Shoppers can't see the price drop if you don't show it to them.
A product marked down from $199 to $99 is a compelling offer — but only if the original price is visible. Strikethrough pricing (the $199 $99 treatment) is one of the most proven conversion techniques in retail, precisely because it makes the value of the discount instantly legible. Without it, "$99" is just a price. With it, "$99" is a deal.
Most brands surface this comparison on their product pages. Very few put it on the catalog ad itself — which is the moment the shopper is deciding whether to click. This guide shows you how to display original versus sale price dynamically across your entire catalog, automatically, using your existing product feed.
Why Strikethrough Pricing Works — and Why It Belongs on the Catalog Ad
Price anchoring is one of the most well-documented principles in behavioral economics. When shoppers see a higher "original" price next to a lower sale price, the original price sets a reference point that makes the sale price feel like a bargain — even when shoppers have no independent frame of reference for what the product "should" cost.
The strikethrough format amplifies this effect because the visual act of crossing out a price signals finality. The old price is gone. The new price is better. The discount is real.
What's striking is how rarely this happens at the catalog ad level. Most dynamic product ads show a single price — the current price — with no context for whether it's a regular price or a discounted one. The shopper has to click through, land on the product page, and discover the markdown there. By then, many of them have already scrolled past.
Putting strikethrough pricing in the catalog ad moves that value signal earlier in the funnel — into the feed, where it can influence the decision to click. A shopper who sees $199 $99 in a dynamic product ad arrives on the product page already primed for the purchase. That's a meaningfully different visitor than one who saw "$99" with no context.
What You'll Need
Dynamic strikethrough pricing on catalog ads works by pulling both the original price and the sale price from your product feed and displaying them as a styled overlay in the ad creative. You'll need:
- A Meta product catalog that includes both a price field (the original price) and a sale_price field (the discounted price) — most e-commerce platforms populate both by default when a sale is active.
- Products currently on sale — the strikethrough element only displays when a sale price is present; it stays hidden when products are at full price.
- A feed-based creative tool like Marpipe that supports conditional display logic and custom text styling within catalog ad templates.
With those in place, the setup takes minutes and runs automatically across your entire catalog.
Step 1: Confirm Both Price Fields Are in Your Product Feed
Before anything can display in the catalog ad creative, your product feed needs to be sending both price points to Meta.
Check your feed for:
- price — the original, full retail price (e.g., $199.00)
- sale_price — the current discounted price (e.g., $99.00)
On Shopify, these fields are typically populated automatically when you set a "Compare at price" alongside a sale price on the product listing. On WooCommerce, the "Regular price" maps to price and the "Sale price" maps to sale_price. Most feed management tools pass both fields through natively.
If your product feed only contains a single price field, you'll need to add the original price as a separate field before the creative layer can reference it. A supplemental feed in Meta's Commerce Manager is the quickest way to append this data without restructuring your entire feed.
Step 2: Set Up the Strikethrough Pricing Element on Your Catalog Ad Template
This is where the visual effect gets built. In Marpipe, you add two separate text elements to your catalog ad template — one for the original price and one for the sale price — and configure them to display conditionally based on whether a sale price exists.
Here's how it works:
- Open your catalog ad template in Marpipe.
- Add a text element mapped to the price field — this will display the original price.
- Apply a strikethrough style to that element so it renders as crossed-out text.
- Add a second text element mapped to the sale_price field — this will display the sale price, styled more prominently (larger font, bolder weight, accent color).
- Set a conditional display rule: show both elements only when sale_price is present and lower than price; fall back to showing only the regular price when no sale is active.
- Publish — every dynamic product ad running a sale now automatically shows the strikethrough treatment; full-price products show their regular price without any crossed-out element.
The result is a single template that handles both states cleanly, with no manual toggling between sale and non-sale catalog ad creative.
Step 3: Style the Price Comparison for Maximum Catalog Ad Impact
The strikethrough effect works best when the visual hierarchy is clear. A few principles that consistently perform:
Make the contrast obvious. The sale price should be noticeably more prominent than the original — larger font size, bolder weight, or a different color. If both prices look similar in weight, the discount reads as less significant.
Use color intentionally. A muted gray or light tone for the original (struck-through) price and a strong accent color for the sale price — red, green, or your brand's primary color — reinforces which number matters and directs attention where you want it.
Keep it compact. Price displays on catalog ads compete with the product image for visual space. A clean two-line treatment (original above, sale below, or side-by-side) tends to work better than anything elaborate. The simpler the layout, the faster it reads in a moving feed.
Test placement. Bottom-left corner, bottom-right, or a dedicated price badge — each placement interacts differently with the product image and the dynamic product ad format. Run creative variants to find what earns the best CTR in your catalog.
Beyond the Basics: Combining Strikethrough Pricing With Other Catalog Ad Signals
Strikethrough pricing is powerful on its own. It becomes significantly more powerful when combined with other urgency and trust signals in the same catalog ad creative.
Consider layering the sale price display with:
- A countdown timer showing when the sale ends — pairing a price drop with a deadline creates both value and urgency simultaneously.
- A low inventory count — "$199 $99 · Only 4 left" collapses price sensitivity and scarcity into a single ad unit.
- Star ratings — social proof alongside a visible discount addresses both "is this a good deal?" and "is this a good product?" in one glance.
- A percent-off badge — showing both "33% off" and the strikethrough price drop reinforces the discount from two angles.
Each of these elements pulls from your existing product feed data. The catalog ad creative does the work of combining them into a single, high-information dynamic product ad that gives shoppers multiple reasons to click.
FAQ
What if a product is at full price — will the strikethrough still show?
No. The conditional display rule only renders the strikethrough element when sale_price is populated and lower than price. Full-price products show only the regular price, with no crossed-out element.
Does this work with Shopify's "Compare at price"?
Yes. Shopify's "Compare at price" maps to the price field in your product feed, and the active selling price maps to sale_price. Set those up in Shopify and the strikethrough renders automatically on every catalog ad.
Will Meta approve dynamic product ads with strikethrough pricing?
Yes — as long as the prices are accurate. Meta requires that the displayed prices match what shoppers see at checkout. Pulling from your product feed keeps you compliant by definition.
Can I customize the strikethrough style (e.g., color, thickness)?
Yes. Most feed-based creative tools let you style the strikethrough independently — you can choose the line color, weight, and exact placement. A diagonal strike, a horizontal line, or even a different color for the line itself can all be configured.
The Bottom Line
A price drop that shoppers can't see doesn't convert. Strikethrough pricing on your catalog ads takes the most compelling part of your promotional strategy — the discount itself — and moves it earlier in the decision process, directly into the feed where clicks are won or lost.
Set it up once in your creative template and it runs automatically. Products on sale show the comparison. Full-price products show a clean regular price. No manual work, no toggling between campaigns, no stale creative.
Ready to show the price drop on your catalog ads? Try Marpipe free and set up dynamic strikethrough pricing today.
