21 Jul Why Ecommerce Top of Funnel Needs Two Different Ad Types
Most ecommerce advertisers pick one prospecting format and stick with it — either individual product ads or catalog-based category ads. Running both, in parallel, gives prospecting more surface area than either one alone, and each format is genuinely doing a different job.
📺 This structure comes from a full training on setting up Meta ads for ecommerce and marketplace CPAS campaigns. Watch the full training here →
Two formats, two jobs
Non-catalog single-product ads hero one specific product without any competition from the rest of your catalog. The catalog decision is made at the campaign level — turning it off applies to the entire campaign, not just one ad set — so this format is built deliberately as its own separate campaign, optimized around getting attention on a specific hero item.
Catalog-based category ads work differently. Rather than hand-picking one product, you define a product set (a category, or “all products”) and let Meta dynamically show relevant items from within it to different people. This format is well suited to testing broader appeal across a product range rather than betting everything on one hero product.
Running both means you’re not forced to choose between the focus of a single-product ad and the breadth of a catalog ad — each format tests a different hypothesis about what gets someone’s attention.
The rule that ties it together: one campaign, one objective
Whichever format you’re running, a campaign should optimize for a single objective — never mix an add-to-cart optimized ad set with a purchase optimized ad set inside the same campaign. Grouping different conversion events together confuses delivery: Meta can’t properly optimize a campaign that’s simultaneously being asked to find people likely to add to cart and people likely to purchase, since those aren’t the same audience.
In practice, this means naming and structuring campaigns clearly around a single objective — a “sales, non-catalog, optimized for ATC” campaign is a genuinely different structure from a “sales, catalog, optimized for purchase” campaign, even though both sit at the top of the funnel.
Testing at a manageable budget
When testing new products or categories in this structure, a modest starting budget — commonly around $5 a day per ad — is enough to start gathering signal without overcommitting before you know what’s working. This lets you run several product or category tests in parallel without spreading a full budget too thin across untested creative.
What this looks like structurally
A well-organized top-of-funnel setup ends up with multiple distinct campaigns: a non-catalog campaign hero-ing individual products, and a catalog campaign built around categories or full product sets — each internally consistent around one objective, each testable and scalable independently. This is more setup work upfront than running a single catalog campaign, but it gives you a clearer read on what’s actually working, since you’re not blending two different formats’ performance into one number.
Most of this structure is straightforward to set up once the one-campaign-one-objective rule is clear. Where it gets harder is deciding how many products or categories are worth testing simultaneously without spreading budget too thin — that’s a judgment call that depends on your catalog size and overall budget.
This breakdown is written by Jason Gan, a Meta Certified Professional and Badged Meta Business Partner who has personally audited over 1,000 advertiser accounts since 2010. You can see real account breakdowns on the Jason Gan YouTube channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should ecommerce top of funnel ads use single products or a full catalog? Both, run in parallel rather than choosing one. Non-catalog single-product ads let you hero a specific product without competing against the rest of your catalog, while catalog-based category ads let Meta dynamically show relevant products to different people. Running both structures gives prospecting more surface area to work with.
Can I mix add-to-cart and purchase optimization in the same Meta ads campaign? No — this is a common structural mistake. Each campaign should optimize for one objective. Mixing an add-to-cart optimized ad set with a purchase optimized ad set in the same campaign confuses delivery and prevents either from being properly optimized.
What budget should I start with when testing a new single-product ad? A modest daily budget, commonly around $5 a day, is a reasonable starting point for testing individual product or category ads before committing more budget to what’s working.
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