Catalogue (DPA) ads: white background or lifestyle images?

Why does the image matter so much in a catalogue ad?

Because it is nearly the whole ad. Meta builds catalogue ads, now called Advantage+ catalogue ads, from your product feed, so most of what a person sees is the main product image with the name and price.

That makes catalogue ads one of the few placements where your product photography is the ad creative, unedited. A feed of plain cut-outs gives the ad little to say to someone who has never heard of you.

When do white-background images work in catalogue ads?

When the viewer already knows the product, or when consistency across a large range matters more than setting.

• Retargeting people who viewed a product or added it to the cart
• Large ranges, where a uniform grid makes products easy to compare
• Products where the detail is the point, such as jewellery or tools
• Price-led offers, where the number is the message

When do lifestyle images win in catalogue ads?

When the ad has to sell to someone new. A room, a setting or a person shows scale, style and use, which a cut-out cannot.

• Prospecting to broad audiences
• Products bought on looks and fit, such as furniture, homewares, rugs and fashion
• Categories where every competitor’s catalogue ads look the same
• Seasonal moments, when the setting can carry the timing

How do we change the image a catalogue ad shows?

Change the main image in the product feed and give the new file a new URL. Meta’s product data specification says that if you replace a product’s image, you must also change the image URL so Meta recognises the change and fetches the new one.

• The main image field, image_link, is the image catalogue ads usually show.
• The additional_image_link field takes up to 20 more images per product, which is where lifestyle shots can sit alongside the main one.
• If your catalogue syncs from Shopify, the images come from the products in your store, so changing the main image there changes the product page as well. A feed management tool can send Meta a different main image without touching the store.

How do we test white background against lifestyle?

Pick a set of best-selling products and run two versions of the catalogue ad on the same product set, one showing cut-outs and one showing lifestyle images, with even spend for long enough to compare CPA and ROAS.

The lifestyle version needs a feed in which the main image is the lifestyle shot. Run prospecting and retargeting as separate tests: lifestyle can win with new audiences and lose to cut-outs with people who already know the product, and a combined test would hide both results.

Where do lifestyle images for a whole catalogue come from?

From a shoot per product, which is slow and costly at catalogue scale, or from scenes made from phone photos of each product.

Bartley Studio prices product imagery per product and per image, with the rates falling as the catalogue grows: 10 products with 8 images each comes to $2,040, excluding GST. Images arrive in two sets, web-compressed and full resolution, pre-cropped and named.