Last week, Google’s Merchant Center launched a pilot program that provides retailers insights into the shopping-related inquiries made through AI Mode and AI Overviews. Brodie Clark, an independent SEO consultant who gained access via a client's sub-account, showcased screenshots of this feature, marking it as the first Google offering to deliver query data relevant to these AI functionalities.
This new query data could be particularly beneficial for those utilizing product feeds. However, it's crucial to understand that Google organizes these inquiries into categories rather than presenting them individually. Consequently, the report conveys the vocabulary related to a category instead of specific queries themselves. While this data can guide retailers on which attributes to incorporate into product listings, it does not clarify whether inquiries from AI Mode directed users to their websites.
The newly introduced report, named AI performance insights, is aimed at demonstrating how a brand is discovered across both AI Mode and AI Overviews. If you have access to this report, you can find it in Merchant Center by navigating to Analytics, Products, and then the AI performance tab. Google initially announced this reporting feature during the Google Marketing Live event in May, approximately seven weeks ahead of its pilot launch.
The report categorizes shopping inquiries according to different types, drawing on Google’s examples, such as searching by category, investigating product specifications, or seeking reviews. Additionally, it provides insights into how frequently certain query types are used. It also segments questions based on the shopper's stage in their purchasing journey and showcases the product terms that shoppers use when articulating their needs, with examples such as "maximum cushioning" and "arch support." Furthermore, the share of voice metric allows a comparison of a retailer’s AI impressions against those of competitors.
Google’s documentation advises retailers to delve into the product terms to enhance product titles and descriptions, while also examining popular attributes that may be absent in their product data. This is particularly relevant as attribute completeness has been a long-standing challenge, and this report serves as a clear indicator of demand for specific features that retailers may need to address.
Despite the valuable insights provided, none of the metrics within the Merchant Center’s AI Performance insights directly reflect actual queries. Instead, they highlight demand trends, suggesting that while product terms can inform inventory and marketing decisions, they should not be viewed as a direct list of keywords.
Similarly, the share of voice metric, calculated by dividing a merchant's AI impressions by total impressions across competitors, does not allow retailers to redefine their competitive set as it is predetermined by the competitors currently available in Merchant Center. Moreover, this metric can be misleading; if there are insufficient impressions, it may show as zero, while accounts without defined competitors will appear as having 100%.
There are also limitations regarding the scope filters. Traffic analysis is confined to organic AI traffic, excluding paid advertisements. The product category filter provides insights one category at a time, without an overarching report encompassing all categories. Insights are only considered for conversational queries that indicate shopping or brand interest; other types are not included.
In June, Google initiated testing for dedicated generative AI performance reports within Search Console, initially rolling it out for a select group of UK websites. These reports display impressions categorized by page, country, device, and date but lack click data and specific query-level metrics—constraints that remain consistent.
Moreover, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK recently placed conduct requirements on Google regarding reporting and publisher control, emphasizing the need for separation in reporting metrics related to search generative AI functions. As part of the CMA's directive, Google has nine months to implement these reporting changes, but click and click-through rate data have yet to be made available.
In July, Google communicated to CMOs that external AI visibility tools cannot access its internal metrics and identified Search Console and Merchant Center as the foundational tools for tracking performance. In retrospect, the recent pilot presents a different picture when aligned with these developments—Google has introduced AI reporting to two distinct audiences within a short timeframe, maintaining a limited scope each time.
For merchants, the AI performance tab in the Merchant Center provides a fresh demand signal that can shape priorities and workflows, differing from what is available in Search Console. Yet, many merchants still lack access because this pilot is limited to a select group of US accounts. The presence of the AI performance tab within your Merchant Center account determines access, and for those without a product feed, such insights are entirely absent.
Agencies also face challenges interpreting share-of-voice metrics, which can often create confusion. Since the competitive set cannot be customized by the merchant, figures can be misleading; a zero may indicate low impressions, while a hundred could point to an undefined competitive landscape, complicating discussions.
Clicks remain a critical missing metric, leaving an essential data gap. At present, the report does not deliver answers about click-through rates or its competitors, and Google has yet to clarify whether grouped query information will be incorporated into Search Console, especially for sites lacking product feeds.
Looking forward, Google plans to extend the pilot to Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand in the coming months, which will help determine the robustness of these metrics across more accounts and categories. However, it remains uncertain how, or if, these insights will overlap with other reporting updates in Search Console, as Google previously indicated the intention to enhance report metrics over time without specifying details.
As a focal point, the CMA’s nine-month timeline for implementing engagement reporting, including clicks and click-through rates for UK publishers, remains distinct, representing another facet separate from the Merchant Center pilot.
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