Getting Started with Catalog Ads on Facebook | Marpipe

Getting Started with Catalog Ads on Facebook

Over 6,000 users.

November 16, 2022
Written by Dan Pantelo

average reading time: 5 minutes

How can catalogs help you to bring in more customers? Here go through everything you need to know to get started with catalog ads on Facebook.

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If you’ve never used a catalog ad to promote your business on social media, you’re probably wondering where to begin. This blog post will walk you through the essentials of catalog ads, from setup to optimization. Plus, we’ll share a secret method for creating effective catalog ads that will help your products stand out in the feed and grab customer attention.

What are catalog ads?

Examples of Facebook catalog ads in different formats

Catalog ads are shoppable ad formats designed to showcase the products, services, or experiences you sell online. You’ve definitely seen them before—those clean, scroll-stopping product images in your Facebook feed, often against a plain white background.

And they’re not just on Facebook. Catalog ads are used across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok.

Why are catalog ads effective?

As any online advertiser knows, there are countless ads and product recommendations vying for your customers' attention. So what makes an online catalog ad so effective?

Which Platforms Use Catalog Ads?

Catalog ads are used by many online social media platforms, most notably, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest. For all of these platforms, you will have the option to upload your product feed via CSV, XML, or have it directly imported from the product feed from your e-commerce website (think Shopify, WooCommerce, or similar e-commerce sites).

However, each social media platform varies slightly on how to import this data, so be sure to take a look at the requirements for each, or you risk having your items and product data formatted incorrectly, which will cause issues when it comes time to create your ads.

Additionally, each of these platforms have slightly different formats of catalog ads, so let's take a look at some of the differences between each one.

Meta Ad Formats (Facebook and Instagram)

When you use the Meta Ads Manager for managing your catalog ads, you have a couple of different options of ad formats to choose from, including carousels, collections, collaborative ads, and finally there are Meta Advantage+ catalog ads (which you may know as dynamic ads). If you haven’t used any of these before, here's a quick breakdown of each type:

Note that some of these formats are only available for mobile, such as collection ads. It’s also worth mentioning that in order to manage your Instagram catalog ads with the Meta Ads Manager, you will need to have a professional Instagram account that is also linked to your Facebook Business Manager and Meta Ads Manager accounts.

💡 Pro Tip: You don’t need a separate website to create catalog ads in Meta’s ecosystem—you can create, advertise, and sell directly within Facebook and Instagram.

Snapchat Catalog Ad Formats

Snapchat’s catalog ads offer a highly visual, interactive shopping experience tailored to a younger, mobile-first audience. With a variety of formats, brands can capture user attention and drive direct product engagement.

An overview of Snapchat’s catalog ad formats

Pinterest Catalog Ad Formats

On Pinterest, businesses can promote their catalog products using two primary ad formats: Shopping Ads and Personalized Collection Ads.

Pinterest also offers dynamic retargeting, allowing advertisers to reconnect with users who have previously visited their website or left items in their shopping cart.

Before uploading a catalog, businesses must first claim their website on Pinterest. This involves verifying ownership by adding a DNS TXT record or uploading an HTML file to the site. While this process may sound technical, Pinterest provides clear, step-by-step instructions to guide users through it—making it accessible even for beginners.

TikTok Catalog Ad Formats

TikTok’s Shopping Ads make it easy for brands to integrate their product catalogs into engaging, short-form video content. With TikTok’s unique blend of discovery-driven commerce and viral trends, catalog ads help brands connect with consumers in a more organic and engaging way.

What You Need to Get Started with Catalog Ads

Ensure your product feed is complete with details for each variant.

A Product Database or Feed

This serves as the foundation of your ad catalog. Most businesses pull this data directly from their website, but a well-structured spreadsheet can also work. Be sure to include all product variants—if a shirt comes in three colors and three sizes, each variation should be listed separately.

High-Quality Product Images

Clear, visually appealing images are essential. Ideally, you should have multiple images per product, with a recommended size of at least 500x500 pixels for best display.

Examples of clear, sharp and high-quality product images

Product Details & Attributes

Your catalog should include pricing, SKUs, inventory levels, and any other relevant product information to ensure accuracy across platforms.

Budget, Audience, & Goals

Define your budget, target audience, and key performance metrics before launching your campaign. Are you focusing on sales, engagement, or retargeting? Identifying success indicators early on will help optimize your strategy.

Seamless Integration & Data Accuracy

Consider how your catalog will integrate with your existing tech stack. Ensuring real-time updates and consistent product data across platforms is crucial to avoid discrepancies that could impact your ad performance.

By taking the time to answer these questions, you will set yourself up for success when it comes time to start setting up your catalog ads.

How to Set up Catalogs

As mentioned above, the ways of setting up and adding items to your catalog vary between each platform (because of course, that would be too easy if they were all the same). Luckily we’ve gone ahead and looked into all the deets for each and saved you the hassle. So here’s what you need to know, broken down by platform:

Facebook & Instagram

File Limits:

Other requirements for using data feeds:

Snapchat

Pinterest

Methods for adding items to your catalog:

They also accept compressed files (.zip, .giz, .gz, .bz2 and others) but do not support encrypted, password-protected compressed files. Google Drive and Dropbox feeds are also not supported.