What Is a Product Feed and How to Create One for eCommerce

A product feed is simply a file that contains information needed to display your products across online marketplaces, search engines, and social media channels that support commerce experiences.

Simple, right? However, the more you know about product feeds, the more you’ll appreciate their role in enhancing visibility, accuracy, and engagement while unlocking new opportunities like enriched catalog creative across multiple platforms. 

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Understanding Product Feeds

Product feeds are files containing a detailed list of your products and their attributes like title, description, price, inventory, and much more.

The data inside a product feed serves as a single source of truth that makes distribution on platforms like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram much more efficient. With a single product feed, you can scale efforts across multiple sales channels while ensuring products are always showcased accurately — meaning more eyeballs, more traffic, and more purchases!

Here's why product feeds matter:

• Visibility: Product feeds make sure your products are seen on the sites and apps where most people discover products 
• Accuracy: Feeds ensure that product details are up-to-date and consistent everywhere
• Engagement: Well-optimized product feeds attract more customers with dynamic, appealing listings

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Types of Product Feeds

Product feeds come in various types, each serving unique marketing needs. Not all platforms accept all types and formats of feeds, which we’ll get to shortly, so its important to understand your usecase and do your research before putting the effort into creating your product feed. 

1. Standard Feeds: These are the backbone of most e-commerce platforms. Standard feeds contain essential product details like title, price, description, and availability that are essential to having your products display on multiple platforms like Google, Amazon, and Meta quickly.
   
   
2. Custom Feeds: Some niche sites and private marketplaces may require a brand to provide data in a specific feed format.
   
   
3. Promotional Feeds: Designed for special offers or discounts. Promotional Feeds highlight sales and promotions, attracting deal-seekers and driving quick conversions. For example, Google can accept a promotional feed to update sales details during the holiday season.
   
   
4. Rich Media Feeds: These include high-quality images, videos, or even PDFs. They enhance the visual appeal of your listings, engaging customers more effectively.
   
   

For even more feed types, like incremental or data-only, check out our guide to optimizing inventory with product feeds.

Whether it's broad exposure, targeted marketing, or visual engagement, the right feed can transform your selling efforts. 

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Key Components of a Product Feed

So what types of data can you commonly find inside product feeds? 

Titles: Clear and descriptive titles ensure customers know exactly what they're looking at. They should include essential details like brand and product type. For more insights on optimizing your product feed, explore our strategies for enhancing e-commerce marketing performance.

Descriptions: Descriptions provide a deeper understanding of the product. A well-crafted description highlights features and benefits, making your product more appealing.

Prices: Accurate pricing is crucial. Seeing one price on Google only to arrive at a page with different pricing can create huge friction in the buyer’s decision-making process.

Images: High-quality images are essential. They provide a visual representation that can entice potential buyers. Be sure to include clear, professional photos in product feeds, as you cannot control which competitive products may appear next to yours on third-party platforms.  

Availability: Keep inventory information and availability updated to ensure customers know if a product is in stock, newly stocked, or even low in stock.

SKU: The Stock Keeping Unit, or SKU, is a unique identifier that helps in managing inventory and sales. It’s important for tracking and organization.

These are just some of the data types included in a product feed; each platform has its own requirements and different product categories open up new opportunities such as gender, weight, style, etc. 

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How to Create a Product Feed

There are three main ways to create a product feed. Manually creating a spreadsheet is the quickest way to create a product feed, but as you scale your brand and product catalog, you’ll quickly outgrow this approach. 

1. Manual Compilation: The good old-fashioned way of creating a product feed is by doing it manually on your own. It's carried out by inputting all your data piece by piece with the product description into a spreadsheet and then sending it directly to the chosen platform you want to advertise with. While some companies still adopt this method, it takes a lot of time to do, and it's easy to make mistakes when you're doing it. So, we advise against it unless you're really keen on the idea.
   
   
2. Ecommerce Integration: Many ecommerce platforms offer built-in tools to generate product feeds. These systems automatically pull product data from your online store, making it easier to keep feeds up to date. Check your platform’s settings to see how you can export this data.
   
   
3. Feed Management Tools: Today, feed management tools like Feedonomics, DataFeedWatch, Products Up, and FeedOptimize all help automate data extraction and formatting, ensuring your feed is ready for various sales channels. In addition to unlocking efficiencies in the creation of your product feed, feed management tools automate uploading feeds to each platform, ensure accuracy with error validation, and provide analytics to reveal insights at the product level.
   
