If you followed a guide that told you to install BigCommerce’s “Ads and Listings on Google” app, you will have found that there is no such app to install. BigCommerce retired it, Google’s own help page still recommends it, and the two together make this one of the more confusing setups in Merchant Center right now.
Here is where things actually stand, and the four routes that still work.
The app is gone, and Google’s page hasn’t caught up
BigCommerce’s help article for the integration is now headed “Ads and Listings on Google (Deprecated)”, and it says plainly: The legacy Google Ads and Listings for BigCommerce app is no longer available.
Its recommendation is its own newer tool: To connect your store to Google Shopping, we recommend using Feedonomics Surface .
(BigCommerce’s article on the retired Google app, read 7 November 2026).
Google’s page on running Performance Max from a store platform still tells BigCommerce merchants the opposite: To run Google Ads on BigCommerce, you’ll have to install the Ads and Listings on Google app and connect your storefront.
(Google Ads’ page on platform integrations, read 7 November 2026).
Our reading: Google’s page looks out of date on this point. Follow BigCommerce, not Google, on which BigCommerce app exists.
Route 1: Feedonomics Surface
This is BigCommerce’s own replacement, built by Feedonomics, which BigCommerce owns.
What its app listing says about cost, as of 7 November 2026: the Basic plan supports up to 100,000 SKUs and up to two connections at no cost
, and the paid Retail tiers start at $29 per month, rising with SKU count and the number of channels you connect. BigCommerce’s app page and its product page present the plans a little differently, so check the current prices on BigCommerce’s Feedonomics Surface listing before budgeting.
What you get, in practice, is the thing the old app gave you: your catalogue mapped to Merchant Center’s fields and kept in sync, without you maintaining a file. If you want the least upkeep, this is the route.
Route 2: let Google read your store
Merchant Center can take products straight off your website, with no feed and no app. Google calls it adding products from your online store, and says it checks your website at least once every 24 hours
(Google’s page on adding products automatically).
How it works: We read the structured data on those pages to understand product details like title, price, and availability
. So it only works as well as your product markup does. BigCommerce themes write Product markup by default, which is why this route is viable on BigCommerce in a way it isn’t on a storefront that renders prices with JavaScript.
One useful detail if you are adding it alongside something else: products that are already included in other data sources won't be added
. So it won’t duplicate a catalogue you are already sending; it fills gaps.
What this route cannot send is anything that isn’t on the page: GTINs that your theme doesn’t print, MPNs, age group and gender for clothing. Expect “missing value” issues, and plan to add a supplemental data source for those. Our post on Merchant Center errors lists which ones.
Route 3: a file, fetched on a schedule
The traditional route. You publish a product file and Merchant Center collects it. Google’s page on adding products from a file covers the formats.
Two rules worth knowing before you set it up. Scheduling is only offered for some source types. Google says Scheduled updates only appear for scheduled fetch and Google Sheets data sources.
And the URL must point at a file: Note that pointing to an HTML page of your website will cause the processing of your product data source to fail.
(Google’s page on scheduled updates).
The upkeep cost is real: if the file stops regenerating, products expire 30 days after their last refresh, and Shopping campaigns using that feed stop serving. Our post on products expiring in Merchant Center covers that clock.
A Google Sheet is the low-effort version of the same idea, and Google syncs it on a default schedule of every 24 hours. It suits a small catalogue you edit by hand; it does not suit 5,000 SKUs that change price daily.
Route 4: the Merchant API
If you have a developer, or a feed tool that integrates directly, Merchant Center’s API is the route with no file and no crawl. Google’s page on creating a product data source covers how an API source sits alongside the others.
One thing to confirm before you commission anything: the old interface is gone. Google says The Content API for Shopping reached its sunset on August 18, 2026
. Any tool or script still written against it has stopped being a working option. Our post on the move from the Content API to the Merchant API covers how to tell which one a tool uses.
Which route to pick
| If you | Pick |
|---|---|
| Want the least upkeep and don’t mind an app | Feedonomics Surface |
| Have a small catalogue and good product markup | Let Google read your store |
| Already generate a product file, or need full control of attributes | A scheduled file fetch |
| Have a developer, or a feed tool that connects directly | The Merchant API |
| Have under a few hundred products and edit them by hand | A Google Sheet |
Whichever you choose, the identifiers and clothing attributes are the part to plan for: they are the most common reason a BigCommerce catalogue arrives in Merchant Center and then sits there “limited”.
What doesn’t change when the app does
Switching integration doesn’t change what Merchant Center asks of the store itself. The same four things get accounts warned regardless of how the data arrives:
- The price and stock on the page have to match what Merchant Center was sent. Our post on price mismatches covers the commonest causes, and our guide to a feed that doesn’t match the website covers the general case.
- Your policies, meaning refund, shipping, privacy and terms, have to exist and say something specific.
- A shopper has to be able to find a contact method and complete a checkout.
- Your business name, address, phone and email have to be the same in Merchant Center and on the store.
Those four are the ground most Misrepresentation suspensions are fought on, whatever sends the data; our guide to how to fix a Misrepresentation suspension works through them in the order worth fixing.
Changing data source is also a good moment to check for duplicates: two sources sending the same products under different IDs is a common outcome of a migration, and it shows up as mismatches rather than as a duplicate warning.
For the platform picture, our BigCommerce page covers what our own checks read on a BigCommerce store.
Where ShieldKit fits
Our free store check works on any platform, BigCommerce included, without an install, an account or a feed. It reads what a shopper sees: your refund, shipping, privacy and terms pages, your contact details, the Product structured data on your product pages, whether those pages load, and the payment methods on your homepage. It also compares each product page’s visible price with the price in its own structured data, which is useful during a migration, because that is exactly where two data sources start to disagree.
Two limits to know on BigCommerce. Product data and product images need a product list, which we can only read from Shopify and WooCommerce, so those come back “Not checked” on a BigCommerce store rather than passed. Hidden fees, and the robots.txt report naming each crawler, come with a full store check on a free ShieldKit account; the business-details match needs your Merchant Center account connected.
FAQ
Is the BigCommerce Google app gone?
Yes. BigCommerce’s help article is now marked deprecated and says the legacy Google Ads and Listings for BigCommerce app is no longer available. It recommends Feedonomics Surface instead.
Why does Google still tell me to install it?
Google’s page on running Performance Max from store platforms still names the app for BigCommerce. Our reading is that Google’s page is out of date; BigCommerce is the authority on which BigCommerce apps exist.
Is Feedonomics Surface free?
Its BigCommerce listing says the Basic plan is free for up to 100,000 SKUs and up to two connections, with paid Retail tiers from $29 a month. The listing and the product page present the plans differently, so check BigCommerce’s page for current prices.
Can I get products into Merchant Center without any app?
Yes. Merchant Center can read your product pages directly. Google says it checks the website at least once every 24 hours and reads the structured data for details like title, price and availability. You can also submit a file, a Google Sheet, or use the Merchant API.
Will Google add my products twice if I use two sources?
For the website route, no: Google says products already included in other data sources won’t be added. Duplicates usually come from two feeds sending the same products under different IDs instead.