In this introductory video on Google Merchant Center’s Attribute Rules, formerly known as Feed Rules, you will learn the essentials of setting up and utilizing attribute rules for data management within the platform. In this video, I will explain that these rules allow users to adjust product information in a data source, making it easier to respond to urgent needs, such as product promotions or title updates.

Once activated, attribute rules can be applied at the data source level, helping users to target specific changes to individual products or product groups. I walk through when to use attribute rules, and warn that relying heavily on them can lead to complications in managing and tracking changes across various data sources, including supplemental sources and the core data feed.

We'll spend the second half of the video looking at a common use case for attribute rules: setting up a promotion ID rule. We'll also see how, through conditional logic, attribute rules can prioritize data sources, ensuring Google Merchant Center pulls data in the correct sequence between all your supplemental sources.

By following this video, users gain a foundational understanding of how to set up simple attribute rules for ease of management.

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Video Transcript: 
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[00:00:02.04]
- Hey, welcome to another episode

[00:00:03.07]
of Merchant Center Mastery.

[00:00:05.07]
Today we're gonna be

talking attribute rules.

[00:00:07.06]
These used to be called

Feed Rules in Google

[00:00:10.02]
Merchant Center Classic.

[00:00:11.07]
Now they're called

Attribute rules in Next.

[00:00:15.05]
So this is going to be

one of two, maybe three

[00:00:19.08]
or so videos I'm gonna

do on attribute rules.

[00:00:23.01]
I decided to break them up into more

[00:00:25.00]
of like a beginner video

and more complex videos

[00:00:28.08]
because attribute rules

are kind of as simple

[00:00:31.08]
or complex as you want to make them.

[00:00:33.09]
And so in this first intro

introduction beginner,

[00:00:37.04]
we're just gonna go through the basics

[00:00:39.00]
of setting up an attribute rule.

[00:00:40.06]
And, and just like a simple one,

[00:00:42.01]
we'll walk you through that.

[00:00:44.01]
So the first thing to realize is

[00:00:46.07]
that attribute rules

are in your data source.

[00:00:49.08]
And, and again, let me just

once again say attribute rules

[00:00:53.00]
used to be called feed rules.

[00:00:54.03]
Remember, it's a quick reminder.

[00:00:55.09]
Google Merch Center has

just kind of been trying

[00:00:58.04]
to delete the word feed

from everywhere that it can.

[00:01:01.00]
...That's really funny

[00:01:02.01]
because now there's the feed

label that's gonna go away.

[00:01:04.09]
At some point it's gonna

say source label, right?

[00:01:07.09]
So as also as a very

quick reminder in order

[00:01:12.00]
to actually turn on

attribute rules, if you go in

[00:01:15.07]
and you've never done any

sort of attribute rule,

[00:01:18.05]
you actually have to turn that on

[00:01:19.08]
and it's gonna be in add-ons.

[00:01:21.09]
It's super quick so I can show you.

[00:01:23.01]
And then, and then you're

gonna see this here.

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I've already have it

turned on in this one,

[00:01:27.01]
it's called Advanced

Data Source Management.

[00:01:29.01]
And you're gonna go

ahead and turn that on.

[00:01:30.05]
That'll be in your discover tab.

[00:01:31.08]
If you've never turned that

on, once you turn on advanced

[00:01:34.08]
data source management, then

it will actually show you.

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That's also how you turn

on supplemental sources.

[00:01:41.02]
We did a video on that used

to be supplemental feeds.

[00:01:44.09]
And then that's how you

do your attribute rules.

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Now your attribute rules are assigned per,

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I wanna keep saying feed per data source.

[00:01:55.05]
So let's say I had like three

different data sources here.

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Your attribute rules for

those will only be assigned to

[00:02:02.00]
that specific source.

[00:02:03.05]
So what you have to do is you

have to click onto that source

[00:02:06.03]
and that's when your

attribute rules are visible.

[00:02:11.01]
So we're gonna go and click into that.

[00:02:13.05]
Now, the basics of attribute

rules are they are,

[00:02:17.01]
they are simplistic rules.

[00:02:20.06]
They're, you're not

supposed to define things

[00:02:22.01]
by the, by the word, right?

[00:02:23.07]
But they're, they're these,

[00:02:24.09]
there're these simplistic

entities for making changes

[00:02:28.09]
to making edits to the

data within your feed

[00:02:33.05]
or your data source.

