When should you audit a product feed?
Run an audit when the source, export logic or destination changes—not only after a channel reports errors.
Before a Google Shopping launch
Find source-data gaps before the first Merchant Center fetch or upload.
After an ecommerce migration
Confirm that identifiers, URLs and commerce values survived platform or schema changes.
After changing the feed generator
Compare product counts and repeated missing fields after changing an app, plugin or export template.
After more disapprovals
Separate problems visible in the feed from account, website and policy issues.
After a catalog-size change
Investigate unexpected product loss or growth before accepting the new export as complete.
Before an agency takeover
Create a reproducible source-data baseline before ownership and workflows change.
Before another shopping channel
Find upstream gaps that would otherwise be copied into a new marketplace or comparison engine.
What should a product feed audit deliver?
Overall score and catalog size
A repeatable summary tied to a versioned ruleset and the number of products actually parsed.
Affected-product counts
The scope of each issue, not a vague statement that a field is sometimes missing.
Severity and root cause
A repair order that separates critical blockers from high and medium data-quality gaps.
Affected IDs and fields
A private list of rows and current values for supported rules, protected behind paid access.
Recommended action
A practical upstream change without fabricating identifiers or promising platform approval.
Exportable evidence
An online report plus full affected-products CSV and PDF for implementation and review.
Example audit finding
This illustrates the shape of a report finding; the figures are not presented as a customer result.
Missing GTIN and MPN
- Why it matters
- Recognized identifiers help downstream systems distinguish and match products, but their applicability depends on the product. Product Feed Scan flags records where both GTIN and MPN are absent; it does not decide platform eligibility.
- Recommended action
- Repair the source catalog with identifiers assigned by the manufacturer when they exist. Do not generate fictional GTINs.
Choose the right product-feed check
Each guide answers a distinct question and links back to this audit hub.
Product Feed Checker
A product feed checker reads the complete source file, validates its structure and groups repeated product-data failures so you can repair the export rather than inspect rows one by one.
Open guide →PRODUCT FEED VALIDATORProduct Feed Validator
Validation answers whether a feed can be fetched and parsed safely, then checks whether supported product values use the representation expected by the audit rules.
Open guide →PRODUCT CATALOG AUDITProduct Catalog Audit
A catalog audit examines the source attributes repeated across channel exports. Fixing a systemic mapping once is safer than correcting the same missing field separately in every destination.
Open guide →XML FEED VALIDATORXML Feed Validator
An XML feed validator first confirms that a document is safe and well formed. A product-data audit then evaluates the supported fields inside each parsed product node.
Open guide →CSV CATALOG AUDITCSV Catalog Audit
A CSV catalog audit separates table parsing failures from product-data problems. A file may parse correctly while still containing duplicate IDs, missing brands or malformed prices.
Open guide →PRODUCT FEED ERRORSProduct Feed Errors
The fastest repair order is file-wide blockers first, then critical commerce and destination fields, followed by high-volume identifiers, content and taxonomy gaps.
Open guide →PRODUCT FEED QUALITYProduct Feed Quality
Product feed quality combines technical integrity with complete and consistently represented product data. No single field or validation result can describe the health of an entire catalog.
Open guide →Audit the source before editing products
A catalog-wide scan shows whether a problem is isolated or generated repeatedly by the same export rule.
Run the free scan →How Product Feed Scan stays specific
Deterministic checks, documented limits
Product Feed Scan parses public XML and CSV feeds incrementally, applies versioned rules to supported fields and groups failures by impact. It does not predict platform policy decisions, modify feeds or guarantee channel approval.
Preparing a native OpenAI ads feed?
The ChatGPT Ads Feed Checker reviews native OpenAI fields and formats. Its readiness score is separate from general feed quality and does not promise ad approval or organic visibility.
Product feed audit questions
Questions about this guide
What formats can Product Feed Scan audit?+
The production scanner accepts public XML and CSV URLs. Transfer and decompressed data are independently limited to 200 MiB, with a maximum of 100,000 products.
Is this the same as Merchant Center diagnostics?+
No. Product Feed Scan analyzes the source file. Merchant Center diagnostics can also reflect account settings, destinations, website checks, processing state and policy decisions that an external audit cannot see.
Does the audit change my feed?+
No. It reads the public source, reports problems and recommends upstream changes. It does not rewrite, upload or distribute product data.
What is included in the paid report?+
One €19 payment unlocks the complete private online report, affected-products CSV, PDF and email delivery. Access lasts 30 days unless it is revoked after a refund.