To show your products in a dynamic ad, you need to create a catalogue. A catalogue is a container that stores all of your product information. A catalogue allows Facebook to generate dynamic ads for your products and show personalised recommendations to people who view your ad.

There are three parts that make up your catalogue:

• A catalogue, which acts as a container for your product information.

• A data feed, which contains the image URLs, descriptions, prices, availability and other attributes for all of the products that you want to advertise. You can have multiple data feeds within a catalogue.

• A product set, which is a group of items from your inventory in a catalogue. Product sets allow you to control the items that appear in your ad. When you create a product set, you use filters (such as availability, brand, category, product type or price) to define what goes into the product set.

Note: If you're using Business Manager, you need to be assigned as an employee of your business, or be an employee of an agency assigned to a business, to upload a catalogue. If you plan on creating new catalogues, you need to have the catalogue admin role in Business Manager. Learn more about catalogue roles and their permissions.

Already have a catalogue with a feed management partner? You can upload the catalogue directly to Facebook. Browse feed management partners.

In this article:

• Data feed basics
• Create a data feed
• Create a catalogue
• Upload a data feed
• Create a product set
• Best practices

Data feed basics

Setting up your data feed correctly is important if you want to have a successful catalogue. If you leave out required information in your data feed, your catalogue may not work properly. If you're creating a data feed file, you can use these supported file formats: CSV, TSV, XML (RSS) and XML (ATOM).

CSV/TSV

This format is typically associated with spreadsheet programs (for example, Microsoft Excel). With this format, you list all of the information about your products in different columns. In the first row, you enter the names of each attribute that makes up your inventory. In the subsequent rows, you enter the information about your products. For example, a product's title would be included under the "title" column. Each of these values make up the inventory that you want to promote through the Facebook family of apps and services.

XML (ATOM / RSS)

This format is typically associated with coding programs (for example, ATOM) or basic text editors. With this format, you use a series of "tags" for each product in your inventory. Each product is enclosed in these tags. With XML, you can use an automated feed provider system or web server. Your data feed file should begin with a valid

 
 
 
 DB_1
 Dog Bowl in Blue
 Solid plastic Dog Bowl in marine blue colour
 http://www.example.com/bowls/db-1.html
 http://images.example.com/DB_1.png
 Example
 new
 in stock
 9.99 GBP
 
UK
Standard
4.95 GBP
 
 Animals > Pet Supplies 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Create a data feed

To begin creating your data feed:

1. Open a supported data feed file format: CSV, TSV or XML.

2. Add the required fields below to your data feed. Enter them exactly as they appear here for your file to upload correctly.

   Note: While you can use non-English data in each field of the feed, the column names need to be in US English only.

When you've finished creating your feed, use the feed debug tool to check your feed for errors and warnings. To use the feed debug tool, paste your feed into the box and then click Validate.Try the feed debug tool.

Are you a developer? Visit our developer site for detailed documentation about data feeds.

Create a catalogue

There are two tools you can use to create a catalogue: Catalogue Manager and Business Manager. Catalogue Manager allows you to build your catalogue of inventory – products, flights, hotels, properties and more – and use them in a variety of Facebook ad types. Business Manager allows you to do the same, while also allowing you to control access to your catalogue if you have multiple people in your Business Manager.

Now that you've created your catalogue, you can upload your data feed.

Upload a data feed

To add a data feed to your catalogue:

1. Go to Catalogue Manager.
2. Choose the catalogue you want to update. If you haven't created a catalogue yet, create one first before you add the feed.
3. Click Data sources.
4. Click Add Data Source.
5. Click Use data feeds and click Next.
6. Choose how you want to upload the feed:

Create a product set

A product set is a group of items from your inventory in a catalogue. Product sets allow you to control the items that appear in your ad. When you create a product set, you use filters (such as availability, brand, category, product type or price) to define what goes into the product set. To create a product set, you need to be an admin in the catalogue you represent. Learn more about setting up roles for the catalogue.

1. Go to Catalogue Manager.
2. Choose the catalogue that will contain your new product set.
3. Click Product sets.
4. Click Create New Product Set. A window appears where you can add filters for your catalogue.
5. Enter a name for your product set.
6. Use the drop-down menus to apply filters to your product set. For example, if you want to create a product set for all clothing greater than £50 in your catalogue, select the drop-down menus Price and Category, and then enter the appropriate values into the text field. The filters then match the column names and products from your product catalogue.

7. Click Create.

Learn more about creating a product set.

Best practices

Setting up your catalogue

• If you're using multiple data feeds in one catalogue, make sure that the same item belongs to the same feed every time. If the item is assigned randomly to different feeds, this may impact delivery and result in lower-quality recommendations.

Updating your catalogue

• Schedule updates to your catalogue so that you can keep it up to date and prevent your ads from showing out-of-stock products. You can schedule updates to your catalogue on a daily, hourly or weekly basis. If you need more frequent updates, you can either connect to the API directly or work with a Facebook Marketing Partner to enable more frequent updates. Learn more about scheduling updates to your catalogue.

Uploading your catalogue

• Depending on the size of your file, your catalogue may take several minutes or hours to upload. When the upload finishes, the catalogue appears in Catalogue Manager.
• You may receive several warnings or errors the first time you upload your catalogue. Warnings are recommendations for things to fix to improve the quality of your ads. Errors indicate that a feed was not processed and that you need to fix your feed before proceeding.
• If you already have a catalogue and need to make an update, go to Catalogue Manager and open the catalogue, then select the Data sources tab. Select the data feed that you want to update, then click Settings.

Associating your pixel or app

• You may be asked to associate your Facebook pixel or app to your catalogue. This is necessary in cases where your business has more than one catalogue, Facebook pixel or app. Associating your pixel or app tells Facebook which pixel or app will match which catalogue. Learn more about associating a pixel or app to your catalogue.

Setting up product IDs or product groups

Your product IDs should go directly through your pixel or app. Passing product IDs through your pixel allow Facebook to match events from your website or app to specific products in your catalogue. For example, if you sell shoes, Facebook can see the specific sizes that someone might be interested in and then recommended products that are in stock in their size.

Consider using product groups when you want:

1. People to find additional colours, styles or patterns of a particular product. Product groups are the way in which you group all product variants.
2. To avoid retargeting a person with a similar item if it's unlikely that they are going to purchase a similar item. For example, a customer viewed multiple colours of the same shoe, but chose only to buy a black pair of shoes and is unlikely to buy the brown version in the next month.

If you have a separate product for each variant (for example, different colours or patterns), give each product a unique ID. Each variant needs to have the same item_group_id defined, and you should supply a unique image for items that differ by colour, material or pattern. The link attribute should also lead to a landing page where that particular variant is preselected.

Complete your dynamic ad for products

Step 2: Add the Facebook pixel and/or Facebook SDK for dynamic ads for products

Step 3: Create an ad template for dynamic ads for products