Your product title is the single most important attribute in your Merchant Center feed. It determines which searches trigger your Shopping ad, how Google categorizes your product, and whether a shopper clicks through. Most store owners write titles that describe the product the way they think about it internally rather than the way buyers search for it.
Google uses your product title as a primary signal for ad auction matching. A title that contains the exact phrases buyers search for increases your chance of appearing in relevant auctions. A title optimized for your internal catalog naming rather than search terms will underperform even if every other element of your Shopping campaign is correct.
Google's official guidance varies by category, but the general structure that performs best across most product types is: Brand + Product Type + Key Attributes. For apparel: Brand + Gender + Product Type + Attributes (color, size, material). For electronics: Brand + Product Name + Model + Key Specifications. For consumables: Brand + Product Type + Size/Quantity + Distinguishing Feature.
Shopping ads typically truncate titles after 70 characters in most display formats. Everything after that may not be visible to the shopper. Put the most important information first: the brand if it is well-known, the product type, and the single most relevant attribute. Color and size can go later. An unrecognized brand name taking up the first 25 characters of a title is a wasted opportunity if shoppers do not search by that brand.
Keyword stuffing: repeating the same word multiple times in a title does not help Shopping performance and can trigger quality issues. Promotional text in titles: phrases like "Best Price", "Free Shipping", or "Sale" are prohibited in titles by Google policy and will cause product disapprovals. Vague product types: "Blue Item" instead of "Blue Cotton T-Shirt Women" gives Google nothing to match against buyer searches.
Make one title change at a time and measure impressions and click-through rate over two to four weeks. Shopping campaigns take time to re-optimize after title changes because Google needs to re-learn which auctions you are eligible for. If impressions drop sharply after a title change, the new title may be matching fewer auctions. If click-through rate drops but impressions hold, the title may be matching the wrong intent.
Google allows up to 150 characters, but the first 70 characters are most important because that is what typically displays in Shopping ads before truncation.
Yes, for most products the brand should be near the beginning of the title. Google's own guidelines recommend: Brand + Product Type + Key Attributes for most categories.