In Part 1, we covered how to protect your ad budget by cutting low-intent traffic, excluding the wrong products, and sharpening your geo strategy.
In this second part, we’ll look at the data itself. For wine and spirits merchants, product titles and images do most of the work. Done well, they improve relevance and conversion. Done poorly, they waste spend and trigger disapprovals.
1. Titles by Channel
Your product title strategy should change by channel. The same text rarely works best everywhere.
Google Shopping: detailed and structured
On Shopping, you’re matching high-intent searches. Include the key attributes buyers and the algorithm care about:
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Producer / brand
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Vintage (when relevant)
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Wine / product name
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Appellation / region
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Country
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Style or grape (if helpful)
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Bottle size
Example (premium bottle):2019 Domaine Example Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, USA – 750ml
Use consistent templates so your catalog is predictable and easy to manage.
Meta / display: shorter and cleaner
On social and display, the audience is colder and more visual:
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Keep titles shorter and easy to read on mobile.
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Emphasize producer and style, not every technical detail.
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Let the image and creative do more of the work.
Example:Domaine Example Pinot Noir – Sonoma Coast
2. Handling Vintage by Price Tier
Vintage is critical for some products and noise for others.
A common approach:
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Sub-$30 bottles:
Consider omitting the vintage from titles if it changes frequently and isn’t a primary purchase driver. This reduces the risk of outdated titles and keeps the catalog easier to maintain. -
Mid and high-end bottles:
Include the vintage. At this level, buyers care, and search intent often includes year.
You can support this logic with feed rules, e.g., “Add vintage to title if price ≥ X.”
3. Using Ratings and Scores
Ratings like “Parker 94” or “WS 92–94” are useful, but placement matters.
A practical pattern:
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Store ratings in separate attributes and surface them in descriptions or on-site content.
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Avoid cluttering titles with score strings unless testing shows a clear benefit.
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If you use them, reserve for high-end products where the rating truly influences purchase.
This keeps titles clean while still using ratings to improve relevance and buyer confidence.
4. Images and the “No Photo” Problem
Many wine merchants struggle with product images, especially for older vintages and long-tail SKUs. Platforms, however, expect clear, accurate images—and will disapprove products that lack them.
Best practice is straightforward:
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Use actual bottle images for as much of your active catalog as possible.
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Standardize background, angle, and resolution across products.
When that isn’t feasible at scale, some merchants use placeholder images, such as:
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A generic bottle silhouette in the appropriate color (red, white, sparkling)
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Overlaid with the merchant’s logo
This can help get a large catalog online, but it comes with risk:
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Some channels will warn or disapprove if too many products use placeholders.
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Using placeholders long-term instead of proper images can hurt click-through and trust.
A sensible approach:
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Use placeholders as a temporary measure where you otherwise wouldn’t be listed at all.
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Prioritize real photography for:
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Top-revenue SKUs
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High-margin items
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Best converters
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Feed data and performance reports make it easy to decide which products justify that investment.
What’s Next
Now you have a cleaner feed: better titles, sensible vintage handling, ratings in the right place, and a plan for images.
In Part 3, we’ll look at where to send that feed—Google, Microsoft, specialty channels like Wine-Searcher and Vivino, and Local Inventory Ads for your physical stores.