Catalogue ads for prospecting vs retargeting: what changes
How Meta catalogue ads work for retargeting, cross-selling and broad prospecting audiences, and how product sets, creative and budgets should differ between them.
AI Shopping Feeds Updated
Catalogue ads started life as a retargeting tool: show people the exact products they looked at. They still do that well. But Meta’s own documentation describes three uses, and the other two, cross-selling and broad prospecting, need different product sets, different creative and different expectations.
The three uses Meta describes
Meta’s developer guide to Advantage+ catalog ads walks through three setups.
1. Retargeting. Show people products they’ve interacted with. Meta’s example targets people who viewed products in the last 3 to 5 days but didn’t buy, using the ViewContent event to include them and Purchase to exclude them.
2. Cross-selling and upselling. Use interest in one product set to show products from another. In Meta’s words, you build the audience on product set A’s events and set the ad’s products to product set B. Viewed a camera? See lenses and bags.
3. Broad audiences. Show catalogue products to people who haven’t visited you yet. Meta says catalogue ads can target broad audiences with basic demographic targeting, and that combined with bidding for conversions, they reach people beyond your retargeting and cross-selling segments. Its example also excludes recent purchasers.
All three depend on the same foundation: pixel or Conversions API events that send product IDs matching your catalogue. Our guide to setting up Advantage+ catalogue ads covers that in detail.
How the three should differ
| Retargeting | Cross-sell | Prospecting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Viewed or added to basket, didn’t buy | Bought or viewed in one category | Haven’t visited, or not recently |
| Which products | The ones they saw | A related product set | Best sellers, or what Meta predicts |
| Knows the brand? | Yes | Yes | Usually not |
| Creative job | Remind and reassure | Suggest the next thing | Introduce the brand and the product |
| Typical format | Carousel | Carousel | Single image or carousel |
Retargeting: keep it simple
The person already knows the product. They looked at it a few days ago. The ad’s job is to bring it back to mind and remove a reason not to buy.
- Product-first creative works well here. The product photo is what they remember.
- Show the current price, and if it’s dropped since they looked, show that too. A sale price with the original struck through is the strongest reason to come back.
- Keep the window short. Meta’s example uses days, not weeks. Someone who looked at a product a month ago is closer to a prospect than a retargeting target.
- Exclude purchasers, so people aren’t shown what they’ve just bought.
Cross-selling: build sensible product sets
Cross-selling only works if the product sets make sense together. That means planning them in the catalogue:
- Use categories and custom labels to define pairs: cameras and lenses, beds and bedding, dog beds and dog toys.
- Exclude the product they bought from the set you show.
- Watch price jumps. Showing a £400 upgrade to someone who bought a £20 accessory rarely lands.
Prospecting: lead with the brand
This is where catalogue ads have changed most. With broad audiences, Meta chooses both who sees the ad and which products to show, based on the signals it has. The people seeing it don’t know you.
- Branded creative matters more. A plain product photo on white looks like any other shop’s. A design with your colours, type and logo tells a new customer whose product this is. Our post on DPA templates covers layouts that lead with the brand.
- Choose the product set carefully. Your whole catalogue is an option, but many advertisers start prospecting with best sellers or products with strong photos and full data, then widen.
- Give it time and budget. Broad audiences need conversions to learn from. A small budget spread across many ad sets learns slowly.
- Use distinct creative. Meta’s Andromeda retrieval system is built to choose between many ad candidates. We covered what that means for catalogue ads in Meta Andromeda: what it means for catalogue ads and creative.
One design or two?
Most advertisers use one set of catalogue images for every audience, and that’s a sensible default. A design that leads with the product but still carries the brand, with your colours, type and logo, works for retargeting and prospecting alike.
If you want different creative per audience, the options are limited by how catalogues work: each product has one main image. You can vary Meta’s own catalogue creative settings ad by ad, or run a separate catalogue for prospecting. A separate catalogue means separate event matching and separate learning, so weigh that up before splitting.
In our DPA Creative Editor, a feed can have a main design and up to four extra designs, chosen per product by rule or date. Each product still gets one image, so the design can change by product but not by audience. Sale details can sit in that design as conditional layers, so they appear only on discounted products, whichever audience sees them.
Summary
- Retargeting: product-first, current price, short windows, exclude buyers.
- Cross-sell: product sets planned in pairs, sensible price steps.
- Prospecting: brand-led creative, a considered product set, enough budget to learn.
- All three need pixel or Conversions API events with product IDs that match the catalogue.
Frequently asked questions
Can catalogue ads be used for prospecting?
Yes. Meta's developer documentation says Advantage+ catalog ads can target broad audiences, combined with bidding for conversions, to reach people beyond your retargeting and cross-selling audiences. Meta then picks products from your catalogue for each person.
What is the difference between retargeting and cross-selling with catalogue ads?
Retargeting shows people products they've already viewed or added to their basket. Cross-selling uses what someone looked at in one product set to show them products from another, for example accessories to people who viewed a camera.
Should prospecting catalogue ads look different from retargeting?
Often, yes. People in a retargeting audience already know your brand and the product, so a clean product-first image works. Prospecting audiences don't know you yet, so a design that carries your brand does more of the introduction.