Meta has just started rolling out a new creative ad format – Flexible format. Continue reading to find out what we know so far and how it might become part of your campaigns going forward. 👇
What is the Flexible Format?
The flexible format is a way for the Meta ads algorithm to “automatically optimise your ad format” depending on the ad placement and the user’s individual preferences. Rather than choosing just one of the existing Meta ad formats to display your content, the flexible format can mix up the creatives you provide to make single image, video, or carousel ads.
How do I set up Flexible ads in Ads Manager?
To set up a Flexible ad, you’ll need to use a campaign with the objective of Sales or App promotion with either Website or App as your conversion location. If you’re using the Sales objective, you’ll need to switch off ‘Use a catalogue’ at a campaign level.
Create a new ad, then scroll down to Ad setup and select Flexible.
You’ll be able to add up to 10 images or videos, plus up to 5 different Primary text, Headline, and Description options.
Don’t want certain creatives and copy to be mixed within an ad? Meta has got you covered. You have the option to create up to 3 Groups per ad using different images, videos, texts and destinations. This way, you can narrow down which creatives are shown together without the need to set up each ad separately.
Once you’ve set up any Groups you want to use, you can go ahead and preview some of the possible ad layouts for each ad placement. For example, on our test ad, you can see some of the previews showing a selection of individual and carousel ads for the Facebook and Instagram in-feed ads.
So how is this different from Dynamic Creative?
Well, they’re basically the same.
Starting in June 2024, Meta is phasing out Dynamic Creative and the Flexible format will operate in its place. Because the two perform the same function, it makes sense to remove the older of the two features and streamline everything into one. Ads already using Dynamic Creative will continue to work for now, but this may change in the future.
The two do share similarities in that they both are used to create variations of an ad based on providing multiple options. One major difference is the Flexible format is enabled at the ad level, rather than on an ad set level. This provides a lot more, well… flexibility to choose when you use it compared to Dynamic Creative which you’d be stuck with once you’d launched your ad set.
Currently, the only downside to the Flexible format is that you’re not able to test multiple call-to-action buttons, which you were able to do with Dynamic Creative. However, this may be something Meta will implement in the future.
Are there disadvantages of using Flexible format?
As we’ve seen with Advantage+ creative optimisations, the Flexible format does pose the risk of your ads being displayed in a way you’re not happy with.
Advantage+ creative optimisations automatically apply changes to how your images, videos and text are displayed, including changing the aspect ratio for different placements, swapping headlines and descriptions, and expanding images using AI.
For now, these optimisations can be disabled at an ad level. We typically turn off the majority of them due to one too many cases of ads being displayed in a mixed-up way that muddles their intended message.
However, with the inclusion of Groups in the Flexible format, you still have some control over how the algorithm pairs up different images and text. When you want ads to be displayed in a very specific way, the option remains to use one of the existing Meta ad formats.
Conclusion
The introduction of the Flexible format is yet another instance of Meta pushing towards ad creative automation, taking the task of making multiple ad variants out of your hands. The format offers the possibility to streamline ad campaign structure, reducing the number of ads and allowing you to test creatives on a much larger scale.
The proof will be in the pudding as more brands begin to conduct their own tests of Flexible ads and see the impact that it has on performance.
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