Merchant Center loyalty program: do you need Google Ads?

Short answer: Yes, you can now use the Merchant Center loyalty program without Google Ads. Since September 24, 2026, Google lets every merchant show member pricing and shipping perks, including merchants who only use free listings. You activate the loyalty add-on in Merchant Center, set up tiers and benefits, and send hashed member data through the Merchant API.

What changed in the Merchant Center loyalty program?

On September 24, 2026, Google said that all merchants, “whether you are an advertiser or solely use free listings”, can now use loyalty features. You do not need a Google Ads account.

Free listings are the unpaid product results Google builds from your Merchant Center feed. With this change, a shop that runs a loyalty club can send its member data to Google. Member benefits, such as member pricing and shipping perks, can then appear on those free listings.

There are two limits to know before you plan anything. Loyalty benefits in AI Mode and Gemini Apps are US-only. The program also works only in supported countries. Google names France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain among them, and the full list is in the official Merchant Center help article.

Who should care about this?

This is for you if three things are true: your shop already has a loyalty club with a real benefit, you sell in a supported country, and your products already appear in free listings.

It matters most for shops that do not advertise on Google at all, or that run a small budget. Until now, they had no way to show their club’s benefit while a shopper compares offers on Google. Free listings cost nothing per click, so a member price shown there gives people a reason to click through to you and a reason to join your club, with no click fee.

It matters less if you sell a commodity where you are already the cheapest. It also matters less if your “club” is a newsletter with a one-time discount code. That is not a tiered loyalty program, and you would be building one just for Google.

How to set up loyalty perks in Merchant Center step by step

1. Confirm your country is supported

Open the help article and check every country you ship to. If you sell cross-border, for example from Slovakia into Germany, start with the supported markets you already serve.

2. Activate the loyalty program add-on

In Merchant Center, activate the loyalty program add-on. Then set up three things:

• Tiers for example a single “Member” tier, or “Member” and “Gold” if your club already works that way.
• Member benefits for each tier, such as a member price.
• Tier-specific shipping settings if members get cheaper or free delivery.

Copy what your shop actually gives. Do not create a tier for Google that does not exist at your checkout.

3. Sort out consent and your privacy policy

Your privacy policy must say that you share data with third parties. You must also collect consent where it is required, including under Google’s EU User Consent Policy. For EU shops, this step decides whether the project happens at all. Check what your club signup form actually says, and get whoever handles GDPR in your company to approve it.

4. Format, hash and send member data

Customer data such as email addresses or phone numbers has to be formatted and hashed before it leaves your system. You send it through the Merchant API’s Loyalty Customer Match service.

This is an API integration, not a spreadsheet upload, so plan developer time unless your shop platform already supports it. Agree on how often the list syncs, so new members get their benefit and people who leave the club stop getting it.

5. Check the result and measure it

Before you switch it on, record a baseline: free listing clicks in Merchant Center, organic shopping traffic in GA4 (Google Analytics 4), new club signups per week and the share of orders placed by members. Once it is live, search for a few of your products to see what shoppers see. Compare the numbers after 30 days.

Setup checklist: what you need and who owns it

Requirement	What it means in practice	Who usually owns it
Supported country	Your selling country appears on Google’s list	Marketer
Loyalty program add-on	Activated in Merchant Center	Marketer
Tiers and member benefits	Match exactly what your checkout gives members	Owner and marketer
Tier-specific shipping	Shipping perks set for each tier	Operations and marketer
Privacy policy	Says that you share data with third parties	Owner or legal
Consent	Collected where required, including under the EU User Consent Policy	Legal and developer (signup forms)
Hashed member data	Emails or phone numbers formatted and hashed	Developer
Data transfer	Sent through the Merchant API’s Loyalty Customer Match service	Developer

Is a member price worth it? Calculate your break-even

A member price is a discount, so check it against your margin before you show it anywhere. Use prices without VAT, because the VAT part of the price is not yours to keep.

The formula: extra orders needed = margin / (margin – discount) – 1.

Here is an illustrative example. Say a product sells for €50 without VAT and your margin is 40%, so you make €20 gross profit. A 10% member price takes €5 off and leaves €15. To earn the same total profit, you need 0.40 / 0.30 – 1 = 33% more orders from members.

Now say members also get free shipping that costs you €4 per order. Count that as part of the discount. Profit drops to €11 per order, and you need about 82% more orders to break even.

If that uplift looks unrealistic, offer a smaller member price or a shipping perk only. If you also run Google Ads, apply the same margin logic to your bidding. See how to set up conversion value for profit.

What I see in the accounts I run

In the e-shops I work with, the loyalty club almost always sits behind the login. The shop platform applies the member price at checkout, so a new visitor never sees it. The club’s strongest selling point is hidden at exactly the moment someone compares three shops on Google.

The second pattern is more painful. The member list lives in the email tool, and when I ask which members agreed to what, nobody can answer. The Merchant Center settings take an afternoon, but rebuilding consent records can take weeks. If you want this feature, fix your signup form first, before you touch Merchant Center.

Third, shops that do not advertise often never open Merchant Center again after the first feed upload. Disapproved products and outdated prices stay there for months, and a loyalty perk on a listing that is not showing helps nobody. Start with a feed check like the one in my Merchant Center holiday feed updates article.

Most common mistakes (and when not to do this)

• Sending members without consent. If you cannot show consent for a member, leave them out of the upload.
• A member price that does not match checkout. If the listing promises €45 and the member sees €50 after logging in, you lose the sale and their trust.
• Expecting the perks in AI Mode or Gemini. Loyalty benefits there are US-only. In Europe, plan around free listings.
• Building a club only for Google. If you have no loyalty program, this feature is not a reason to start one. Fix the product, price and website first.
• Discounts your margin cannot carry. Run the break-even calculation above before you set member prices.
• Paying for API work before checking the country list. Make sure your market is supported first.

What to do first

Do two checks this week: is your selling country on the supported list, and can you show consent for the members you want to send? If both answers are yes, you need a few Merchant Center settings and one API integration. If you want help with Merchant Center, feeds and the paid campaigns around them, see my PPC and performance marketing services or what I do as a PPC specialist. Email me and I’ll reply within 24 hours.