Introduction
An optimally set up product data feed has a significant influence on the success of advertising campaigns on Google Ads, Facebook & Instagram Ads and Microsoft Advertising.
The attributes contained in a product data feed form the basis for the automatic generation of ads for PLA campaigns (PLA: Product Listing Ads) such as Google Shopping and Performance Max, Facebook Dynamic Products Ads or Microsoft Smart Shopping.
The more relevant attributes and product information the product data feed contains, the more targeted the respective advertising platform can present the ads to the appropriate target group. The users of the platform can see at a glance whether the products presented match their expectations. It is therefore of great importance not only to provide the attributes required for the pure functioning of the campaigns, but also to include optional attributes and to optimize the content of the attributes provided.
An example of partially optional attributes would be the color, size or material of a product. If these attributes are included in the data feed for each product, a user can see at first glance whether the advertised product is offered in the desired color and size variation. This reduces the number of clicks on generic product offers or father articles, lowers the number of clicks that do not result in a sale, and improves the cost/revenue ratio of PLA campaigns. In addition, advertising platforms evaluate the quality of a product data feed. Higher quality feeds result in better ad placement and possibly lower click costs. The product titles used in the ads should also be optimized accordingly so that, for example, users searching for a product on Google can see at first glance whether the product offered meets their requirements.
With the emarketing Data Feed Manager, the attributes from your store can easily be freely assigned to the data feed attributes (mapping). In addition, the data feed manager offers extensive options for optimizing the imported product data. Various attributes from the store can be combined to obtain, for example, a product title, which is composed of the attributes manufacturer / brand, product name and other relevant attributes such as color, size, material, gender and age of the target group.
If an emarketing plugin is used to import the product data, all attributes, properties or characteristics maintained for products in the store backend can be accessed. The emarketing data feed manager can also modify attributes using self-defined rules or add them based on rules. An example of this would be the stock level in the store. Platforms such as Google Merchant Center only know a few states regarding the availability of an item. Normally, an item is considered to be in stock and is advertised when at least one piece is in stock. The emarketing plugins provide the exact quantity for each item. Based on this, a rule could be set up that changes the availability in Google Merchant Center to "out of stock" as soon as the inventory is less than five pieces. Thus, no money is wasted on advertising remaining stock, which can be sold even without paid advertising.
Setting up the source for product data
emarketing can obtain your product data from the following sources and update it automatically:
emarketing plugin: Through the free emarketing plugins available, there is access to all attributes, characteristics and properties maintained in the store backend. A plugin linked to the emarketing account automatically updates the product data on a daily basis. This eliminates the effort of manually creating, formatting and maintaining the data feed.
CSV file: emarketing can read a CSV file provided via URL and use the product information it contains for the data feed manager.
Google Merchant Center: emarketing can use an existing Google Merchant Center with active products as a source for the product import. The disadvantage of this variant is that only product attributes supported by Google can be used. Additional attributes that are used in the store backend cannot be included.
Information on how to set up a source for importing product data can be found here.
Default or Custom Attribute Mapping
After a source for importing product data has been set up, emarketing first uses the default mapping. The default mapping ensures that all attributes required for the respective advertising platform are included and correctly formatted in the product data feed. Optional product attributes are not taken into account. We therefore recommend adjusting the default mapping and thus optimizing the product data feed.
Optimization of the product data feed
To customize the default mapping, proceed as follows:
In the emarketing account, open the Products -> Setup menu:
In the tile representing your product data source, click the pencil icon to open the edit mode:
Open the Attributes Mapping tab:
Click Show Default Mapping:
Structure and use of the data feed manager
The emarketing data feed manager now displays all the standard attributes required to promote the products. The page is divided into four columns:
Column 1: Name of the attribute in the data feed manager
The 1st column contains the name of the attribute in the Data Feed Manager (for example, title, id).
Column 2 (map to): Select content type for the attribute
The 2nd column (Map to) provides different methods of how to populate the attribute in the feed with data. The following options are available for selection:
Attribute: A value from the source is assigned 1:1 to the data feed attribute (mapping).
Static Value: A static, user-defined value is to be permanently assigned to the data feed attribute.
Combine Attributes: The value for the data feed attribute is to result from a combination of several values. Values from attributes of the product data source and static values can be combined as desired.
