Images cause three of the most common disapprovals in Google Merchant Center — and unlike text attributes, an image problem blocks the product completely. Here are the three errors, what Google actually checks, and the fix for each.
“Image too small”
Google requires at least 100×100 px for most products and 250×250 px for apparel until 31 January 2027, and 500×500 from that date; it recommends around 1500×1500. The usual culprit is a feed that links to a thumbnail variant of the image instead of the original. Fix: make sure the feed uses the full-size image URL. In Shopify, that means the CDN URL without a size suffix like _100x100.
“Promotional overlay on image”
Text baked into the product photo — “SALE”, “-30%”, “FREE SHIPPING”, watermarks, logos — gets the product disapproved. Google's systems detect overlaid text automatically, and appeals rarely succeed because the rule (in the Shopping ads policies) is absolute: the image must show the product and nothing else. Fix: keep one clean photo per product as the main image and put promotional badges on the website layer (theme), not in the image file itself. Sale messaging in ads comes from the sale_price field, which Google renders as a proper discount badge — more effective than any overlay.
“Missing image link”
A product with no image at all can't run anywhere — Google, Meta and the comparators all reject it. This usually happens with newly imported catalogs or variants that never got a photo assigned. These slip through easily because the store page might still look fine (showing the parent product's image) while the feed row for the variant is empty. Fix: assign at least the parent product's image to every variant, and audit the catalog for gaps regularly rather than waiting for the disapproval email.
How FeedRobin handles it
FeedRobin flags every product without an image before the channels see it (so does the free feed check, which also measures the pixel size of a sample of images), counts them on your dashboard with a plain-sentence fix, and always links the full-resolution image from your store. Fix the photo once in your store, and every feed updates automatically.
Sources
Google's image_link attribute page (sizes, overlays, formats) and the Shopping ads policies; Meta's image rules are in its product data specifications.