Meta Product Catalog

Why a catalog?

The Meta Product Catalog is required to enable on the Ads Manager side:

• Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) — personalized retargeting with the exact products a visitor viewed/added to cart.
• Advantage+ Catalog Ads — ML-optimized campaigns over the catalog.
• Instagram / Facebook Shopping tab — organic product visibility.
• Reels Shopping — tagged products in Reels.

Connection with the dataLayer

The item_id you push in dataLayer events MUST exactly match the id in the catalog.

dataLayer	Meta Catalog	Status
item_id: 'BIO-CRM-001'	id: 'BIO-CRM-001'	✅ Match
item_id: 'BIO-CRM-001'	id: 'bio-crm-001'	❌ Case mismatch
item_id: '4521' (DB id)	id: 'BIO-CRM-001' (SKU)	❌ No match

Agree upfront (dev + agency) on the canonical id format (SKU recommended) and use it everywhere.

Accepted feed formats

The catalog is fed by a feed file you expose to Meta. Formats:

• CSV (UTF-8, comma or tab separated)
• XML / RSS / ATOM
• TSV
• Google Sheets (auto-sync)

Refresh: up to once per hour when configured.

Minimum required fields

Meta field	Description	Example
id	SKU — matches item_id in dataLayer	BIO-CRM-001
title	Commercial name	Hydrating Day Cream 50ml
description	Long description	Hyaluronic acid–enriched cream…
availability	in stock / out of stock / preorder	in stock
condition	new / refurbished / used	new
price	With currency	42.00 EUR
link	Product page URL	https://biosphereskincare.com/en/product/day-cream
image_link	Main image HTTPS URL	https://biosphereskincare.com/img/BIO-CRM-001.jpg
brand	Brand	Biosphere

Recommended fields

Field	Example
google_product_category	Health & Beauty > Personal Care > Cosmetics > Skin Care
additional_image_link	Comma-separated URLs, up to 10
sale_price	33.60 EUR (when on sale)
sale_price_effective_date	ISO 8601 range
item_group_id	Groups variants (all sizes of the same product)
color, size, material	Variants
gtin	EAN/UPC barcode
mpn	Manufacturer Part Number

What to deliver as dev

The agency needs one of the following:

Option A — HTTPS feed (recommended)

A stable URL like https://biosphereskincare.com/feeds/meta-catalog.xml that:

• Lists all in-stock products.
• Auto-refreshes (cron or real-time) with prices, stock, etc.
• Follows the Meta XML format.

Option B — Recurring export

CSV / shared Google Sheet, regenerated daily.

Option C — Native connector

If you run Shopify / WooCommerce / Magento, use the official Meta connector (coordinate with the agency to avoid duplicates).

Example XML feed

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Biosphere Skincare</title>
    <link>https://biosphereskincare.com</link>
    <description>Product catalog</description>
    <item>
      <g:id>BIO-CRM-001</g:id>
      <g:title>Hydrating Day Cream 50ml</g:title>
      <g:description>Hyaluronic acid–enriched cream…</g:description>
      <g:link>https://biosphereskincare.com/en/product/day-cream</g:link>
      <g:image_link>https://biosphereskincare.com/img/BIO-CRM-001.jpg</g:image_link>
      <g:availability>in stock</g:availability>
      <g:condition>new</g:condition>
      <g:price>42.00 EUR</g:price>
      <g:brand>Biosphere</g:brand>
      <g:google_product_category>Health &amp; Beauty &gt; Personal Care &gt; Cosmetics &gt; Skin Care</g:google_product_category>
      <g:item_group_id>BIO-CRM</g:item_group_id>
    </item>
    <!-- … -->
  </channel>
</rss>

Synergy with Google Merchant Center

The same feed can power:

• Meta Product Catalog
• Google Merchant Center (Shopping ads + dynamic remarketing)

Recommendation: generate one feed, expose it over HTTPS, consume from both platforms. The Google Merchant Spec (g: namespace) is also accepted by Meta.

Pitfalls

• ❌ item_id (dataLayer) ≠ id (catalog) → DPA audiences broken.
• ❌ Slow feed (> 2 min to crawl) → Meta aborts.
• ❌ Price without currency → products rejected.
• ❌ Missing availability → products rejected.
• ❌ HTTP images instead of HTTPS → rejected.
• ❌ Image too small (under 500×500 px) → rejected in Shopping.