Catalog
A catalog is the structured collection of all your products and their attributes that a channel stores and uses to power ads, shopping listings, and other commerce features.
On platforms like Meta, the catalog is the persistent container the channel keeps on its side. You populate and update it from a feed, and the channel then draws on that stored catalog to build dynamic ads, on-platform shops, and product tags. The feed is how data gets in; the catalog is where it lives.
It matters because everything the channel does with your products runs off the catalog. If the catalog is incomplete or out of date, your ads and listings inherit those gaps. Keeping the catalog fresh, through regular feed updates or an API connection, is what keeps the downstream features accurate.
People sometimes use 'catalog' and 'feed' interchangeably, but they are different layers: the feed is the transport (a file the channel ingests), and the catalog is the destination (the stored, structured product set the channel maintains and matches against).
MartechFlow's job is to keep that catalog well fed: it transforms your source data into channel-ready output and refreshes it on schedule, so the products and attributes inside each channel's catalog stay current.