Channel Fields and Placeholders

The Fields tab maps each feed column to product data, AI content, or static text — this article covers field anatomy, chaining fallback content, and the "Require content for this placeholder" toggle.

Updated July 1, 2026

What a field is#

A field is one column (feed element) in your channel's output — for example g:title, image_link, or video/url. Ad networks expect specific element names and value formats, so a field's name must match what the network's spec calls for:

Open the Fields tab on a channel to see the full list. Each field has:

  • Type icon — Text, Image, Video, or Voice over (audio) — the same content types used for Studio placeholders.
  • Field name — free text; this is what ends up in the exported feed, so it must match the ad network's expected name exactly.
  • Field content — the same placeholder editor used in Studio templates, where you build the value from static text, product data, or content elements.
  • Allow multiple values — a switch that lets a field repeat (Cardinality.LIST instead of a single value), for feed elements that accept multiple entries per product, like additional_image_link.

Adding a field#

Click Create field in the toolbar, give it a name and type. The field is created empty — you add its content afterward using the field-content editor.

Building field content#

Click into a field's content editor to build its value:

  1. Type static text directly, or
  2. Use the dropdown (down-arrow) to insert a content element — AI-written ad copy, review extracts, product data like price or ID, or a templated image/video. See Available placeholders for the full catalog.
  3. Chain a fallback placeholder after it. A fallback's value is only used if everything before it resolves empty — so you can build a chain like "AI headline → product title → static text" that always produces some value.

Several of the fields a new channel starts with are already built this way. The condition field, for example, uses your catalog's own condition value and falls back to new for products where that value is missing or blank, so the field is never exported empty.

Require content for this placeholder#

Click a content-element chip inside a field's editor to open its settings. Each content element has a toggle:

  • "Require content for this placeholder" — shown when the element has no fallback chained after it.
    • On: if this element (and any fallback chain before it) can't resolve a value, the field counts as missing content for the channel. This is what the built-in Status automation and the channel's Activity tab react to — for example, archiving the product or raising a warning when required content isn't there.
    • Off: if the product doesn't have this content, the field is simply left empty — it does not count as missing content, so it won't trigger the Status automation or a missing-content warning. Use this when an empty value is normal and shouldn't affect the product's status (for example, an optional field that many products legitimately don't have).
  • If a fallback is chained after the element, the toggle's label changes to "Fallback to the next placeholder if this content is missing" instead — same underlying behavior, phrased for the chain.

This is the current name and behavior of this control. If you're following older instructions that mention a checkbox called "Allow value to be missing," that's the same setting under its current name.

Deleting a field#

The delete button on a field is disabled, with a tooltip explaining why, if that field is referenced by a channel automation's trigger or action. Remove or repoint the automation first, then delete the field.

Fields are draft-first#

Like everything else on the channel page, field changes save automatically to a draft — the live feed doesn't change until you publish.

Where to go next#