   

Product Feed Formats

There are a number of file types to choose from and different levels of support for each file type depending on the platform you intend to sell on when creating a product feed. We put together an overview of popular product feed formats and the platforms that accept them:

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1. CSV (Comma-Separated Values)

• Common Uses: Frequently used in e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce or for uploading product data to Google Shopping or Facebook Ads.
• Advantages: Easy to create and edit using spreadsheet programs like Excel or Google Sheets. Widely accepted by many platforms.

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2. XML (Extensible Markup Language)

• Common Uses: Commonly used for Google Merchant Center, Amazon, eBay, and other large marketplaces or comparison shopping engines (CSEs).
• Advantages: XML is flexible and allows for complex data structures, making it ideal for platforms that require detailed and organized product information.

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3. TXT (Plain Text)

• Common Uses: Google Shopping accepts product feeds in a .txt format, especially for smaller or simpler data sets.
• Advantages: Simple to generate and easy to read, though it may not be as flexible or powerful as XML for complex data.

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4. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

• Common Uses: Increasingly used for web applications, APIs, and custom data integrations for platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, or other custom solutions.
• Advantages: Well-suited for web-based applications and can handle complex product data structures in a lightweight, easily readable format.

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5. XLS/XLSX (Excel Spreadsheet)

• Common Uses: Used primarily for internal data management or uploading product data to platforms that support Excel imports, like Shopify or certain feed management tools.
• Advantages: Provides the ability to add multiple sheets and perform advanced calculations or data manipulations before exporting as a feed.

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6. Google Sheets

• Common Uses: Many e-commerce platforms and feed management tools integrate directly with Google Sheets to allow dynamic product feed updates.
• Advantages: Easy to collaborate on, and changes can be automated via scripts or tools, allowing for near real-time updates.

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7. API (Application Programming Interface) Feeds

• Common Uses: Popular in dynamic, large-scale e-commerce operations where product data needs to be synced between systems (e.g., Shopify to Facebook, or a custom marketplace).
• Advantages: Real-time data updates and synchronization, eliminating the need for manual file uploads.

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Product Feeds in Advertising

Did you know that Google Shopping Ads account for over 85% of all ad clicks on Google Search and Shopping campaigns?

Product feeds have become key to multichannel selling and power some of the most coveted ad placements across Google, Meta, Amazon, and more. 

Different platforms have unique data field requirements. Google might need specific attributes like GTINs, while Facebook focuses on high-quality images and detailed descriptions. Understanding each platform's needs ensures your products are showcased accurately and attractively.

Using UTM parameters in product feeds is a smart strategy for tracking performance and insights into where traffic comes from and how users interact with your ads. Understanding this down to the product level is a powerful way to refine your campaign strategy and improve ROI.

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How to Optimize your Product Feed

To gain the most reach and drive the most conversions, it’s important to optimize and maintain your product feed. Ensuring the accuracy of information included, adding rich search-worthy keywords, and including eye-catching imagery and videos in your product feed is essential for retailers and DTC brands.   

1. Accuracy: Include as many columns in your product feed as possible and keep all product details up-to-date to build trust and improve customer satisfaction. Conversion rates between ad creative and landing page will plummet if customers arrive on a PDP that doesn’t match the messaging seen in your new dynamic ad.
   
   
2. Keywords: Understand the context in which your products might be discovered online and include terms your target audience is likely to search for to increase visibility. Is your product sustainable? Recommended by Oprah? Seen on Shark Tank? Make sure that’s in there!
   
   
3. Images: Stand out from your competition and be sure to use compelling professional photos that showcase the product's features and attributes. Get creative with imagery to include backgrounds, iconography, and other branding elements that can set your visuals apart. 

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Enhancing Your Product Feed with Marpipe

Product feeds have evolved from a data feature to an entire strategic opportunity for e-commerce brands to succeed today. They showcase products accurately and attractively on various platforms, boosting visibility and sales. They’re easy to create in formats like CSV or XML but also essential to maintain and optimize. And, they can be optimized to drive conversions at scale with innovative creative strategies.

With Marpipe, you can unlock new creative opportunities with your product feed and go even further with imagery. 

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Marpipe’s enriched catalogs, turn feeds into eye-catching ad creative to enhance brand recognition and engagement. Our platform includes conversion-tested templates and generative AI-powered design tools to enhance your feed and make sure your products stand out among a carousel of competition.

Now that you’ve grasped the ins and outs of the product feed, simply upload your product feed to Marpipe and create your first enriched catalog ad for free!