[00:02:35.02]
The thing with attribute

rules, I've talked about this

[00:02:37.00]
before, I'm not a huge fan of using them

[00:02:39.06]
unless it's absolutely necessary.

[00:02:41.04]
It's an emergency. It's very quick.

[00:02:43.09]
One of the reasons being

[00:02:45.00]
by the time you change things

in supplemental sources

[00:02:48.01]
and attribute rules and

individual product edits

[00:02:50.08]
and you change it in

your core source thing

[00:02:52.06]
and Google's finding

things on your website

[00:02:54.05]
and changing things,

then you have like five

[00:02:56.04]
or six different ways that your feed your

[00:02:59.06]
information can be edited.

[00:03:01.03]
And if you ever have issues with that,

[00:03:02.09]
like you see something in

a title you need to change,

[00:03:04.09]
you can really get into

trouble just trying

[00:03:06.04]
to track down where that is.

[00:03:08.02]
So I like keeping things

as much as possible pushed

[00:03:10.03]
to my main primary source so I can keep

[00:03:13.04]
that as clean as possible.

[00:03:15.03]
One of the things with

attribute rules though,

[00:03:17.07]
is it can be a very easy way

[00:03:19.03]
of immediately implementing something.

[00:03:21.03]
This can be very helpful.

[00:03:22.06]
Let's say in like product

suspensions, you know,

[00:03:26.05]
there are different things for it.

[00:03:27.07]
One of the ways we like

to use attribute rules is

[00:03:30.02]
for creating promotion

IDs or even custom labels.

[00:03:34.04]
So let's, let's walk

through kind of like how

[00:03:38.02]
to set up an attribute rule.

[00:03:40.02]
This will be more of a simplistic one.

[00:03:42.08]
So as I've said,

[00:03:44.04]
I think I said this in my

supplemental source video,

[00:03:46.04]
if you have more complex

things you want to change,

[00:03:49.02]
either change it in your product source,

[00:03:50.07]
(your main product source) or

just use a supplemental source.

[00:03:53.06]
I'm a big fan of those

'cause you can easily see

[00:03:55.06]
what data you're changing.

[00:03:57.07]
Now if you have an edit

where there's a fairly easy

[00:04:01.09]
to follow rule

[00:04:03.01]
and we'll talk about

that, then that can be

[00:04:04.09]
where an attribute rule comes in.

[00:04:06.09]
Now, one of the things to

keep in mind is there's kind

[00:04:09.02]
of always this like default rule.

[00:04:11.02]
That's an attribute rule that

you're gonna see in there.

[00:04:13.02]
And this is like you're telling

Google Merchant Center next

[00:04:17.00]
how to pull your data.

[00:04:19.02]
And so you'll see this near,

[00:04:21.05]
especially if you have

like supplemental sources.

[00:04:23.02]
But what you're telling Google

here is, hey, pull from,

[00:04:28.03]
you know, pull from the

supplemental source three, if

[00:04:30.09]
that attribution has no value,

then pull from custom labels.

[00:04:34.05]
So supplemental source

[00:04:35.07]
and then if that pull from

product source two, right?

[00:04:39.04]
If you don't have any supplemental

sources, this will just,

[00:04:41.07]
you know, pull from

the core source,

[00:04:45.02]
which is this Product source two is, yeah,

[00:04:50.00]
see we're in, remember

remember we clicked through

[00:04:52.00]
that data source, oh, Google

[00:04:55.06]
killed me with that back button.

[00:04:57.01]
So this is our core source

in this account, if you will.

[00:05:00.01]
It's a Google sheet. This is

called Product source two.

[00:05:03.02]
I should rename that for

simplicity on these videos.

[00:05:07.01]
But, so this is saying, hey, go first

[00:05:09.05]
to the supplemental source

three fee supplement,

[00:05:12.06]
supplemental source, supplemental feed.

[00:05:14.05]
It gets complex, right?

[00:05:16.02]
Go first here if, and then go here

[00:05:19.08]
and then finally go here.

[00:05:21.03]
So this, so this is in

terms of priority, this is,

[00:05:25.04]
this is gonna be your most recent,

[00:05:27.09]
this is gonna be your most recent source.

[00:05:29.03]
And you can change these by the way.

[00:05:31.00]
So you can, you can move those around so

[00:05:33.03]
that whatever you want

as your top level, that,

[00:05:36.05]
that's gonna be the final one

[00:05:37.07]
that Google pulls from to edit that.

