In order to run dynamic campaigns, a feed is always needed. However, you might be in the situation where you still don’t have one. Fortunately, that is not an obstacle to get started exploring Display Dynamic ads in Bannerwise.
In this article, we will show you how to manually create a simple CSV working feed from scratch using Google Spreadsheets. After all, if you’re reading this article it’s because ad personalization matters to you and you understand its relevance.
STEP 1: Create your first feed.
Below, we’ve gathered the advertising networks and business types that support a CSV feed in Bannerwise. By clicking on the one you need, you can download a template with the required and optional attributes pre-filled. You can use these templates to create your product feed.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION❗❗
There are two types of attributes you can use in your feed:
Required: These must always be present in the feed. If any required attributes are missing, your feed will not be accepted by the advertising network. When using the templates shared above, don’t remove or edit any required attribute.
Optional: You use optional fields to share additional product information. You can see an “#Optional” tag in the templates for those fields that are optional. It means that you can safely remove them from the feed if they are not relevant. Some examples of a commonly used optional attribute is “sale_price”.
For example, you can see in the image below that all attributes contain the “#Optional” tag except for "ID" and "Item title" for a Google Ads Custom business type feed:
💡 Good to know: For Google Ads it is important to know that not all attributes can be displayed in the ad. Therefore, be careful with the dynamic elements you add to ensure the design of your ads is not affected when these are published. In this article you can find the attributes per business type that can be displayed in your ads.
STEP 2: Enrich your data feed.
Once you’ve decided the attributes you’ll use in your feed, it’s time to manually fill in all the data. You can find all the information you need on the web page where products are advertised. Remember that each line in the document refers to one product.
Find below some best practises when filling in your product data for the most used required attributes. On top of that, we also mention what attributes are often displayed in the ad design:
Item name: Use a specific, relevant title/name for the item. Often displayed in ad design
Price: Simply add the price of the item as a number and use the full stop as a decimal point. Don’t use currency symbols ($, € or £). Instead, use the currency codes. You can always customize the look of price elements by using price formatting in Bannerwise so, don’t worry about that now. Very often displayed in ad design.
Image_URL: Use an image URL that shows the item complete. This is the main image of your item. Use either PNG or JPEG formats and 1080x1080 pixels. Make sure the link is not broken. Use images that are the same size and same scale ratio to ensure your design is consistent for all the items in your feed. Make sure that your images have the same background or that the background is transparent. Always displayed in ad design.
Final_URL: It should always redirect to the specific product in the business’s website. Make sure the URL is not broken. This information is not visible in the ad design but you must add it in your ad design to make your ad is clickable.
STEP 3: Create a working CSV URL
When you’re done completing your data feed, you have to create a working CSV url of your spreadsheet that will be used as source feed in Bannerwise. The URL will make it possible to pull the product data of the spreadsheet into your creatives in Bannerwise to let you build your ad design. To know how to get your url working, follow the steps in this article.
Keep the URL close by. You will need it in the next step.
At this point you might be thinking that this process is quite time consuming and laborious. We totally get it! Automating these tasks is possible so, don’t worry! At the end of this article you can read what tools you can use to automate and speed up your feed setup.
STEP 4: Upload your feed in Bannerwise.
The first step to build Display Dynamic Ads in Bannerwise is to upload a working feed. Fortunately, you just created one. This article will show you the steps to upload yours in Bannerwise.
As mentioned earlier, setting up and maintaining up to date a feed is a lot of manual work and working this way is not a solution for the long term. Content management Systems usually have the functionality of exporting catalogues. Generating your feed using these platforms is a good starting point to run this type of campaign.
Once you upload the feed in Bannerwise you’re basically ready to start building your Display Dynamic Ads. You can continue reading the articles below to complete the flow to build and publish your ads:
We hope the information in this article was useful to achieve your goal. If there is anything else we can help you with and you couldn't find it in our help center, don't hesitate to contact us by chat. We are always ready to help you.