Optimization guide for Experience products

Experience products are eligible to serve on the various experiences modules such as the ones on Attraction POIs or Activities and tour search results. Optimizing experience products in your feed increases the chances of the products being shown and reduces the chances of the product being disabled due to data quality related issues.

Provide prices in multiple currencies when possible

If the product on the landing page can be transacted in different currencies, you can improve the accuracy of prices shown on Google by providing multiple currencies for that product in the Feed. Accurate prices helps to:

Build user trust
Improves conversion rates after the user lands on the page
Reduces the chance of products being disabled due to large price discrepancies between the landing page and what Google is serving.

You can implement multiple currency support with the following steps:

Find the list of currency and their prices supported for your product
Determine a currency as the default currency in cases when user chooses a currency which isn't supported (we strongly recommend using the local currency of the product as most users are in country)
In the product feed, for each product/option, create the price_option list in JSON such that:
- Each price_option entry contains a price for a different currency
- Each price_option has geo_criteria set with the country the currency is associated with (e.g. AUD with AU, CHF with CH, EUR with all Euro countries).
- The last price_option should be the default currency with no geo_criteria set.

Example JSON

"price_options": [
  {
    "id": "adult-usd",
    "title": "ADULT",
    "price": { "currencyCode": "USD", "units": "75" },
    "geo-criteria": [{ "country_code": "US", "is_negative": "false"}].   //geo-criteria must be used to show users from which country will see this price.
  },
  {
    "id": "adult-cny",
    "title": "ADULT",
    "price": { "currencyCode": "CNY", "units": "300" },
    "geo-criteria": [{"country_code": "CN", "is_negative": "false"}]
  },
  {
    "id": "adult-eur",   // Except for the last price_option, all other price options should have geocriteria set to limit which countries this currency should be used. This is an example of EU countries
    "title": "ADULT",
    "price": { "currencyCode": "EUR", "units": "70" },
    "geo-criteria": [{"country_code": "AT"}, {"country_code": "BE"}, {"country_code": "CY"}, {"country_code": "EE"}, {"country_code": "FI"}, {"country_code": "FR"}, {"country_code": "DE"}, {"country_code": "GR"}, {"country_code": "IE"}, {"country_code": "IT"}, {"country_code": "LV"}, {"country_code": "LT"}, {"country_code": "LU"},{"country_code": "MT"}, {"country_code": "NL"},{"country_code": "PT"}, {"country_code": "SK"}, {"country_code": "SI"}, {"country_code": "ES"}]
  },
  {
    "id": "adult-default",
    "title": "ADULT-USD",
    "price": { "currencyCode": "USD", "units": "75" }     // Last price_option should default, we recommend using currency from location of product.
  }
]

Provide accurate POI information

Accurate point of interest information allows experience products to serve on relevant Google place sheets and various place sheet specific Ads. For products (or options) to be considered related to an attraction:

the location of the attraction must be provided using the related_location field
the relation_type of the location should be set as RELATION_TYPE_ADMISSION_TICKET if the product includes admission to the point of interest.

Setting the related_location field correct for experience products tells Google whether entry to the attraction is provided when the user purchases the product and enables the products to show when users filter for products that include entry.

Multiple related location entries can be provided for pass type products that provide entry to multiple locations.

The following example JSON representing a tour which visits two locations where one of the location includes entry:

"related_locations": [
  {
    "location": {
      "location": {
        "place_info": {
          "name": "Colosseum",
          "phone_number": "+39 063 99 67 700",
          "website_url": "https://colosseo.it/",
          "coordinates": {
            "latitude": 41.8902102,
            "longitude": 12.4922309
          },
          "structured_address" {
            "street_address": "Piazza del Colosseo, 1",
            "locality": "Roma",
            "administrative_area": "RM",
            "postal_code": "00184",
            "country_code": "IT"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "relation_type": "RELATION_TYPE_ADMISSION_TICKET"
  }, {
    "location": {
      "location": {
        "place_info": {
          "name": "Mutitjulu Waterhole",
          "coordinates": {
            "latitude": -25.3511774,
            "longitude": 131.0326859
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "relation_type": "RELATION_TYPE_RELATED_NO_ADMISSION"
  }
]

Additional details on how locations and points of interest work in Things to do can be found in the Location and point of interest section.

Make sure guided-tours and other category labels are set

All experience products that are guided should have guided-tours set as one of the option-categories fields. This allows Google to accurately know that this is a guided product and prevent the product from accidentally showing on incorrect modules and lead to product takedowns.

Other labels such as family-friendly should also be set as these products as Google uses these labels to choose products to show in certain categorical search queries and filters.

Following is an example of how product category should be set in JSON:

  "option_categories": [
      {
          "label": "guided-tour"
      },
      {
          "label": "family-friendly"
      }
  ],

For the full list of product categories see the Product categories section.

Provide multiple images when possible

Experience products require at least a single image to serve, however it is recommended that multiple images are provided when possible. Google uses multiple images in a number of ways including:

Displaying multiple product images in a carousel
Google can choose the highest quality image to serve to the user, which can provide a better user experience.
Google can serve an alternate image in cases where:
- A particular image does not fit within Google guidelines, such as being too blurry or inappropriate.
- To not clash with other products using similar images.

For more information on how to improve your images, see Image and photography guidelines.

Add fields which provides additional UX treatment and improve ranking

Optional informational fields such as fulfillment_type, confirmation_type gets additional UI treatment on certain surfaces. Seeing this additional information builds user trust, generates additional interest and improves the overall user experience. The completeness of the data provided is used as part of our quality metrics and is taken into account as part of product ranking.

Following fields are particularly important for Experiences products:

ratings
fulfillment_type
confirmation_type
product_features
option_features (if product_features are not provided)
text_features
related_media (required if participating in TTD Ads)

Ensure detailed product descriptions are provided

Detailed product descriptions are shown to users on certain modules when the user clicks the product. High quality product description increases user engagement and improves CTR. Google also makes use of product descriptions when determining if a product should show for certain categorical searches.

Restechs only: Ensure brand_name field is set

If you need to send products sold under different brands, make sure the product/brand_name field is set correctly. Things to do make use of this field when the name of the seller is shown to users.

Restechs only: Make sure product is marked as INVENTORY_TYPE_OPERATOR_DIRECT when appropriate

If you represent the tour operator, make sure the inventory_types field is correctly set. For products that deeplink directly into the landing page of the actual operator of the experience, make sure INVENTORY_TYPE_OPERATOR_DIRECT is provided in order to receive special UX treatment.

Optimization checklist

The following checklist summarizes the best practices for experience products

General optimizations:
- Price represent the amount required for any single adult to participate
- Price provided is the higher of the resident versus non-resident prices
- Total group price is provided for products with minimum no. participants
- Detailed product description is provided
- Product content is localized
- Multiple currency provided
Experience optimizations:
- Locations which the experience reaches are provided as part of related_location
- related location is marked as include admission when product includes admission as part of the price
- Product or options category has guided-tour set
- Provide multiple product images
- If images are in order make sure use_image_order is set to true
- cancellation_policy provided
- fufilment_type is provided
- confirmation_type is provided
- ratings are provided if available
- Restech only: brand_name field provided
- Restech only: INVENTORY_TYPE_OFFICIAL / INVENTORY_TYPE_OPERATOR_DIRECT is correctly set