Since iOS14, dynamic ads have become a staple for most advertisers.
These ads pull data from your store’s product feed or product catalog to automatically display the most relevant products to each shopper. They can be used at the top-of-the-funnel as DABA (Dynamic Ads, Broad Audience) campaigns or at the bottom of the funnel as DPAs (Dynamic Product Ads). Learn more about dynamic ads here.
Why do I need a feed app?
Most platforms like Shopify already give you a product feed. So do you even need an app for it?
Short answer – yes.
A standard feed will simply provide the first image from your store. So your dynamic ads will look something like this:
The problems with the standard product feed are:
- Boring images – The first image for eCommerce websites typically is a simple product image with a plain white background. While this is great for website conversion, it does not make for a thumb-stopping ad.
- White strips – Any product image that is not a perfect square will show up with unsightly white strips in the ad.
- Wasted real estate – White backgrounds or strips are a waste of expensive space that could be used to send out a marketing message.
- No consistency – If your images have different dimensions, they are going to look inconsistent and disorganized in your ad.
- No branding – your brand identity is completely lost. There’s nothing setting your premium product apart from a generic product from a marketplace.
Product feed apps aim to solve these issues by giving you more control over how your dynamic ad looks.
Top 5 apps to customize your Facebook feed
- Socioh
- Smartly.io
- Marpipe
- Confect
- Hunch Ads
1. Socioh
Socioh is the leading app for customizing your Meta product feed. Socioh’s Branded Catalog offers total control over your catalog design and automations, and includes advanced features like customer review mapping, lifestyle images, background removal, category or tag-based visibility, and more.
Socioh comes with 100s of premade, editable templates and includes a Canva-level designer if you prefer to create your own templates. The team helps with the initial design and setup of your catalogs. You also get A/B testing features to measure the performance of each ad and your own free first-party pixel which enables reliable creative reporting.
Feature highlights
- Easy integration with Shopify but can work with any eCommerce platform as long as you have a Google product feed.
- 100s of predesigned editable templates
- Advanced mapping options mean you can automatically map any meta field from your Shopify store like price, discount, inventory, color, size etc.
- Powerful design tool offers complete control over the design of your template. Supports upload of brand fonts, colors, and logos
- Master templates enable batch editing, saving hours of work
- Unique feature Smart Switch to schedule and test catalog designs without losing learnings
- Creative reporting gives in-depth analytics on each ad creative, identifies your best and worst performers
- Optimal template sizes for Instagram, Facebook, Shops etc.
- 30-minute sync with your store
Templates support the following functionality
- Rule-based visibility (e.g. show sale price only on discounted products, map category name on each product etc.)
- Customer reviews (automatically pull real customer reviews from your review platform or csv file)
- Price mapping (original price, sale price, auto-calculates BNPL payments)
- Inventory mapping
- Product title/category mapping
- Secondary (lifestyle) images
- Muti-image templates
- Background removal
- Rotating backgrounds or messages
- New arrivals/collections
- Bestsellers
- Multiple currencies and languages
- Holiday or seasonal themes
Integrations
- Meta – Facebook, Instagram, Shops
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Stamped.io
- Judge.me
- Yotpo
- Junip
You can explore the tool and create campaigns and designs for free but need to subscribe to a plan to publish your ad.
Pricing plans include all features (creatives, analytics, campaigns) and are based on monthly revenue. Start at $600 for stores with < $250k monthly revenue per month.
2. Smartly.io
Smartly is one of the largest SAAS digital advertising platforms focusing on creative management. It boasts enterprise clients like Walmart, Nestle and Disney. The software makes it easy to publish ads in different sizes and placements across several social media networks.
Smartly is often the preferred solution for enterprise-scale companies managing a large number of Social Media campaigns.
Feature highlights
- Dynamic image creation
- Copy variations at scale
- Automated image resizing and cropping to fit different ad formats and placements
- Automated image enhancements
- Automated publishing
- Supports import of brand assets
- A/B testing of different image variations
- Batch processing of image changes
- Real time sync
Price
Plans start at around $7,500 per month. Prices depend upon the complexity of your advertising campaigns.
3. Marpipe
Marpipe is a multi-variate testing software for ad creatives. By separately measuring each asset in your template, Marpipe aims to automate your creative testing process and identify your best and worst-performing assets.
Enriched catalogs allow you to create your own templates for dynamic ads with design and automation options.
Feature highlights
- Pulls your product details from a feed link
- In-app design tool for creatives
- Premade templates
- Multivariate testing automatically generates every combination of creative variables
- Creative intelligence (measures the effectiveness of each asset in your creative)
- Daily sync
Price
Marpipe allows you to create a design for free but you need to subscribe to a paid plan (starting at $299) to publish your feed. For custom uploads, >500 SKUs, and design help, the plans start at $1,499/month.
4. Confect
Confect allows you to make creatives at scale using the same design elements. It also helps resize creatives to different dimensions to support posting on various platforms and channels.
Feature highlights
- Pre-designed templates
- Drag and drop editor with ‘design rules’
- Supports custom fonts & media
- Scheduled design change
- Background removal
- Export of multiple feeds
- Resize designs to any dimension
- Hourly sync
Price
Dynamic ads start from $149/month but analytics and reporting bring the cost up to a minimum of $249/month.
5. Hunch Ads
Hunch Ads is a sophisticated option for automating media production and management.
The platform automatically creates and test various ad variations, including catalog ads, to find the most effective ones. It also offers advanced targeting options, allowing advertisers to reach specific audiences who are most likely to be interested in their products.
Feature highlights
- Editable templates
- Rules for monitoring creatives
- Dynamic creative optimization
- Video support
- Performance-based alerts and reports
- Multi-channel support
Price
Pricing starts from 2,000 euros.
Conclusion
The ease-of-use combined with powerful automation and design capabilities makes Socioh’s Branded Catalog a popular choice with founder-led in-house teams, enterprise brands, and agencies.
Advantages of Socioh include the ability to test messaging without losing learnings, and the affordable price point.
Smartly is a popular choice with enterprise-scale marketing teams that are looking to create ads across multiple formats and channels. However, it can be quite pricy for brands with smaller budgets.
The muti-variate testing feature sets Marpipe apart from the other tools. If you have a creative team that wants to understand the value of each individual asset in your creative, this may be the tool for you.
Confect offers a number of customization options for catalog ads and an affordable starting price. They are a good option if your needs are primarily around designing your catalog. However, they do not offer advanced creative reporting or targeting.
Hunch Ads is a great tool for overall ad management and offers a number of sophisticated customization options for the catalog, but the price point makes it unaffordable for many smaller businesses.
Socioh is a digital advertising platform for eCommerce brands. Our Branded Catalog is the industry leader in dynamic catalog advertising and product feeds.