Google's FAQ:

• Submit only one attribute per variant. If you provide multiple color attributes for the same variant, only one will be applied. Additional color attributes will be discarded, and you will receive a warning.
• Use the same color in your product data as on your landing page. For example, if you use "Toasted Walnut" on your landing page, then submit that value in your product data. Don’t submit "Brown".

• Submit the color attribute for all products that vary by color. Use this attribute when your product is a variant that’s distinguished by its color (for example, black suede shoes and blue suede shoes), be sure to also submit each variant with the same value for the item group ID [item_group_id] attribute for each variant of the product.

• Include up to 3 colors. If your product is made up of several colors, you can specify 1 primary color followed by up to 2 secondary colors that are each separated by a slash ( / ). For example: Red/Green/Black. Don’t submit multiple colors with a comma ( , ). For example, for a red shoe with green and black accents list:"Red/Green/Black". Don’t combine colors together "RedGreenBlack". Don’t submit multiple colors with a comma ("Red", "Green", "Black". If you use commas when entering colors, only one color will be applied.
• Don’t use a number as a color such as "0 2 4 6 8".
• Don’t use characters that aren’t alphanumeric such as "#fff000".
• Include more than 1 letter and not values such as "R". For Chinese, Japanese, or Korean languages, you can include a single character such as 红.
• Don’t references the product or image such as "see image".
• Don’t include a value that isn’t a color such as "variety", "mens", "womens", "N/A".

For more help with optimizing your feed in Shopify, see this chapter of my book.

[Chrayley]

Why on earth doesn't Shopify just copy the product color info over to the Google feed - or am I missing something here?!

[EmmanuelFlossie]

The free app has limited functionality. As you can imagine, not every app or business can do identical things. However you can add colors in the free app you are using, but only for the main product.

For submitting colors for every variant, use a better app such as: https://apps.shopify.com/multiple-google-shopping-feeds

[Chrayley]

When judging where to stop adding features, I guess Shopify have to strike a balance between doing just enough to attract new users to the shopify platform whilst maximising revenue from apps and developers.

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Submitting variants, however is mandatory if you are submitting variants. Each product that has an item_group_id assigned, must submit unique variant attribute values.

Variant attributes are:

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324463

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324487

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324479

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324410

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324483

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324492

And Item group id: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324507

Make sure to read the policy requirements, to allow you to fully understand and maximize the quality of your data feed.