How to Set Up Facebook Dynamic Product Ads

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How to Set Up Facebook
Dynamic Product Ads
By Tom Fanelli
Published April 13, 2015
Are you familiar with Facebook dynamic
product ads?
Facebook dynamic product ads allow you to
reach customers with relevant offers by
automatically showing them ads for the
products they’re interested in.
In this article I’ll share how to set up and
best utilize Facebook Dynamic Product ads.
What Are Facebook Dynamic Product Ads?
Despite the recent buzz about Facebook dynamic product ads, there is surprisingly
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little detailed information available, largely due to their limited availability and the
highly technical documentation provided by Facebook.
Plus, these ads are being regularly confused with Facebook’s multi-product ads, which
may look similar but offer very different capabilities.
Discover how to set up Facebook’s Dynamic Product Ads.
So before I get started, let me define what these ads are. With Facebook dynamic
product ads, you can:
Automatically generate ads based on your product catalog and an ad
template you create
Show specific product ads based on what users have viewed on your
website
Use lookalike audiences to find more people who may be interested in a
specific product
It’s important to note that Facebook dynamic product ads are currently only available
using the Facebook API, but they’re expected to be added to Power Editor soon.
Also, unlike other ad types, they require prep work such as uploading a product
catalog before you can start creating ads.
Below are the steps for setting up your new Facebook dynamic product ads.
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#1: Establish a Facebook Business Manager
Account
If you’ve never set up a Facebook business manager account, it’s similar to an MCC
account in Google AdWords. You have the ability to manage multiple accounts and
control user access, making it helpful if you manage multiple businesses, pages and
employees.
To set one up, visit business.facebook.com, and follow the steps provided on-
screen. Once complete, you’ll see a screen like the one below.
Get started w ith a Facebook business manager account.

#2: Create a Product Catalog
There are two ways to import your product feed into Facebook. You can either point
to a dynamically generated feed file or you can upload a .csv file with your
product data.
Since these dynamic product ads are new, your ecommerce platform probably doesn’t
support a native feed file designed for Facebook yet, so we’ll focus on generating a
.csv file you can upload.
Use a .csv file to build your catalog. Image: Shutterstock.
When you create your .csv file, include the following fields to import it:
ID: A unique identifier with a maximum of 100 alphanumeric characters.
Availability: You must include one of the following preset values or you will generate
an error:
In stock (item will ship immediately)
Out of stock (no plan to restock)
Preorder (will be available in future)

Available for order (ships in 1-2 weeks)
Condition: Another field that requires a preset value: new, refurbished or used.
Description: This can be a maximum of 5,000 characters.
Image_link: Images will be displayed at 1200 x 630 pixels and should maintain an
aspect ratio of 1.91:1. The field has a maximum of 100 characters, so if you have a
long link, use a shortened URL.
Link: A direct link to buy the product. Again, there is a maximum of 100 characters, so
you may need to use a shortened URL.
Title: This is the product title. You can use up to 100 characters.
Price: The required format is as follows: 9.99 USD.
Gtin: This is the global trade number. The following formats are acceptable: UPC,
EAN, JAN and ISBN. You can use a maximum of 70 characters.
Mpn: This is the manufacturer’s number. You can use a maximum of 70 characters.
Brand: This is the name of the product’s brand. You can use a maximum of 70
characters.
Facebook offers a ton of additional fields that are optional. You can view them under
the Optional Field section on Facebook’s product catalog setup page.
Here’s an example of a completed Excel spreadsheet for a product catalog:
Create a product .csv file to import.
Based on my tests, I’ve found that the following settings work best for uploading your
.csv file to Facebook.

Use these settings to import your product .csv file.
Once your file is uploaded, you’ll see the product catalog listed in the main area of
your business manager account.
In my tests—and the example Excel sheet above—my product catalog did not actually
include traditional products, but blog posts instead. This is important to note because
it makes Facebook dynamic product ads incredibly versatile.
Consider that, despite the name, dynamic product ads can simply be “dynamic ads” if
you provide different data. For example, if you offer online training courses, you can
upload your entire class list. Or a realtor could upload his or her housing inventory.
This opens up a world of options as we test what works and what doesn’t.

#3: Set Up the Custom Audience Pixel
The custom audience pixel is what lets you gather information about visitors to
your website—and this is where the magic happens. You can learn more about
pixel setup here.
There are three mandatory pixel events: ViewContent, AddToCart and Purchase.
These allow dynamic product ads to determine who viewed a specific product and also
whether that person added it to their cart or ultimately purchased it.
ViewContent Pixel
Below is a side-by-side comparison of the standard custom audience pixel and the
new ViewContent pixel. You will notice that they are almost identical with the exception
of the highlighted area.

