Facebook Commerce Guide for 2021
Facebook shows no signs of slowing down in 2021, in fact, it is destined to be a focal point of future e-commerce. Now, you have the option of doin...
How to sync Facebook and Instagram with your Online Store
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Creating an e-commerce store with Jumpseller is the first step to start publicizing your products on the Internet.
The next step is to link channels with your store to present your products or services to Marketplaces, Social Networks, and other important platforms.
In this article, we explain how to connect your store to the Facebook & Instagram Sales Channel and How to Tag your Products On Instagram.
Benefits of the Facebook & Instagram Sales Channel
With this Sales Channel, you can take advantage of the following features:
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Easily sell on Facebook and Instagram
Sell the products from your online store on these platforms without having to manually upload them. It automatically synchronizes your catalog from your store with Facebook and Instagram.
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Behavior analysis of your customers
Meta delivers tools to measure and study how your customers move in your shop in order to help you define and create advertising campaigns and, improve the process of buying for your customers.
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Facebook and Instagram advertising
Have you noticed that sometimes it seems that Facebook or Instagram reads your mind when displaying advertisements for products you have searched online? This can be achieved through advertising campaigns aimed at customers who visited your products. With a Meta Pixel and the synchronization of your products, that too is possible.
How to set up the Facebook & Instagram Sales Channel
Note: All you need is a Facebook account, there are no pre-requisite steps. Everything you need to get started will be created during the installation process.
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From your admin panel, click “Sales Channels” > “Facebook & Instagram” > Install App
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Once you have Authorized the installation, you can configure your Facebook business administrator account.
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Log in to the Facebook account associated with your business if you haven’t already. Click on “Continue” twice and you will enter the next step.
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To use the sales channel, you must have an account in the Meta Business Manager, you can create one in this step or use an existing one.
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Once you’ve selected your business manager account, you can connect to a Facebook Page. Again, you have the option to create a page or select one that is already associated with your Facebook account.
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Add your Instagram profile to be able to sync your products with it too. If you don’t have any Instagram profile available, click “Add profile” or “Skip connecting to Instagram”.
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Then, you must select a Catalog. Similar to the previous steps you have the option to create a catalog or select an existing one.
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Next, you will need to connect an Ad Account, create a new one or connect to an existing one.
Note: Facebook has a limit on how many Ad accounts can be connected to a business account. If you have multiple Ad accounts that you want to use with the same Facebook Business account, please contact Facebook support.
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Finally, you should select a Meta Pixel, which can also be connected or created in this step.
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After you have all the relevant accounts created and selected, click “Continue” and wait for the process to finish. Once finished, click “Next” and “Done”, unless you want to create an ad right away.
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That’s it, you will now be redirected to the catalog management page.
Syncing Products and Other Options
To sync an individual product from your store to your Facebook catalog, toggle it.
To sync all products from your store to your facebook catalog, go to the “Massive Actions” page and click on “Synchronize Products”.
Note: By default, any product created or updated on Jumpseller, with the status of Available, will be created/synced to your Facebook Catalog.
To make sure there aren’t any inconsistencies, click on “Verify Product Syncs”. Whenever you find any differences between the status or prices of your products in Jumpseller and Facebook, you can click on this button to fix them.
Back in the Facebook & Instagram main panel, click on the “Facebook Catalog” button to see all the products you’ve synced from your store. If you click on a product you can also see its details.
You can also click on other shortcuts to access the Meta Business Suite and the Facebook Ads Manager.
If you click on “Settings” you will have the option to reset the application if you need to change your account or the initial settings and also to go to the Facebook Commerce Management window. That’s it, your store is now connected to Facebook!
Catalog Diagnostics
You can use the Catalog Diagnostics section to view pending issues or opportunities within your Facebook catalog. Each issue is listed with a severity degree, the number of items affected, and a brief message, making it easy to understand and fix.
To better understand a certain issue, you can also click on the “More Information” button to access Facebook’s documentation about it.
Once the issues have been fixed, you can go back to this page to check if they were really solved. To ensure your items are being shown, ensure you have resolved any issues that might appear on the Catalog Diagnostics page.
How to Tag Products On Instagram
We all know about the popularity of Instagram. With its main content being photos and videos it’s prone to grow as a center of e-commerce. Especially with their continuous investment in their Shops section.
One of the main reasons for this growth is the “Tag Products” feature, which allows merchants to add a product tag to their posts so that customers can click on them to see the product and buy it.
You can also have videos with Tagged Products that will have the price of the product, the description of the product, and a link. This link will take visitors to a new section or website, where they can make a purchase of the product.
Requirements
Before you start taking the steps to be able to tag products on Instagram, you need to complete the following requirements:
- Update your Instagram to the latest version;
- Your Instagram should be a business account.
Note: In case you skipped the connection to an Instagram account during the Facebook & Instagram App setup, you can do it manually by following the guide in the last section.
Create Instagram Shop
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Go to Meta Business Settings (make sure you have the right business account selected) and click “Data Sources” > “Catalogs”. Copy the ID of the catalog you want to associate with your Instagram shop and click “Open in Commerce Manager”.
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Go to the Shops section and click “Go to Shops” to start the shop creation process.
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The first page introduces the concept of Facebook and Instagram Shops. Click “Next”. If you already have a Facebook page or Instagram account connected most of the steps below will already be filled in for you. If they are not:
- Choose “checkout on another website”
- Choose a page and/or Instagram account that you have associated with your business account.
