Google Unveils Subscriptions in Shopping Ads: What It Means for eCommerce Brands
While everyone’s busy speculating about what agentic commerce might look like in the future, Google just dropped a new advertising format that can drive meaningful revenue for brands right now.
For the first time ever, brands can advertise physical product subscriptions directly through Google Shopping ads – Google’s most powerful eCommerce advertising channel – enabling them to acquire high-value customers and directly connect acquisition and retention within Google’s ecosystem.
As the industry focuses on the innovations of tomorrow, today’s reality tells a different story: customer acquisition costs are rising, and growth now depends on retaining customers, not just finding new ones. Google’s latest update offers a new path forward by embedding recurring commerce natively into its ecosystem.
We’re already hearing questions about what this means, how to implement it, and what to watch for next.
In this Q&A, Ordergroove’s VP of Growth, Eric Andrews, unpacks Google’s new capabilities, shares early guidance for brands, and explains why acting now could deliver a lasting competitive advantage.
1. What exactly did Google announce, and why does it matter for eCommerce brands focused on recurring revenue?
Last week, Google quietly announced that brands can now sell physical product subscriptions directly on Google Shopping ads for the first time. This means brands can advertise subscriptions right at the point of sale on one of the world’s largest paid acquisition channels.
If we zoom out, Google and Facebook/Meta remain the two biggest paid advertising platforms for eCommerce. eCommerce brands rely on these platforms to both prospect and retarget customers, and they can’t operate without them.
About 75% of all Google ad spend goes into Google Shopping campaigns, which show a product’s image, price, and store name directly in search results when people are ready to buy.
Starting now, shoppers will begin to see ads promoting recurring deliveries of subscription items, such as “Coffee for $X per month.”
This is a major opportunity to acquire higher LTV customers right at the point of sale and accelerate the growth of the entire subscription economy.
For example, a typical eCommerce brand invests between 5-25% of its revenue into paid advertising, depending on its growth rate, with up to half of that going to Google. Until now, those dollars could only acquire one-time purchasers, forcing brands to convert them into subscribers later in the customer lifecycle or through other marketing channels.
Now that brands can create dedicated Shopping campaigns focused purely on subscription, they are no longer competing for single transactions but to own the customer relationship with someone who will spend significantly more by seeing greater value from the first interaction.
For brands that take advantage of this new capability, it will redefine their business models, allowing them to invest more to acquire customers who spend more. But it will also require them to compete not on one-time discounts or price, but on the value and loyalty they build through every experience.
2. Which product categories qualify for Google’s new physical goods subscriptions, and how can merchants identify good candidates?
Google has enabled these ad formats for eight of the highest-recurring (replenishable) purchase verticals.
Specifically, they include:
- Apparel & accessories
- Coffee
- Healthcare (including nutraceuticals, but excluding prescription drugs)
- Home & garden
- Personal care (beauty)
- Pet supplies
- Prepared foods
- Toys
These categories should cover the vast majority of subscription-based eCommerce brands.
3. What steps should merchants take to add subscription offers to their Google Shopping listings?
Once you update your product feed, your subscription price will appear directly in your Google Shopping ads (for example, “$25/month”) alongside the product image, title, and other details. This lets shoppers know the item is available as a subscription before they click.
To activate these ads, update your product feed with the following new attributes:
- subscription_cost
- period (week, month, or year for billing interval)
- period_length (delivery frequency)
- amount (price per cycle)
Make sure the pricing and terms match exactly with what’s displayed on your product page and checkout to stay compliant with Google’s requirements.
4. Should brands separate subscription SKUs from one-time purchase listings or merge them into one product experience?
Because Google’s subscription functionality is still new, it’s not yet fully clear how listings with both one-time and subscription options will behave within Merchant Center. Early indications suggest that Google may only support one subscription price per landing page, which could limit how multiple subscription frequencies or terms are displayed.
For now, the best approach is to first speak with your Google ad representative about your eligibility. You will also likely need to separate subscription SKUs from one-time purchase listings, which will be crucial for both tracking performance in subscription-specific campaigns and staying compliant with Google’s policies.
