Account Structure
Paid social product catalogue campaigns
Plan a product catalogue campaign around accurate item data, eligible products, event matching and checks before and after launch.
A product catalogue campaign builds ads from product data. It suits a changing range when prices, availability, images and links stay accurate. Before launch, confirm which items the campaign can use and check how they appear in ads.
Plan the campaign, prepare and connect the catalogue, choose the product source, build the campaign and review it before publishing. After launch, check catalogue status and compare platform reporting with store orders and margin records.
Decide whether a catalogue fits
A catalogue reduces the need to build an ad for every item, but data errors can spread across many ads. A fixed ad may suit a single offer that needs careful explanation. A catalogue is more useful when several products deserve exposure and the team can maintain their details.
Decide which products are eligible before choosing the campaign's audience. Advertising to new customers and using permitted product activity to show relevant items are separate decisions. Both depend on an accurate, saleable product range.
Choose a platform based on campaign needs and what is available in the account. Meta Advantage+ catalogue ads deliver product recommendations based on people's interests, intent and actions; TikTok Smart+ Catalog Ads use catalogue images, videos and product information, and automate creative, interactive add-ons and budget settings.
Set the campaign objective and planned spend before building. TikTok Smart+ automates budget settings to pursue campaign goals, so include that automation in the spend plan.
Build from dependable product data
Identify the store or inventory system that owns each product fact. Compare catalogue IDs, titles, images, prices, currency, availability and destinations with the live product pages. Give each sellable variant the ID used for that same variant throughout the feed and any connected product events.
Choose an update method the team can maintain. A scheduled feed needs a suitable refresh schedule and a check of its last successful import. A manual upload needs an owner for later price and stock changes.
For Meta, create the catalogue in Commerce Manager. For physical products, select E-commerce, then choose Upload Product Info or Connect E-commerce Platform; assign the Business Manager account that owns it and give the catalogue a name.
When adding Meta items manually, provide the required name, description, image URL or upload, price, currency, availability and product-page link. Manual entry is described for fewer than 50 items; a data feed suits a large or frequently changing inventory and can use CSV, TSV or XML. A scheduled feed uses a hosted URL that Meta fetches automatically.
Inspect accepted items and errors after import. A transferred file does not establish that every item is eligible for ads.
For TikTok catalogues, the default currency must match the products. The chosen targeting location limits where ads featuring those products can be targeted. Confirm both settings during catalogue creation so campaign planning reflects the catalogue's account-level constraints.
Select products and check platform limits
Depending on the platform and account, a campaign may use eligible catalogue items, a product set or selected products. Review the items actually included after important feed or filter changes.
Meta describes Advantage+ catalogue ads as delivering product recommendations based on people's interests, intent and actions. TikTok's Smart+ Catalog Ads use catalogue images, videos and product information. TikTok's documented setup offers all products, a product set or up to 20 specific products, and requires at least four products that are in stock, approved and activated; these are TikTok requirements, not general catalogue rules.
TikTok allows product sets to be created after products are added, using filters or manual selection. These sets can be promoted in a Catalog Sales campaign, so review the resulting included items before treating a set as the campaign's product source.
Key Platform Limits and Requirements
- TikTok Minimum Products Required
- 4 in-stock, approved, activated products
- Meta Catalogue Update Methods
- Scheduled feed or manual upload
- TikTok Default Currency Match
- Must match product currency
- Max Products in Manual Selection (TikTok)
- 20 specific products
Connect product events where needed
If a campaign uses website or app activity to identify products, ensure event product IDs correspond to catalogue items. Product matching does not prove an additional sale or make platform-attributed purchases equal store orders.
Set up the campaign in sequence
For Meta, build an Advantage+ catalogue ads campaign in Meta Ads Manager. Confirm the catalogue and product selection in the account, then review the campaign and creative before publishing.
For TikTok's documented Smart+ Catalog Ads workflow, open Ads Manager, create a Sales campaign, choose Website as the objective and Smart+ as the campaign type. Enable Use catalogue, select or create the catalogue, complete the ad group settings, then choose the products to include and add the website URL as the destination.
A catalogue can be the product source without setting up a TikTok Shop. TikTok's separate catalogue creation guide says the feature is available only in launched markets with Video Shopping Ads (Catalog) capabilities, so confirm availability in the Australian account before building around that workflow.
Prepare and review catalogue creative
TikTok's setup allows advertisers to use authorised posts or TikTok accounts to deliver Spark Ads. Alternatively, catalogue images or videos can be selected under Catalog Creatives, with a preview available before publishing.
TikTok recommends adding at least six videos to get the most from a campaign. Advertisers can also add videos to the catalogue and link products so the videos and their linked products can be used in future campaigns.
For campaigns with 20 or fewer products, TikTok says all SKUs are automatically mapped to each video. Above 20 products, Catalog Manager attempts to detect and match relevant products to each video, making a preview useful for checking the chosen creative before launch.
Use catalogue diagnostics as a launch check
TikTok Catalog Manager Diagnostics tracks product-status trends for a selected period: total products, available products and products active in ad delivery. It distinguishes errors that affect ad performance and must be resolved from warnings that may have some impact and are recommended for resolution; categories include feed uploads, product attributes, product review, catalogue and pixel or event issues.
The dashboard can export a full CSV report of issues and affected items or an issue-specific report. Use the results to assign follow-up work before relying on the catalogue in a campaign, then check status again after changes.
Check before and after launch
Before launch, inspect representative items and destinations on a phone, and compare ad details with the catalogue and live product pages. Review rejected or inactive items and the campaign's selected product source.
After launch, monitor imports and eligible item counts, and assess sales using the business's order and margin records alongside platform reporting.
In this guide
- Checking product feed fields before a catalogue launchAudit product IDs, links, images, prices and availability against live pages, then check the platform's import and item diagnostics.
- Grouping catalogue products by margin and availabilityDefine margin and saleability rules for catalogue product groups, then check feed labels and the resulting product sets.
- Troubleshooting mismatched product eventsTrace product IDs from site events to catalogue items, separate missing IDs from unmatched IDs and confirm the repair.
- Keeping out-of-stock products out of dynamic adsTrace stock changes from the store to the catalogue and product selection, then pause affected ads when a correction cannot be confirmed.