- Paste the product catalog ID that you copied on step 4 to connect it with the shops.
- Write down your website URL.
- Choose the countries to which you intend on shipping to.
- Finally, tick the box and click “Finish setup”.
Once you submit it, Facebook and Instagram will take a couple of days to review your shop information before it’s approved.
If your shop shows as “not approved”, Facebook will give you the reasons why it wasn’t and how you can fix them. Check our FAQ to find help on how to verify your domain and other issues.
Once it’s approved, go to “Settings > Business Assets > Instagram”, click “Edit”, select “Visible” and “Save”.
Your Instagram account will now display the shop you created and the associated catalog.
Note: If you don’t see the Shopping option on your Instagram settings it’s because your account is probably under review or hasn’t been approved to sell on Instagram.
Manually Connect Instagram Account to Meta Business Account
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Go to Business Setting on your Facebook Business Manager Page and click “Accounts > Instagram Accounts”.
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Go to Commerce on your Meta Business Suite and select the business account to which you associated a catalog.
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Click on the Business Settings icon, and on the accounts section, click on “Instagram accounts” and “Add”. Write down your Instagram account details to associate with your business account and it’s done.
Tagging a Product on a Post on your Instagram
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Create a new post.
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Click “tag products”
Tap on the image, search and select the product from your catalog, publish your post and it’s done.
Here’s what it will look like to a normal user on Instagram:
You can tag products in both new and existing posts on your Instagram business profile. You can tag up to 5 products per single image post or 20 products in multi-image posts.
Important: You can edit or delete products you’ve tagged in single-image posts, but for multi-image posts, you can’t edit or delete tagged products after you’ve published.
If you delete a product from the Facebook store or the product catalog associated with your business profile, the associated bookmark will be removed from any post in which the product is tagged and you will also lose insights about the associated bookmark that has been deleted.
The product information on the bookmarks and the product details page will display the currency unit and language of your catalog to a global audience.
It is recommended that you use Insights in your Business Profile to understand your audience and use the catalog that contains the currency and language most relevant to your audience.
To preview publications or save a draft of a publication, click Preview Marked Products or Save Draft on the page that allows you to add a caption to your publication under Tag People and Tag Products.
Forbidden Products
Meta has a list of products you can’t publish in their system. This list includes Digital Products, Services, Tobacco, and other adult products. Review the complete list in Facebook Commerce Policies.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I link/unlink my Instagram account with my Facebook profile?
Please follow the steps described on the Instagram Help page to unlink. To link, you should always do it through the Facebook & Instagram Sales Channel Setup.
How to verify a domain on Facebook?
To verify the ownership of a Domain found in Jumpseller, go to https://business.facebook.com/settings/owned-domains/ and select from the list of verification options: Update DNS TXT record with your domain.
Facebook will indicate a DNS record of type TXT on step 2. similar to the following:
facebook-domain-verification=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You must follow this procedure:
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Go to your Admin Panel > Settings > Domains.
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Choose your domain and go down to the section called “Advanced DNS Configuration”
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Create a new entry, the Host value must be “Blank”, Type must be “TXT” and value must be the Facebook code you copied on the facebook page.
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Save the changes, go back to the Facebook page and click “Verify domain”. it may take a few minutes for Facebook to recognize the DNS changes.
I can’t configure the Facebook application
Please make sure you have disabled all / any ad blocker in your browser, and enable the option to save and read cookies in your browser, while configuring the Facebook application.
My Meta Pixel shows some errors or does not work properly
We send all standard facebook events automatically after the Sales Channel has been set up. Please be aware that, although we are constantly monitoring and improving the system, we can’t guarantee full accuracy of the events. Nonetheless, if anything is important for you or an error stands out, feel free to open a case with our support.
The store section is not showing on my Facebook page, why?
Please verify if any information appears on your Facebook Commerce. You may not have been approved by their reviewing team. Please contact Facebook Business Support for next steps. You can also check Facebook Merchant Terms and Policies.
My products do not sync with Facebook or the images of my products are not displayed, why?
Facebook provides some recommendations to have the best chance of being approved.
Are there any Image Requirements?
- At least one image is required for each product.
- Each image must be of the product itself. It cannot be a graphic representation (for example, an illustration or an icon) of the product.
- Use images that:
- Are easy to understand and show the whole product.
- Have a resolution of 1024 x 1024 or higher.
- Are in square format.
- Show the product closely.
- Have white backdrops.
- Capture the product in real life situations.
- Do not use images that contain:
- Text (for example: calls to action, promotional codes).
- Offensive content (example: nudity, explicit language, violence).
- Advertising or promotional material.
- Watermarks.
- Time sensitive information (for example: price drops for a limited time).
Any particular requirements for the Descriptions of products?
- Offer only information directly related to the product.
- Be digestible (for example, use short sentences and / or bulleted lists).
- Highlight unique product features.
- Be correct in grammar and punctuation.
- Your descriptions should not have:
- Telephone numbers or email addresses.
- Long titles.
- Excessive punctuation
- All uppercase or lowercase letters.
- Spoilers of books or movies.
- Links to external sites.
If you need any help, you can always contact our support team
For up-to-date information on the status of our system and all its services, please visit status.jumpseller.com. You can also subscribe to receive notifications about any updates or maintenance work on the site.