Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Feed Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

As our Feed Specialist, you will be the cornerstone of our product advertising strategy, owning the entire lifecycle of our product data feeds. You will ensure the accuracy, completeness, and optimization of product information sent to critical channels like Google Shopping, Meta, Amazon, and other marketplaces. This is a hands-on role that combines data management expertise with a sharp digital marketing acumen to maximize product visibility, traffic, and revenue. You will collaborate closely with marketing, merchandising, and IT teams to troubleshoot issues, implement enhancements, and scale our feed-based marketing efforts globally.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Digital Marketing Coordinator
E-commerce Assistant
Data Analyst
Junior PPC Specialist

Advancement To:

Senior Feed Specialist
E-commerce Manager
Marketing Operations Manager
Data Strategy Manager

Lateral Moves:

PPC Manager
Technical SEO Specialist
Marketing Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Oversee the end-to-end management and daily operations of all product data feeds for various performance marketing channels, including Google Shopping, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Pinterest, and affiliate networks.
Proactively audit, diagnose, and resolve feed-related errors, warnings, and product disapprovals within channel-specific platforms like Google Merchant Center and Meta Commerce Manager.
Develop and execute advanced feed optimization strategies by enhancing product titles, descriptions, images, and other attributes to improve Quality Score, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates.
Utilize third-party feed management platforms (e.g., Feedonomics, ChannelAdvisor, Channable) to build, map, and syndicate complex product data to multiple endpoints.
Create and implement custom rules, filters, and logic within the feed management tool to segment product catalogs for targeted campaign structures and promotional activities.
Collaborate with the paid search, social, and marketplace teams to align feed structure and content with their specific campaign goals and targeting requirements.
Manage the onboarding process for new marketing channels and marketplaces, ensuring all product data requirements are met for a successful launch.
Maintain data integrity and consistency by working closely with merchandising and PIM (Product Information Management) teams to correct source data inaccuracies.
Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for all feed processes, data mappings, and channel-specific rules to ensure business continuity.
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) related to feed health and quality, generating regular reports to communicate performance and identify areas for improvement.
Conduct A/B testing on various feed attributes, such as product titles, images, and custom labels, to identify best practices for maximizing campaign performance.
Implement supplemental feeds to enrich core product data with additional information like inventory levels, promotional pricing, or performance data.
Work directly with IT and development teams to troubleshoot data extraction issues and recommend improvements to the source data structure (e.g., from an ERP or PIM system).
Stay current with the ever-changing specifications and best practices for major advertising platforms and marketplaces, adapting feed strategies accordingly.
Manage the integration of new product lines and categories into existing data feeds, ensuring a seamless and accurate representation across all channels.
Perform regular competitive analysis on competitor feed strategies and product presentation in key shopping channels to identify strategic opportunities.
Automate feed generation, transformation, and submission processes wherever possible to increase efficiency and reduce the potential for manual error.
Handle complex data manipulations and transformations using advanced functions in Excel/Google Sheets or by writing basic SQL queries to join and format data.
Serve as the internal subject matter expert for all things related to product data feeds, providing guidance and support to internal stakeholders.
Ensure all product feeds are compliant with international standards and localized effectively for different regions and languages.
Partner with the promotions team to accurately and efficiently implement promotional text, sale prices, and badges across relevant product feeds.
Analyze the impact of feed optimizations on key business metrics such as ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), conversion volume, and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis for the marketing team.
Contribute to the organization's broader e-commerce and data strategy roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering and marketing requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the digital marketing team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Expert proficiency with at least one major feed management platform (e.g., Feedonomics, ChannelAdvisor, GoDataFeed, Channable, ProductsUp).
In-depth, hands-on experience with Google Merchant Center, including troubleshooting disapprovals, managing promotions, and configuring advanced settings.
Strong familiarity with Meta Commerce Manager (formerly Facebook Catalog Manager) and other social commerce feed platforms.
Advanced skills in Microsoft Excel and/or Google Sheets, including VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, and complex formula creation for data manipulation.
Solid understanding of data formats such as XML, CSV, TXT, and JSON, and the ability to read and troubleshoot them.
Working knowledge of SQL for querying databases and extracting product data is highly desirable.
Experience with Product Information Management (PIM) systems and their role in the data feed ecosystem.
Familiarity with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, or BigCommerce and their data structures.
Proficiency in using web analytics platforms like Google Analytics to measure the impact of feed changes on performance.
Basic understanding of APIs and how they can be used for data syndication and retrieval.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail and a commitment to data accuracy and integrity.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to diagnose complex technical issues methodically.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, capable of explaining technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Proactive and self-motivated, with a strong sense of ownership and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Collaborative team player who can work effectively across different departments (Marketing, IT, Merchandising).
Adaptability and a continuous learning mindset to keep up with a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in a relevant field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in a quantitative, technical, or marketing-related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing
Information Systems
Computer Science
Data Analytics
Business Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2-5 years of direct, hands-on experience in a product feed management, technical e-commerce, or performance marketing role.

Preferred:

Experience managing large, complex product catalogs (50,000+ SKUs) across multiple countries and languages is highly preferred.
Proven track record of improving campaign performance (ROAS, CTR, Conversion Rate) through strategic feed optimization.