"Why is the sale price not shown as struck through in my offers?" is a question that our Google CSS customers at Label Up have asked us several times.

Because many retailers stumble at this point: they lower prices, expect visible discounts in their shopping ads – and Google remains silent. What at first glance looks like a technical error is often a small but crucial thought error in the feed setup.

In this article, we show you what prerequisites must be met for Google to actually display your sale prices, why a poorly maintained feed makes your offers invisible – and how you can do it better with Label Up.

This is the difference that strike-through prices make in Google Shopping Ads

In the Google Shopping feed, every detail matters – and the struck-through price (“Strike-Through”) is one of the strongest conversion drivers. It makes the discount visible at a glance. Users immediately recognize that they are saving – and are more likely to click. Studies show that offers with clearly visualized price advantages achieve significantly higher click-through rates.

By the way, Google rewards this too: ads with high relevance and CTR perform better in the auction system. Specifically, this means: if your sale is visible, it pays off double – more traffic, better placements.

But here lies the catch: the strike-through display is not automatically guaranteed. Even if a product is discounted, Google does not always show that.

Prerequisites for Sale Price in Google Shopping

Simply adding the sale_price in the feed is not enough – Google has clear conditions under which the struck-through price is displayed at all. And these are stricter than many think.

For the strike-through to work, the following criteria must be met:

• The sale price must be lower than the regular price.

• The discount must be at least 5% – but no more than 90%.

• The regular price must have been active for at least 30 days in the last 200 days.

• The price and sale price must be visible on the landing page. Transparency is a must – otherwise, Google will reject it.

  
  

And still, it is true: even if you do everything right, the display is not guaranteed.

Google dynamically decides which annotations are displayed – depending on relevance, performance, and data quality.

With the right setup, you can ensure that you even have a chance at visibility.

How Google evaluates your Sale: Avoiding Invisible Discounts

For your offer to be considered a real discount, your original price must have been active for at least 30 days within the last 200 days. These days do not have to be consecutive – but they must appear in the system.

With this, Google wants to protect users from fake offers. If you simply enter a fictitious price as "SRP" and then generously discount it, the algorithm checks that – and does not display your "deal" as a deal at all.

Sales Prices in Practice:

Imagine you want to start a discount campaign for a product.

Regular price: £59.99, Discount price: £39.99

You think: "Easy," just change the price in the feed to £39.99 & think you are done.

But what happens? - Google does not show a struck-through price. No sale tag. No visibility.

Why? - Because you never used the sale_price attribute.

Google has saved the lower price directly as the new standard price. In the price history, it appears as if the product was never more expensive. No discount. No strike-through.

If you now try to correct the whole thing – that is, reset the price back to £59.99, sale_price to £39.99 – unfortunately, it's too late. Google no longer recognizes a "real" discount and does not display your ad as a sale.

Other Causes of Missing Strike-Through Prices in Google Shopping

Even if price and sale_price are correctly maintained – Google is not showing your discount? Then it could be due to one of these points:

1. Never listed the full price?

Many shops rely on low prices from the start – clever for conversion, bad for the algorithm.

If your product never had the regular price in the feed, Google lacks the reference point to recognize a discount. No "strike-through", no sale display.

2. Did you always just adjust the price directly?

If you have previously managed your discounts simply through the price attribute (instead of sale_price), Google has no comparison data. If you now switch to sale_price, you need patience – it takes time until the historical data basis is fulfilled.

3. Landing page does not match the feed

Google checks whether the specified price and the sale price are also visible on the product page.

If the comparison is missing or the discount does not seem credible? → No annotation.

4. Technical inconsistencies in the feed

Missing currencies, erroneous updates, contradictory information – all of this can confuse Google.

The motto is: Clean feed = Visible sale.

More Google Shopping Annotations for More Visibility:  

Free & Fast Delivery

Possible display texts:

• Free shipping

• Free 2-day shipping

What you need for that:

In the Merchant Center, free shipping must be correctly documented – either directly or via the feed attributes.

Your landing page and checkout must clearly reflect this.

Delivery times must be realistically and accurately specified in the feed as well as on the website.

Price Drop

The "what" price below the current price – a visual eye-catcher.

Conditions:

• The current price is at least 5% below the average price of the last 60 days.

• Automatically recognized – no sale_price needed.

• Also shows a small "Price Drop" badge.

Important: Consistency and feed hygiene also count here. Sudden price changes without a clear history? → No display.

Other Product Attributes

Material, size, color, special features – Google can display additional info with complete product data.

Requirement: All relevant attributes must be present in the feed and appear on the landing page. The more relevant fields you maintain cleanly, the more annotations you can trigger.

• Return Policy (e.g., "60-Day Return Policy")

Displayed as:

• Free returns

• 60-Day Return Policy

Requirement: You must correctly document your return policies in the Merchant Center under "Shipping & Returns" – and they must match 1:1 with the information on your website.

Clean policy = building trust + higher click chances.

In summary: Google Shopping Tips to Take Away

Discounts that no one sees bring you no revenue. And especially in the competitive Google Shopping environment, it is not the highest discount that counts, but the most visible one.

For your deals to perform, you need more than just a low price – you need a well-maintained, data-rich setup.

• Always use price + sale_price, not just one price value.

• Pay attention to the 30-of-200-day price history before starting sale actions.

• Keep your feed & your landing pages in sync – with prices, attributes & policies.

• Understand that Google only shows sale ads and annotations when the algorithm has confidence in your data quality.

• With tools and LabelUp’s setup, you can improve your Google Shopping Ads, structure your sale logic cleanly, and ensure that only the products that truly deserve visibility are seen.

  
  

Further Tools & Articles:

The Labelizer – automatic product segmentation for your PMAX campaigns

Google CSS explained: How to become a partner yourself – with whitelabel CSS from Label Up