When you create categories for your dynamic ads, you can show people different types of items that you sell in a single ad unit. Rather than showing individual items, you can segment the items in your ads by specific categories (for example, swimwear) or brands (for example, Facebook).

In this article:

• Benefits
• How it works
• Getting started
• Create a dynamic ad with categories
• Troubleshooting

Benefits

• Promote your inventory with lifestyle or thematic images. Unlike regular dynamic ads (which only show the item image), you can choose a custom image and heading for each category that appears in your ads. Using lifestyle or thematic images may make your ads more appealing on different placements (such as Instagram).
• Reach people who are getting to know your brand and what you sell. In addition to the Catalogue Sales objective, you can use the Traffic and Conversions objectives to run dynamic ads with categories to more people.

How it works

1. In your catalogue, choose whether to show items by brand, product type or Google product category. Choose what works best for you based on the items that you sell and the type of info in your catalogue.
2. When creating your categories in Ads Manager, give each category a headline that appears in your ads and a destination URL to take people to your website when they interact with the ad.
3. Facebook saves the details about your categories so you can use them in future campaigns. Any changes to your categories also apply to your catalogue.

Getting started

To use categories in your dynamic ads, create a catalogue, which is a container for the inventory that you'd like to advertise on Facebook. In your catalogue, upload a data feed – or the file that contains the items that you want to advertise – and include any of the following columns:

• google_product_category (for items by category)
• brand (for items by brand name)
• product_type (for items by product type)

For each column, enter at least four unique values. For example, if your business sells furniture, you could use product_type and add values like "chairs", "tables", "sofas" and "beds". Consider adding more than four categories to your data feed. Facebook can then rank the categories and personalise them for each person that your ad is shown to.

Not sure how to set up your data feed? Take a look at our setup guide.

New to catalogue? Learn more.

Create a dynamic ad with categories

1. Go to Ads Manager.
2. Create your campaign. When you create your campaign, choose Traffic, Conversions or Catalogue Sales as your marketing objective. If your objective is Catalogue Sales, select a catalogue for the ad.
3. Create your ad set by setting up your audience, placement, budget and schedule. If your objective is Catalogue Sales, select a product set for the ad.
4. Select the Facebook Page and Instagram account (optional) that represents the business you're advertising.
5. Select Carousel as your ad format.
6. If your objective is Traffic or Conversions, click Fill template dynamically from a product set and then choose a catalogue and product set for the ad.
7. Below Catalogue display options, click Show item categories.
8. Open the drop-down menu and select a category type:
   • Category: Show items that fit into a specific category (for example, lifestyle).
   • Brand: Show items by their brand names (for example, Facebook).
   • Product type: Show items by type (for example, shoes).

     Note: If you don't see a category name in the drop-down menu, check your data feed and make sure that the column names are correct.
9. Click Edit categories. If it's your first time setting up categories for dynamic ads, click Get started instead. You can edit the following options:
   • Destination (required): Enter a destination URL to the website that people visit when they interact with the category card in your ad.
   • Headline (required): Enter a title for the category card in your ad. For best results, add short, descriptive titles to your categories and avoid special characters (such as "|"). You can enter a headline up to 40 characters long.
   • Image URL (optional): Enter a link to an image that represents the category. For example, if you sell clothes, you can add a link to an image of a person using your clothes. Without an image URL, people see a 2 x 2 grid of the items in your ad instead. It's recommended to link to images with a square (1:1) aspect ratio.

10. (Optional) If you have a large amount of categories (for example, 100), click Export to download all categories to a CSV file. You can then update your categories in the CSV file and then click Import to upload the file to your ad.

    Tip: You don't need to complete all categories to run your ad. Instead, focus on the categories that you want to highlight in your ad. Any categories you don't complete aren't shown in the ad.

11. Click Save to finish editing your categories. The details about your categories are saved for any future campaigns and apply across your entire catalogue.
12. Finish creating the ad (such as adding call-to-action buttons) and then publish it.

Troubleshooting

If your dynamic ads don't display any categories, or you can't select any categories when you create the ad, check for the following issues:

• You don't have enough items for your categories. Provide items for at least four categories or brands to show categories in dynamic ads.
• You don't have a destination URL or headline in each category. Add a link to the website that hosts your inventory and a description of the items that you sell for the categories you want to show in your ad.

* Nguồn: Facebook