How to set up and use Meta product catalogs
A Meta product catalog is a list of items (with images, prices, and links) that lives on the Meta Business behind your ad account. In uplads you can create catalogs, manage the products inside them, and attach a catalog to a launch so Meta can pull in your products through catalog and Advantage+ creative.
What a catalog is in uplads
uplads talks to the Meta Catalog API directly. The catalogs you see are the real catalogs owned by the business behind your currently selected ad account - the same ones you'd find in Meta Commerce Manager. Products you add in uplads are created on Meta, and deleting a catalog or product removes it from Meta permanently.
Where to find catalogs
Open the Catalog management page (at /catalog). It always reflects the ad account you have selected, so switch accounts first if you manage several. You'll see a Product catalogs table listing each catalog's name, vertical, product count, and catalog ID.
If you have view-only access you can browse catalogs but not create or delete them - ask a workspace owner for edit rights. See View-only access in Configuration.
Create a catalog and add products
- On the Catalog management page, click New catalog.
- Enter a Catalog name (for example, "Summer Collection").
- Pick a Vertical - E-commerce (commerce), Hotels, Flights, Destinations, Home listings, or Vehicles.
- Click Create catalog. It appears in the table immediately.
To fill a catalog, click its name (or View products) to open the catalog detail page. Use Add product and fill in every field - Content/SKU ID, name, description, price, currency, availability, condition, brand, image URL, and product URL. All fields are required for Meta to approve and serve the item. You can also rename or delete a catalog from the table, and edit or delete individual products on the detail page.
If you'd rather not enter products by hand, connect a data feed in Meta Commerce Manager - those products show up here automatically.
About product sets
A product set is a saved subset of a catalog (for example, "On sale" or "Bestsellers"). uplads reads the product sets that already exist on each catalog; you create and edit product sets in Meta Commerce Manager, then select them at launch time. If a catalog has no product sets, your ads simply use all products in it.
Attach a catalog to a launch
Catalog selection happens in the Ads panel of the Ad Launcher. When the selected ad account's business owns catalogs, the panel's toolbar shows a Catalog button, next to the Languages and Enhancements buttons; the choice applies to every ad in the launch.
- In the Ad Launcher, load your media, then click Catalog in the Ads panel toolbar. The Product Catalog dialog opens.
- Under Catalogue, pick a catalog from the dropdown. The list shows the catalogs for the launch's ad account; leave it on No catalogue for a regular ad.
- Once a catalog is chosen, pick a Product set, or leave it on All products (the default, and the only option when the catalog has no product sets).
When you select a product set, uplads turns on Meta's catalog enhancements for the launch - it opts the creative into product extensions and standard catalog enhancements so Meta can append matching catalog items to your ad. The chosen catalog and product set then flow through every ad created in that launch.
Tips
- The Catalog button only shows up if the selected ad account's business actually owns catalogs. If you don't see it, create one first on the Catalog management page.
- Make sure products are approved (check the Status column on the catalog detail page) before relying on them in a live launch.
- Catalog and product-set choices live alongside Meta creative enhancements and the other toolbar settings of the Ads panel, so you can combine them with your usual primary text and headline variations.