You can spend thousands of euros optimizing your site, but if your product feed is subpar, you are capping your affiliate sales—especially when it comes to CSS (Comparison Shopping Services) partners and Google Shopping.

Over the years, I've seen that the quality of the feed is directly related to the volume of sales.

If you want your affiliates to drive maximum performance, here are 5 critical feed elements you must verify today:

1️⃣ 𝗘𝗔𝗡/𝗚𝗧𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀 (𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀) Without EAN codes, Google CSS partners cannot match your products properly in the Google Carousel. It’s like sending a shipping package without a barcode. If you want CSS affiliates to drive massive volume, EAN/GTIN codes are non-negotiable.

2️⃣ 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀 (𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿, 𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲, 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱) These are not "nice-to-have" extras; they are search filters. If a user searches for "𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦 42" and your feed lacks color or size data, your products simply won’t show up in their search. Ensure these attributes are populated and mapped correctly.

3️⃣ 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: Low-resolution images, placeholder graphics, or photos with heavy watermarks get flagged and rejected by Google Merchant Center. Make sure your image URLs lead directly to high-quality product photos (preferably on a white background).

4️⃣ 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 (𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 & 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻) In our network, product feeds update three times a day (at 1:00 AM, 8:00 AM, and 4:00 PM). If your website prices or stock levels mismatch the feed data, Google will suspend the ads, and affiliates will waste budgets sending traffic to out-of-stock items. Keep them synchronized.

5️⃣ 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁-𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀 Put the brand, product type, and key identifier (e.g., material or model) in the first 70 characters of the title. Users scan Google search results in milliseconds—if they can’t see what the product is immediately, they will click on a competitor’s ad.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲? In performance marketing, your sales volume is only as good as the data you feed into the system. High-quality data feeds high-quality traffic.