Short answer. Merchant Center disapproves a product for “Promotional overlay on image” when the main photo carries text or graphics that are not the product: sale badges, discount percentages, watermarks, logos, “free shipping” ribbons. Replace the image with a clean shot of the product, or turn on Google’s automatic image improvements and let it try to remove the overlay.
| Shown in Merchant Center as | Promotional overlay on image [image_link] |
|---|---|
| Attribute | image_link |
| Effect | Product disapproved |
| Where to find it | Products → Needs attention, then filter by this issue |
| Free check | Not something a feed file shows; see below for what the check can tell you instead |
What Merchant Center means by “Promotional overlay on image [image_link]”
Google looked at the pixels of your main image and found something on it that is not the product: a “SALE” ribbon, a discount percentage, a watermark, a retailer logo, a “free shipping” banner, a call to action. Google’s image_link requirements say the image must not contain promotional elements, watermarks, calls to action or price information, and its page on data quality disapprovals describes this issue as needing “an unobstructed view of the product that doesn’t contain additional promotional elements”.
It is a disapproval: the product does not show until the image changes. Google detects overlays automatically, and the detection is good enough that a small badge in a corner is enough to trigger it.
Why it happens
- Sale badges baked into the image. A designer added “-30%” or “SALE” to the photo for the storefront, and the same file goes into the feed.
- Watermarks. Shop name or logo overlaid to stop image theft. Google treats it as an obstruction regardless of intent.
- Supplier or marketplace images that carry the supplier’s logo, a “new” flash, or a “best seller” sticker.
- Feed picks the wrong image. The clean product shot exists but the first gallery image, which many exports use, is the promotional one.
- Text in lifestyle shots. An image with a caption, a price tag or a size chart rendered into it.
How to fix it
In Shopify
Reorder the product’s media so the first image is a clean shot of the product on a plain background; the Google & YouTube channel and most feed apps take the first image as image_link. Keep the promotional version further down the gallery, where it can travel as an additional_image_link. If every image has the badge, re-export the photo from the design file without the overlay layer.
In WooCommerce
The product image (the one set in “Product image”, not the gallery) is what feeds use. Set it to the clean shot and move the badged one into the product gallery. If you use a plugin that draws sale badges over images on the storefront, check whether it also writes them into the file; most only overlay at display time, which is fine.
In a CSV or XML feed
Two options. Replace image_link for the affected ids with a clean image, or accept Google’s offer: on the issue’s card in Merchant Center, turn on automatic image improvements and Google attempts to remove the overlay itself, replacing your image with the cleaned version when it succeeds. The automatic route is worth trying for a large catalogue; it does not work on every image, and the ones it cannot clean stay disapproved.
How long until Merchant Center clears it
After the feed refreshes with the new URL, Google re-fetches the image and re-evaluates. Expect 24–72 hours for the Needs attention page to update. With automatic image improvements, cleaned images are re-approved by Google on its own schedule; the card shows how many it managed.
What FeedRobin does about it
This one is about pixels, and a feed file does not show pixels. The free check does not claim to detect overlays, and we would rather say so than guess. What it does catch is the sibling problem in text: promotional words in titles (“SALE”, “free shipping”, prices), which usually travel with the badged images and are just as much a policy issue. For a connected store we send the product’s main image as the platform reports it, so reordering the gallery in your store is enough to change what Google sees on the next sync.
Questions merchants ask
Is a small brand logo in the corner an overlay?
Yes. Google’s image requirements say no promotional elements, watermarks or logos on the main image. A logo printed on the product itself is fine; a logo added to the photo is not.
What does “automatic image improvements” actually do?
Google tries to remove the overlay from the image, and if it succeeds it replaces your image with the cleaned version and re-approves the product. If it cannot clean the image, the product stays disapproved and you still need a new photo.
Can I keep the badge on my website but not in the feed?
Yes, as long as the feed points at a clean image. The rule is about the image Google shows, not the one on your product page. Use additional_image_link for the lifestyle or promotional shots.
Sources
- Fixing Merchant Center disapprovals for product data quality violations — Google Merchant Center Help
- Image link [image_link] — Google Merchant Center Help
- Product issues (Content API for Shopping): the issue codes and the titles Merchant Center shows — Google Merchant Center Help