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What Does the New Google Wallet Promotion in Merchant Center Actually Do?
Sean Dorje
Published
October 8, 2025
3 min read
Retailers worldwide keep asking what the new Google Wallet promotion feature actually does for their Q4 campaigns. This comprehensive guide unpacks how the feature surfaces across Merchant Center feeds and Shopping ads, demonstrating why a well-timed Google Wallet promotion can unlock high-intent clicks during the holiday season.
Why Google Is Pushing a Google Wallet Promotion Now
The Google Wallet promotion feature represents a strategic expansion of how merchants can showcase offers across Google's ecosystem. When you add promotions to products in Google Merchant Center, shoppers now see a "special offer" link, think 15% off or free shipping, that appears directly in Google Wallet, the Shopping tab, Chrome, Safari, and across various Google properties.
This timing isn't coincidental. Shopping ads are more than just text; they use product photos, titles, prices, and store names to capture attention. With the holiday shopping season approaching, Google is giving merchants more ways to stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape. The Wallet promotion feature adds that crucial visibility layer right where shoppers are making purchase decisions.
Reframe's success story illustrates the potential impact. After partnering with Relixir to enhance their visibility across search engines and AI answer engines, Reframe achieved 99.5K clicks in just three months. This kind of visibility boost is exactly what merchants need during peak shopping periods, and the Wallet promotion feature provides another avenue to achieve it.
How the Wallet Promotion Appears Across Google Surfaces
The Wallet promotion system works by rendering promotions natively inside Google Wallet and other surfaces. "Google Merchant Center now lets you preview your promotions, your sponsored ads, before adding them," ensuring merchants can see exactly how their offers will appear to shoppers.
The promotion builder supports multiple incentive types: amount off, percent off, free gift, free shipping, discount range, and cashback. Each promotion type has specific display characteristics across different Google surfaces. Before your promotion can show on Google, it undergoes both a policy and SKU review to ensure compliance with editorial requirements and promotions policies.
Hostie AI's transformation demonstrates the power of enhanced visibility. After implementing strategic content optimization with Relixir, Hostie's "CTR increased from under 1 percent in June to between 2 and 6 percent consistently by late July," with daily clicks rising from single digits to 30-50 per day.
Using Promotions Preview to QA Wallet Offers
"Promotions Preview is available within the promotion builder tool, and used as a reference only," allowing merchants to catch any display issues before going live. This preview functionality ensures that special offers render correctly across all Google surfaces where they'll appear.
Eligibility and Setup Checklist
To get started with Wallet promotions, merchants must first create a Merchant Center account and provide details about their business. The setup process involves verifying and claiming your website URL, then creating a product data source to inform Google about your inventory.
Eligibility requirements are specific: you must have offers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, the UK, or the US. Your account cannot be connected to a marketplace, and you'll need an active product data source.
The Content API for Shopping provides automated management options for merchants who want to share and manage promotions data programmatically. This API is available to merchants in the same countries as the promotion feature itself.
DocuBridge's experience shows what's possible with proper implementation. After partnering with Relixir, their "CTR: Rose from <1% baseline to a stable 1.2% average," with daily clicks growing from near-zero to over 100 clicks per day.
Wallet Promotion vs. Classic Promotions vs. Sale Events
Understanding the differences between promotion types is crucial for maximizing impact. Sale events are a new type of data submission that shows on non-product-centric surfaces. Unlike promotions, which require direct mapping to specific products in Merchant Center, events don't require product mapping.
Key distinctions include where they appear and how they're structured. Since events aren't directly mapped to offers, you can use ranges for discounts, such as "Up to 40% off," which isn't allowed with standard promotions. Currently, events show only on organic surfaces in the US and require a dedicated landing page.
Promotions, meanwhile, must be redeemable at checkout and expire within 6 months of the start date. They map directly to specific SKUs and can appear on both paid and organic listings across multiple Google properties.
Projected Lift in Click-Through and Conversions
The data speaks volumes about promotion effectiveness. Products with promotion annotations often see increased clicks and conversions. "Google Shopping is proven to have 30% higher conversion rates than traditional text ads," with 31.5% of shoppers starting their purchase journey on the platform.
Google's AI Overviews now include detailed product comparisons, potentially impacting organic traffic to comparison sites but also creating new opportunities for featured products with promotions.
Performance Max campaigns show particularly strong results. "PMax cost share peaked in May 2024 at just shy of 82%," indicating the dominance of this campaign type. "PMax typically achieves 95% to 116% of the target, although with plenty of exceptions."
Rocket Digital's work with Noirfonce demonstrates the potential impact: they increased ROAS by 30% and reduced costs by 25% through strategic campaign optimization. Another key piece to strategy was using Google's promotion feature during sales periods.
