What is a product feed?
A product feed is a file, or an API connection, that lists every product with its attributes: title, description, price, availability, image, GTIN, category, custom labels. Platforms read it to build ads automatically: Google Shopping and Performance Max, Meta and TikTok catalogue ads, Pinterest, and the marketplaces you sell on.
Why it matters
On automated campaigns, the feed is the ad. A weak title makes a weak ad. A missing attribute means a missed auction. An image shot for a product page dies in a social feed. The algorithm can only sell what the feed describes, so the quality of that description sets the ceiling on performance before a single euro is bid.
What a good feed does
- Titles written for the query: the way a customer searches, not the way the ERP names things.
- Images built for the placement: clean for Shopping, scroll stopping for catalogue ads on social.
- Custom labels that carry strategy: margin, seasonality, bestseller, clearance, so campaigns can prioritise.
- Stock and price in near real time: an ad for an out of stock product is paid disappointment.
The honest view
Most feeds are exported by IT and never read by marketing. That gap is where budget quietly leaks. A feed is a creative asset with thousands of variants; it deserves the same attention as a hero video, and it usually gets none.
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