How to Set Up a Facebook and Instagram Product Catalog Feed
How Meta product catalogs work, which fields your feed needs and how to connect it for Facebook and Instagram shopping and ads.
A Meta catalog is the list of products Facebook and Instagram use for shops, product tags and Advantage+ catalog ads (formerly dynamic product ads). The most reliable way to keep a catalog accurate is a data feed: a file on your website that Meta downloads on a schedule, so prices and stock stay in sync without manual edits.
What a Meta catalog is used for
- Shops on Facebook and Instagram, where available in your country.
- Product tags in Instagram posts and reels.
- Catalog ads that automatically show people the products they viewed or similar ones.
- Collection and carousel ads built from catalog products.
Fields every product needs
Meta's core required fields closely mirror Google's:
- id โ unique and stable; usually your SKU.
- title โ the product name. Keep it clear and specific.
- description โ plain text about the product.
- availability โ
in stockorout of stock, for example. - condition โ
new,refurbishedorused. - price โ with currency, such as
899.00 INR. - link โ the product page URL.
- image_link โ the main image URL.
- brand โ or a GTIN or MPN.
Optional fields such as sale_price, additional_image_link, google_product_category, size, color and item_group_id (for variants) improve how products are displayed and matched.
Handling variants properly
If a T-shirt comes in four sizes and three colours, that is twelve items in the feed, each with its own id, price, availability and (ideally) image. Give all twelve the same item_group_id so Meta knows they are variants of one product and can show them together instead of as twelve separate listings. Fill in size and color on each row. Getting this right matters most for fashion and footwear stores, where shoppers expect to choose a size before they click through.
Connecting a feed in Commerce Manager
- Create or open a catalog in Meta Commerce Manager.
- Choose to add items with a data feed.
- Select scheduled feed and enter the URL where your feed file is hosted.
- Set the update frequency โ daily is a good default.
- Choose the currency and upload. Meta processes the file and reports any issues.
For catalog ads, also install the Meta pixel or Conversions API so that product IDs in your site's events match the catalog IDs.
Mistakes that get products rejected
- Prices or stock that differ from the website.
- Images with text overlays, very small images or placeholder graphics.
- Policy issues โ Meta's commerce policies restrict some product types.
- Broken product links or pages that redirect to the homepage.
- Mismatched IDs between the pixel and the feed, which breaks catalog ads.
One catalog, many channels
If you already have a Google Merchant Center feed, much of the data can be reused, since the attributes overlap heavily. The free Facebook product feed generator crawls your store and builds a Meta-ready feed; our walkthrough on creating a Facebook product feed from your store shows how. To produce feeds for Google, Meta, Pinterest and others at once, use the multi-channel feed generator. Check images first with the image URL checker.
Related guides
More free tools: browse all our free ecommerce tools, no sign-up needed.
Frequently asked questions
Is a catalog the same for Facebook and Instagram?
Yes. One Meta catalog serves both, managed in Commerce Manager.
Which file formats does Meta accept?
CSV, TSV, RSS XML, ATOM XML and Google Sheets, among others.
How often should the feed update?
Daily for most stores, or more often if stock changes quickly.
Do I need a website to use catalogs?
For feeds and catalog ads, yes โ every product needs a landing page link.