Lesson 1: Where Products Appear on Google, Including AI Mode

Your example shop: Fernleaf Ceramics

In this course you will work on one example shop. Fernleaf Ceramics is a small Shopify store that sells handmade mugs, planters and serving bowls. It has some sales from social media, but its products almost never show up on Google. By the end of the course, every Fernleaf product should be correctly listed in Google Merchant Center and able to appear across Google.

This first level is a map of where products can appear. Set-up comes in the next level.

Step 1: Learn the surfaces and which are free or paid

Google shows product results in two ways:

• Free listings: unpaid product results. You turn them on in Merchant Center as a marketing method, and they can start showing once Google has reviewed your products. You need no ad budget.
• Paid placements: Shopping ads served by a Google Ads campaign, for example a Shopping campaign or Performance Max. Ads only run when a campaign is set up and has a budget. Google marks them as sponsored.

According to Google's Merchant Center Help (read 20 October 2026), free listings can appear on:

1. The Shopping tab: the main product browsing experience, including free local listings for products sold in store.
2. Google Search: product rich results, plus carousels and panels in some countries.
3. Google Images: products marked as available to buy.
4. Google Lens: results for visually similar products.
5. YouTube: product lists in some countries.
6. Gemini and AI Mode: Google's AI shopping experiences draw on the same product data.

Paid Shopping ads can appear on Search, the Shopping tab and Images. Performance Max can also reach YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. According to Google Ads Help, ads from Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can also appear above, below or inside AI Overviews. Google says ads inside AI Overviews are still in early stages and available in English in a limited list of countries. Google is still expanding ads inside AI Mode answers, so check the current Google Ads Help page before you rely on them.

Rule of thumb: most surfaces have both a free slot and a paid slot. Free listings get you in the door. Ads buy you extra, more prominent placement.

Step 2: Follow one product record to AI Mode and Search

Take one Fernleaf product, the Sage Green Stoneware Mug, 350 ml:

1. The record is created. Fernleaf's Shopify app sends the mug's title, price, image, availability, link and identifiers to Merchant Center. Product structured data on the shop's own pages is a second, crawled route.
2. Google reviews it. Merchant Center checks the data against Google's policies and product data rules. Problems show up under Needs attention.
3. It joins the Shopping Graph. Approved products go into Google's Shopping Graph. Google describes this as an index of more than 50 billion product listings, about 2 billion of which are refreshed every hour.
4. A shopper searches. In standard Search, a query such as "green stoneware mug" can bring up the mug as a free product result, or as a Shopping ad if Fernleaf runs a campaign.
5. AI Mode builds an answer. A conversational query such as "a dishwasher-safe mug for a gardener, under £20" makes AI Mode pull matching products from the same Shopping Graph and show them as product panels. Clear, complete data makes a match more likely.
6. The shopper buys. Usually they click through to Fernleaf's site. In the US, Google also offers agentic checkout for eligible merchants. This is a limited, evolving feature covered later in the course.

Key point: one record feeds every surface. Fix the record once and every surface benefits.

Task 1: Record which result formats appear

DO this now:

1. Open Google in a private browser window so your own history doesn't skew the results.
2. Search for one of your shop's categories, for example stoneware planter.
3. Write down every product format you see:
   • sponsored product ads at the top or side
   • unpaid product results or carousels
   • an AI Overview, and whether it shows products
4. Open the Shopping, Images and AI Mode tabs and note what each one shows.
5. Save a screenshot with today's date. You will compare it with later results.

Task 2: Check the shop's surfaces in Merchant Center

If your shop already has a Merchant Center account, DO this now. If not, read along; you will create one in Level 2.

1. Sign in to Merchant Center.
2. In the left menu, go to Marketing → Marketing methods. Note which methods are active, for example free listings, Shopping ads or free local listings.
3. Go to Products → All products.
4. Use the filter to choose Marketing methods and select Free listings. Note how many products are approved and how many are limited or not showing.
5. Repeat for Shopping ads. If no Google Ads campaign is running, these products are eligible but are not getting paid placements.

Task 3: Start a verification log

Google changes these features often. Keep a simple log in a spreadsheet or document:

Add a row every time a lesson uses a new feature.

Key takeaways

• Free listings and paid Shopping ads draw on the same Merchant Center product data.
• Free listings can show on the Shopping tab, Search, Images, Lens, YouTube (in some countries) and Google's AI experiences.
• Shopping ads need a Google Ads campaign. Performance Max extends their reach to YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.
• AI Mode chooses products from the Shopping Graph, so complete and accurate data matters.
• Check where your products show in Merchant Center: Products → All products, filtered by marketing method.
• Write down the date you read each feature's documentation and its status.