Glossary · Feeds & Merchant Center
What is a custom label?
Custom labels are five optional attributes — custom_label_0 to custom_label_4 — whose values you invent to group products in Shopping campaigns: best sellers, clearance, high margin, season. They are for segmentation, not description, which is what separates them from categories.
What this comes down to
- There are five, numbered 0 to 4, each holding one value per product.
- Values are your own and invisible to shoppers.
- Use them for business attributes — margin, season — not for what the product is.
- They are commonly set through a supplemental data source.
Category, product type, custom label
| Attribute | Describes | Values |
|---|---|---|
| google_product_category | What the product is, in Google’s terms | Google’s fixed taxonomy |
| product_type | Where it sits in your store | Your own text |
| custom_label_0–4 | How you want to manage it | Your own text |
Keeping the three apart keeps each useful. A category that says “clearance” is invalid; a custom label that repeats the category adds nothing.
Setting them without touching the store
Custom labels change more often than product data — a season ends, a margin shifts — so a supplemental data source keyed by ID is the usual place for them. Google lists adding custom labels among the jobs supplemental sources handle.
Planning the five labels
Give each label number one job and keep it: for example custom_label_0 for margin band, custom_label_1 for season, custom_label_2 for best-seller status. Use a small, fixed vocabulary of values — high, mid, low rather than free descriptions — so campaign groups stay stable when products change. A label that means different things in different products cannot be used to split a campaign. Write the plan down somewhere the whole team can see it, so a new value is added deliberately rather than typed in by whoever edits the sheet next.
Questions
Can I use a custom label for the category?
You can put any text in a custom label, but it will not act as a category. Only google_product_category places the product in Google’s taxonomy.
Do shoppers see custom labels?
No. They exist to organise your campaigns and reporting; they are not shown on product listings.
Sources
Read next
- product_typeAn optional feed attribute holding a category you define yourself — your own taxonomy, written as free text — used to organise bidding and reporting.
- google_product_categoryAn optional product-feed attribute that places a product in Google’s fixed product taxonomy, sent as a numeric category ID or as the full category path.
- Supplemental data sourceA Merchant Center data source that adds or overrides attributes on products already in a primary source, matched by product ID; it cannot add or remove products.
- Google product category vs product_type: what's the differenceOne is Google's fixed taxonomy, the other is your own. They do different jobs, and confusing the two is why feeds end up miscategorised.