Installment and Subscription Cost are optional shopping feed attributes. They can help you promote your products to customers, and they only apply to specific types of inventory.

These attributes can help you improve your Google Shopping results in the following ways;

  • Higher ranking: Google may rank your products higher in Shopping results. This is especially true for relevant long-tail keyword searches that often indicate high purchase intent.
  • More clicks: Customers may be more likely to click on your products if they see that they can purchase them in installments or with a subscription.
  • Higher conversion rates: Customers may be more likely to convert if they have more information about the payment options available for your products.
  • Better auction performance: Google may give your products a better auction performance if you use these attributes.

Products with the [installment] and [subscription_cost] attributes can only target one country. You can still sell to customers in different countries by submitting a separate product feed for each country.

Here’s how it works

  1. Create a product feed for each country where you want to sell your products.
  2. In each product feed, include the [installment] and [subscription_cost] attributes, specific to the country you are targeting.
  3. Submit each product feed to Google Merchant Center.

Once you’ve submitted your product feeds, your products will be eligible to show in Shopping results in each country you’ve targeted.

Let’s now delve into the installment attribute.

Installment Attribute

We use this attribute to tell customers that they can buy an item by paying in monthly installments.

When you use the [installment] attribute, you must also use its two sub-attributes; [months] and [amount]

  • Use the [months] attribute to tell the customer the number of monthly installments needed to complete full payment.
  • The [amount] attribute will tell the customer how much money they will be paying each month.

There are two ways you can sell inventory and accept installments, with or without a down payment.

When there’s a down payment, set the [price] attribute to that amount

Here’s a phone with a $99.99 price and $34.58 monthly installments for 24 months.

Phone with a down payment

In this case, the [price] is set to $99.99 and the [amount] is set to $34.58. The [months] sub-attribute is set to 24.

It can also be that there’s zero downpayment. Then customers will start paying installments after 1 month. 

In such cases, set the [price] to zero ($0).

Here’s an example of a phone with zero down payment;

Phone with zero down payment

In the example above, the [price] is set to $0 and the [amount] is set to $12.49. The [months] sub-attribute is set to 36.

Exceptions and Availability

Australia is an exception to the above implementation. Do not use the price attribute to show the down payment. Instead, use it to show the total cost. Then, use the title to state the monthly installment amount and the number of months. 

E.g if a phone costs $999, but it will be $111 in 9 installments, then the [price] will be $999 and in the [title] you can include a statement like; ” $999 in 9 monthly installments of $111”. Our product title blog can give you more information on leveling up your product titles.

The installment attribute is available in many countries, including the US, Canada, and most of Europe. Check this page to know if it is available in your country or in countries where you run shopping feed-based campaigns.

Subscription Cost Attribute

This attribute captures the details of a payment plan for communications services that are bundled with a wireless device. It is only supported for products in the Google Product Categories below;

  • Watches ID: 201
  • Mobile Phone ID: 267
  • Tablet Computers ID: 4745
  • Mobile Phone Prepaid Cards & SIM cards (ID: 6030)
  • GPS Tracking Devices (ID: 6544)

Check the subscription cost attribute availability in different countries.

The [subscription_cost] attribute supports monthly and annual subscription formats. If you use this attribute, you must also add its three sub-attributes; [period], [period_length], and [amount]

  • The [period] can be either [month] or [year]
  • The [period_length] is a positive integer.
  • The [amount] indicates how much money customers will pay per month.

Besides these sub-attributes, you must also submit [price] which is the total payment at checkout. 

General Tips for Using Installment and Subscription Cost

  • Have the same payment plan on the landing page and Shopping Feed
  • Ensure that the item is available to all customers, not just a specific group like those registered for loyalty rewards.
  • Round off all prices to two decimal places e.g $500.5678 should be $500.57
  • If a product is eligible for both [installment] and [subscription_costs], use the same number of months for both attributes.
  • If the payment duration for installments and subscriptions aren’t the same, use the longer period in the [period_length] sub-attribute.
  • If the subscription or installment amount increases after a while, set the [amount] attribute to the higher monthly cost.
    • For example, if a phone service costs $20 per month for the first year and then rises to $30 per month in the following year, set the [amount] sub-attribute to $30.
    • If buyers pay $35 per installment for the first 3 months and then pay $45 per installment for the remaining months, set the [amount] sub-attribute to $45.

Conclusion

If you are eligible for either or both [installment] and [subscription_cost] attributes, use them. They can help improve the performance of your Google shopping campaigns through higher Clickthrough rate (CTR), placement, and conversion rates. Here’s a link to another article that delves into how to improve shopping campaigns through feed audits.