A data or product feed is a file that contains information about your products or services which can be used in your ads. When your data feed is updated with new info, your ads will also be updated. A data feed might only contain a few products or it could contain thousands.
Check out the following examples to get a sense of what a CSV spreadsheet data feed could look like:
Adacado supports the following data feed file types:
Adacado allows feeds to be hosted from both URLs and FTP servers. Unfortunately, we currently do not support SFTP.
There are several options when it comes to using data feeds. Wherever your feed comes from, be sure to check that the provided file type is compatible with the Adacado platform.
There are many services that can create product feeds based on your website’s content. Searching the web for “product data feed service” will be sure to give you plenty of options to choose from. The benefits of using a feed provider are increased flexibility and ease of use, making this a great option, particularly for websites with many products or services with frequently changing information.
Many eCommerce platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and Squarespace, provide ways to export product data as files that can be used as Adacado data feeds. Some platforms also have plugins that automate the process for you so that when you update products on your site, the feed is automatically updated!
Click here to learn more about how to create dynamic display ads with Shopify product inventory.
A very common (and very free!) option is to create your own feed using a spreadsheet. This option works best when you only have a few products or services you want to advertise. Doing this, paired with hosting it in Google Sheets is the easiest way to work with product data.
You can create a simple ad with one set of text and/or images, these types of ads don’t require a data feed. Check out our guide on creating static ads.
To start configuring your data feed, access the “Campaign Products Settings” page by clicking “Product Data” in the campaign drop-down menu in the header or the “Product Data” tab in the footer.
When you set up a data feed configuration for an advertiser’s first campaign, the configuration and products are saved to the advertiser and the product data is available to all campaigns for that advertiser. These products are called advertiser products because they can be used in all the campaigns of that advertiser.
If you are creating multiple campaigns for an advertiser, and you want to use entirely different data for a campaign, you can choose to use a separate feed for a particular campaign. In the “Campaign Product Settings”, select “Add and use products only for this campaign”.
On the “Campaign Product Settings” page, you will first need to choose a protocol in the dropdown menu, HTTP/HTTPs or FTP, to get your data feed. Currently, Adacado does not support SFTP.
Choose this method if your data feed can be accessed as a URL beginning with the letters “HTTP” or “HTTPS”. If you are using a Google Sheet, this is the method to choose.
Enter the data feed URL in the field to the right of the protocol selection and click “Fetch Sample”.
If your feed is being stored on an FTP server then this is the option to choose.
Enter your FTP credentials. You will need the Host Address, Username, Password and File Path. See the image below for an example of what the FTP credentials might look like.
If your data feed file is in the root directory of the FTP then simply enter the filename and extension into the File Path field. If your file is located within a sub-directory of the FTP, enter the path to your file as in the example below.
Click “Fetch Sample” after entering the FTP credentials.
As soon as you click “Fetch Sample”, the Adacado system automatically detects the data delimiter and data fields in your data feed and attempts to map Adacado’s data fields to the data in your feed.
A delimiter is a sequence of one or more characters that specifies where the boundary between separate regions should be. For example, a comma or a tab to separate these distinct values. If your file format is a CSV/Google Sheet (comma-separated values), “By comma” will be automatically selected. If “Custom” is selected, you need to manually enter the delimiter.
To bring your product information into Adacado, you will need to map Adacado’s pre-defined data fields to the columns/headers in your feed. This is an important process as the data fields you use will determine the product data available to use in your ads both visually and in terms of campaign objectives like retargeting.
If you are using a Google XML feed, then the system will automatically map your data and you can skip this step.
Data Fields in Adacado are predefined labels that you can associate with the columns/headers in your feed. The available Data Fields will vary depending on the advertiser’s business type.
The following table shows examples of how a data feed might be mapped to Adacado Data Fields.
When you add a feed URL or enter your FTP credential, Adacado will attempt to automatically map the relevant data fields to the headers of your data feed.
Make sure to double-check that Adacado’s data fields have been mapped to the correct columns. Data fields can be added, moved, or removed from the column headers. Drag the data fields around until all the important data in your feed has been mapped.
IMPORTANT
To ensure that your ads display the right content and that your campaign goals are working as expected, it is important to keep your data feed up-to-date with your latest product information.
Adacado will automatically import product data from your feed daily. If you want more control over when and how frequently your data is updated you can adjust the schedule settings. It is also possible to manually force an update.
Scheduling is especially important for advertisers with large volumes of inventory and stocks that are constantly changing. Feed update times are based on the time zone set for each advertiser.
Check with the advertiser or feed provider to find out how often the feed is updated and when updates are expected to be complete. Then, schedule Adacado to process the feed after the update is finished.
For example, if your feed provider finishes updating your data feed at 9 am daily, then choosing 9:10 am in Adacado would be a good choice.
Once your data mapping is done, you will need to save your data feed configuration by clicking the “Save” button in the upper right corner. The message next to the “Reload” button displays a different message depending on the selected save option.
There are two save options to choose from. Please read the pop-up message carefully before choosing an option.
IMPORTANT:
To change data mapping or scheduling, make your changes and then click the “Update” button next to the “Reload” button in the upper right corner to save your changes.
The “Update” button is activated in blue when there is a change and turns grey and inactive when the change is saved. If you change the mapping, make sure the changes are reflected in the product data.
To replace your current data feed with a new data feed to use a different product data set in your campaign, you must first check which data feed and products your campaign is using.
IMPORTANT:
Replacing the current data feed with a new feed will immediately remove all the existing products and add new products to the product list.
Replacing the data feed at the advertiser level
Follow the next steps to replace the current data feed with a new feed at the advertiser level.
NOTE:
Replacing the data feed at the advertiser level only affects campaigns that use the advertiser products, the campaign-specific products remain the same and continue to be displayed on the “Advertiser Products” list.
Replacing the data feed at the campaign level
For campaigns using campaign-specific data feed configurations and products, you can replace the current data feed with the new one on the “Campaign Product Settings” page in the same way you replace the data feed at the advertiser level. You should check the campaign products page to ensure that old data has been removed and new campaign-specific product data has been added.
NOTE:
To stop using campaign-specific products and use advertiser products in your campaign, select “Use product from advertiser” in the “Data Settings” field on the “Campaign Product Settings” page. This will immediately remove the previous campaign-specific products from the campaign products list and use the advertiser’s products in the campaign.
If the product information in your data feed has been updated and the updated product information should appear immediately in your ads, you can force processing the feed by clicking the “Reload” button on the product settings page. You can check the updated product information on the “Products” page.
Optionally, you can set up product filtering for your campaigns. This is helpful if you only want to use some of the product data in your feed for the ads in your campaign.
Choose the “Save and Process” in the save options to run your feed and update your product data in the Adacado system.
Check the bell icon next to your account name in the header to see if and when data feeds have been processed.
If you no longer want to use product data for your dynamic ads for your campaign and avoid accumulating product costs, you can use the “Delete Product Feed” feature on the product settings page to delete data feed configuration and remove all the products associated with it. Click here to learn more about how to delete a data feed.
If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend using Google Sheets to create your CSV data feed. Check out our guide here!
If you need to create image URLs for your products or services, there are many options to choose from. Check out our guide here to get more information.
CSV files can only have one tab. If you are using Google Sheets, check out our guide here on how to use multiple tabs in a Google Sheet.
Sometimes image processing takes a bit of time to complete. Please allow a bit of time for the system to process your data.
If your image doesn’t appear in your ad or product data list:
The image is either inaccessible or does not exist. Check your image URL and make sure it is a direct image link and publicly accessible. A direct image link leads directly to an image, rather than a web page. The image URL needs to be publicly accessible so that Adacado can download the image and add it to your product data.
Alternatively, you can place your images on another server, dropbox, S3, Google cloud storage, etc., and test if the image is accessible with the image download tester from the product data listing page.
The product image download error message and image download tester will only show if none of the first 10 product image URLs in your feed are working.
If your image doesn’t appear in your ad, but appears in the product data list:
Your image exists, but we cannot reach the image from our cloud provider or downloader due to a filter on your side. Allow access (at least) to our download IP 104.196.66.163. Some web servers block proxy requests, so you might have to update your web servers to allow downloads.
For the rest, we use a chrome user agent which is of a recent version to avoid the most common issues with not accepting our request to download the images for your ad.
Please double check to make sure your share settings are set to “anyone with the link”.
Please double check that your data fields are mapped properly. If everything looks good, you can force a data feed update as described here.
If you’re still having trouble or have questions, feel free to reach out to us anytime at support@adacado.com