[00:05:39.04]
So let's say these were all editing.

[00:05:41.03]
Let's say all of these are

sending a different value

[00:05:43.03]
for custom label three.

[00:05:45.00]
Let's say this is custom label three,

[00:05:45.08]
this is custom label three.

[00:05:48.05]
At the end of the day, when this,

[00:05:49.07]
when the final thing gets

pushed, it's gonna be this,

[00:05:52.01]
it's gonna be whatever,

whatever this one is.

[00:05:53.09]
'cause that's the, that's

the most recent in this rule.

[00:05:57.07]
And we, we talked about that briefly,

[00:05:59.02]
but with supplemental sources,

[00:06:00.06]
what you could do is remove it from here

[00:06:04.09]
and then, and then,

[00:06:07.08]
and you can see this when

you save it as a draft now,

[00:06:10.00]
now it's gonna say, Hey,

[00:06:11.00]
no longer look at

supplemental source three.

[00:06:14.00]
So if I did that,

[00:06:15.05]
we could leave supplemental

source three in there.

[00:06:20.05]
We, whoops, I did the wrong thing.

[00:06:22.01]
Sorry, I did update instead

of applying so we could leave.

[00:06:25.04]
Oh, I updated the feed, right?

[00:06:28.00]
So now if we go to supplemental

source, check this out.

[00:06:30.02]
So supplemental source three, once,

[00:06:33.03]
once this fully processes,

[00:06:35.00]
it usually takes a couple minutes,

[00:06:37.02]
but once it processes, this

is gonna say none right here

[00:06:41.01]
as well because we just removed

it from that attribute rule.

[00:06:45.08]
But that's really important. Like I said,

[00:06:47.01]
it takes a couple minutes,

but that's really important

[00:06:49.01]
to understand just like

[00:06:52.03]
that attribute rule is always there.

[00:06:55.07]
That's always there.

[00:06:56.05]
So let's get into some

[00:06:59.09]
other attribute rule stuff.

[00:07:01.01]
So, so let's say, let's say we want

[00:07:05.07]
to, let's say that we want

[00:07:10.02]
to take all products.

[00:07:12.01]
This can be a little tricky in mine

[00:07:13.04]
'cause I only have one product,

[00:07:15.02]
but we can still, you know,

we can still give you,

[00:07:17.05]
we can still give you some, some,

[00:07:19.07]
you know, information and options.

[00:07:21.04]
So there's, there's a couple things.

[00:07:24.01]
Like let's say, I'm trying

to think of a good example

[00:07:26.05]
of when, you know, a

client will come to us

[00:07:28.02]
that will actually use an attribute rule.

[00:07:30.03]
A lot of times it, it is

like a promotion, let's say.

[00:07:32.08]
So let's say a client is like, hey,

[00:07:37.09]
all of the product type,

all of the product type for

[00:07:43.02]
Lego Star Wars are gonna

be on sale for 20%,

[00:07:47.03]
20% off, right?

[00:07:48.06]
So here's where we might

just quick hop in there.

[00:07:51.06]
And again, I understand

actually, you know,

[00:07:53.09]
we talked about this

within the promotional,

[00:07:55.09]
within the promotions, there's

a way to actually do that

[00:07:58.06]
where you just target the,

the you, you actually target

[00:08:03.05]
a specific product type for promotion.

[00:08:05.06]
Pretend that doesn't exist, okay?

[00:08:08.07]
So we are going to go into

attribute rules, we're gonna go

[00:08:13.06]
and what so this is

... attribute rule.

[00:08:16.03]
This is for the rule, sorry,

this is for the attribute

[00:08:20.06]
that you want to actually edit.

[00:08:23.07]
So that's what you're doing

here.

[00:08:24.05]
You're doing the attribute

[00:08:25.04]
that you want to edit.

[00:08:26.09]
So let's say we said promotion id,

[00:08:30.02]
there it is down there, you can find it.

[00:08:32.02]
So now we're gonna hop

in here to promotion id,

[00:08:34.01]
now we're editing the promotion.

[00:08:35.03]
Id now select when to

replace attribute data.

[00:08:40.04]
If we don't have anything here,

[00:08:42.03]
then it's just always applied.