Leave empty: No value should be assigned to the data feed attribute.
Column 3 (Attribute): Select content source for the attribute
Depending on the content type selected in column 2, different sources for the content of the attribute are offered:
Attribute: If you select the content type Attribute in column 2, all attributes available in the data source will be offered for selection. You can select the desired attribute from the list of all attributes. The attribute list can be searched for the desired attribute by entering a term. The names of the attributes correspond to the name in the product data source (plugin, CSV file or Google Merchant Center):
In the following example, the title data feed attribute has been assigned the value from the name attribute of the product data source:
Combine Attributes: when the Combine Attributes content type is selected, the contents of multiple attributes from the product data source can be combined and written to the data feed attribute. Additionally, static values can be added to the attributes from the product data source. In the following example, the values from the brand and name attributes are used for the title data feed attribute:
Leave empty: If no value is to be assigned to an attribute, this attribute can be deleted completely. The Leave empty option is only useful if no value is to be transmitted for the data feed attribute for certain products. The selection of products for which no value is to be transmitted can be determined by "if-then rules" (see next section, column 4: Add condition). If an attribute is not to be included in the data feed for all products, the complete attribute can be deleted.
Column 4: Add condition
By creating rules it is possible to determine under which conditions the attributes / values selected in column 3 should be added to a data feed attribute. It is possible to define multiple rules for each data feed attribute. It is also possible to define a behavior that will be applied if none of the defined rules apply.
Click Add Condition if you want the values selected in column 3 to be added to a data feed attribute only if certain criteria are met:
In the following example, the values from the brand and name attributes would only be added to the title data feed attribute if the brand attribute from the product data source is not empty. A second condition ensures that the brand is not already contained in the name attribute and would therefore occur twice. The two conditions are linked by and. Thus, both conditions must be true for the two attributes brand and name to be combined into a new product title:
In order for the data feed attribute to receive a value even if the brand attribute is empty, a corresponding fallback rule must be created. The value that is written to the data feed attribute in this case can be an attribute, a combination of attributes, or a static value. In addition, the data feed attribute can be left empty. In the following example, the title data feed attribute is assigned the value from name if the brand attribute does not contain a value:
Adding optional attributes
Adding optional attributes can massively enhance the product data feed. Attributes such as color or size are not necessarily required by many platforms, but contribute greatly to the success of a PLA campaign.
Depending on the product category, other attributes are decisive; in the area of clothing, for example, color, size, and material would be relevant, for electronic products the energy efficiency class would be relevant, and so on.
Attributes that are already maintained in the store's article management should also be included in the data feed if possible. In particular, attributes that result in product variants should be present in the feed.
To add a new attribute to the product data feed, proceed as follows:
Open the product data source for editing, as described above.
Scroll down, after the last default attribute you will find the button
+ Add new attribute. Click the button to create a new optional attribute:
A drop-down list opens with all attributes supported by the Data Feed Manager that are not yet used in the feed. Select the desired attribute from the list.
In this example we add the attribute custom label0 to the data feed:
Now select which content type to use in the second column (Map to). Then select the value for the attribute in the third column.
In the example, the attribute custom label0 is assigned the static value My Label:
Click Finish at the bottom right to save your changes and exit edit mode.
Delete optional attributes
You can completely delete an optional attribute that is not needed from the data feed at any time.
Move the mouse pointer over the attribute you want to delete, click the red -trash can icon:
Click Delete Mapping Rule to confirm the deletion of the attribute.
Click Finish at the bottom right to save your changes and exit edit mode.
Removing HTML tags from attribute values
If attribute values of the product data source contain HTML tags, the data feed manager can remove them automatically. Most advertising platforms do not support formatted text, so if you use bold font in the product title or description in the store, for example, you can remove the <strong> meta tag used for it.
Hover the mouse cursor over the desired attribute, click the gear icon:
Click Strip HTML Tags:
Click Finish at the bottom right to save your changes and exit edit mode.
Practical examples for optimizing the product data feed.
Below are some real-world examples of adding optional attributes and optimizing data feed attributes. The methods used in the examples can of course be used for any attribute included in the data feed.
