Versatile Advert Format: Why I Use It and How You Can Too

Meta launched Versatile Advert Format in 2023. It appears that only a few advertisers use it, however I’ve discovered it to be a superb choice.

I’m sure that the principle purpose advertisers don’t use it’s confusion. Whereas the fundamental operate of Versatile Advert Format is almost indistinguishable from Dynamic Inventive, each choices exist. Advertisers additionally are inclined to have the mistaken causes for utilizing it, and so they’re disillusioned when discovering it’s a nasty artistic cut up testing choice.

My aim is to clear up a few of the confusion with this publish. Versatile Advert Format is certainly one of my favourite little secrets and techniques. However it’s not some magic potion that can repair your unhealthy outcomes. It’s a device that may be helpful for particular conditions.

With this publish, I’ll share the construction and circumstances when Versatile Advert Format is most helpful, in addition to a few particular examples of how I’m utilizing it immediately.

Let’s get to it…

The Fundamentals

The standard advert consists of one of many following artistic codecs:

• Single picture
• Single video
• Carousel of pictures and/or movies

Your selection of artistic is paired with textual content (main textual content, headline, and outline) to create your advert. For those who present textual content variations, a number of variations of a single advert can exist, however all will embrace the identical artistic format. If you wish to experiment with a special picture, video, or carousel, you would want to create a separate advert.

That’s, in fact, until you employ Versatile Advert Format (for “Versatile” when deciding on a format).

When chosen, you possibly can present as much as 10 pictures or movies (or a mixture of each). Along with the only picture and video variations, Meta will generate a carousel variation. These creatives are then paired together with your textual content variations to generate many variations of your advert.

Advantages and Limitations

There are a number of advantages of Versatile Advert Format…

1. Keep away from Inventive Fatigue

If both your funds or potential viewers measurement requires the common introduction of recent artistic, Versatile Advert Format is a superb different. Present as much as 10 artistic choices from the start and folks will see totally different variations. This can assist forestall artistic fatigue in order that your advert stays efficient and secure for an extended time frame.

2. Leverage Meta’s Automation and Optimization

Do you’ve gotten a number of artistic concepts, however you aren’t certain which to make use of? Whereas creating a number of adverts might be an choice, it could be extra environment friendly so as to add creatives into the identical advert utilizing Versatile Advert Format. Meta’s methods will then present the model that’s anticipated to carry out greatest for every particular person by placement.

3. Much less Handbook Work

For those who benefit from the fixed tweaking and micromanagement of adverts, this might not be the perfect resolution for you. However in case you’d want a extra hands-off strategy to let the algorithm do its factor, it may be an important choice.

There are additionally some limitations. In some or all instances, these aren’t essentially negatives, assuming you’re utilizing Versatile Advert Format for the correct causes.

1. No Customization by Placement

When utilizing the only picture, single video, or carousel choices, you possibly can customise how your advert seems by placement. This may be useful to leverage a special format or facet ratio which may be extra helpful primarily based on the place your advert is seen. This will also be annoying busy work.

When utilizing Versatile Advert Format, the choice to customise by placement disappears. Crops and variations are generated for you, the place needed. Video variations you’ve offered can be used for video-first placements. Meta could routinely convert teams of static pictures into slideshow-style movies.

2. No URL Customization by Inventive

When customizing by placement with single picture or video adverts, you can too customise the URL so that you simply ship individuals to a special web page relying on the model of your advert that they see. For those who create a regular carousel, you possibly can present a special URL for every carousel card.

However, you’ll present just one URL on your advert when utilizing Versatile Advert Format. Since you can’t make any additional customizations, every carousel card will ship individuals to the identical vacation spot. Likewise, each model of your advert will make the most of the identical URL.

3. No Breakdown by Inventive

What’s lengthy been assumed to be a bug will need to have been intentional at this level. Since Meta’s breakdown by picture or video doesn’t work with Versatile Advert Format, you’ll by no means know which artistic model will get the perfect or worst outcomes.

4. Not a Cut up Testing Function

That is intently tied to the dearth of breakdown performance. Whereas it could definitely be good to know what performs greatest, it’s additionally not essential. The principle level of utilizing Versatile Advert Format is to present the algorithm choices to point out the correct model to the correct particular person by placement. That is not meant for cut up testing. You might worsen outcomes from one model, however it could even be used for placements which can be much less more likely to result in outcomes.