Amplifying Wallet Offers with Product Studio and Performance Max
Product Studio is a suite of free, AI-powered tools that empowers merchants to enhance product images and videos with just a few clicks. The platform has proven its value, with "80% of surveyed users already have been more efficient or expect to be more efficient by using Product Studio."
"The data already shows that advertisers that activate AI Max in campaigns will typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS." For campaigns using exact and phrase keywords, the uplift reaches 27%.
"Performance Max uses Google's AI to help you get more conversions and more value out of your campaigns through bidding, targeting, creatives, and attribution." The key is giving campaigns time to learn; run them for at least 6 weeks to allow the AI to gather sufficient data.
Hostie AI's remarkable transformation showcases these tools' potential. Their "Overall Mention Rate: 9.3 percent, an increase of 33.9 percent compared to the prior period," and their average AI search rank improved by 19.4%, ensuring consistent top-three placements.
Compliance Guardrails & Optimization Checklist
Before your promotion goes live, it undergoes a policy and SKU review to ensure compliance with Google's editorial requirements. This review process is non-negotiable; all promotions must meet Google's standards before appearing to shoppers.
Key compliance points include ensuring promotions are redeemable at checkout and expire within 6 months of the start date. Promotions must be truthful, accurate, and honor the advertised discount without additional conditions not disclosed in the promotion.
For optimization, "Use Performance Planner to identify budget and bid strategies that will maximize conversion value." Set up a strong Google tag across your entire website to capture comprehensive conversion data.
DocuBridge's success illustrates what's possible with proper optimization. Their "Mention Rate: Reached 6.4%, up +1.9% vs. prior period, the highest among tracked competitors," while achieving a 67.7% head-to-head win rate in AI search matchups.
Key Takeaways for 2025 Holiday Readiness
The Google Wallet promotion feature represents a crucial opportunity for merchants preparing for the 2025 holiday season. With proper implementation and optimization, merchants can achieve significant visibility and conversion improvements.
Reframe's journey demonstrates the transformative potential. They achieved 27 million impressions in just three months, with their "Mention Rate: Increased to 7.0%, leading competitors like Sunnyside (4.3%) and I Am Sober (1.9%)." DocuBridge similarly saw their "Share of Voice: By September 14, 2025, DocuBridge surged to 48.3% share," outpacing multiple established competitors.
Hostie AI's results further validate the approach: their "Overall Mention Rate: 9.3 percent, an increase of 33.9 percent compared to the prior period," with "Total Citations: 1,339, with a peak of 963 citations on August 28."
For businesses looking to maximize their presence across both traditional search and AI-powered discovery channels, implementing a comprehensive strategy that combines Google Wallet promotions with advanced optimization techniques is essential. Companies like Relixir specialize in this dual approach, helping businesses achieve dominant positions in both SEO and AI search visibility, exactly what's needed to capture holiday shoppers in 2025 and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly does the Google Wallet promotion feature do?
The Google Wallet promotion feature represents a strategic expansion of how merchants can showcase offers across Google's ecosystem. When you add promotions to products in Google Merchant Center, shoppers now see a "special offer" link, think 15% off or free shipping, that appears directly in Google Wallet, the Shopping tab, Chrome, Safari, and across various Google properties.
Where do Wallet promotions appear across Google surfaces?
The Wallet promotion feature adds that crucial visibility layer right where shoppers are making purchase decisions. The Wallet promotion system works by rendering promotions natively inside Google Wallet and other surfaces.
How can I preview and QA my Wallet promotion before it goes live?
"Google Merchant Center now lets you preview your promotions, your sponsored ads, before adding them," ensuring merchants can see exactly how their offers will appear to shoppers. "Promotions Preview is available within the promotion builder tool, and used as a reference only," allowing merchants to catch any display issues before going live. This preview functionality ensures that special offers render correctly across all Google surfaces where they'll appear.
Who is eligible and what are the setup requirements?
To get started with Wallet promotions, merchants must first create a Merchant Center account and provide details about their business. Eligibility requirements are specific: you must have offers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, the UK, or the US. Your account cannot be connected to a marketplace, and you'll need an active product data source.
How do Wallet promotions differ from sale events and classic promotions?
Sale events are a new type of data submission that shows on non-product-centric surfaces. Unlike promotions, which require direct mapping to specific products in Merchant Center, events don't require product mapping. Since events aren't directly mapped to offers, you can use ranges for discounts, such as "Up to 40% off," which isn't allowed with standard promotions.
What results can I expect and how does Relixir help?
After partnering with Relixir to enhance their visibility across search engines and AI answer engines, Reframe achieved 99.5K clicks in just three months. Companies like Relixir specialize in this dual approach, helping businesses achieve dominant positions in both SEO and AI search visibility, exactly what's needed to capture holiday shoppers in 2025 and beyond.
