(1) May 14, 2012 -- Google announcement of AdWords policy reviews;
Merchant Impact: All feed items are disapproved for product-ads during Google's review.
(2) May 31, 2012 -- Google announcement of paid shopping ads; Experiments with PLA's;
Merchant Impact: Product-ads begin to show intermixed with listings; Small traffic drop for free ads.
(3) June 7, 2012 -- Google Trusted Stores program announced;
Merchant Impact: Shoppers can view a merchant's shipping performance and customer satisfaction data.
(4) June 28, 2012 -- Single-unit and commercial-offer product-ads increase;
Merchant Impact: Traffic drop for free ads continues; Traffic increase for product-ads.
(5) July 1, 2012 -- Google AdWords policy enforcement begins;
Merchant Impact: Items are dropped and feeds disapproved that do not adhere to AdWords policies.
(6) August 15, 2012 -- Deadline for AdWords discount credits for active Product Search Merchants;
Merchant Impact: Google AdWords will be full price for Google Shopping participants.
(7) October 17, 2012 -- Google Shopping composed exclusively of commercial ads;
Merchant Impact: All product traffic from commercial-offers; All listings contain a bid ranking-component.
Definitions:
PLA-- Product Listing Ad -- Google product-ad from merchant submitted feed data;
Single Unit -- Google.com sponsored ad from merchant submitted feed data;
Commercial Offer -- Google Shopping paid listings from merchant submitted feed data;
Product Extension Ad -- Existing Google AdWords text-ad that is augmented with feed data;
Product-ad -- Either a Google Product Listing Ad or a Google Product Extension Ad.
Feed -- A structured list of a merchant's on-hand, in-stock, physical product inventory sent to Google.
Please note: All dates are for U.S. registered feeds and are subject to change by Google.
