What is RTB House and why merchants use product feeds
RTB House is a programmatic advertising platform that uses product data feeds to power dynamic retargeting and performance marketing campaigns. The platform specialises in real-time bidding (RTB) for display advertising, enabling merchants to show personalised product ads to users across the web based on their browsing behaviour and purchase history.
Merchants integrate product feeds with RTB House to automate ad creation at scale. Rather than manually building individual ads, the platform generates dynamic creatives from your product data. This means feed quality directly affects ad relevance, click-through rates, and campaign performance. A well-structured feed ensures your products appear in the right campaigns, with accurate pricing and availability information.
RTB House accepts feeds in multiple formats (CSV, XML, JSON) and validates them against strict specifications. Feed errors prevent products from being activated in campaigns, so understanding field requirements and validation rules is essential.
Core required fields and their impact on campaign activation
These fields must be present and correctly formatted for products to be approved and included in RTB House campaigns.
| Field | Purpose | Validation rules | Campaign impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Unique product identifier | Must be unique per product, alphanumeric, max 100 characters | Missing or duplicate IDs prevent product activation |
| title | Product name displayed in ads | Max 150 characters, plain text only | Truncated or missing titles reduce ad relevance and click-through rates |
| description | Product details and selling points | Max 5000 characters, HTML tags stripped | Poor descriptions lower advertiser quality scores |
| link | Direct URL to product page | Must be valid HTTPS URL, no parameters allowed in some cases | Broken links cause campaign disapprovals |
| image_link | Primary product image for ads | HTTPS URL, min 100x100 pixels, JPG/PNG only | Low-quality or missing images reduce ad performance |
| availability | Stock status | Allowed values: 'in stock', 'out of stock', 'preorder' | Out of stock products are excluded from campaigns automatically |
| price | Regular product price | Format: currency code and amount (e.g. GBP 29.99) | Incorrect formatting causes feed validation failure |
| brand | Manufacturer or brand name | Max 100 characters | Enables brand-level targeting and filtering in campaigns |
Pricing and condition fields
Pricing accuracy is critical for RTB House campaigns because incorrect prices damage trust and reduce conversion rates. The platform supports both regular and promotional pricing models.
The price field must always contain the current selling price in the format 'CURRENCY_CODE AMOUNT'. Use GBP for UK merchants (e.g. 'GBP 19.99'). Do not include currency symbols or thousand separators. This field is mandatory and must be present for every product.
The sale_price field is optional and represents a temporary discount or promotional price. When sale_price is lower than price, RTB House displays both values in dynamic ads, highlighting the savings to users. This increases click-through rates on promotional campaigns. Always ensure sale_price is lower than price, otherwise the feed fails validation.
The condition field describes the product state and accepts three values: 'new', 'refurbished', or 'used'. This field is optional but recommended. Products marked as 'used' or 'refurbished' may be excluded from certain advertiser campaigns, so set this accurately to avoid disapprovals. Condition affects product eligibility for specific campaign types.
Product identification and categorisation fields
Product identification fields (gtin, mpn, and google_product_category) help RTB House match your products to advertiser campaigns and prevent duplicate listings.
The gtin field is the Global Trade Item Number (also called UPC, EAN, or ISBN). This is a unique identifier assigned to physical products by manufacturers. Include GTIN whenever available, as it helps the platform deduplicate products and match them to advertiser catalogues. Format as a 12, 13, or 14 digit number without hyphens or spaces. Missing GTINs are not a feed error, but products without GTINs cannot be matched to some advertiser campaigns.
The mpn field is the Manufacturer Part Number. This is the product code assigned by the manufacturer. Use mpn when GTIN is not available or when you need additional product identification. MPN is optional but improves product matching accuracy.
The google_product_category field assigns your product to a category from Google's product taxonomy. This is mandatory for all products. Use the numeric category ID from the official Google taxonomy (e.g. 185 for 'Clothing & Accessories > Clothing > Shirts'). Incorrect or missing category IDs cause feed validation failures and prevent products from being included in relevant campaigns. The category also determines which advertiser campaigns your products are eligible for.
The product_type field is your own internal category structure. This is optional and can contain multiple comma-separated values. Use product_type to organise products by your own taxonomy (e.g. 'Men > Casual > T-shirts'). This field does not affect feed validation but helps you organise and filter products in RTB House reporting.
Product variants and grouping
When you have multiple variants of the same product (different colours, sizes, or materials), use the item_group_id field to group them together. This field contains an identifier shared by all variants of the same base product.
For example, if you sell a shirt in red, blue, and green, each variant gets its own row in the feed with a unique id, but all three rows share the same item_group_id (e.g. 'SHIRT-001'). RTB House uses item_group_id to consolidate variants in campaign reports and to enable variant-level targeting. Without item_group_id, each colour appears as a separate product in campaigns, which can fragment your campaign performance data.
When you use item_group_id, you must also include variant-specific fields for each row: color, size, gender, age_group, and material. These fields describe the specific variant and are optional if you do not use item_group_id.
