Product feed generation for TikTok Catalog

Generating Product Feeds for TikTok Catalog

TikTok Shop and TikTok Ads Catalog are two different products with different feed requirements. TikTok Ads Catalog is used for dynamic advertising in Video Shopping Ads and Catalog Ads format, TikTok Shop is a separate commerce platform with stricter region restrictions (available in US, UK, Southeast Asia). This guide covers TikTok Ads Catalog, available in most advertising markets.

Feed Formats

TikTok accepts:

• CSV/TSV — simplest option to start
• XML — more flexible for complex variant structures
• Google Shopping feed — TikTok can import GMC feeds directly, simplifying setup

Required TikTok Catalog Fields

Additional Fields for Performance

• brand — brand. Affects relevance of audience matching
• google_product_category — TikTok uses the same taxonomy as Google
• description — up to 5000 characters; used in automatic ad copy
• sale_price + sale_price_effective_date — displayed as discount in product card
• additional_image_link — up to 10 additional images comma-separated
• video_link — link to mp4 product video (up to 30 sec) — critical for Video Shopping Ads

PHP Generator

class TikTokCatalogFeedGenerator
{
    public function generate(string $outputPath): void
    {
        $headers = [
            'sku_id', 'title', 'price', 'currency', 'availability',
            'condition', 'link', 'image_link', 'additional_image_link',
            'description', 'brand', 'google_product_category',
            'sale_price', 'sale_price_effective_date',
            'color', 'size', 'age_group', 'gender', 'material',
            'video_link',
        ];

        $fp = fopen($outputPath, 'w');
        fputcsv($fp, $headers);

        Product::with(['images', 'brand', 'variants', 'video'])
            ->active()
            ->chunk(500, function ($products) use ($fp, $headers) {
                foreach ($products as $product) {
                    $rows = $product->variants->isNotEmpty()
                        ? $this->rowsFromVariants($product)
                        : [$this->rowFromProduct($product)];

                    foreach ($rows as $row) {
                        fputcsv($fp, $row);
                    }
                }
            });

        fclose($fp);
    }

    private function rowFromProduct(Product $p, ?ProductVariant $v = null): array
    {
        $price     = $v?->price ?? $p->price;
        $stock     = $v?->stock ?? $p->stock;
        $skuId     = $v ? $p->sku . '_' . $v->sku : $p->sku;
        $salePrice = '';
        $saleDates = '';

        if ($p->sale_price && $p->sale_ends_at?->isFuture()) {
            $salePrice = number_format($p->sale_price, 2, '.', '');
            $saleDates = $p->sale_starts_at->toIso8601String()
                . '/' . $p->sale_ends_at->toIso8601String();
        }

        $additionalImages = $p->images->skip(1)->pluck('cdn_url')->take(9)->implode(',');

        return [
            $skuId,
            mb_substr($p->name . ($v ? ' ' . $v->option_label : ''), 0, 255),
            number_format($price, 2, '.', ''),
            'RUB',
            $stock > 0 ? 'in_stock' : 'out_of_stock',
            'new',
            route('products.show', $p->slug) . ($v ? '?v=' . $v->id : ''),
            $p->mainImage()?->cdn_url ?? '',
            $additionalImages,
            mb_substr(strip_tags($p->description), 0, 5000),
            $p->brand?->name ?? '',
            $p->google_category_id ?? '',
            $salePrice,
            $saleDates,
            $v?->color ?? $p->color ?? '',
            $v?->size ?? '',
            $p->age_group ?? 'adult',
            $p->gender ?? '',
            $p->material ?? '',
            $p->video?->cdn_url ?? '',
        ];
    }

    private function rowsFromVariants(Product $p): array
    {
        return $p->variants->map(fn($v) => $this->rowFromProduct($p, $v))->toArray();
    }
}

Pixel Events for Dynamic Retargeting

TikTok Pixel must pass content_id matching sku_id in catalog:

ttq.track('ViewContent', {
  contents: [{ content_id: 'SKU-12345', content_type: 'product', quantity: 1, price: 4990 }],
  currency: 'RUB',
  value: 4990,
});

ttq.track('AddToCart', {
  contents: [{ content_id: 'SKU-12345', content_type: 'product', quantity: 1, price: 4990 }],
  currency: 'RUB',
  value: 4990,
});

TikTok Catalog Limits

• Maximum 10M products per catalog
• Maximum feed file size — 4 GB (CSV) or 2 GB (XML)
• Images with no background (white background) show better CTR in Shopping Ads
• Feed URL must be accessible without authentication and return feed in less than 30 seconds — for large catalogs, pre-generate file instead of generating on-the-fly

Timeline

Feed generator and catalog setup in TikTok Ads Manager — 2–4 working days. If using Google Shopping feed import — 1 working day.