[00:08:44.01]
And like that's what you do for,

[00:08:45.06]
let's say if you're setting up a rule for

[00:08:47.01]
that supplemental source to

utilize the supplemental source,

[00:08:50.04]
we want to only replace attribute data.

[00:08:54.06]
Remember we said when product

type equals Lego Star Wars.

[00:08:58.00]
So we only want to do,

[00:09:02.03]
we only want to edit the data

[00:09:05.03]
when it matches this product type.

[00:09:08.05]
Now here's where you can,

[00:09:12.00]
you can just add in a

value, you can, you can,

[00:09:14.07]
you can pull like certain

things to say contains X,

[00:09:19.06]
Y, Z, you can do that

with a dynamic thing.

[00:09:22.00]
In this instance, like

we don't want to do that.

[00:09:24.01]
We just wanna say like,

[00:09:25.03]
let's say our product type

is Lego Star Wars, let's say

[00:09:28.09]
that's what it's, although

it, it'd probably be like toys

[00:09:32.06]
and games

[00:09:33.07]
and then building

[00:09:39.00]
blocks and Ricks, how about that?

[00:09:43.01]
And then Lego building Ricks,

[00:09:47.04]
and then Lego Star Wars, it kills me.

[00:09:49.02]
Not capitalizing Lego,

[00:09:50.04]
but there's no cases

[00:09:53.01]
in Ian product type.

[00:09:55.07]
So let's say that was our product type.

[00:09:57.01]
So we're like, hey, hey Google, now only,

[00:10:01.03]
only change the promotion

Id attribute when

[00:10:04.08]
it matches the product type of this.

[00:10:07.02]
All right? So that's one.

[00:10:10.03]
By the way, if, if you're like,

[00:10:12.07]
well also we have a 20%

sale on product type, you,

[00:10:17.04]
you can, you can do that as well.

[00:10:19.00]
That's the, or attribute the,

[00:10:22.03]
and attribute forces it to, to be both

[00:10:26.08]
of these conditions, right?

[00:10:28.08]
And, and I mean this is pretty

common conditional stuff.

[00:10:31.07]
It's conditional logic, right?

[00:10:33.08]
So like if you were like,

hey, oh here's a good example.

[00:10:37.08]
Let's say we also had the brand,

[00:10:41.09]
let's say, let's say that

for the sake of argument,

[00:10:45.08]
let's say that this

company sold both Legos

[00:10:48.04]
and like cheap knockoff Legos.

[00:10:50.05]
Back in the day I

bought a couple of sets

[00:10:53.02]
that were Lepin star Wars.

[00:10:57.08]
There was like this China knockoff,

[00:10:59.03]
I confess I bought two sets

and I haven't bought any since.

[00:11:02.04]
They were kind of crappy.

[00:11:05.06]
But I was like, I can have

the star destroyer instead

[00:11:07.03]
of like $800, I can have it for $120.

[00:11:10.01]
Sure, why don't I try that?

[00:11:12.06]
So anyways, let's say like you have that

[00:11:14.07]
and so you also want to

say, Hey, I don't want

[00:11:17.00]
to give Lepin blocks the sale,

[00:11:21.04]
I just want Lego.

[00:11:22.07]
So then, then you'll do brand

[00:11:24.01]
and then you might, you know, again,

[00:11:26.03]
you could, you could find that value.

[00:11:27.09]
Since we don't have that,

we're just gonna say brand.

[00:11:31.01]
Oops, I'm sorry. This would

be Lego matches. Lego.

[00:11:35.02]
So maybe we'd even say equal.

[00:11:37.07]
So, so in this way what

we're saying is, hey,

[00:11:40.08]
take the promotion.

[00:11:42.02]
Id only apply it to building blocks

[00:11:45.02]
that meet this product

type Lego Star Wars.

[00:11:48.00]
And by the way, only apply it to,

[00:11:51.06]
whoops, that didn't work.

[00:11:54.02]
Only apply it when the

brand also matches Lego.

[00:11:57.06]
So it has to meet both of these or,

[00:12:01.01]
and that's where you can throw

in another attribute, right?

[00:12:03.04]
So it would be this, these

conditions or another condition.

[00:12:08.08]
So, so right now we're applying that.

[00:12:11.06]
And now here's where, and again

this is gonna be the intro.

[00:12:15.05]
So this is just the simplistic one.

[00:12:17.00]
This is the most of the

time you're gonna do this.