View Content Pixel code.
When you add the ViewContent pixel to a product page, you need to insert that
product’s specific ID manually or via a tag from your ecommerce platform.
You must match the specific ID with the ID you uploaded in your catalog
spreadsheet because it serves as the link between the products viewed on your
website and the ones Facebook shows in ads.
AddToCart Pixel
There are two ways to add this pixel depending on how your shopping cart handles
adding items to the cart.
If you have a dedicated Add to Cart page, then you can simply put in the

AddToCart Page pixel provided below. However, if you have a dynamic cart
without a dedicated Add to Cart page, you must fire the pixel when the Add to
Cart button is clicked, which requires changes to the JavaScript or AJAX code.
Remember, you must dynamically add that specific product’s ID when they are fired in
either scenario, so you may require developer assistance.
AddToCartButton code.
Purchase Pixel
This pixel is important because it will prevent you from marketing a product if a
customer has already purchased it. (Or you have the opportunity to market it to
them again, if it’s something they may want to purchase again.)

Unlike the other pixels, you’re not just adding a single product ID but a list of IDs for all
products purchased. Remember, just because a product is added to the cart doesn’t
mean it will ultimately be purchased, so you may require the help of your developer to
concatenate all of the product IDs into a list.
Purchase Pixel code.
When you’ve completed this step, you should have the regular custom audience pixel
throughout your website, but you’ll replace your existing custom audience pixels
on your product and cart pages with the new modified pixels.
#4: Build Dynamic Ad Templates
This is where you customize the messaging for each product. Dynamic ad
templates allow you to map data fields in your product catalog to specific places in the
text of your Facebook ads.
Essentially, you are pulling data (such as product name and price) out of that catalog
and adding it to the ad. It’s similar to how Merge Fields works in Microsoft Word and
Excel.
There are three fields where you can do this: the message of your ad, the name (or
title) of your ad or the description of your ad.

Build your dynamic ad template to suit your needs.
Currently, the template items (variables) available to merge are:
Brand
Description
Name
Price (e.g., $1,234.56)
Current_price (the formatted sale price if the product has one and is currently on
sale)
To add a variable, use double brackets around the field type. For example, you
could write “All {{brand}} on Sale Today Only” as the name of your ad. Facebook
would then automatically grab the brand value from your product catalog and add it to
the text for your ad.
So let’s say you sell toys and you create a variable like the one above that pulls the
brand in. An ad for one product might read, “All Fisher-Price on Sale Today Only”
while an ad for another product might read “All Melissa & Doug on Sale Today Only.”
Remember, you can use each of those template items in the message, name
and title of the ad, so you’ll want to A/B test different ideas to see what
performs best across your ad set.
Prepare for Dynamic Product Ads Release in Power Editor
Most marketers don’t have the ability to create dynamic templates yet since
they’re only available through the Facebook API—but the feature is being rolled

out to Power Editor. It’s a good idea to take steps now to get ready.
Get prepared for Facebook Dynamic Ads. Image: Shutterstock.
1. Prepare your product catalog. If you have the technical resources
available, start creating your dynamically generated feed file. If not, you can
put together your Excel spreadsheet and optimize the data: the file format,
images, image sizes and text lengths. Then upload them and test the import.
2. Get your custom audience pixel instrumented. By doing it now, you
won’t have to wait 30 days to get your audience completely targeted. You’ll be
ready to start as soon as dynamic product ads hit general availability, putting
you ahead of the competition.
3. Build your product templates. Determine how you want to position and
market your products using the merged data fields. In fact, you can likely
hard-code this in normal product ads now and test the creative. That way
you’ll have a library of ad copy that works immediately with the merged fields
once they’re available.
4. Develop your marketing tactics. With the ability to target based on a
whole new set of behaviors, consider what new opportunities are available for
promotions, tactics, cross-selling, interest targeting and more that can help
you outperform competitors.

