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One of the best ways online sellers and shops can advertise their products and generate sales is through Facebook. Specifically, through the Facebook Product Catalog.
Whether you are an e-commerce business, ticketing agent, or even a hotel offering rooms and suites, the Facebook Catalog can help your business.
Here’s what you need to know about this sales option from Facebook.
What is the Facebook Product Catalog?
As its name suggests, it’s a catalog where businesses can showcase their products and services.
Remember when customers bought catalogs for their favorite brands and went through them to pick out what they wanted to buy?
IKEA is still one of those brands who publishes product catalogs with price tags for each their products.
That said, most customers and businesses are now online, specifically on Facebook, which has garnered over 2.6 billion daily active users.
With figures like that, it’s no wonder businesses are taking unprecedented steps to be on the social platform.
How Does the Facebook Product Catalog Work?
Like the published catalogs, the Facebook Catalog allows companies and sellers to display their products on its platform. Customers can then access these products and purchase them via the company’s catalog on Facebook and Instagram.
“You can create catalogs for different types of inventory, such as products (e-commerce), hotels, flights, destinations, home listings or vehicles,” Facebook explains.
The tool used to manage a brand’s catalogs is called the Catalog Manager. You will need to upload your products one by one to the product catalog.
What Can I Do with Facebook Catalog?
Once your Facebook Product Catalog is ready, which can be used both for Facebook and Instagram, you can:
- Add and manage information for your inventory. This includes titles, images, product descriptions, prices, and other options.
- Share access to your catalog, which allows your team to work on it collectively on your catalog.
- Create one catalog or multiple catalogs for your products and services.
Facebook also notes that you can “set up a localized catalog for multiple languages and countries.”
Can I Use Ads for the Product Catalog?
The obvious answer is yes. It’s no secret that Facebook would like to create ads for anything and everything on its platform.
These are the types of ads you can create once you’ve created your company’s Facebook Product Catalog.
Instagram Shopping
This option is only available for products. In other words, non-tangible services don’t qualify.
Using Instagram Shopping, you can include your products in both Instagram posts and stories.
Learn how to calculate the ROAS formula and improve your ad spend
In the United States, Facebook allows customers to purchase products directly from Instagram and check out from the platform.
Facebook Page Shop
Like its predecessor, this ad type is only applicable to products.
In this case, the shop on your business page acts like a storefront, while the catalog acts as a warehouse that stores your shop’s inventory.
“If you already have a Page shop with at least one product in it, [then Facebook has] automatically created a catalog for you in Catalog Manager that’s connected to your shop,” the social media platform explains.
The Facebook Page Shop allows you to manage your inventory either in your shop or in the Catalog Manager.
You can create the Facebook Page Shop from your catalog.
Dynamic Ads
Available for all types of inventory, Dynamic ads display products or items from your catalog to people who have looked for them online.
According to Facebook, Dynamic ads “match items from your catalog with events from a Facebook Pixel or SDK, a piece of code installed on your website or app.”
To create a dynamic ad, you need to know and have a dynamic audience.
Collection ads
Applicable to all types of inventory, this ad format shows customers a collection of four items from your catalog. Customers can then tap the items to learn more or browse similar products.
