Maximize Your Advertising Impact with Meta Catalog Ads: Strategies and Insights

Any old media buyer will tell DTC brands to utilize feed-based creative, like Performance Max Shopping Ads on Google, and Catalog ads across social and programmatic.  But what are they, why do they work, and how can we optimize them? Let’s start with Meta and their Catalog Ads offering. 

What are Meta Catalog Ads?

They are feed-based ads, that pull dynamically from your Shopify store and the catalog connection between Shopify and Meta (as mentioned above, this same structure applies to other ad platforms too). 

Through the feed, ads are shown that are a real-time match to inventory levels and user browsing habits. 

Why use Meta Catalog Ads?

1. Real-Time Data Synchronization: Feed-based ads reflect the most current inventory and pricing information, providing an accurate shopping experience for users.

2. Dynamic Creatives: Machine learning determines what products to show users. And while 3rd party data exists (H2 of 2024 will start to look different), ML generally shows users products they have browsed on your website. 

3. Optimized Ad Delivery: Advanced algorithms optimize ad delivery and placement based on factors such as user engagement and relevance, ensuring ads reach the right audience at the right time.

Seems like feed-based ads are ‘set it and forget it ads’. What am I missing? 

There are a couple of ways to optimize and enhance your catalog feeds.

1. Review the data: Look at performance over the past 3, 7, and 21 days to identify trends and areas for improvement. Sure, but what am I looking for? Think about dividing your catalog into sets of like products to build campaigns against them rather than the full catalog. At Pennock, we divide by top sellers, price point ranges, and product groups (eyeshadow vs foundation). These more granular ‘sets’ from your catalog allow you to fine-tune spending and goals to amplify potential. 

2. Review customer insights: Just like with any campaign and product, look into the customer base to find demographic similarities among the customers and set up particular catalog sets that target your best customer profiles. 

3. Creative A/B testing: Experiment with different ad creatives (carousel vs collection), copy, and product combinations to determine optimal strategies for engagement and conversion.

4. Enhance the feed: Replace white background product images with lifestyle images to provide shoppers with a more engaging visual experience, particularly effective for apparel and accessories. Experiment with background colors, patterns, and formats to make catalog ads more visually appealing and intriguing to potential customers.

5. Add reviews: Incorporate customer reviews into ads to build trust, increase credibility, and influence purchasing decisions.

6. Simple Creative Changes: Something simple we can do is to change the background color or pattern of the white e-commerce images that are typically used in a catalog. We can also play with variations of backgrounds, copy, formats, key features, etc. to make the catalog tell more of a story and intrigue customers to go to the next slide of the Catalog

7. Include Sales and Promotions: Utilize sales and promotions to boost engagement, drive conversions, create urgency, and gain a competitive advantage.


Simplify your job while staying relevant by maximizing how you use feed-based ads. They are a gold mine in Beauty. By implementing key optimization strategies such as data analysis, audience segmentation, and incorporating customer reviews, businesses can maximize the impact of their advertising campaigns and drive better results. With continuous experimentation and adaptation, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and unlock the full potential of Meta Catalog Ads to achieve their marketing objectives.