Set up Dynamic Ads
Dynamic ads are the closest thing Meta has to a salesperson who remembers exactly what each visitor looked at. Advantage+ Catalog Ads (formerly Dynamic Product Ads) pull individual products from your catalog and render them per viewer, handling both retargeting ('you looked at these shoes') and broad prospecting where Meta picks the items for people who have never visited your site. Set them up once and they personalize themselves.
Prerequisites
Three things must be in place: a populated Catalog with required fields, Pixel and/or Conversions API firing ViewContent, AddToCart, and Purchase with `content_ids` matching the catalog, and a Sales-objective campaign in Advantage+ Catalog Ads mode.
For mobile-app advertisers, the equivalent of the Pixel is the Facebook SDK firing standard events with product IDs.
Retargeting modes
Two out-of-the-box retargeting audiences: viewed-but-not-purchased (typically 1 to 14 days) and added-to-cart-but-not-purchased (typically 1 to 14 days). Both auto-build from Pixel events.
Broad-audience (prospecting) dynamic ads target users who have never visited your site. Meta uses category interest signals plus your historical Pixel data to pick which catalog item to show each user.
Ad creative
You build one carousel or single-image template with `{{product.name}}`, `{{product.price}}`, and `{{product.image}}` placeholders. Meta renders one variant per product per user.
January 2025: Meta expanded Advantage+ Catalog Ads targeting to allow custom audiences and interest targeting on top, rather than being limited to broad or auto-targeting.
Gotchas
Pixel events firing without `content_ids`, or with IDs that do not match the catalog field, return zero retargeting reach. Ads deliver but never match a user back to an item.
If many catalog items are out of stock or preorder, Meta will not promote them and your effective addressable inventory shrinks silently.
Broad-audience dynamic ads can cannibalize prospecting campaigns. Add exclusions to prevent self-bidding.
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