Catalog Feed Checker for Meta (Facebook Catalog Feed Template)

How to use the catalog feed template and checker for Facebook

Start from the Facebook catalog feed template above if you are building a catalog from scratch, or load the file you already send to Commerce Manager. The checker compares every item with Meta's product data specifications for catalogs and its developer field list, then hands back a fixed CSV.

1. Add the catalog. Drop a CSV, TSV, XML or Excel file, paste rows from Google Sheets, or press Try sample data to see a home and apparel shop catalog with typical problems.
2. Confirm the fields. Headers that already use Meta's names are matched automatically. Old names such as visibility, inventory or product_tags are mapped to today's status, quantity_to_sell_on_facebook and internal_label.
3. Set the options. The currency only fills in a code where a price has none; tick Shops if you sell with checkout on Facebook or Instagram.
4. Review and download. Problems are grouped by type with the share of the catalog each one touches. Download the corrected CSV, the list of items still to fix, and the summary.

What the Facebook product feed specification checks cover

• Required fields — the eight upload fields on every row, plus at least one of brand, gtin or mpn.
• Limits — id up to 100 characters, title 200 (65 recommended), description 9,999, brand and mpn 100, custom labels 100.
• Values — availability, condition, gender, age group and status checked against Meta's lists.
• Formats — prices, sale dates, links, JPEG or PNG images, GTIN digits, shipping and weights.
• Catalog logic — duplicate IDs, group IDs equal to item IDs, mixed currencies.

What to do next in Commerce Manager

1. Match your pixel first. For Advantage+ catalog ads, each id must be exactly the value your Meta Pixel and Conversions API send in content_ids. If you change IDs to fix duplicates, change the pixel too.
2. Choose how Meta gets the file. A one-time upload can be up to 100 MB. A scheduled feed reads a URL (http, https, ftp or sftp) and can be up to 4 GB; Meta asks you to compress files over 1 GB with ZIP or GZIP.
3. Using Google Sheets? Keep the feed on the first tab, shared with anyone who has the link.
4. Check the issues list after the first run. Commerce Manager reports items it rejected and policy problems this file check can't see.
5. Filter product sets with internal labels. Meta recommends internal_label over custom labels for product sets because internal labels don't trigger a policy review.

Common Facebook catalog errors and fixes

Facebook catalog price format errors

Writing $24.00, 24,00 EUR or USD 24 breaks Meta's rule of number, space, code. The corrected file rewrites each one to 24.00 USD. A price Meta can't read at all, such as "call us", is left for you.

Facebook catalog availability values

Meta's page lists two values, written with a space: "in stock" and "out of stock". The Google-style in_stock is rewritten for you. Older words like "preorder", "available for order" or "discontinued" are flagged because they are not on the current list.

Facebook catalog duplicate IDs

Meta needs every id to be unique, so two rows with the same one are an error. And because the field is case sensitive, abc123 and ABC123 become two separate products — fine if that's intended, a mess if your pixel sends only one spelling.

Facebook catalog item group ID for variants

A shared item_group_id ties variants together, but it may not equal any item's id. A common slip is using the first variant's SKU as the group ID; use a parent code instead.

Facebook catalog title length and description problems

Titles may have 200 characters, but past 65 they may be cut off in ads. Descriptions must be plain text without links, not all capitals, and different from the title. HTML from a shop export is stripped in the corrected file; put formatted text in rich_text_description instead.

Images that aren't JPEG or PNG

WebP, GIF and SVG links are flagged. Link a .jpg or .png of at least 500 x 500 pixels.