Catalog Ads

Set up and manage Meta Catalog Ads in Adfound

Meta Catalog Ads are success-based campaigns in Adfound that promote eligible projects on Meta. Adfound covers the advertising costs, so you pay no setup fee or upfront advertising costs. You pay a 15% success fee only on revenue that Meta attributes to the ads. Use this article to join Catalog Ads, add eligible projects, review campaign statuses and results, understand attribution and fees, and disable campaigns.

In this article

How Meta Catalog Ads work

Catalog Ads complement your regular marketing activities but don’t replace them. Adfound promotes eligible projects and covers the advertising costs. You pay only when Meta attributes revenue to the ads.

Catalog Ads eligibility criteria determine which projects qualify.

How do you join Catalog Ads?

When one of your projects qualifies and has no previous Catalog Ads campaign, you receive an invitation email and see a prompt on the project dashboard. Use either option to start onboarding.

The invitation depends on whether your business already uses Catalog Ads:

  • When your first project qualifies, you receive an invitation to join the Catalog Ads program.
  • If your business already uses Catalog Ads and another project qualifies, you receive an invitation for that project.

If a project already ran a Catalog Ads campaign, you don’t receive another invitation email. If Adfound automatically moves the previous campaign to Completed and the project qualifies again, the project dashboard displays the prompt again. The dashboard does not display the prompt after you manually disable the previous campaign.

Before your business joins Catalog Ads, only users with Creator-level permission see the prompt. After your business joins, project users with the Performance marketing permission see it.

If you have Creator-level permission, you can also open the Catalog campaigns tab to view all eligible projects and add them to Catalog Ads.

You can dismiss the prompt. When you do, you no longer see it for that project, including in later sessions. You still see prompts for other eligible projects.

Can Catalog Ads run with a dedicated Adfound campaign?

No. You can’t run Catalog Ads and a dedicated Adfound campaign for the same project at the same time.

Before you start

Before you join Catalog Ads, review these requirements:

  • Your project must qualify for Catalog Ads.
  • You need Creator-level permission to complete the initial onboarding for your business.
  • You can’t run Catalog Ads and a dedicated Adfound campaign for the same project at the same time.
  • You cannot change your business information yourself after you save it.
  • You select one currency for Catalog Ads and cannot change it later.
  • You don’t need to set an advertising budget or configure targeting.

If you don’t have Creator-level permission, ask an authorized user to complete the initial onboarding.

After your business joins Catalog Ads, you can start Catalog Ads for each eligible project that you have permission to manage.

Complete onboarding

Open the onboarding wizard from the invitation email.

To complete onboarding:

  1. Provide or confirm your business and billing information.
  2. Select one or more eligible projects.
  3. Select the campaign currency.
  4. Review and accept the Terms of Service.
  5. Complete the onboarding process.

You see the business information section only when you need to provide or confirm your details. Check this information before you save it. You cannot change it yourself later.

For Catalog Ads, you select the currency once and cannot change it later.

After you complete onboarding, Adfound activates the campaigns for the projects you select. If no advertising slot is available for a campaign, Adfound schedules it instead.

If you have Creator-level permission, Adfound opens the Catalog campaigns tab. If you have a different permission level, Adfound opens the dashboard for the relevant project.

Review catalog campaigns

If you have Creator-level permission, open the Catalog campaigns tab to review all projects that use Catalog Ads.

For each project, you can review:

  • Campaign status
  • Campaign results
  • Creative assets

If you don’t see the Catalog campaigns tab, open Catalog Ads from a project that you have permission to manage.

Use the results to check how Catalog Ads contribute to your pledges and identify creative assets that you may want to improve.

Start a new Catalog Ads campaign after completion

Adfound moves an Active or Scheduled Catalog Ads campaign to Completed when the project does not meet the eligibility criteria for more than 24 hours. If the project qualifies again within 24 hours, Adfound keeps the current campaign status.

Your project loses eligibility when:

  • During Pledge Manager, you change its availability from Open to Open for specific groups or Closed.
  • You change its visibility from Visible for everyone to Hidden or Visible to backers.
  • You unpublish the project.
  • Crowdfunding or Late Pledge ends.
  • Pledge Manager enters the Draft or Completed phase.
  • You disable new orders.
  • The project’s campaign outcome changes to Cancelled or Failed.

When Adfound automatically moves a campaign to Completed, it emails all project users with the Performance marketing permission. The email provides information only. It does not include a link to start a new campaign.

Adfound does not send this email when:

  • You or an admin disables the campaign.
  • Adfound schedules a dedicated campaign for the same project.

If the project qualifies again, you can start a new Catalog Ads campaign when all previous Catalog Ads campaigns for that project have the Completed status. You cannot start a new campaign while a dedicated Adfound campaign for the project is in any stage other than Draft or Suggestion.

If you have Creator-level permission, open the Catalog campaigns tab. Adfound displays the eligible project in a separate tile with an option to start a new campaign.

Adfound treats each new campaign as a separate campaign and keeps previous campaigns visible with the Completed status. It adds a number to each subsequent campaign name, for example, [Project name] - Catalog Campaign 2.

If Adfound automatically completes the previous campaign, Gamefound displays the project dashboard prompt again when the project qualifies. If you manually disable the previous campaign, Gamefound does not display this prompt.

Disable Catalog Ads

You can disable all current Catalog Ads campaigns for your business or disable the campaign for one project.

