This article guides you on how to use a Snapchat catalog that has been created in Snapchat Ads Manager. When you connect a Snapchat catalog to Smartly.io, you can use our Image Templates in your Snapchat dynamic ads campaigns and update the catalog through Smartly.io.

In short, you need to "claim" the catalog's product feed in Smartly.io. This will remove the existing feed update scheduling in Snapchat, and replace it with a new update scheduling in Smartly.io.

After the feed has been claimed, Snapchat will no longer fetch the feed directly from you but through Smartly.io instead. This will allow Smartly.io to edit the feed and to add additional information to it. You need to claim the feed in order to use Smartly.io Image Templates with the catalog and to do feed field mapping or transformations.

ℹ️ Note: Once the feed has been claimed, we recommend that you only update it through Smartly.io. Updating the catalog content via other feed uploads can lead to unpredictable behavior, including Smartly.io Image Templates not working in your ads.

ℹ️ Note: When you claim a feed, your user will be set as the catalog authoriser.

Before you start

You need Organization Admin access in the Organization that owns the catalog you want to connect or Catalog Admin permission for this specific catalog.
- The Business Admin role is not sufficient for connecting a catalog.
⚠️ Caution: Once the catalog feed has been claimed, it is not possible to set the update schedule for it in Snapchat anymore. Make sure that you are connecting the correct catalog.

1. Start claiming the feed

To start connecting an existing Snapchat catalog in Smartly.io:

In the top navigation bar, click Catalogs > Snapchat catalogs.
Select the Snapchat Organization that was used to create the catalog you want to connect.
From the catalog list, find the catalog that you'd like to start using with Smartly.io and open the catalog view.
In the Feeds tab, click Claim.

2. Check feed address and mapping

You are first prompted with brief information about claiming the feed. Click Proceed.
Check that the data source has the correct URL.
- If the feed has been set to automatically update on Snapchat, Smartly.io can find the feed address automatically for you.
- If you did not have automatic feed updates scheduled, add the link to the feed in the feed settings. The feed needs to be available online.
- You need to have the same products in the feed that you were previously using. Otherwise, you can lose some products from the catalog and some of the audience from the catalog along with them.
Define an update schedule for the feed in the Feed updates section.
Verify that other settings are in order.
Map the fields coming from your data source feed into the predefined catalog fields in the Catalog mapping section.
- If you change the feed mapping from the original mapping in Snapchat, some of the information in the catalog can change, which can break existing product sets in the catalog.
- If your feed already contains additional image fields, Smartly.io will overwrite them with Image Template URLs. If you want to use the additional images, map image URL fields from your feed to "custom_label" fields in Smartly.io, and use the custom label fields in Image Templates.
- ℹ️ Note: If you are using Hotel or Flight vertical catalog and have the "image" field in the JSON format (as it is in the Snapchat feed template), you'll need to use the following liquid template to take the first image from the list of images:
```
{%- assign images = image | parse_json -%}
{{- images[0].link -}}
```
  The additional fields should be mapped into image templates like highlighted above. See FAQ for further possibilities.
Once you are happy with the feed settings and field mapping, click Claim feed.

Once you save the changes, you should be able to see the Status and Next Upload fields updated in the feed list.

3. Check event sources

Double-check that the event sources (pixels and apps) that you're using with the catalog are correct. To see a list of all pixels and apps that you can use with the catalog, click Catalog Settings.

4. Check Image Templates

Remember to add or create Image Templates to make your ads look nice!

FAQ

Is it possible to reverse the process, that is, make Smartly.io stop updates to the feed/catalog and schedule feed updates from Snapchat?

Unfortunately at the moment this is not possible. You can do feed uploads to Snapchat, but not add scheduled updates directly from Snapchat.

What happens during claiming a feed if I have previously set the feed to automatically update on Snapchat?

Smartly.io is going to remove the update schedule from Snapchat. The update interval for a feed should be set in Smartly.io instead. To set the update interval, click the feed name and edit the Feed updates section.

I'm using a feed that follows the Snapchat template for Hotel/Flight feed, but in the feed mapping there is no "image" field that would allow passing multiple images in a JSON format. What should I do?

Smartly uses images templates functionality to send additional images to Snapchat, this is why in the feed mapping you can only map the "default" image. If you are using the "image" field in a JSON format that follows the Snapchat template, you can use the following liquid template to get the first image from it:

{%- assign images = image | parse_json -%}
{{- images[0].link -}}

Alternatively you can use another image from your feed in this field, if already have another one there or are able to modify the source feed file.

If you want to use the other images from that field, you can map them to custom_labels and create & attach images templates that use images from those custom_labels. To map the other images into custom labels, please replace "images[0].link" in the liquid template with "images[1].link" to get the second image (and so on) when you are mapping the field to the custom label.

I can't see any catalogs in the catalog listing view. / I get an error in the catalog listing view.

First make sure you have the needed permissions. You'll need to have either Organization admin rights (gives access to all catalogs under the Organization), or Catalog admin or Catalog Advertiser role to a specific catalog.

It is also possible that the connection between your Snapchat user and your Smartly user has gotten invalidated. Try reconnecting the Snapchat user by following the instructions here.

There is currently also an edge case, that leads to catalogs listing to fail loading. This is when user has Business admin rights, but no Organization admin rights. In these cases, either give Organization admin rights to user or remove the Business admin rights. We are working to solve the issue on supporting this combination of permissions correctly.

I'm receiving an Access Denied error when claiming the feed.

The feed is likely password-protected. You need to enter the access credentials for the feed in the URL field in the following format:

sftp://username:password@ftp.feed_address.com/feed_name.txt.gz

ℹ️ Note: When added as part of the feed URL, there are cases where Smartly.io is unable to encode some special characters used in the username and password. If you spot any fetching issues, try using only alphanumeric values for the username and password instead or try to URL encode any non-URL-safe characters in the file path. For example, instead of a space, use '%20'. See more about advanced settings here.

After claiming the feed, I can't see the feed URL in Snapchat.

This is normal. From Snapchat's point of view, the feed uploads are now "manual uploads" done by Smartly.io.