How Feed Update Frequency Impacts Ad Performance

Anirban Sen
Apr 18
3 min read

Updated: Apr 19

Keeping your product feed updated is essential for better ad performance. Here’s why:

Accurate pricing and inventory improve trust and prevent ad disapprovals.
Frequent updates help your ads stay competitive, especially during seasonal or market changes.
Automation ensures real-time updates, reducing errors and boosting ROI.

Key takeaway: Automate feed updates every 4 hours and monitor feed quality to avoid ad rejections, improve click-through rates, and lower costs per click. Let’s explore how this works.

How to Update Prices More Than Once Per Day in Google ...

Feed Update Issues and Their Impact

Irregular feed updates can seriously affect ad performance and reduce revenue.

Problems with Price and Stock Accuracy

When feeds don’t sync in real time, advertised details like price or stock status may not match the actual data. This leads to:

Loss of trust: Shoppers expect accurate information. If they find discrepancies, they’re likely to leave without purchasing.
Low conversions: Clicks on items that are out of stock or mispriced rarely result in sales.

Ad Rejection Challenges

Outdated information in feeds often causes ad disapprovals, which can result in:

Campaign disruptions: Rejected ads stop running until the issues are fixed.
Reduced visibility: Disapproved products lose their spots in key search and shopping placements.

Slow Response to Market Changes

Delays in updating feeds make it difficult to adapt to seasonal trends and competitive shifts:

Missed holiday sales: You can’t adjust prices or stock for special events or seasons in time.
Falling behind competitors: Businesses with faster feed updates can grab market share more effectively.
Limited flexibility: Flash sales and time-sensitive deals become harder to execute.

Next, we’ll dive into best practices for automating updates, monitoring feed quality, and prioritizing updates effectively.

Feed Update Effects on Ad Metrics

Regular updates to your product data ensure that ads stay relevant and aligned with real-time inventory and pricing. When product details are accurate, ads are more likely to attract clicks. Fixing issues like outdated pricing or stock discrepancies (as discussed earlier) helps remove conversion obstacles. This improved relevance and click-through potential can lead to better results in ad auctions.

Impact on CTR and Ad Quality

Keeping your feed current has a direct impact on Quality Score. Fresh data not only improves performance metrics but also attracts more qualified clicks. This ensures your ads maintain high-quality ratings across the board.

Auction Performance Benefits

Updated product feeds enhance bid strategies and improve Quality Scores, which can lead to higher auction rankings and lower costs per click. Accurate pricing data also allows for smarter bidding decisions, helping your campaigns stay competitive in the market.

Best Practices for Feed Updates

Setting Up Automated Updates

Avoid price and stock mismatches by automating feed updates using the Google Content API for Shopping or scheduling CSV/XML uploads to Merchant Center every 4 hours. Set up your product information management (PIM) system or a cron job to update prices and stock levels as they change. Additionally, enable error alerts for failed uploads and regularly monitor your feed's health to address issues before they affect your ad performance.

Feed Management Trends and Updates

AI and automation tools are transforming feed management by ensuring real-time updates and accurate data. These technologies allow for smarter, faster adjustments that can significantly improve campaign performance.

AI-powered bid and feed updates adjust on the fly to maximize return on ad spend (ROAS).
Real-time bid strategies help secure better positions in competitive auctions.
Advanced audience segmentation within feeds enables more precise targeting.

For example, Senwired's case study with McNeela Music demonstrated how automating feed updates using Performance Max led to increased revenue and ROI across various markets.

Conclusion

Keeping your feed updated regularly is crucial for maintaining ad relevance and improving ROI. Accurate pricing, up-to-date inventory, and quick responses to market changes all play a big role. Take McNeela Music, for instance - they saw a boost in revenue and ROI after automating their feed updates using Performance Max.

If you're looking to enhance ad performance, focus on these three areas:

Automate feed updates to ensure your prices and inventory stay accurate.
Keep an eye on feed quality to prevent ad rejections.
Fine-tune product-level ROAS and adjust pricing to stay competitive in auctions.