Note: You can’t reverse this action or restart the same campaign. If the project qualifies and all its previous Catalog Ads campaigns have the Completed status, you can start a new, separate campaign. Gamefound does not display the project dashboard prompt after you manually disable a campaign.

Disable all Catalog Ads campaigns

You need Creator-level permission to disable all current Catalog Ads campaigns for your business.

To disable all campaigns:

  1. Open the Catalog campaigns tab.
  2. Open the three-dot menu.
  3. Select Disable all catalog campaigns.
  4. In the confirmation dialog, select Disable catalog campaigns.

To keep the campaigns active, select Cancel.

Disable Catalog Ads for one project

You need Creator-level permission or performance marketing permission for the project.

To disable the campaign:

  1. Open the Project dashboard for catalog campaign.
  2. Open the three-dot menu.
  3. Select Disable catalog campaign.
  4. In the confirmation dialog, select Disable catalog campaign.

To keep the campaign active, select Cancel.

What happens after you disable a campaign?

After you disable one or more campaigns:

  • Adfound changes each campaign with the Active, Scheduled, or Inactive status to Completed.
  • You cannot re-enable or restart a Completed Catalog Ads campaign.
  • Adfound does not review campaign assets that still await review.
  • If you disable an Active campaign, Adfound removes the project from the Meta catalog during the next synchronization.

Meta can still attribute pledges to earlier ad interactions for seven days after Adfound removes the project from the catalog. After this period, Adfound releases the advertising slot.

You can still add new eligible projects to Catalog Ads, even if you disable all your current campaigns.

Understand attribution and charges

Meta provides the analytics that Gamefound uses to report Catalog Ads results and calculate the success fee. Meta applies its own attribution rules.

How does Gamefound prevent double attribution?

Gamefound assigns each pledge to only one Adfound source. The same pledge cannot count toward both a dedicated Adfound campaign and Meta Catalog Ads.

You don’t pay two Gamefound advertising success fees for the same pledge.

Can a pledge appear in another marketing report?

Yes. Marketing platforms outside Gamefound use their own attribution rules. As a result, the same pledge can appear in both your external marketing reports and the Catalog Ads results.

This reporting overlap doesn’t cause you to pay the Catalog Ads success fee twice.

How much do Meta Catalog Ads cost?

Catalog Ads have no setup fee or upfront advertising costs. You don’t pay for displaying the ads.

You pay a 15% success fee only on revenue that Meta attributes to Catalog Ads. If Meta attributes a pledge to another source, you don’t pay a Catalog Ads success fee for that pledge.

Your invoice includes the Catalog Ads success fee only for pledges that Meta attributes to the ads.

Quick answers about Meta Catalog Ads

Use this table to find quick answers about Catalog Ads eligibility, costs, permissions, campaign completion, and starting a new campaign.

Question Answer
What are Meta Catalog Ads? Adfound promotes eligible projects on Meta. Adfound covers the advertising costs.
How much do Catalog Ads cost? Catalog Ads have no setup fee or upfront advertising costs. Adfound charges a 15% success fee only on revenue that Meta attributes to the ads.
Do you need to set a budget or configure targeting? No. You don’t need to set an advertising budget or configure targeting.
Who can complete the initial onboarding? You need Creator-level permission to complete the initial onboarding for the business. After the business joins Catalog Ads, users with the required project permissions can start campaigns for eligible projects.
Can you change your business data or Catalog Ads currency? After you save your business data, you cannot change it yourself. You select the currency once for Catalog Ads and cannot change it later.
What happens after you complete onboarding? Adfound activates the campaign. If no advertising slot is available, Adfound schedules it instead.
Can Catalog Ads run with a dedicated Adfound campaign? No. You cannot run Catalog Ads and a dedicated Adfound campaign for the same project at the same time.
What happens if your project loses eligibility? If your project remains ineligible for more than 24 hours, Adfound moves its Active or Scheduled Catalog Ads campaign to Completed. If the project qualifies again within 24 hours, Adfound keeps the current campaign status.
Do you receive an email when Adfound completes a campaign automatically? Adfound emails all project users with the Performance marketing permission when it completes a campaign because the project loses eligibility. Adfound does not send this email after a manual disable or when it schedules a dedicated campaign for the same project.
Can you restart a Completed Catalog Ads campaign? No. You cannot restart the same campaign. If the project qualifies and all its previous Catalog Ads campaigns have the Completed status, you can start a new campaign for that project.
Does Gamefound send another invitation when a project qualifies again? No. Gamefound does not send another invitation email for a project that already ran Catalog Ads. If Adfound completed the previous campaign automatically, Gamefound displays a prompt on the project dashboard when the project qualifies again.
Does Gamefound display the prompt after you manually disable a campaign? No. Gamefound does not display the project dashboard prompt after a manual disable. If the project still qualifies, users with Creator-level permission can find it in the Catalog campaigns tab and start a new, separate campaign.
How does attribution work? Meta provides the analytics and applies its attribution rules. Within Gamefound, Gamefound attributes a pledge to either a dedicated Adfound campaign or Meta Catalog Ads, not both. External marketing platforms can attribute the same pledge under their own rules.
What does a Catalog Ads invoice charge cover? Each Catalog Ads charge covers only revenue from pledges that Meta attributes to a Meta Catalog Ad.

See also:

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