YouTube Ads and YouTube Shopping for Shopify Stores

A Shopify store can run YouTube ads and sell through YouTube Shopping, both through Google’s free Google & YouTube sales channel. YouTube Shopping shows your products under your own videos and live streams, and eligible US merchants get checkout inside the YouTube app. YouTube ads run as Performance Max campaigns from your synced product feed, so your products can appear on YouTube without a channel of your own. YouTube Shopping has entry requirements (1,000 subscribers and a channel approved for monetization); ads do not.

YouTube Shopping or YouTube ads

Both start from the same setup: the Google & YouTube channel connected to Merchant Center. If you have not done that yet, follow our guide to Google Merchant Center and Shopify first.

Set up YouTube Shopping

Check the requirements. Shopify lists these for YouTube Shopping through the channel:

• The channel has at least 1,000 subscribers and is approved for monetization.
• You are in a country supported by the YouTube Partner Program.
• The email of your YouTube channel account has owner or manager access to the channel and matches a staff account with full permissions in Shopify. If the emails differ, add the Shopify email to YouTube as a channel manager.
• The channel is not marked Made for Kids (and does not have many videos marked that way), has no strikes under YouTube’s Hate Speech guidelines, and does not have many videos violating monetization policies.
• A music channel must be an Official Artist Channel.

Step 1: connect the store in YouTube Studio.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio and open Monetization > Shopping.
2. In Add products from your store, click Connect store.
3. Choose Shopify, click Continue, then GO TO SHOPIFY.

Step 2: finish in Shopify.

1. Go to Sales channels > Google & YouTube.
2. In the YouTube Shopping section, click Get started.
3. Confirm that the store and channel meet the requirements, and select your YouTube channel.
4. Confirm the Product feed settings, agree to the YouTube Shopping terms, and click Complete setup.

Your YouTube channel then appears on the channel’s Overview and Settings pages. Choose which products to show on each video’s watch page and in live streams from YouTube. Orders, returns and payments from YouTube Shopping are handled in your Shopify admin like any other order.

In-app checkout in the US, redirects elsewhere

For eligible US merchants, viewers can select a product, add it to a cart and pay without leaving the YouTube app; the video pauses when they start checkout. To turn it on, submit your support contact details: Sales channels > Google & YouTube > Settings > Shopping enhancements > YouTube embedded checkout, fill in the form and click Enable embedded checkout. Removing those details later sends buyers back to your store instead.

Some products always redirect to your store: personalized items, product bundles, subscriptions, products excluded from checkout in Merchant Center, and products with descriptions over 60,000 characters. If other products redirect too, Shopify lists three causes to check: images in the product description still being crawled, missing shipping settings in Merchant Center, or no support contact email.

Outside the US, a viewer who taps a product goes to your online store in their browser and checks out there.

Run YouTube ads from your product feed

YouTube ads for a store run as Performance Max campaigns. They replaced Smart Shopping campaigns and show your products across YouTube, Google Search, Gmail and Google Maps from one campaign. You create them in Google Merchant Center, which opens from the Google & YouTube channel, and you set a daily budget that Google bills to your Google Ads account.

What decides whether these ads work is mostly the feed and the video:

• A clean feed. Performance Max builds ads from your synced products, so disapproved products are left out. Fix GTINs, images and descriptions in Shopify first.
• Your own video. Without one, the campaign has less to show on YouTube. In our view, a 15 to 30 second clip of the product in use, filmed on a phone, is enough to start.
• A budget test. Run one campaign on your best-selling collection for a few weeks before judging it, and read orders in Shopify’s marketing reports alongside Google Ads’ own numbers. Ad approvals are checked and fixed in Google Ads.

If you do not have a channel with 1,000 subscribers, creators who do can show your product to their audience instead; our guide to YouTube influencers for Shopify covers that, and our guide to video marketing for Shopify covers the videos themselves. The rest of the series is in the marketing and SEO hub.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell on YouTube with Shopify? Install the free Google & YouTube channel, connect your store in YouTube Studio under Monetization > Shopping, and finish setup in the channel. Your channel needs at least 1,000 subscribers and monetization approval.

Can customers buy without leaving YouTube? In the United States, eligible merchants can turn on embedded checkout by submitting support contact details in the Google & YouTube channel. Elsewhere, products link to your online store.

Do I need 1,000 subscribers to advertise on YouTube? The subscriber requirement applies to YouTube Shopping on your own channel. Performance Max ads from your product feed can show on YouTube without it.

Where do I manage YouTube Shopping orders? In your Shopify admin. Orders, returns and payments from YouTube Shopping appear there like other orders.

Facts come from the Shopify Help Center pages on YouTube Shopping and Performance Max, read on October 23, 2026.