Connecting product catalogues to sponsored listing systems

Connect a product catalogue by defining what one advertised item represents: keep its ID stable across systems, map fields for selection and display, and set rules for price and stock changes.

Check that the ad, landing page and any purchase record refer to the intended item or variant. A successful feed upload alone does not establish that a listing is accurate when shown.

Choose the item level

A retailer may have a parent product, several saleable variants and offers from different sellers. Decide which is the advertising item. Store parent, brand, category and seller relationships separately, and make the landing page resolve to the advertised offer.

Criteo’s current feed documentation requires a unique, consistent ID for each product variant. It says changes to IDs break attribution and reporting.

Kevel requires an item ID key when a catalogue is created. It says the key cannot later be changed.

These are provider-specific requirements, but both make identifier design an early integration decision.

Criteo vs Kevel: Item ID and Catalogue Requirements

Map the feed’s uses

Campaign users need to find eligible products. The decision system needs attributes for page context and shopper-selected filters. The page or app needs approved content to render the listing.

Kevel’s catalogue guidance separates product data into campaign management, targeting and rendering. It describes aliases to correlate your product attribute keys with Kevel’s reserved keys, and optional search keys that enable custom filtering.

For rendering, some integrations use SKU and lookup details in their own systems after winning ads are returned; others want ad responses to match organic listings.

The supplied Criteo product-feed specification lists fields including ID, title, description, product link and image link. Follow the schema of the platform being integrated rather than treating one provider’s fields as a universal standard.

Make freshness part of eligibility

Identify the source of stock, price and destination data; how each change is sent; and what happens while an update is pending. For store-specific availability, Criteo recommends passing the selected store ID in the ad request. This behaviour depends on correctly scoped, current retailer data.

Set a retailer rule for stale or unknown items, such as withholding paid eligibility until the source and ad system agree. Check whether the chosen platform can implement that rule; do not assume it happens automatically.

Key Data Points for Feed Eligibility

Trace representative records

With authorised test data, trace a normal item, a variant, an unavailable item and an offer from a seller the advertiser cannot use. Follow each record through ingestion, the campaign picker, ad decision, rendered placement and proposed purchase feed.

Change one price or stock value and record when the advertising view updates. These are proposed integration checks, not performed tests.

When a tile is wrong, identify the first stage where the item diverges. When the tile is correct but a sale cannot match it, inspect the item ID and parent relationship before changing attribution settings.

End-to-End Flow for Sponsored Listing Integration

Integration Validation Checklist