// Sale price
Google Merchant Center sale price — make discounts actually show
Sale price is the field that triggers the strikethrough display on Shopping ads. Get it wrong and the discount silently won't show — even if your store is on sale. Get it right and your CTR jumps measurably.
// Find price mismatches
Check sale price signals on your live store
Our scanner reads your product page schema and reports possible feed-vs-page price mismatches before they cost you visibility.
Scan my prices →How sale price actually works
You submit two fields: price (the regular price) and sale_price (the discounted price). Google compares them and displays the strikethrough if the discount qualifies.
Plus an optional sale_price_effective_date — ISO 8601 start/end range. Without it the discount is treated as ongoing.
What qualifies as a real sale
- Discount of at least 5%.
- Sale price must actually be lower than the regular price.
- Regular price must have been the real selling price recently (Google checks history).
- Sale price must match the product page sale display.
- Currency must match the target country.
6 mistakes that silently kill the strikethrough
- Permanent fake regular price — if the 'regular' price has never been the actual selling price, Google ignores the sale.
- Sale not visible on product page — feed says sale, page shows no strikethrough → ignored.
- Tax/shipping changes between page and feed — tax-inclusive vs exclusive mismatch counts as a price mismatch.
- Effective dates expired or future — dates outside the current window mean the sale_price field is ignored.
- Discount under 5% — Google's minimum threshold. Small discounts are skipped.
- Different currency in feed vs target — Euro sale_price on a US-targeted feed gets ignored.