The Snapchat Feed plugin turns your store's catalogue into a Snapchat-compatible product feed (a CSV file) that you can connect to a Snapchat catalogue in Ads Manager. Once connected, Snapchat reads the feed on its own schedule to power Dynamic Product Ads and Collection Ads, using the products, prices and stock levels from your latest feed.
Features
- Snapchat catalogue feed (CSV). Generates a feed in the column format Snapchat expects for catalogues, including the required fields (id, title, description, availability, condition, price, link, image link) plus recommended fields such as brand, sale price, item group, colour, size and product category.
- Variant support. Each product variant is published as its own item and grouped under the parent product, so Snapchat can show size and colour selectors.
- Scheduled refresh. Set a feed to regenerate automatically on a schedule. You can also generate on demand at any time.
- Stable feed URL. Each feed has a fixed URL that always serves the latest generated file, so you only paste it into Snapchat once.
- Category mapping. Map your store's own categories to Google product category IDs.
- Stock and status filtering. Choose whether to include out-of-stock products, and whether to publish active products only or all statuses.
- Sale prices. When a product has a higher compare-at price, the original price and the discounted sale price are both included.
How many products a feed can include, and how often it can refresh on a schedule, depend on your plan.
Before you start
You will need:
- A Snapchat Business account with access to Snapchat Ads Manager.
- Permission to create or edit a catalogue in Ads Manager.
- Products in your store with, at minimum, a title, an image and a price. Products also need a public storefront so the feed can link to them.
- Your storefront URL (for example https://your-store.com (opens in a new tab)), used to build the product links in the feed.
Getting started
- Install the plugin. From the Orbit Commerce plugin store, install Snapchat Catalog Feed and approve the requested permissions. A Snapchat Catalog Feed entry appears in your dashboard menu.
- Create a feed. Open the plugin and select Create Feed. Give it a name (for example "Summer Collection Feed").
- Set the basics. Choose your target country, confirm the content language and currency, and enter your storefront URL.
- Set defaults and filtering. Optionally set a default brand and the default condition (most stores sell new goods). Decide whether to include out-of-stock items and whether to publish active products only.
- Map your categories (recommended). Open the feed and select Configure under Product Category Mapping to match your store categories to Google product categories.
- Choose a schedule. Turn on scheduled generation and pick how often the feed should refresh, or leave it off and generate manually. The intervals you can choose depend on your plan.
- Generate the feed. Select Generate Now so a file is produced, then check the run completed successfully.
- Copy the feed URL. Open the feed and copy the Feed URL.
- Add the feed in Snapchat. In Snapchat Ads Manager, create or open a catalogue, add a data source using a scheduled feed (URL) fetch, and paste the feed URL. Set the fetch schedule on Snapchat's side to match (or run more often than) your feed schedule.
How the feed works
When a feed runs, the plugin reads your current products, applies your filters, and writes a CSV file containing one row per in-scope item. The file is saved and exposed at the feed's stable URL, which always returns the most recently generated version, cached for up to an hour.
Key behaviour:
- Variants. A product with variants produces one row per variant, each grouped under the parent product so Snapchat treats them as one product with selectors. A product without variants produces a single row.
- Availability. An item is marked in stock when it has stock, otherwise out of stock. Products with no stock at all are left out unless you have chosen to include them; a product that has stock keeps its out-of-stock variants, marked as out of stock.
- Pricing. Prices are formatted with the feed's currency. If a product has a higher compare-at price, that becomes the listed price and the lower price becomes the sale price.
- Descriptions. HTML is stripped from descriptions. If a product has no description, its name is used instead, because Snapchat requires a non-empty description.
- Categories. If a product's category is mapped, that mapping is used.
- Identifiers. A valid barcode (8, 12, 13 or 14 digits) is published as a GTIN. When there is no valid barcode, the SKU is published as the MPN instead.
- Attributes. Colour, size, material, pattern, age group and gender are filled in from matching variant options where available. Age group and gender are normalised to the values Snapchat accepts.
After a successful run the plugin records the product and item counts, the run status and the time it finished. Scheduled feeds automatically calculate their next run time.
Settings
Each feed has its own settings:
- Feed name. A label to identify the feed in the dashboard.
- Target country. The market the feed targets (the United Kingdom by default).
- Content language. The language code for the feed (ISO 639-1, for example en).
- Currency. The currency used for all prices in the feed (for example GBP).
- Storefront URL. Your store's public address, used to build product links (for example https://your-store.com/products/product-handle (opens in a new tab)).
- Default brand. A fallback brand used for any product that has no brand set.
- Default condition. New, refurbished or used. Snapchat requires a condition for every item.
- Include out-of-stock products. Off by default; turn on to publish items with no stock.
- Product status filter. Publish active products only, or all statuses.
- Category mapping. Map your store's categories to Google product category IDs, on the feed's detail page.
- Scheduled generation. On or off, with a generation interval. The intervals you can choose depend on your plan.
Troubleshooting
The feed URL returns "Feed has not been generated yet." The feed exists but has not produced a file. Open the feed and generate it once, then confirm the run completed before adding the URL to Snapchat.
Snapchat rejects items for a missing or invalid product category. Map your store categories to Google product category IDs on the feed's detail page, check each mapped ID against Google's product taxonomy, and regenerate the feed afterwards.
Products are missing from the feed. Items are excluded if they are out of stock (unless you include out-of-stock products), or if they do not match the product status filter (for example a draft product when the filter is set to active only). Check the product's stock and status, adjust the filters, and regenerate.
Product links in Snapchat do not work. The links are built from the storefront URL on the feed. Make sure it is set to your live store address with no trailing path, then regenerate the feed.
A run finished with errors. Some products may have failed to map while the rest succeeded. Open the run to see how many items were affected, correct the underlying product data, and run the feed again.
Support
For help with this plugin, visit the Orbit Commerce Help Centre (opens in a new tab), or use the Support link below.