Attribute fields for product filtering and targeting
These optional fields provide additional product details that enable advertiser filtering and audience targeting within campaigns.
color specifies the product colour (e.g. 'red', 'navy blue', 'multi-colour'). Use simple, readable colour names. This field is especially important for fashion and home goods. Advertisers use colour to target specific product variants in campaigns.
size specifies product dimensions or sizing (e.g. 'M', 'large', '10-12', '32x24'). Format should match your product's sizing system. When you use size, ensure it matches how customers search for and filter products on your website.
gender indicates the intended audience: 'male', 'female', 'unisex', or leave blank if not applicable. This field is used for apparel and personal care products. Incorrect gender values can exclude your products from gender-targeted campaigns.
age_group specifies the intended age range: 'newborn', 'infant', 'toddler', 'kids', 'adult', or 'all ages'. This field is mandatory for children's products and optional for others. Use it to indicate if products are suitable for specific age groups.
material describes the primary material composition (e.g. 'cotton', 'leather', 'polyester blend'). This is optional but improves product matching for advertiser campaigns that filter by material.
Image and shipping fields
The additional_image_link field allows you to provide extra product images beyond the primary image_link. Provide a comma-separated list of HTTPS URLs. RTB House uses these additional images in dynamic ads when space permits. Each URL must point to a valid image file (JPG or PNG, minimum 100x100 pixels). Additional images improve ad performance by showing product variations or lifestyle context.
The shipping_weight field specifies product weight in kilograms (e.g. '0.5' for 500 grams). This is optional but useful for advertisers who need weight information for shipping cost calculations or logistics planning. Format as a decimal number without units.
Custom labels for campaign organisation
RTB House supports two custom label fields: custom_label_0 and custom_label_1. These are optional fields you can populate with any values relevant to your business logic. Use custom labels to segment products for reporting or campaign targeting. For example, you might use custom_label_0 for profit margin tiers ('high', 'medium', 'low') and custom_label_1 for seasonal tags ('summer', 'winter', 'clearance'). Custom labels appear in RTB House reporting and can be used to filter products in campaign settings. There is no fixed vocabulary for custom labels; define your own taxonomy based on your needs.
Feed validation and quality checks
RTB House validates feeds against these common rules:
- All mandatory fields (id, title, link, image_link, availability, price, brand, google_product_category) must be present for every product.
- The id field must be unique across all products in the feed.
- URLs (link, image_link, additional_image_link) must be valid HTTPS addresses and return HTTP 200 responses.
- Price must be a valid decimal number in the correct currency format.
- Availability must be one of the three allowed values.
- google_product_category must be a valid numeric ID from the official taxonomy.
- Image files must be accessible, at least 100x100 pixels, and in JPG or PNG format.
- Character limits must be respected (title max 150, description max 5000, etc.).
Feed validation errors prevent products from being activated. When validation fails, RTB House returns error messages indicating which fields are missing or incorrectly formatted. Always test your feed in a staging environment before pushing to production.
Practical optimisation strategies
Beyond meeting minimum requirements, these practices improve campaign performance:
Title optimisation: Include key product attributes in the title. Instead of 'T-shirt', use 'Men's Cotton T-shirt - Navy Blue'. This improves ad relevance and click-through rates.
Description clarity: Write descriptions for users, not search engines. Highlight unique selling points, materials, and benefits. Avoid keyword stuffing. Aim for 100-200 words per product.
Image quality: Use high-resolution product images with clean backgrounds. Avoid watermarks or promotional overlays. Include lifestyle images in additional_image_link to show products in use.
Pricing consistency: Ensure feed prices match your website prices. Mismatches between feed and landing page damage trust and increase bounce rates. Update prices daily if you run frequent promotions.
Category accuracy: Map products to the most specific google_product_category available. Broad categories reduce campaign relevance. Refer to the official Google taxonomy to find the correct category ID.
Variant grouping: Always use item_group_id for products with colour, size, or material variants. This consolidates reporting and prevents bid fragmentation across variants.
Availability updates: Update the availability field in real-time or at least daily. Out of stock products are automatically excluded from campaigns, so stale availability data wastes advertiser budget.
GTIN inclusion: Populate GTIN for all products where available. This enables product matching to advertiser catalogues and improves campaign performance.
Feed submission and monitoring
Submit your feed to RTB House via their platform interface or API. The platform accepts feeds in CSV, XML, or JSON format. Choose the format that matches your existing data infrastructure.
After submission, monitor feed health in the RTB House dashboard. Check for validation errors, product approval rates, and any warnings about missing or incomplete fields. RTB House typically processes feeds within 24 hours. Products remain in campaigns until you manually remove them or they fall out due to validation errors.
Set up automated feed updates to refresh product data at least daily. Stale product information (outdated prices, incorrect availability) reduces campaign performance and damages advertiser trust.
Summary
RTB House product feeds power dynamic advertising campaigns by automating ad creation from your product data. Success requires accurate field mapping, validation compliance, and ongoing feed quality management. Prioritise mandatory fields first (id, title, link, image_link, availability, price, brand, google_product_category), then add optional fields that improve product matching and advertiser filtering. Use item_group_id to consolidate variants, include GTIN for better product identification, and keep prices and availability updated in real-time. Regular feed monitoring and optimisation directly improve campaign performance and advertiser satisfaction.