Match your inventory
The Inventory Viewer is your entrypoint to view all of the inventory that has been submitted to the Actions Center along with its matching status.
What is matching?
Matching is how you ensure that inventory is shown to users in the right locations. A Match is the connection between the Match Input, information you provide that are used for matching (typically information like merchant name, address, geo coordinate, phone number, and url), and the Match Output (typically a Google listing such as a business profile).
All inventory that shares the same Match Input also share the same Match Output. This means that when a match is changed for one piece of inventory, all other inventory that uses that Match Input is updated as well. When changing the match the Actions Center lists all the inventory that would be impacted by the change.
Within the Inventory Viewer the Matched column displays the match status (yes or no) on each piece of inventory.
View or change a match
View a match
To view or update the match, open the Inventory Viewer and click the match status column on the item you would like to match to open the matching slide out window. The current match (if matched) is displayed at the top of the slide out window. You can verify the current match is the correct listing by clicking through to the frontend experience for that listing.
Change a match
To change the match, select the appropriate match option from within the "Other recommended match options" section. After making your selection, click save on the bottom of the matching slide out window for the change to take effect.
Suggest a match option
Should the correct listing not show as an option in the Partner Portal matching tool but the business does have a listing on Google Maps, you can use this tool to suggest a listing.
Match requirements
The listing you submit must meet all Actions Center policies and criteria. Review the merchant eligibility criteria and any other policies relevant to your integration. It is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that merchant matches are correct and compliant.
If the information you supply in your feeds does not match what is in the Google Maps listing then you must correct whichever is incorrect:
- If your feed information is incorrect, you must update your feeds.
- If the information on the Google Maps listing is incorrect, the merchant must update their information.
- You can also suggest an edit on Google Maps, but it is recommended for the merchant to update their listing instead.
You must ensure that the information in your feeds matches what is in the Google Maps listing (and both are accurate) before suggesting the match in the Partner Portal.
Google Maps URL Requirements
In order to use this tool, the URL must meet the following criteria:
- To identify the correct URL, begin your search with Google Maps. Starting with Google Search and then entering Google Maps is incorrect, and may return a URL that is incompatible with this tool. If the URL is incorrect, the following error is returned: "Invalid URL - refer to the URL requirements documentation"
- The URL is for a valid business listing on Google Maps.
- If the merchant does not have a listing, they are able to create a Business Profile on Google.
- You can also suggest a place on Google Maps, although it is recommended for the merchant to create a listing instead.
- It must be the full URL to the Google Maps listing. Short URLs and links to Google Search results are not supported.
Example of supported links
Example of unsupported links
The listing must meet all Actions Center policies, be a correct match, and the listing must be for a country that your integration is enabled in. You are not able to submit the URL for a listing that already appears as an option on the matching screen.
How to suggest a Google Maps URL
You can suggest a Google Maps URL by going to the Inventory Viewer and opening the matching slide out window for the inventory. Within the section "Other recommended match options" select the option to provide a maps URL to display an input box. Within the input box, enter the Google Maps URL (which must adhere to the Google Maps URL requirements) and click the Save button at the bottom of the matching slide out window.
Automatic matching
Google automatically tries to identify and match the correct listing based on the information you provide. The match is continuously evaluated in an effort to identify the best match and as part of this process may change so it is important for partners to continuously monitor and update their inventory matches.
Any matching activity done in the Actions Center is taken into account by the automatic matcher. The automatic matcher does not change any manually made match as long as the input information (such as merchant name, address, phone number, and url) does not change and the Google business listing that it is matched to does not change.
While Google provides this capability to aid partner matching efforts, the match is ultimately the partner's responsibility. Should the correct listing not automatically appear as an option in the Actions Center, but the business does have a listing on Google Maps, you can use the Google Maps URL to suggest a listing.
Manage match options
All match options, whether created by automatic matching or suggested using a Google Maps URL, are enabled by default. Only match options that are enabled can be used for matching. If a match option is disabled it can't be made the current match and is not considered by automatcher. Disabling match options that are not relevant for your inventory is a best practice that to ensure the automatic matcher does not consider that match option going forward for that specific Match Input.
To enable or disable a match option, on the bottom of match slide out window click the "Manage" button.
- All match options with a green thumbs up icon are enabled
- All match options with a red thumbs down icon are disabled
To update a match option, select either the green thumbs up or red thumbs down icon and click "Save."
- Only one match option can be updated at a time. You can update multiple match options by repeating these steps once per match option.
- A confirmation modal shows all other pieces of inventory that are impacted by this change. All inventory that shares the same Match Input information is impacted.
- The automatic matcher is re-run after changes are saved. Take note that the current match may change, especially if the current match is disabled.
- Disabling a match option only applies to that specific Match Input. If any Match Input information is changed, any disablement actions are not carried over to the new Match Input information.