Google Commerce Manager

Setting up Google Commerce Manager with Google Ads for ecommerce tracking and attribution via Linkrunner.

Overview

Google Merchant Center lets you upload your product catalog so it can appear across Google surfaces such as Search, Shopping, Display, and more. To run Shopping or Performance Max campaigns, you need to link your Merchant Center account to Google Ads and have your products approved. Once that's done, you can start sending ecommerce event data through Linkrunner for proper attribution.

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• A Google Ads account set up and linked to Linkrunner (see Google Ads setup)
• Products ready to upload to Google Merchant Center

Step 1: Create a Google Merchant Center Account and Link to Google Ads

First, create your Google Merchant Center account at merchant.google.com. During setup, you'll provide your business name, website URL, and country.

Once your account is created, you need to link it to your Google Ads account so your product data can be used in campaigns.

To link your accounts:

1. In Google Merchant Center, go to Settings → Linked accounts.
2. Under Google Ads, click Link account.
3. Enter your Google Ads customer ID and send the link request.
4. In Google Ads, go to Tools → Linked accounts → Google Merchant Center and approve the request.

Once linked, your product catalog will be available to use in Google Ads campaigns like Shopping and Performance Max.

Step 2: Add Products to Google Merchant Center

With your account set up and linked, the next step is adding your products. You can do this manually, via a spreadsheet feed, or through a scheduled data feed URL.

When adding products, make sure to fill in all required attributes:

• Title: clear, descriptive product name
• Description: accurate product details
• Link: the product page URL on your website
• Image link: high-quality product image URL
• Price: must match the price on your website
• Availability: in stock, out of stock, or preorder
• Brand, GTIN or MPN: for product identification

After uploading, Google will review your products. This typically takes 1–3 business days. You can monitor the status in Products → All products in Merchant Center.

Step 3: Match Product IDs with Your Backend

This is a critical step. The product IDs in Google Merchant Center must exactly match the product IDs you use in your backend and send through Linkrunner events.

In Google Merchant Center, each product has an ID (also called offer_id). This is the value you'll use when sending ecommerce events through Linkrunner. If these IDs don't match, Google won't be able to attribute events back to the correct products.

Make sure the product id you send in your Linkrunner events exactly matches the ID (offer_id) of the product in Google Merchant Center. A mismatch will break product attribution and lower your campaign performance.

Step 4: Event Mapping

Once your products are approved and your campaign is live, you need to map your custom app events to the standard Google ecommerce events in the Linkrunner Dashboard. This tells Linkrunner which of your events correspond to which Google conversion actions.

There are 3 essential events to map:

• Your view item event (e.g., view_item, item_viewed) → maps to view_item
• Your add to cart event (e.g., add_to_cart) → maps to add_to_cart
• Your purchase event (e.g., FIRST_PAYMENT, DEFAULT) → maps to ecommerce_purchase

In the Linkrunner Dashboard, go to your Google Ads integration settings and map each of your custom event names to the corresponding standard Google event.

Understanding event_data for Google

When sending events via the Capture Event API, Capture Payment API, or the Linkrunner SDK (trackEvent and capturePayment methods), you need to include specific fields in event_data so Google can correctly attribute conversions and match products in your Merchant Center catalog.

Required Fields

Parameter	Type	Required for	Description
content_ids	array	view_item, add_to_cart, ecommerce_purchase	Product IDs. Must exactly match the ID (offer_id) in Google Merchant Center
value	number	add_to_cart, ecommerce_purchase	Total revenue value. No currency symbols.
currency	string	add_to_cart, ecommerce_purchase	3-letter ISO currency code (e.g., "INR", "USD")
num_items	number	add_to_cart, ecommerce_purchase	Total quantity of items
order_id	string	ecommerce_purchase	Unique order ID from your backend

view_item

Fired when a user views a product page.

SDK

await linkrunner.trackEvent(
  "view_item", // Map this custom event to "view_item" in the Linkrunner Dashboard
  {
    content_ids: ["sku_blue_tshirt"], // Must match Merchant Center ID (offer_id)
  },
);

API

// POST /capture-event
{
  "token": "your_project_token",
  "event_name": "view_item",
  "user_id": "user_123",
  "install_instance_id": "abc-123",
  "event_data": {
    "content_ids": ["sku_blue_tshirt"]   // Must match Merchant Center ID (offer_id)
  }
}

add_to_cart

Fired when a user adds a product to their cart.

SDK

await linkrunner.trackEvent(
  "add_to_cart", // Map this custom event to "add_to_cart" in the Linkrunner Dashboard
  {
    content_ids: ["sku_blue_tshirt"], // Must match Merchant Center ID (offer_id)
    value: 1598,                      // Required: total value (Google uses this as revenue)
    currency: "INR",                  // Required
    num_items: 2,                     // Required
  },
);

API

// POST /capture-event
{
  "token": "your_project_token",
  "event_name": "add_to_cart",
  "user_id": "user_123",
  "install_instance_id": "abc-123",
  "event_data": {
    "content_ids": ["sku_blue_tshirt"],  // Must match Merchant Center ID (offer_id)
    "value": 1598,                       // Required: total value (Google uses this as revenue)
    "currency": "INR",                   // Required
    "num_items": 2                       // Required
  }
}

ecommerce_purchase

Fired when a user completes a purchase.

SDK

await linkrunner.capturePayment({
  amount: 2298.00,
  userId: "user_456",
  paymentId: "order_98765",
  type: "FIRST_PAYMENT",       // Map this payment type to "ecommerce_purchase" in the Linkrunner Dashboard
  status: "PAYMENT_COMPLETED",
  eventData: {
    content_ids: ["sku_blue_tshirt", "sku_red_shoes"], // Must match Merchant Center ID (offer_id)
    value: 2298,               // Required
    currency: "INR",           // Required
    num_items: 2,              // Required
    order_id: "order_98765",   // Required for purchase events
  },
});

API

// POST /capture-payment
{
  "token": "your_project_token",
  "payment_id": "order_98765",
  "user_id": "user_456",
  "amount": 2298.00,
  "type": "FIRST_PAYMENT",
  "status": "PAYMENT_COMPLETED",
  "install_instance_id": "abc-123",
  "event_data": {
    "content_ids": ["sku_blue_tshirt", "sku_red_shoes"], // Must match Merchant Center ID (offer_id)
    "value": 2298,
    "currency": "INR",
    "num_items": 2,
    "order_id": "order_98765"
  }
}

The SDK examples above use React Native syntax. The same eventData fields apply across all SDKs. For platform-specific examples, refer to the Ecommerce Events section in each SDK guide: React Native, Flutter, iOS, Android.

The content_ids you send must exactly match the ID (offer_id) of the product in Google Merchant Center (the same ID from Step 3). If they don't match, Google won't be able to link the conversion back to the correct product in your catalog.

The amount field in capturePayment and the value field in event_data should be consistent. Both represent the total order value. Google reads value from event_data for conversion reporting.

Verifying Events in Google Ads

Once you start sending events through Linkrunner, you can verify they're being received in Google Ads under Goals → Summary. You'll see your mapped conversion actions (view_item, add_to_cart, ecommerce_purchase) listed there with their recorded conversion counts.

It can take up to 24 hours for conversion data to appear after your first events are sent. If you don't see data after that window, double-check your event mapping in the Linkrunner Dashboard and verify the content_ids match your Merchant Center catalog.

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Note: The event_data fields above can be sent via the Linkrunner SDK (trackEvent and capturePayment methods) or directly via the APIs. For full request schemas, refer to the Capture Event API and Capture Payment API documentation.