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Docs/Marketplace

Your feed URL and token

Where your inventory feed URL lives, how its token secures it, how to rotate the token, and why a paused channel returns a 404.

Who: Owner or ManagerPlan: All plans

A marketplace feed is a single web link that lists your published inventory. A marketplace that accepts a feed fetches it on a schedule, so your latest cars flow through automatically and sold cars drop off on their own. This page explains where that link lives, what the token in it does, and how to keep it secure.

A feed URL is just the data. Most marketplaces are not a simple "paste a URL" connection — several are paid, and some don't accept a dealer-supplied feed at all. See How each channel actually connects below before you assume a URL is all you need.

Where your feed URL is

Your feed URLs are generated and shown on the Marketplaces settings page, in the Inventory feed section. There's no separate file to upload anywhere.

  1. Go to Settings → Marketplaces.
  2. In the Inventory feed section, on the Feed key card, click Generate feed URLs (one-time). This creates your feed key.
  3. Each marketplace channel card now has a Feed URL tab with a ready-to-copy link.
  4. Click the copy icon next to a URL to copy it, then use it wherever that marketplace's setup guide tells you to (which is not always a paste-a-URL field — see below).

Every feed URL looks like this:

https://your-slug.autodealer.io/api/feeds/YOUR_TOKEN/google.tsv

The host is your own storefront subdomain (your-slug.autodealer.io, or your verified custom domain if you've connected one), so a copied link reads as your dealership's feed. The last part of the path (google.tsv, facebook.xml, cargurus.csv, etc.) tells us which marketplace format to build — each channel gets its own URL so you can track and pause them independently.

Only Owners and Managers can generate, rotate, or pause feeds. Other team members can open the Marketplaces page, but the controls are disabled.

How each channel actually connects

A feed URL is the inventory data. Whether a marketplace can use that URL — and whether it costs money — varies by channel. The Marketplaces page only surfaces the channels you can realistically act on:

  • Google Vehicle Ads — a paid Google Ads product. Google retired its free vehicle listings in 2025, so the feed powers paid ads, not a free listing.
  • Facebook — connects through a live Facebook login (OAuth) so we can push and auto-sync your catalog; the feed URL is a manual Commerce Manager fallback. Running Facebook Vehicle Ads is paid.
  • CarGurus — requires a paid CarGurus dealer account. The feed is uploaded to CarGurus' FTP after your account is set up; you don't paste the URL into a field.
  • Generic feed — a broad CSV that other marketplaces that do accept a dealer-supplied URL can ingest.

Cars.com, Autotrader, and OfferUp are intentionally not offered as self-serve here: none accept a dealer-supplied feed URL (they're paid contracts that ingest inventory through a certified syndicator), so there'd be nowhere to paste ours.

Generating a feed URL does not, by itself, list your cars anywhere. Each channel still needs its own account and setup — and for most channels that's a paid relationship. Follow the channel card's Setup guide tab for the real steps.

How the token secures the feed

The long random string in the middle of the URL is the password. Marketplace crawlers don't log in — they just request the URL on a schedule — so the token is what proves the request is allowed to read your inventory.

A few things this means for you:

  • Treat the full URL like a secret. Anyone with the link can read your published inventory feed (the same cars already public on your website — never costs, customer info, or deals).
  • We only ever show the last 4 characters of the key on the settings page (••••1234). The full token only appears inside the copyable feed URLs.
  • Every failure returns the same plain 404 — a wrong token, a paused feed, or an unknown channel all look identical, so no one can probe to discover valid tokens or dealers.

The public feed only ever exposes inventory that's already published to your website. It never includes your cost, profit, customer data, or any deal information.

Rotate the token

Rotate when a feed URL may have leaked, or any time you want a fresh key. Rotating generates a brand-new token — the old URLs stop working immediately and return a 404.

  1. Go to Settings → Marketplaces and find the Feed key card in the Inventory feed section.
  2. Next to the masked feed key (••••1234), click Rotate.
  3. You'll see a confirmation: "Feed URLs rotated. Update the URL anywhere you pasted the old one."
  4. Copy the new URL from each channel card and update it everywhere you previously used the old one.

Rotating breaks every place the old URL was used. Any marketplace still pointed at the old link will fail to fetch until you give it the new URL. Plan to update each connected marketplace right after you rotate.

A paused or disabled channel returns a 404

Turning a feed off actually stops it — the URL doesn't just go stale, it starts returning a 404.

  • Feed key switch (off): every marketplace URL returns a 404 until you turn it back on. Use this to pause all feeds at once.
  • A single channel switched off: that one channel's feed URL returns a 404 while the others keep serving. (Facebook is the exception — its switch controls live auto-sync, not the fallback feed.)
  • Feeds keep working when on: an empty inventory still returns a valid (empty) feed, not an error.

Feeds also stop on their own if your dealership account is suspended or your subscription is cancelled — every feed URL returns a 404 in that case.

How fresh is the feed?

The feed is built live from your current inventory each time it's fetched, with a short cache (up to about 5 minutes at the edge). So a sold car, a paused channel, or a freshly rotated token all take effect on the next fetch within a few minutes — there's no manual "republish" step.

Feeds are also tagged noindex, so the raw feed URL won't show up in Google search results.

FAQ

Where do I find my feed URL?

Settings → Marketplaces → Inventory feed. Click Generate feed URLs once, then copy the URL from any channel card's Feed URL tab.

Can I have one feed URL for everything?

No — each marketplace has its own URL ending (like google.tsv or facebook.xml) so you can pause and track them separately. There's also a Generic feed URL that other marketplaces which accept a dealer-supplied URL can ingest.

I generated a feed URL but nothing showed up on the marketplace. Why?

A feed URL is only the inventory data — it doesn't connect you to a marketplace by itself. Each channel still needs its own account, and most are paid. For example, CarGurus needs a paid dealer account and the feed gets uploaded to their FTP; Google Vehicle Ads and Facebook Vehicle Ads are paid ad products. Check the channel card's Setup guide tab.

I rotated the token and now a marketplace stopped working. Why?

Rotating creates a new token, so the old URL returns a 404. Copy the new URL from the channel card and give it to that marketplace again to restore it.

My feed URL returns "Not found" (404). What's wrong?

Check, in order: the Feed key switch is on, the specific channel is switched on, the URL matches the current token (you may have rotated it), and your account is active. Any of these will return the same 404.

Is it safe to share the feed URL?

Only with the marketplace you're connecting. The token in the URL is the password, and the feed exposes the same inventory that's already public on your website — but never costs, customer data, or deals. If a link leaks, rotate the token.

Why is my feed on my own subdomain instead of autodealer.io?

So the feed reads as your dealership's own feed (your-slug.autodealer.io, or your verified custom domain). Your storefront slug is pulled fresh from your account, so this always uses your current subdomain.