Those using Facebook dynamic product ads already report positive results, so it may
pay to prepare now to get ahead of the curve. Jumping immediately on your ability to
dynamically and more accurately target ads to your customers’ specific needs can
make a big difference for your ad campaign’s ROI.
What do you think? Do you have access to Facebook dynamic product ads?
What tactics are you excited to test with the new capabilities available to
you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
CSV icon photo and Plan prepare perform photo from Shutterstock.
Related Posts
Tags: custom audience pixel, f acebook ad, f acebook api, f acebook business manager account, f acebook dy namic ad templates,
f acebook dy namic product ad, f acebook product catalog, tom f anelli
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Tom Fanelli
Tom Fanelli is an industry veteran w ith over 20 years of digital
marketing experience and author of Inf ographics In A ction, a step-
by-step playbook on inf ographics creation and marketing. Othe r
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26 Comments Social Media Examiner
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• Reply •
Larry Kim • 2 days ago
thanks tom!
1 △ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 2 days ago> Larry Kim
You are very welcome Larry!
△ ▽
Adomas Baltagalvis • 2 days ago
Wow, thank you for such a detailed guide!
Dynamic Product Ads are still very new and there's little information available on them. I wonder, are there any
plugins already that could help businesses generate the product catalogs and add the necessary pixels
automatically?
And Tom, could you share any results of running dynamic product ad campaigns?
Cheers!
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• Reply •
Cheers!
2 △ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 2 days ago> Adomas Baltagalvis
Adomas, I looked all over and there are limited tools out there. I did find a couple ad platforms that supported
dynamic ads. I will dig those up and repost. Since this is so new I don't have any statistically relevant stats to
share on performance. Thanks for commenting!
1 △ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 2 days ago> Thomas Fanelli
Ok, here is the ad platform, SticherAds, that has integration. They report on this page they have at
50% lower cost per sale using dynamic product ads. https://stitcherads.com/facebo...
2 △ ▽
• Reply •
StitcherAds • a day ago> Thomas Fanelli
Hi Thomas,
We really appreciate that you've mentioned StitcherAds!
Have a wonderful day!
△ ▽
• Reply •
Brandon Schaefer • 2 days ago
Tom, great info... going to test it out later today.
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 2 days ago> Brandon Schaefer
Thanks Brandon, Don't get discouraged if you cannot get through all the steps, the tools are not fully released
in FB. Please share any progress you have! Good luck!
△ ▽
• Reply •
Griffin • 2 days ago
Nice guide!!! Do you have any case studies you can share?
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 2 days ago> Griffin
Thanks Daryl, at the moment no case studies, other than the sticherAds link above.
△ ▽
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• Reply •
Oscar • 2 days ago
It seems that setting this up could be complicated for a newbie but this article is great with a amazing detail making it
straightforward.
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 2 days ago> Oscar
Oscar, yes right now it is, but that's due to Facebook having not released all the tools needed for DIY. Setting
it up in the current state is only for those who want to tackle it! Of course, those who can and do take
advantage of it, get the jump on the competition!
1 △ ▽
• Reply •
Dale Brose • a day ago
Thanks Tom. This went straight to my Evernote. I tried to work with that Facebook Business Manager several
months ago and just did not find it to be a pleasant experience. Looks like I will need to make my peace with it.
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • a day ago> Dale Brose
Thanks Dale, yeah I think its here to stay! Good Luck and thanks for sharing!
△ ▽
• Reply •
Dale Brose • a day ago> Thomas Fanelli
Thanks Tom. Did you guys ever do a "how to" on the Business Manager? I'm thinking you did.
hardest part is that I need to get my clients to move over to using the FB Business Manager before I
can since the need to "assign an agency" from their account.
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • a day ago> Dale Brose
Dale, check this out: http://www.socialmediaexaminer...
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• Reply •
SimplySocialMedia • a day ago
Hi Tom; With the business manager can you still have multiple credit cards being used? All of my clients utilize their
own credit cards hence the multiple log ins.
△ ▽
Thomas Fanelli • a day ago> SimplySocialMedia
Great question, facebook business manager allows you to be a 3rd party managing all those accounts in a
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• Reply •
Great question, facebook business manager allows you to be a 3rd party managing all those accounts in a
central place. In addition, you can control who has access to those accounts in your organization. The benefit
of this is you don't have to go back to the client to have them add people to their ads account. They can still
use their existing FB ads account, with existing payment methods but you have management capabilities.
△ ▽
• Reply •
SimplySocialMedia • a day ago> Thomas Fanelli
Great! So you don't have to log into the other account to boost or create an ad?
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • a day ago> SimplySocialMedia
Right, you log into your business manager account and can create and manage ads and
campaigns. http://www.socialmediaexaminer...
△ ▽
• Reply •
Adomas Baltagalvis • 19 hours ago> SimplySocialMedia
To make the administration easier, you could either ask the client to assign you as an agency
through the Business Manager, or you can ask them to add you as an admin to their current
ad account.
For example, the client has an ad account with a payment method set up. If they go to the Ads
Manager dashboard and click on the 'Settings' on the sidebar, they will find a section 'Ad
Account Roles' - they can add you as an Advertiser there by using your email address, and
you won't need to be logging in or out from different accounts, you will be able to manage them
from one account, your personal Facebook account.
In addition to giving you the rights on the Ad Account, they'll also need to give you at least the
'Advertiser' rights on their Facebook page, so that you can create the ads for them.
2 △ ▽
• Reply •
SimplySocialMedia • 19 hours ago> Adomas Baltagalvis
Thanks!
△ ▽
• Reply •
Tam • a day ago
wondering if this feature is available in Australia
△ ▽
Thomas Fanelli • 14 hours ago> Tam
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• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 14 hours ago> Tam
I have been searching but not found any reliable data on Australia availability. I will keep an eye and report
back if anything pops up.
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• Reply •
Mahin Sherashia • 19 hours ago
very informative article tom. have been searching for this since last couple of days. found a website but they wanted
me to sign up for some annual package! you shared everything for free and in detail... awsm! :)
△ ▽
• Reply •
Thomas Fanelli • 15 hours ago> Mahin Sherashia
Glad I could help Mahin!
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