New! Set Product Feed Character Limits With Feed Rules

Exciting update for WooCommerce store owners! AdTribes Product Feed Elite now includes a Character Count condition in the Rules Builder. It checks whether a selected feed field falls above or below the length you set, then automatically runs your chosen action for matching products.

This becomes especially useful once your product data reaches different sales channels. A title or description that looks fine in WooCommerce may be shortened in the listing or fall outside a channel’s requirements, which can hide useful details or lead to warnings and disapprovals.

With the new Character Count condition, you can manage product feed character limits as part of your regular feed workflow. Below, we’ll look at why these limits matter, how the condition works, and three practical ways to use it.

Why Product Feed Character Limits Matter More Than You Think

Each sales channel sets its own field-length requirements and handles over-limit content differently. A platform may shorten the text it displays, issue a warning, or reject the affected field or listing.

Google Shopping is a useful example. According to Google Merchant Center Help, the Google Shopping title character limit is 150 characters, although shoppers usually see only the first 70 or fewer depending on screen size. Descriptions can contain up to 5,000 characters, but Google recommends using around 500 to 1,000 characters and placing the most important details within the first 160 to 500. Other sales channels publish their own limits, so a field that fits one feed may need a different rule in another.

When a field exceeds those limits, two common issues can follow:

• Cut-off titles can hide useful product details. When a title is shortened in the listing, details such as size, color, material, or model may not appear. Front-loading the most important information and keeping title length under control can help. We cover this in our WooCommerce product title optimization guide.
• Over-limit fields can create feed issues. Some channels may reject fields that do not meet their specifications, which can prevent the affected product from appearing until the issue is corrected. Our guides on Google Shopping feed requirements and how to fix Google Shopping feed errors explain what to check.

There’s also the time involved in checking these fields manually. Reviewing a large catalog can quickly become repetitive, especially when each channel follows different limits. A feed rule gives you a more consistent way to handle those checks as the feed is generated.

Here’s a quick look at the limits that trip stores up most, using Google Shopping as the example (always check each channel’s own feed specification for its exact numbers):

Field	Google limit	Practical guidance
Title	150 characters	Place the most important details within the first 70 characters
Description	5,000 characters	Aim for around 500 to 1,000 characters, with key details in the first 160 to 500

What The Character Count Condition Does

The Character Count condition is a new option inside the AdTribes Product Feed Elite Rules Builder. Feed rules work on a simple “if this, then that” logic: you set a condition, and when a product matches, an action runs. Character Count is a new condition, so it powers the “if” side of that rule.

It gives you four ways to compare a field’s length:

• Character Count Greater Than: matches fields longer than your chosen number, making it useful for targeting values above a channel limit or your preferred length.
• Character Count Greater Than or Equal: matches at your number and above.
• Character Count Less Than: matches fields shorter than your number, handy for finding thin content.
• Character Count Less Than or Equal: matches at your number and below.

Once a product matches, you decide how to handle it. The action you attach to the rule shapes the outcome, so you can tailor it to each field and channel using the actions the Rules Builder already offers:

• Exclude Attribute removes an over-limit field from the feed for the matched products.
• Set Attribute swaps the field for the value of another field you’ve prepared.
• Find and Replace removes or replaces a specific piece of text you name.
• Set Value replaces the field with one fixed value you enter.

A couple more things worth knowing:

• It counts characters, not words, and it counts them accurately even for accented or non-Latin text, so your limits stay reliable on multilingual and international feeds.
• It works across supported feed fields and channels. You can apply it to titles, descriptions, custom labels, and other fields available in the Rules Builder, then set a different character limit for each feed.

How To Set A Product Feed Character Limit With Feed Rules

Setting this up takes one rule. You’re building an “if this, then that” instruction: if a field is over (or under) your limit, then run the action you choose. Here’s the full flow, using a Meta feed as the example.

Step 1: Open your feed’s Rules tab

Edit an existing feed or create a new one, then open the Rules tab. You’ll land on the Rules Builder. Rules run while the feed is generated, so they shape what the channel receives without changing your actual WooCommerce products.

Step 2: Build the condition (the “IF”)

Add a new rule and set the condition. Choose the field to check, such as Product description, select Character Count Greater Than (Elite), and enter the character limit you want to use. In this example, we’ll use 80 to demonstrate the setup. The rule will then match products whose descriptions contain more than 80 characters.

Step 3: Choose the action (the “THEN”)

Now decide what happens to a matched product. Pick the field to act on, then the action that fits your goal:

• Exclude Attribute to remove an optional field from the feed for matching products.
• Set Attribute to swap in a shorter field you maintain, such as a short description.
• Find and Replace to strip a specific phrase that bloats the field.
• Set Value to replace the field with one fixed value you enter.

In the example above, we chose Product description as the field to update, selected Set Attribute, and used Product short description as the replacement. This means products with descriptions longer than 80 characters will use the shorter description in the generated feed.

Click Save Rules to apply your changes.

Three Ways To Put Character Count Rules To Work

Once the pattern clicks, the same condition can support several everyday feed workflows. Here are three practical ways to use it.

1. Drop an over-limit optional field automatically

This is one of the simplest ways to use the condition. An optional or custom attribute may occasionally exceed a channel’s limit even when the rest of the product data is ready to use. In that case, removing the optional field may be more practical than excluding the entire product.

Set a rule like IF [your attribute], Character Count Greater Than [limit], THEN Exclude Attribute. This removes only the optional field for matching products while leaving the rest of their product data in the feed. Make sure the field is not required by the channel before excluding it.

2. Swap in a shorter field you’ve prepared

If you keep a shorter version of a field, such as a short title or short description, you can serve it exactly where the full one runs too long. It stays accurate because you control the replacement text, and it only kicks in for the products that need it.

Use IF Title, Character Count Greater Than, 150, THEN Set Attribute and point it at your shorter field. Products under the limit keep their full title, while the ones over it fall back to the version you prepared, with no manual editing per product.

3. Strip a known phrase that bloats a field

Sometimes the extra length comes from predictable text, such as a fixed tagline or boilerplate added to product descriptions. When you know the exact phrase causing the issue, Find and Replace lets you remove only that text from matching fields.

Set IF Description, Character Count Greater Than [limit], THEN Find and Replace, then leave the replacement value empty. The rest of the description remains in place, and the action runs only on products that go over the number you set.

You can also pair these rules with the Feed Validator, available with the Plus and Business plans. Character Count lets you apply actions based on field length, while the Feed Validator checks for other feed issues before submission.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wrapping Up

Character limits can be easy to miss until a title gets cut short or a feed reports an issue. With the new Character Count condition in Product Feed Elite, you can apply a chosen action whenever a field is longer or shorter than the number you set, all without changing the original product data in WooCommerce.

Start with one feed and one field, then preview the result before adding the same type of rule elsewhere. It’s a practical way to manage product feed character limits more consistently across channels with different requirements.