Introducing The New Facebook Customize Creative Assets by Placement Tool
Facebook’s inability to inherently adapt creative assets to each unique ad placement has long been a gripe among advertisers
Until recently, advertisers basically had to choose between two less-than-ideal options either:
- Create a unique ad set for every single placement they wanted (and there are a LOT nowadays), or
- Lump all their ad sets together and just deal with a few wonky creative elements here and there
Either way, the advertiser lost out.
Their customers got poorly sized images or videos with bad resolutions, or their teams spent countless hours redoing ad after ad just to make it perfect for each placement.
Finally, Facebook has recognized its major faux pas and has done something about it, launching its “Customize Creative Assets by Placement” feature late last year.
What is Customize Creative Assets by Placement?
Put simply, the new tool lets advertisers adapt their creative assets to each individual ad placement they choose.
No editing or Photoshopping. No wasted hours uploading and optimizing a million ad sets.
Just a few clicks, and you can pick and choose how your creative elements are used throughout your campaign.
It’s a move that will likely save advertisers serious effort, hassle and resources in the long-term, and it should result in better ads for the end-user as well. Hopefully, that means a better ROI, too.
Currently, Customize Creative Assets by Placement is available for some of Facebook’s placements – just not all of them.
Here’s what you can use the feature on at this very moment:
- Facebook feed ads
- Instagram feed ads
- Instagram story ads
- Audience network native ads
- Audience network banner ads
- Audience network interstitial ads
Obviously, there’s a lot of room to grow. Facebook currently has a number of other placements that aren’t included in this feature, such as in-stream videos, right column ads and sponsored messages.
How to Use Customize Creative Assets by Placement
To utilize the new feature, you’ll need to edit your placements for each ad set in your campaign.
If you want to use all potential placements, click “Select all placements that support asset customization”.
As you upload creative for your ads – images, videos, etc. – you’ll have the option to choose where each one is placed.
Hover over the asset to see what the default placements are, or use the drop-down menu to pick and choose which asset should go with which placement.
Once you’re done, you should see a display of each asset, as well as which placement it’s assigned to. Make sure to double-check these and preview each one before taking your campaign live.
Limitations & Guidelines for Customizing Your Creative
There’s an ideal aspect ratio for images and videos used in every placement, so make sure to keep these in mind when creating and selecting assets for your placements.
Here are the current ratios to go by:
- Facebook feeds: 1.91:1 aspect ratio / 254 x 133px minimum
- Instagram feeds: 1.91:1 aspect ratio / 500 x 262px minimum
- Instagram stories: .56:1 aspect ratio / 500 x 889px minimum
- Audience network: 1.91 aspect ratio / 254 x 133px minimum
Remember, these are only minimum pixel sizes. Generally, bigger is better when it comes to ad imagery, so try to use those only as a guideline. Go larger whenever possible.
Another important thing to note: Customize Creative Assets by Placement is not available on ads with engagement, lead generation, catalog sales or store visit objectives.
It also won’t work with slideshow, canvas, lead, carousel, collection or offer ads. This could change in the future, but at the moment, you’ll have to stick with the platform’s more basic ad types in order to use the tool.
Customize Creative Assets + Dynamic Creative: A One-two Punch
The Customize Creative Assets tool isn’t the only new feature that’s adding flexibility for Facebook’s advertisers.
The platform also recently launched the dynamic creative tool, which lets you create a number of ad variations using different combinations of the same images, videos, headlines, CTAs and copy.
When combined, these two new tools allow for a more flexible, adaptable ad environment that means less work and more results for the advertisers.
Have you used either of these new features? Let me know what you think in the comments.
To learn more about Facebook’s new Customize Creative Assets by Placement feature, email [email protected].
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