In the Ad Creatives section of regular campaign creation, we'll create the ad variations that are used in the different ad sets.
The most important features in this section are:
- Creative Library
- Ad type
- Creative content
- Post publishing
- Creative variations
Creative Library
The Creative Library lets you save ad creatives and use them again when creating a new campaign, adding creatives to existing ad sets, or editing existing ads. You can use creatives in the Creative Library across different ad accounts when creating new ads (you may need to select appropriate Ad Type to see appropriate selection).
ℹ️ Note: Occasionally the image may need to be re-uploaded if there has been an image related error when uploading the creative to Facebook.
Ad types
Depending on what you select for ad type, you can create different kinds of ads.
Page post ad – This is the most common ad type – it looks like a post from your Facebook page. For this ad type, depending on your Campaign Objective you can choose from several post types:
- Use existing post – Note: existing posts cannot be edited, but you get to keep their engagement (i.e. reactions, comments and shares)
- Carousel
- Link
- Photo
- Video – Note: You can upload GIFs and create light-weight Slideshows here.
- Lead Ad
- Status
- Collection – Note: Collection Ads require a Product Catalog.
Mobile app ad – An ad to drive either mobile app installs or mobile app engagement. You can choose from:
- Carousel
- Image/Video
Page like ad – This type of ad looks like a page post ad, but has a "Like Page" Call-to-Action in the lower right corner.
Dynamic Creative – Dynamic ad formats, that either automatically combine creative asset variations optimally (Dynamic Creative) or show the correct language version according to user settings (Language Optimization).
Asset Customization ad - This ad will show a different variation for different placements or segments.
Asset Customization ads only supports the following post formats:
- Single image
- Single video
- Combining images and videos
Creative content
Includes the messages, picture, link and other content that will be included in the creative. You can see the preview on the right update in real-time as you write the content into the boxes. To maximize the quality of your ads, we recommend that you follow Facebook's Ads Guide when uploading your creatives. Note that the recommended specifications for different ad units can change depending on your campaign's Objective.
Note: The language of the CTA button as well as any possible translations of the creative copy in the Smartly.io creative preview are dependent on the Facebook language settings of the account's Facebook authorizer. The ad itself delivered to the user will in turn reflect the language settings of the user.
Text fields
You can use emoji in your Message, Title and Description fields, and you can use emoticons for some text fields depending on your post type. You can also tag a page or app in the post's Message.
Images and video
Avoid putting too much text in your images, as it will limit delivery. You can read more about using text in ad images here. To help you determine what percentage of your ad's image contains text, Smartly.io has an overlay tool. Since December 2017 it is possible to use the Image Template Editor for regular campaigns as well as feed-based campaigns. This feature is currently in beta so please ask in the Support Chat or from your Account Manager if you would like to have access.
Call-to-action (CTA) buttons
Although they are optional, we recommend using Calls-to-action – there is strong evidence that they improve your click-through rates. Facebook automatically localizes the text of each Call-to-action for each user, so that it will match the language they use on Facebook. This means it is not possible to set the text of a Call-to-action to be always shown in a specific language.
Post publishing
You can use your post as unpublished (default), which will hide the post from your Facebook page's feed. However, you can also choose to publish the post to your page – either immediately, at the campaign's start time, or at any time thereafter. Tip: If you choose Publish later, you can first gather likes and comments to the post only as an ad and later publish it when it has gathered some engagement.
Creative variations
You can clone the currently selected creative and make another variation by clicking the + button in the top row. With different variations, you can test, for example, different image and message combinations if one of those creates more engagement among the audience. By default, each variation will be included inside every ad set – however you can customize which audiences see which creative(s) in the Audience section.
Tip: If you have more than a few creatives for each audience, you may want to use Ad Rotation or Creative Optimization for your campaign.
Other features
- Creative bulk import makes it possible to upload many creatives at once in a CSV file (with bulk image upload).
- The overlay tool lets you check what percentage of your image contains text (if it is too high, Facebook's will limit its delivery). You can read more about using text in ad images here.
- Organic targeting lets you limit who can see organic impressions of your post by country, age and gender. If you would like to use this feature, please ask your Account Manager or Smartly.io Support.
- View tags – Note: this requires whitelisting from Facebook
Facebook Blueprint courses
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add creatives in the Creative Library?
When creating or editing creatives, click Save under Creative Library.