Optimization of existing attributes
Example 1: Optimization of the product title for advertisements
The product title in a PLA campaign should make it as clear as possible at first glance which product or which product variant of a product is being advertised.
While on the product detail page in the store, information on product attributes such as size, color or gender of the target group is not necessary, as this is derived from the product description or other information, the situation is different in an advertisement. Here, the product title should already contain all the information relevant to the potential buyer in order to avoid misclicks and improve the conversion rate.
Let's assume that for an Adidas brand sports shoe, the product name from the store's article management is used as the product title on the product detail page, this title would be "Superstar", for example. An optimized title for apparel products should include additional information, such as brand / manufacturer, color. Size and material:
Brand / Manufacturer + Product Name + Size + Color + Material
So for the given example, the product title should look like this:
Adidas Superstar Size: 43 Color: white Material: leather
A product title designed in this way tells the user at a glance whether the advertised product is suitable for them.
To optimize the title in the emarketing data feed manager as shown in the example, proceed as follows:
As described above, open the product data source for editing.
Select the Combine Attributes content type for the title attribute:
Now add the desired attributes from the product data source to the Attributes List field:
TIP: The values marked with the symbol Tt ("Size: ", "Color: " and "Material: ") have been inserted as free text between the product attributes from the data source. You can use any free text content. To do so, simply type the desired term into the input field.
To ensure that the title is created according to this scheme only if there is a value for all the attributes used, add appropriate conditions by clicking + Add Condition:
Configure the conditions as follows:
These conditions ensure that the title is only composed of the selected attributes if the attributes size. color and material contain a value.
To ensure that the title is optimized even if size, color, or material do not contain a value, add a fallback rule at the end:
The fallback rule defines that the title is composed of the brand and name attributes if there are no values for size, color or material.
Example 2: Changing the value of an attribute using an if-then rule
In the following example, the value of the availability attribute is to be changed based on the inventory of an item. Most advertising platforms only know a few states for availability, e.g. "in stock", "out of stock" and "available for pre-order". If the stock level for an item is greater than 0, the availability is normally set to "in stock". It can be useful to change the availability already as "not in stock" as soon as the stock level falls below a certain value. This way, advertising costs can be saved for articles whose small remaining quantity could be sold even without paid advertising.
To change the availability of an item to "not in stock" as soon as its stock level is less than three pieces, proceed as follows:
As described above, open the product data source for editing.
Locate the availability attribute and select Static Value for the content type.
For the attribute value, enter "out of stock".
Click + Add condition.
Select the stock quantity attribute, select is less than for the operator, and enter 3 for the attribute value.
Add a fallback rule so that the availability attribute is set to "in stock" for items with a stock quantity > 3:
Example 3: Add optional attributes like color, size etc.
Optional attributes such as color, size, material, etc. can greatly improve the quality of a product data feed. Your ads can be played out in a more targeted manner if, for example, a user is specifically looking for a product with certain properties. However, often there is not only one attribute for e.g. color in the store backend, but a multitude of attributes which can contain the color value. With the Data Feed Manager you can create a configuration where the attributes in question are checked per product. The first attribute that contains a value for the item is then used in the product data feed. In the following example, this is configured for the "Color" attribute:
As described above, open the product data source for editing.
Since the attribute is optional, you must add it first. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the attribute list and click + Add New Attribute:
In the left Attribute column, select color from the drop-down list.
In the middle column Map To, select Attribute.
In the right Attribute column, select the first attribute from the drop-down list that can contain a value for color (the names of the attributes and characteristics in the list correspond to those of the data source, i.e. your store backend, a CSV file, etc.):
To make sure the attribute is only used If it contains a value, click + Add Condition:
Now define the condition that must be true. In this example, the attribute should contain a value, i.e. it should not be empty:
You can add more attributes that can contain a value for color by clicking + Add Mapping Rule:
Now select the second attribute from the data source in the right column, which can contain a value for the color and add again as condition not empty.
Repeat this step until all attributes from the data source that can contain a value for color are covered. The Data Feed Manager then goes through the selected attributes from the data source for each item in turn and assigns color to the first color attribute from the data source that contains a value for that item.
Configure the fallback rule that applies if none of the attributes from the data source contains a value for color. In the example, the color attribute is left empty in this case:
