Catalog ads — also known as dynamic product ads — let publishers showcase items from their inventory in ad placements in an automated way. Driven by a product feed in CSV or JSON, these ads update in real time with the latest titles, descriptions, prices and images.

Catalog ads are commonly used by retail publishers who sell large volumes of items on their websites. This ad format enables automated generation of thousands of unique ads using a product feed and templates. This approach makes it easy to manage campaigns, promos and sponsored content at scale.

How to Catalog Ads work?

To create a catalog ads, you'd need a product feed table containing all of your items, as well as an HTML/JS template containing macros that expand to the product data from your feed.

At runtime, AdGlare will pull data directly from your product feed to generate thousands of unique product ads. The main advantages are:

Scale — just 1 product feed (CSV/JSON) and 1 template suffice to create thousands of ads.
Precise targeting — show suggested products that are <$10 to reach the free shipping threshold.
Sponsored content — Showcase advertiser products first and provide them with performance reports.
Promos — Leverage the fact that catalog ads use realtime data to show promos at hour precision.
Out of stock management — Sync your product feed via API to automatically remove ads from out-of-stock items.

Real-World Use Cases

Dynamic catalog ads shine in scenarios where inventories are large, prices fluctuate, or promotions are time-sensitive. Consider these three cases:

Large-scale retailers benefit by syncing updated product feeds to reflect real-time stock levels and pricing, ensuring out-of-stock items are never shown and best-sellers get priority without manual intervention.Sponsored product placements enable advertisers to secure premium visibility, with publishers dynamically prioritizing these listings while falling back to standard inventory when needed.

For flash sales and seasonal promotions, a quick CSV upload allows immediate updates, making it easy to spotlight discounted products during key shopping events like holidays or black friday.

How to create Catalog Ads

Follow these steps to set up a fully dynamic catalog campaign.

First, prepare your product feed as a CSV with at least one unique numeric primary key column (e.g. GTIN or SKU) and other fields like title, price, image_url, description, etc.

Set up your Catalog Database: on the Settings page, click Catalogs from the menu at the left. Create a new Catalog and upload your CSV file. Here's an example of its contents:
Design your template: on the Templates tab, create your own template using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Use at least one catalog macro.
Create a Catalog Campaign. When adding creatives, simply select for which products you want to generate the ads. You can also search by GTIN or SKU.
Create a Catalog Zone and link your campaign. Click the Ad Tag button at the top right. Once live, AdGlare generate product ads pulling data directly from your database.

If you don't have a product feed yet and you just want to see how it works, click the 'Example' button after setting up your catalog. Here you have the option to import some example items.

Reporting Columns

In addition to the typical dimensions AdGlare logs in your reports, you can log additional columns from your product feed. To do so, open your Catalog and click the Settings tab. From there, select which columns should be used for reporting — you can select up to 3 columns.

Best Practices

AdGlare offers flexibility in how you want to organize your catalog ads. Following these guidelines however ensures an optimal user experience:

Campaign Tiers — high-tiers for sponsored content, mid-tiers for time-limited promotions and sales, and low-tier campaigns for page-related inventory. This maximizes revenue while showing relevant ads to your users.
Avoid Iframe templates — unless required, serve catalog ads without iframes so they can use your website's CSS while improve load speed.
Use MultiLoad tags — instead of loading 3 ad tags separately, use a single ad tag to load the 3 ad slots to save on HTTP requests.

Advanced

AdGlare's Catalog Ads come with some powerful features regarding automation and control:

Instant Updates: manually upload a CSV file or sync it regularly via the API so that product ads remain fresh and up-to-date
Container Collapse: automatically collapse empty DIVs if no promo is found
Version Control: roll back to a previous version of your product database with a click of a button
Search Query Matching: show ads based on the search query of the user (match the product's title, description, etc)
Implement 'You May Also Like'-Ads: showcase ads from the same category or the same price range
Sell More: suggest products under $10 to nudge customers toward their free-shipping thresholds

In Summary

AdGlare's catalog ads make it easy to show the right products at the right time. Just upload a CSV file with your product data, design a template, and pick your products — manually or with filters. Your ads stay up to date and relevant without any additional work. You can track results, prioritize campaigns and target smarter to boost revenue and save time.

Reach out to emailAdGlare Support in case you need further help. You can expect a reply in less than 24 hours.