6 Things You Need to Set Up Facebook Dynamic Ads

Author \ The Vye Team

10.11.18

Facebook’s Dynamic Ads are one of the most complex tools Facebook has rolled out in order to help advertisers reach the right audience with the right messaging. In short, Facebook’s Dynamic Ads help you “automatically promote the most relevant items from your product catalog for real business results.” Still unsure of what they really are? Think of the last time you were browsing an item online that you didn’t buy.

The next time you log onto Facebook, you see an ad for the exact item from the exact store you were looking at. Coincidence? Not at all. Just a marketer putting dynamic ads into action.

Dynamic ads combine many of Facebook’s different assets: product catalogs, Facebook pixel, and the Facebook Ad Manager. Because of all of the different elements Dynamic Ads put into play, you need to make sure you are able to set up all of them correctly. If you’re unable to set up just one of the elements, they won’t work. So to save you some time, here’s a list of 6 things you will need in order to set up Facebook’s Dynamic Ads.

1. A product or service that can be individually listed

Are you able to list out every product or service you provide individually? If yes, then great. If not, then you might want to take a step back and figure out if there is some way you can, otherwise, dynamic ads are not for you.

2. A set price for each product

This is probably the factor that will make or break your ability to set up Facebook Dynamic Ads. If you’re in a regular retail business and have a set price for each of your products, you should have no problems listing your prices. However, say you’re in the service industry where prices vary, or perhaps your products are sold through different dealers that sell at different prices - if you can’t advertise a one-size-fits-all price, you will not be able to set up your ads.

For example, say you own a financial consulting business that offers many different services. Chances are, you will not be able to list one set price for your services because the rate you charge will all depend on your client’s specific situation. However, on the other hand, say you own a car dealership. You have one set price that you’re willing to sell that vehicle, no matter who the buyer is. That set price is what you will need to set up your ads.

3. A webpage to direct each product to

If possible, each product or service you list should have an individual website page to direct ad viewers too. It is a poor user experience for viewers if when they click on an ad, they are taken to a general “our products/services” page that requires them to scroll through many different options before they find the option they originally clicked on in the ad. Think about it, if you want to learn more about that 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee in the ad you clicked on from a car dealership, you’re going to want the ad to take you directly to that page - not the main inventory feed where you have to scroll through hundreds of products.

Along with this, having individual pages for each of your products also means that Facebook can more accurately track what your website viewers are looking at in order to serve them up the most relevant ad they can the next time they log onto Facebook.

4. Facebook Ad Manager

If you are able to do the first three items listed above, then you should start getting excited because the next three requirements are available to everyone, which means Facebook Dynamic Ads should work for you!

If you’ve been running ads for your business, you should already have a Facebook Ad Manager. The Ad Manager, simply put, is where you go to set up and run your Facebook ads. If you don’t have an Ad Manager, it’s pretty simple to set one up. Here is a step-by-step guide.

5. Facebook Pixel

If you aren’t familiar with Facebook Pixel, it’s one of the most powerful tools within Facebook’s advertising platform. The pixel is a piece of code that you install on your website that feeds data back to Facebook about who your website visitors are and what they are doing and looking at on your website. This is what allows Facebook to serve them customized ads based on what products they were looking at on your website. Installing the Facebook pixel only needs to be done once, which may be best done by a developer if you are not comfortable adding code to your website.

Here are directions on how to install the code.

6. Spreadsheet/Developer to set up the Product Catalogue

Once you have your Facebook Ad Manager set up, the pixel code installed, and a list of your products figured out, the last thing you will need is to either create a spreadsheet of your products/services to upload to Facebook, upload your products manually, or have a developer install code on your website for the Facebook pixel to read and pass back to the Facebook Ad Manager to pull your product details through.

Here are directions on the many different options to set up your catalog.

If you have the ability to set up each of the 6 items listed above, you should find success in setting up your Dynamic Ads.

Wondering how all of these pieces play together? Here’s a quick run-down.

To set up Dynamic Ads, you will need to select the “Product Catalog Sales” campaign options when first setting up your Facebook Ads. Here are the full steps to do so.

Once you have your ads set up and launched, that is when all of the pieces will start to work together. First, a prospect will visit your website and start browsing what you have to offer (each item will be listed in your product catalog). While they are doing this, the Facebook pixel is sending both that user’s IP address along with what they are looking at back to the Facebook Ad Manager to be recorded. Now, each time they log into Facebook, Facebook has the ability to serve up a customized ad based on what they were previously looking at on your site, with the end-goal of getting them back to that webpage to ultimately get them to buy.

Looking for more information on Facebook advertising? Here are a few other articles we've put together: