Change catalog design dynamically with design rules

Often, it can be beneficial to change the design for a specific product to highlight an occasion. You might want to use a different design for products on sale to make them more attractive for users, for products in different categories, or simply schedule a design for a time-specific campaign, such as a Black Friday, Christmas or Halloween design to let your shoppers know that your offer is relevant.

Inside Confect, you can do this without creating additional catalogs, or having to remember and manually switch the design for a time-sensitive campaign, using Design Rules within “Catalogs”.

Implementing design rules

This function allows you to set up rules for when a product should automatically switch to a different design. 

You can either choose to do this based on product fields in your data source (i.e. if the product is on sale, if the product is from a specific category, etc.), or based on a schedule (i.e. using a “Christmas” design between 1.12. and 24.12.).

1. Decide on which design rules to use, and create the designs

The first step before setting up the design rules is to decide what new design you want certain products to switch to. This can be based on any product attribute, or a schedule. 

Some common examples we see are:

• “Sale design” for products on sale

• “New release design” for product newer than X days

• “Bestseller design” for hot products with stock lower than X items

• “Specific category design” for products in a specific category (i.e. different design for red and white wine)

• “Time-sensitive campaign design”, where all products switch to a new design for a specific time period (i.e. Black Friday or December)

When you’ve decided on the design rules you want to apply to your catalog, create the design itself.

Here is an example of a couple finished designs for different design rules.

Here, you can use other advertisers for inspiration. The important thing is that the design clearly shows whatever you want to communicate (i.e. a sale design should have “X% OFF”, a December design needs to evoke Christmas, etc.).

2. Create the design rules

Go into “Catalogs” and click on the catalog where you want to set up the design rules and click “Edit” in the top-right corner.

Click on “Design Rules” on the left hand side.

Here, you will have the option to either “Highlight Sale” or “Schedule future campaign”. If these fit your current use case, feel free to select one, or alternatively, click “Add rule from scratch” in the bottom-center of the screen.

There are 2 options when creating a new design rule. You can either apply a different design if the product matches a certain filter, or schedule a design for a specific time period.

IF you want to change the design based on products: 

• Click “Add product filter”

• Then, click on “Edit product filter”, browse the options available to you and choose the product properties that will cause the design to be changed. 

• Scroll down and click “Apply”.

IF you want to change the design based on a schedule: 

A scheduled design rule is very similar to a product filter rule, but will change the design based on a date and time; great for time-sensitive campaigns.

Setting your time zone

The schedule setup depends on the time zone set under "Settings" and "Account".

Go to this page and change the time zone to match your desired location.

Please also note that the feed will START changing at the time you selected but may take longer to be generated and loaded by Facebook. If it is necessary that the design is switched at i.e. 15.00, we recommend selecting the time for the design rule 1-2 hours earlier (i.e. 13.30 in this example).

Creating the scheduled rule

• Click “Add schedule”

• Then, add the start and end date for the time period.

Selecting the design for the rule

Once you’ve added the design rule, be it a product filter or schedule, click on “Select design” and choose the design that should be applied for the rule you’ve just set up.

Remember to click on “Save rule”.

Lastly click the “Save” button in the top right corner.

You can add as many design rules as you want, but keep in mind that the rules on top have priority over rules on the bottom. So if you have a schedule rule on top, it will override all other design rules during the time period you’ve set up. 

In this example, we’ve scheduled a VALENTINES DAY design for 7-14/02/2024, set up a SALE design for products that are discounted, and a CHAMPAGNE CATEGORY design for products that are in the champagne category.

3. Previewing the creatives

The designs will update automatically once every hour, but if you’d like to see your new changes now, go the the "Information" tab in the catalog and click on the “↻” icon.

Wait for the new images to render and preview the creatives in “Inspect”.

Congratulations, looking great!