General, such a breakdown would slice and cube your outcomes a lot that solely the biggest budgets would possibly get a lot worth from it anyway. For those who submit 10 pictures which can be paired with 5 main textual content variations and 5 headline variations for a pair dozen placements, the end result would be the prototypical definition of “small pattern measurement.”

Was it the picture that led to raised outcomes? The headline it was paired with? The first textual content? The location it was typically utilized in? There’s no purpose to make grand proclamations about what your outcomes imply on this case, so there’s no true want for many advertisers to obsess over it anyway.

Necessities and Really useful Specs

There are a number of primary necessities to utilizing Versatile Advert Format…

1. Gross sales or App Promotion Marketing campaign Goal

Versatile Advert Format is barely accessible when utilizing the Gross sales or App Promotion marketing campaign goals. If you wish to use a special goal, you’ll solely have entry to Dynamic Inventive, which is Versatile Advert Format’s shut cousin.

For those who’re questioning, I do not know why that is the case. It initially appeared as if Meta was phasing out Dynamic Inventive in favor of Versatile Advert Format. However this will need to have run into some technical roadblocks since now we’re caught with the present state of affairs of entry to 1 or the opposite (and in some instances each) by goal.

The 2 accomplish principally the identical factor. However there are variations, significantly in setup.

I ought to be aware that I typically discover artistic methods to make use of the Gross sales goal to get entry to Versatile Advert Format and Viewers Segments (one other function which is barely accessible for this goal). You possibly can accomplish lots of the similar issues with a Gross sales marketing campaign which you can with different goals. The principle query can be whether or not your most well-liked efficiency aim is on the market when utilizing the Gross sales goal.

2. Web site Conversion Location

Assuming you’re utilizing the Gross sales goal, you could choose the Web site conversion location throughout the advert set to entry Versatile Advert Format.

3. No Catalog

Versatile Advert Format will not be appropriate with product catalogs. Which means you’ll want to show off Benefit+ Catalog Adverts on the marketing campaign degree…

You can also’t activate Benefit+ Catalog Adverts on the advert degree. Versatile Advert Format will disappear.

4. Sq. or Centered Content material

That is the place the shortcoming to customise by placement can turn into limiting. With the everyday single picture or video, you possibly can present a number of facet ratios or customise by placement. Neither choice is on the market with Versatile Advert Format. You possibly can present as much as 10 pictures or movies, however they need to all be the identical measurement. Meta can crop your pictures and make changes for you by placement.

The simplest resolution is to solely present sq. pictures and movies. However chances are you’ll need to higher leverage the 4×5 and 9×16 placements, so you possibly can as a substitute present solely 4×5 or 9×16 artistic. For those who do, make it possible for it is going to crop down correctly to sq.. The best way you do that is by designing artistic the place an important half is inside a centered sq. secure zone. I offered a template to assist with this.

It’s not fairly as scary because it all sounds. Use the Superior Preview earlier than publishing your advert to ensure it seems to be high quality in each placement.

Really useful Construction

This half is essential as a result of advertisers typically strategy the utility of Versatile Advert Format with the mistaken concepts. This isn’t about flooding Meta with any 10 pictures or movies. There must be planning and construction behind it.

The principle purpose for that is the carousel that Meta will routinely generate for you utilizing all the pictures and movies that you simply’ve offered. When you contemplate how this carousel will look, you need to shortly understand what is going to and completely is not going to work.

1. Group by Design Theme

Handiest carousels have a constant design theme that runs by way of every of the person pictures and movies. And you may completely present a combination of pictures and movies, however they need to all work collectively.

I’ll share an instance of this additional down.

2. Variations Based mostly on Inventive Textual content and Visuals

Whereas the theme could also be constant, the messaging ought to be totally different. By “messaging,” it might be merely altering the textual content inside a picture to focus on totally different advantages and ache factors. It might additionally embrace highlighting totally different objects and visuals with out altering the general theme.

3. Textual content and Inventive Consistency

Let’s assume that you simply present 10 pictures, 5 main textual content variations, and 5 headlines. All of those belongings can be swapped round. Which means that each picture must work with each main textual content variation and headline. You possibly can overcomplicate this and make it troublesome, nevertheless it’s much less difficult in case you keep on with primary themes.