To avoid issues, create separate listings with:
- Clear Pricing: The user sees a Shopping Ad for “$50 One-Time Purchase” or a separate ad for “Monthly Subscription at $40/month.”
- Direct Landing Page: The ad links to a page where the advertised option is pre-selected and most prominent.
As Google refines its implementation, brands may gain more flexibility in structuring their subscription options. Until then, separate listings remain the most reliable way to stay compliant, manage budgets and track results more accurately for one-time purchases versus subscriptions.
5. How can brands position subscription value without relying on discounts or promotional pricing?
Being able to highlight the benefits of subscriptions on the ad landing page is a huge advantage in these campaigns. The benefits go beyond the discounted price and include the convenience of never running out of essentials (reduced cognitive load), flexibility (pause, skip, cancel), and often free shipping.
Together, these create a frictionless experience that delivers more holistic value to customers. This is why subscribers spend 3–4 times more than non-subscribers over their lifetime.
6. How does this shift impact acquisition, performance marketing, and long-term retention strategy on Google?
Subscribers have lifetime values that are several times higher than one-time purchasers. In the past, subscription-based eCommerce brands acquiring customers on Google had to rely on post-purchase tactics, cross-sells, and other indirect strategies to convert them into subscribers. This led to low subscription opt-in rates and lower blended lifetime values, which limited how much brands could afford to spend on Google ads.
Now that physical product subscription ads are available, brands can run dedicated campaigns to acquire higher-LTV customers from the start. This allows them to afford higher CACs, increase revenue, and grow contribution margins faster. It creates a more efficient and scalable acquisition model that aligns with long-term retention and LTV-based optimization.
7. What metrics should growth and retention teams track to measure subscription success across Google’s ecosystem?
The most important metric to track will be the retention rates of customers attributed to Google Shopping, along with their LTVs and corresponding CACs.
Brands should closely track customer cohorts to understand how retention performs for customers acquired through Google. If retention is strong, Google becomes a channel with virtually unlimited scale and liquidity, allowing brands to accelerate subscription growth as long as the underlying unit economics remain strong.
8. Once a customer subscribes from a Google Shopping ad, how can brands create a seamless post-purchase experience that reduces churn?
In particular, with Google Shopping, the post-purchase experience matters a lot.
These shoppers arrive with transactional intent; they’re comparing prices and testing convenience. You’ll need stronger early engagement to keep them subscribed.
Reinforce value and build trust right after checkout:
- Confirmation & Value: Remind them why they subscribed (“You’re now on autoship – here’s how much money you’ll save this year.”)
- Account Management: Link them directly to their Subscription Manager and show how to pause, skip, or swap. That sense of control prevents early churn.
Because Google doesn’t provide a native subscription experience, the first interaction happens on Google, not your PDP. It’s on you to make the checkout, welcome flow, and reorder journey feel cohesive and branded.
Most importantly, post-purchase is your moment to own the customer relationship by turning “Google’s buyer” into your subscriber through personalized emails, SMS, loyalty perks, and flexible management tools.
9. What pitfalls should merchants avoid when enabling subscriptions through Google’s Merchant Center?
The biggest thing to look out for is Google’s “One Price Per Landing Page” rule. A page can show both a one-time purchase and a single subscription price – but not multiple subscription tiers, frequencies, or prices. Each unique subscription option needs its own SKU and landing page showing only that exact price and term. Violating this creates a Subscription Mismatch error and can get your product disapproved. Please reach out to your Google representative to make sure you are in compliance.
10. How does this signal a larger shift toward Relationship Commerce and what should brands do to future-proof their strategy?
Enabling subscription campaigns on an acquisition platform like Google allows brands to shift their focus and investment from one-time purchases to customer lifetime value. This model is built around creating long-term recurring relationships from the very first interaction by providing more value to each customer.
In turn, this drives higher wallet share and spend from every customer, increasing long-term profitability for the brand.
Beyond integrating subscriptions into Google campaigns, brands should continuously evaluate how to expand subscriptions and recurring revenue across every channel, including acquisition, online, in-store, and throughout the customer lifecycle, by doubling down on personalization and frictionless experiences.