Merchant Center now bans dates in promotion titles and Deal Ends leaves beta: fix it before Black Friday

Two Google Merchant Center changes surfaced on Friday, November 13, two weeks before Black Friday.

No more dates in promotion titles. Google's Merchant Center editorial requirements now say promotion titles must not include redemption dates: "Don't include dates in any format. Redemption dates should only be included in their designated fields." A short month abbreviation such as "Jan" is still allowed. The previous version of the help page listed formats like "MM/DD" as acceptable. Search Engine Roundtable reported the change on November 13 after Hana Kobzová of PPC News Feed spotted it. Google hasn't said exactly when the wording changed.

Deal Ends is no longer "experimental." Google also dropped the experimental label from the Deal Ends annotation for Shopping ads, Search Engine Roundtable reported. These automatic labels, such as "3 days left," appear under the price when a promotion or sale price ends within seven days. The help page now lists it as available globally except the EEA, Switzerland, the UK and, newly, India, so US merchants are included. Merchants can't turn it on or off. Google builds it from existing promotion and sale price data.

The Useryze take

Holiday promotions get reviewed in a rush, and a disapproved promotion during Black Friday week means lost sales.

• Audit every scheduled promotion title now. Remove text like "Ends 11/30" and put dates in the start and end date fields. A short month like "Nov" is fine.
• Set accurate end dates on sale prices and promotions. Those dates drive the Deal Ends countdown, and a wrong date shows shoppers the wrong deadline.
• Match your landing pages to the offer: same discount, same end date, so the click turns into a sale. That's the focus of our conversion optimization work.
• Submit early so promotions clear review before Thanksgiving. Our paid media team manages Shopping feeds for local retailers.