Upload product catalog data using feed URL (for PIMs)

After the taxonomy is set up, if you are a product information management (PIM) provider supporting merchants, you can integrate your customer's product catalog with The Trade Desk platform using a feed URL. This integration allows merchants to onboard and maintain their product catalogs using the same product data they already manage in your system, without requiring them to upload spreadsheets or build directly to Commerce Solutions APIs.

After the feed is connected to a merchant in The Trade Desk platform, the platform checks the feed daily for new or updated products and automatically syncs eligible changes to the merchant’s product catalog. This model is well suited for merchants with frequently changing catalogs or large product inventories already maintained in a third‑party catalog management system.

Workflow overview

To set up a product catalog feed URL integration, complete the following steps:

1. Use the provided product catalog bulk upload template in your third‑party tool to create a CSV feed with the required and optional product and category fields.
2. Validate the feed to ensure the data is complete and correctly formatted.
3. Share the feed URL with your Account Manager or Data Partnerships Manager.

After the feed is linked to the merchant, you can review its upload status and resolve any issues in the platform UI. For details, see the Knowledge Portal.

The following sections detail the first two steps.

Create a product feed

To generate a CSV feed using your catalog management tool, you must follow the Item Bulk Upload Template. The following sections outline the critical data, formatting, and other requirements and explain the column headers.

TIP: To understand the expected structure and formatting, download a copy of the Item Bulk Upload Template with examples.

Product catalog taxonomy requirements

Here's what you need to know about the product catalog structure as well as category and taxonomy requirements:

• A product catalog onboarded via a feed URL follows the same foundational structure as catalogs onboarded through the API or UI.
• For merchants using a natively supported taxonomy such as Google or Meta, those categories must be configured in advance.
• For merchants using a custom taxonomy, the taxonomy must be uploaded and available in The Trade Desk platform before the feed URL is associated with the merchant.

Feed format and product data requirements

To ensure accurate ingestion, event tracking, and attribution, follow these feed format and product data requirements:

• The feed URL must use HTTPS.
• Only CSV files are supported for product catalog feeds.
• At a minimum, each product must include a SKU ID and a product name.
• If you plan to include category information in the feed, you must use only the category ID. Category names are not supported.
• To enable targeting, event tracking, and attribution, the SKU ID declared in the product feed must exactly match the item code declared in the merchant's transaction feed. Otherwise, the transaction will not be attributed to campaign impressions.

TIP: Work with the merchant to ensure that the SKUs in the product feed match the SKUs in their transaction feed. Providing additional product attributes improves audience creation, measurement, and campaign optimization.

Feed formatting rules

To avoid validation errors and reduce troubleshooting time during feed ingestion, follow these formatting and data requirements:

• Column headers are not case sensitive, but spelling and spacing must exactly match. For example, SkuID and skuid are treated as the same field but, custom_1 is not the same as custom1.
• The unit price amount and the associated currency code must be provided as separate values in the Price and Currency columns.

Bulk upload template column headers

The following table lists the columns in the Bulk Upload Template.

Rename custom fields

You can use GraphQL to rename custom fields in your product catalog, regardless of whether the catalog was built using a feed URL or the Commerce Solutions API. For the mutation and an example, see Rename custom fields.

Validate a product feed

Before connecting your feed to a merchant, complete the following steps:

IMPORTANT: Make sure the feed URL uses HTTPS.

1. Paste the feed URL in a browser to download a CSV file.

2. Check that the file meets all requirements:

   Column headers exactly match the template spelling.
   All fields comply with documented character limits.
   Price and currency values are provided in separate columns.
   The feed uses category IDs rather than category names.
   

After you complete your validation, send the feed URL to your Account Manager or Data Partnerships Manager. They’ll connect it to your merchant, and the first upload will run within 24 hours.

Next steps

After setting up the feed URL, select the type of event data you plan to send with product data:

• Offline conversion events
• Real-time conversion events

FAQs

The following are most commonly asked questions about uploading product catalog data via a feed URL.

How often is the feed checked?

The platform checks your feed once per day and updates the product catalog based on any new or updated items from the last 24 hours.

What happens if my category taxonomy isn’t complete?

If your feed includes a category ID that does not exist in your uploaded taxonomy, that product will fail to upload. Upload the missing category ID first, then upload the product again.

Can I update my feed manually?

Yes, but if the feed contains different data for the same product, it will overwrite any manual changes.

TIP: To avoid conflicts, make updates directly in your product catalog management tool so it remains in sync with the platform.