This article is about product groups. For information about product sets, see Catalog setup.

⚠️ Caution: Incorrect usage of product groups (Item Group ID) can negatively affect Facebook's product recommendations. Read more about the proper usage below.

You can use product groups to distinguish products that are identical but have variations such as color, material, size or pattern.

They make it easier for customers to find additional variants of a particular product. Product groups are the way you group all those product variants.

What are the benefits of product groups?

1. You can have all the product variants in your catalog but Facebook doesn't show multiple variants from the same product group (e.g. different sizes of the same shirt) in a single ad.
2. You can send the more generic product group ID in Pixel/app events when the users haven't specified yet the variant they are interested in. Later on, when they have defined the more specific variant (e.g. when adding a product to cart), you can send the more exact product ID. If product group ID is sent, Facebook chooses one product from the group to be shown to the user in retargeting.

How to use product groups?

1. Define product group IDs (Item Group ID) in catalog

Example feed:

Provide the same item_group_id for all items that are variants of a product.

Example setup in Smartly.io

Map the feed field to Item Group ID in catalog settings.

2. Send the correct IDs in Pixel/app

Example of sending a ViewContent Pixel event for a product group:

fbq('track', 'ViewContent', {
    content_type: 'product_group',
    content_ids: ['1234'],
});

Example of sending an AddToCart Pixel event for a product variant:

fbq('track', 'AddToCart', {
    content_type: 'product',
    content_ids: ['1234-BLA'],
});

FAQ

How does using Product groups affect Product set usage?

Using Product groups might reduce the number of available unique items that Meta can use in ads and even restrict the creation of ads (if there are not enough product groups available). Please read more about this and potential edge cases from this article.