How to Add a Shopify Product Feed to Microsoft Ads

You can connect your Shopify store to Microsoft Advertising by adding your UpFeed product feed to Microsoft Merchant Center. Once connected, Microsoft can use the product information in your feed to create Product ads and power Microsoft Shopping campaigns. UpFeed gives you a hosted product feed URL that Microsoft Merchant Center can automatically download on a recurring schedule.

What is a Microsoft Ads product feed?

A Microsoft Ads product feed is a structured file containing the products you want to advertise through Microsoft Advertising. The feed provides Microsoft Merchant Center with product information such as your product IDs, titles, descriptions, prices, images, availability, landing page URLs, brands, and categories.

Microsoft Advertising uses this catalog data to understand what you sell and to create Product ads for eligible Shopping campaigns. Instead of creating an individual ad for every item in your store, you maintain your product information in the feed and Microsoft can use that data when displaying relevant products to shoppers.

Why connect Shopify to Microsoft Ads with UpFeed?

Shopify contains the source product data for your store, but advertising platforms often expect that data in a specific feed structure. UpFeed creates a dedicated product feed from your Shopify catalog and gives you tools to control how your store data is sent to advertising channels.

You can use column mapping to connect Shopify fields to feed attributes, category mapping to organize your products, feed settings to control the output, and feed rules to adjust product values without changing the original products in Shopify. This is useful when Microsoft Advertising needs a different title, category, description, or other feed value than the one you use on your storefront.

Microsoft Merchant Center product feed requirements

Microsoft Merchant Center uses your feed to build and validate your product catalog. Before submitting the feed, make sure the product information is complete and consistent with the corresponding product pages on your website. Important product attributes include identifiers, titles, descriptions, prices, availability, product URLs, image URLs, brands, and product categories.

Microsoft Merchant Center supports catalog feeds based on the Google product feed format, which makes it easier to reuse structured ecommerce product data across Google and Microsoft. UpFeed generates a hosted feed that can be submitted using Microsoft Merchant Center's automatic URL download option.

How to add your UpFeed product feed to Microsoft Merchant Center

1. Log in to Microsoft Advertising.
2. Open Tools, go to Merchant Center, and select the Merchant Center store you want to use.
3. Open the Feeds section and choose Create feed.
4. Enter a descriptive feed name and select Primary feed as the feed type if this will be your main source of online product data.
5. Configure the market, language, destination, and currency settings that apply to the products in the feed.
6. For the input method, choose the option to automatically download the file from a URL.
7. Paste the product feed URL you copied from UpFeed into the source URL field.
8. Configure a recurring download schedule. A daily refresh is a practical choice for most ecommerce stores because it helps keep prices, availability, and other changing product information current.
9. Save the feed and allow Microsoft Merchant Center to download, process, and review your products.

What happens after Microsoft imports your feed?

After the feed has been processed, review its status in Microsoft Merchant Center. Microsoft validates the product data and may flag individual offers that contain missing, invalid, or inconsistent information. Correct any feed issues before launching campaigns so that as many eligible products as possible can be used for Product ads.

Once your Merchant Center store and product offers are approved, you can create a Microsoft Shopping campaign and connect it to the relevant Merchant Center store and catalog. The product feed then supplies the product information used in your Shopping ads.

Keeping your Microsoft Ads product feed up to date

Product feeds should be refreshed regularly because ecommerce data changes frequently. Prices may change, products can go in or out of stock, new products are added, and product information can be updated in Shopify. Using Microsoft Merchant Center's scheduled URL download allows Microsoft to fetch a fresh version of the UpFeed feed automatically.

Microsoft recommends keeping feed information current, and feeds that are not updated for an extended period can stop serving. A daily scheduled download is therefore a good default for most stores.

Common Microsoft Merchant Center feed problems

If products are rejected or missing after an import, start by checking the feed diagnostics in Microsoft Merchant Center. Common causes include missing product information, invalid URLs, problems with images, mismatches between the feed and the product landing page, or products that do not meet Microsoft Advertising policies.

If the feed itself cannot be downloaded, confirm that the UpFeed feed URL is correct and publicly accessible. If only specific products have issues, use UpFeed's column mapping and feed rules to adjust the affected attributes, regenerate the feed, and let Microsoft fetch the updated version on the next scheduled import.

Microsoft Ads product feed FAQ

Can I use a Shopify product feed with Microsoft Advertising?

Yes. Shopify product data can be provided to Microsoft Merchant Center through a compatible product feed. UpFeed creates a hosted product feed from your Shopify catalog that can be added to Microsoft Merchant Center using an automatically downloaded URL.

How often should Microsoft Merchant Center update my feed?

A daily update is a useful default for most ecommerce stores. Stores with frequently changing prices or availability should make sure their feed refresh schedule keeps Microsoft Merchant Center sufficiently up to date.

Can Microsoft Merchant Center use Google-style product feeds?

Yes. Microsoft Merchant Center supports Google product feed data, which makes it easier to reuse well-structured ecommerce product information across multiple advertising platforms.

Do I need to create a separate ad for every Shopify product?

No. Microsoft Shopping campaigns use the products in your Merchant Center catalog to create Product ads. Your feed supplies the product information, while your campaign settings control how eligible products are advertised.

What should I do if Microsoft rejects products from my feed?

Check the product diagnostics in Microsoft Merchant Center to find the specific reason for each issue. Correct the underlying product data or use UpFeed's mapping and feed-rule features where appropriate, regenerate the feed, and allow Microsoft to process the updated data.