[00:12:18.09]
You're gonna say set two

[00:12:21.08]
and you're just gonna

add in the promotion id.

[00:12:24.06]
So here's where here's just the value

[00:12:26.08]
'cause we're editing the promotion id.

[00:12:28.01]
So here's where we might say BFCM 20%

[00:12:32.08]
because I said it, I said it

was a 20, well we'll do 2024,

[00:12:36.02]
so maybe this is their Black

Friday Cyber Monday deal

[00:12:38.06]
and you're prepping this,

you're getting everything ready.

[00:12:41.08]
So now, so we're gonna say, okay,

[00:12:44.07]
so and then we're done.

[00:12:48.00]
So what you, so, so basically

like what you've done

[00:12:52.02]
is you have gone in, you've created this

[00:12:54.01]
for the promotion id, you've

said I only wanted to apply

[00:12:56.07]
to Lego Star Wars that meet,

also meet the brand Lego.

[00:13:00.00]
And once it does, once you find an ID

[00:13:03.04]
that meets those conditions,

now set the promotion ID

[00:13:07.00]
to Black Friday Cyber Monday 2024.

[00:13:09.03]
So that's, that's how it works.

[00:13:10.07]
If it has no value, then by

the way, if it has no value,

[00:13:13.04]
then that's where it's gonna

go through those other,

[00:13:17.01]
the other supplemental source

and then all that, right?

[00:13:19.03]
Then it, then it follows

that conditional logic.

[00:13:21.02]
So, so that's the basic, and,

[00:13:24.01]
and you can, you can show the preview,

[00:13:25.08]
which is kind of good.

[00:13:26.09]
I'm not gonna do that in

my case 'cause like I'm not

[00:13:28.07]
gonna have anything matching.

[00:13:31.02]
And then you can even,

you can save it, make sure

[00:13:33.03]
that it looks good before applying.

[00:13:35.06]
You can, you can test the rules.

[00:13:38.04]
In fact, we'll run that test real quick.

[00:13:40.02]
It's gonna be like, Hey, this didn't work.

[00:13:43.05]
And then once you're ready,

this test may take between,

[00:13:46.08]
I've never seen that before.

[00:13:48.03]
This test may take

between 10 and 20 minutes.

[00:13:51.02]
That's kind of funny. Anyways, it,

[00:13:55.03]
it is especially funny when I

have like one product, like,

[00:13:58.02]
geez, how long is it gonna take?

[00:13:59.08]
So anyways, so then you

would apply these changes

[00:14:02.02]
and then you would be able to see

[00:14:04.03]
that when those conditions are met.

[00:14:06.03]
That is your black Friday, Saturday,

[00:14:08.07]
Monday attribute rule.

[00:14:12.06]
And then if you're running this promotion,

[00:14:15.00]
then you go in once that's set

and you create the promotion.

[00:14:18.01]
So that's how you utilize,

that's one example

[00:14:21.04]
of an attribute rule.

[00:14:24.04]
We'll, we'll go over some,

like more of the more complex

[00:14:28.06]
formats and stuff like

that with attribute rules.

[00:14:30.06]
But that's, that's

probably the most common

[00:14:32.02]
that you're gonna do in

a pinch of, of that sort

[00:14:34.08]
of thing like promotion

Id, something like that.

[00:14:37.01]
Just, you know, just to, again,

just to give you an example,

[00:14:39.02]
another one that we might

do will be like changing up,

[00:14:44.01]
changing up prices or

like, let's say titles.

[00:14:48.01]
So just again, just as a quick

example, we might decide,

[00:14:53.01]
hey, we really want to

test putting, you know,

[00:14:57.06]
a specific text in front of this.

[00:14:59.09]
So let's say we have our

Lego Star Wars products

[00:15:03.06]
and we want to actually put

Lego Star Wars, we wanna,

[00:15:06.09]
we want to prepend that to the title.

[00:15:11.00]
You can do that. That's

a little bit more complex

[00:15:13.00]
and maybe that's part of the

stuff that we'll talk about

[00:15:14.08]
with like adding modifications

and stuff in another time.

[00:15:17.07]
But hopefully this gives you

a very basic conditional logic

[00:15:20.07]
of how to actually create attribute rules.

[00:15:22.09]
Hope that's helpful. As always,

[00:15:24.08]
let me know if you have any

questions in the comments.

[00:15:27.02]
So thank you much.

[00:15:28.00]

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