A listing group shutting most of the catalogue out

It is the most common way an ecommerce account quietly stops selling most of what it sells. A product excluded from every asset group can never be shown, and nothing in the interface adds up how many that is.

Exclusions often start as a sensible move, such as leaving out a brand or a low margin category, and grow over time until the remaining catalogue is a fraction of the shop.

The check runs on accounts with Performance Max asset groups whose listing groups could be read.

Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.

When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.

1. In Google Ads, open each Performance Max campaign, then Asset groups.
2. Open an asset group and look at Listing groups.
3. Count the subdivisions marked Excluded and those included.
4. Compare the products the group can show with your full catalogue in Merchant Center.

Check each exclusion still has a reason: a brand you cannot sell, a category with no margin, stock that is gone. Remove the ones that no longer apply.

Make sure every product you want to sell is included in at least one asset group, or in a Shopping campaign.

• Listing group

The checks next to this one in Shopping and feeds, each with its own page.

• Asset groups with no search theme
• Performance Max buying queries the Search campaigns already bid on
• Performance Max with no negative keyword list
• Performance Max with nothing stopping it buying your brand
• Products held back by something in the feed
• Products that cannot appear at all