4. All Similar Facet Ratio

As soon as once more, a constant facet ratio can be useful for the carousel. Whilst you might technically submit a number of facet ratios so long as all of them look good when cropped right down to sq. for the carousel, it’s possible simpler to easily design these pictures with the identical template in thoughts.

5. Create Separate Adverts as Wanted

What do you do you probably have a number of teams of design themes? You possibly can create separate adverts, all utilizing Versatile Advert Format.

Be aware that some advertisers have another choice that I’ll get to after my instance, nevertheless it’s not clear if or when everybody could have entry to it.

Instance #1: Easy Textual content-Free Portraits

I’ve been utilizing Versatile Advert Format for a lot of the previous 12 months.

My preliminary experiment with Versatile Advert Format was to advertise my Cornerstone Ideas lead magnet. On the time, I used to be overwhelmed with the concept of making a number of pictures. I additionally struggled with ensuring the messaging and themes have been constant between pictures and advert textual content.

My resolution was easy. I used the Portrait setting on my iPhone and took a number of selfies. They got here out much better than I anticipated, and I submitted a number of of them for this objective.

By doing it this manner, any of my pictures might work with any of my combos of textual content. So simple as these selfies have been, they have been fairly efficient (one is even used as my profile picture now).

Instance #2: Grouped Themes

I lately created a brand new lead magnet known as The Loop and I needed to take a extra refined strategy to Versatile Advert Format. With the assistance of ChatGPT, I got here up with a artistic strategy that highlighted 4 issues:

• The title (“The Loop”)
• Icon representing The Loop
• Textual content overlay advantages and CTAs
• My firm branding (brand)

I didn’t need to make issues too sophisticated, so I saved the title, icon, and branding the identical on all variations. However I generated three colour themes and wasn’t certain which to make use of:

• Darkish
• Gentle
• Darkish palette with pale portraits

The third utilized lots of the portrait selfies I used for Cornerstone, however they have been used as extra of a pale watermark.

Every of those three themes leveraged three totally different textual content overlays. In all, I might have 9 totally different artistic variations.

In fact, I wouldn’t need to lump all 9 into the identical advert as a result of that will imply {that a} carousel model would come with solely three totally different messages, however with totally different colour kinds. To make sure every carousel was constant in theme and messaging, I created three separate adverts — one for every colour theme.

Right here’s the darkish theme…

The sunshine theme…

And the darkish theme with pale portraits…

Right here’s a more in-depth have a look at a few of the variations generated when trying on the Superior Preview. Discover that there are single picture, carousel, and each sq. and 4×5 variations (I solely submitted 4×5).

Even the 9×16 and video variations (which Meta generated by turning the photographs into slideshows) got here out properly…

All three adverts make the most of the identical textual content variations. The one distinction is that the photographs inside a single advert will observe the identical theme.

Inventive Teams

Whereas I’ve created separate adverts to leverage totally different themes, all using Versatile Advert Format, some advertisers have another choice: Inventive Teams.

I wrote about Inventive Teams in 2024 after I discovered the choice in certainly one of my advert accounts. Sadly, I wouldn’t have entry to this function for the advert account I used to create these adverts. It will have been helpful.

The idea is generally the identical as creating separate adverts, however you’re placing your whole variations into one advert. If in case you have it, you’ll see an choice so as to add a Group.

In my instance, I might have created a separate group for every theme. The carousels would then apply to every artistic group.

The first adverse to doing that is that you simply’d lose all visibility into distribution by theme. If you separate the themes by advert, you possibly can no less than see how every advert performs. By lumping them collectively, you’d lose that because the artistic breakdowns aren’t useful.

Ought to You Use Versatile Advert Format?

As I’ve mentioned, I’m an enormous fan of Versatile Advert Format, however I understand I’m within the minority. I’m sure that the principle purpose for that is that the majority advertisers demand detailed reporting breakdowns that will not be doable when utilizing this selection. However I imagine these breakdowns are largely irrelevant anyway, given the small pattern sizes usually concerned.

For those who’re prepared and even hoping to take extra of a hands-off strategy and don’t really feel the fixed want to separate take a look at each artistic variation, Versatile Advert Format might be an important choice for you. I encourage you to no less than strive it out you probably have the correct state of affairs.

Your Flip

Do you employ Versatile Advert Format? In what conditions?

Let me know within the feedback beneath!