It's not a new thing, but a great thing.
Asset Customization allows you to tailor your assets after placement and attend to each placements best practices.
Why shouldn't I create separate ad sets for each placement? Well, do you want to get over Learning Phase quicker and give Facebook the best conditions to optimize your Campaigns? Well, my answer will be to consolidate, because if you separate each placement you are making it way more complicated for yourself and spreading out that valuable data that would help Facebook faster understand your account. Just note, not all objectives, formats or placements supports Asset Customization. I will list these limitations further down.
If you only upload one image or video to your Ad Facebook automatically uses this single asset for all placements. This is a good idea if you don't have time to create more assets for each placement, but it will affect how engaging visually appealing your ad is to your target audience.
How to Customize your Assets?
- Go to your Business Manager.
- Start creating a new Campaign – make sure that the objective you choose support Asset Customization. I have listed the limitations of Asset Customization further down in this article.
- Create your Ad Set and select your target audience. Make sure you select Automatic Placements.
- On Ad level you will get option of what ad format to create. Select Single Image or Video.
- After you have uploaded your first image or video you get the option to customize your asset. And you will see as the image below shows.
- Upload all your assets and click continue.
- You can click on edit to customize certain placements. For example to crop image or video, trim and add thumbnails.
- You can also edit the copy for the different placements and add background colour.
*If you have duplicated a previous ad without Asset Customization, you are not able to use this feature. For it to work you have to create a new ad.
By customizing your assets for each placements you are giving your campaign more leverage in the auction. Since you are providing Facebooks placement optimization delivery system with more options, you will be given more opportunities to test your ads to see what will be most beneficial for your campaign which then might boost efficiency.
So which formats do I use for each placement?
Ratio 1:1 goes for these placements;
- Mobile News Feed
- Desktop News Feed
- Mobile Marketplace Feed
- Marketplace Category Feed and Details Page
- Desktop Marketplace Feed
- Desktop Marketplace Details Page
- Instagram Feed
- Instagram Explore Feed
- Instagram Explore Video
- Messenger Inbox
4:5 is also recommended for Facebook and Instagram Feed. That way you get more of the screen space for your ad.
9:16 aspect ratio for Stories and Audience Network:
- Facebook Stories
- Instagram Stories
- Messenger Stories
- Audience Network Interstitial, Medium Rectangle, Native, and Banner
The oldie but goldie 1.91:1 and 16:9 aspect ratio is still working for:
- Instant Articles
- Desktop Right Column
- Search Results (Marketplace and General)
You can choose to upload each creative separate per placement or to upload to a group. For example upload Feed images as one asset since they all use the same specs.
Always double check your assets for each placement in the preview so that it looks flawless.
Though there are some limitations to Asset Customization.
Not all objectives are available for Asset Customization such as;
- Engagement
- Messages
- Catalogue Sales
- Store Traffic (visits to actual physical store)
And neither these formats listed below can't be used with Asset Customization;
- Catalogue
- Instant Experience
- Carousel
- Collection
Also, it's not possible to use Asset Customization with Dynamic Creatives and not all objects can be promoted such as Conversions for App events, Catalogue and offers.
You won't be able to create different assets for these placements;
- Facebook Groups
- Facebook Search
- Messenger Sponsored Messages
If you don't have the resources or time to create creatives from scratch for each placement, there are great tools available both from Facebook and from external apps.
But hey, what works for one advertiser might not work for the other. Always be on your toes and test what works best for your business... and lastly don't base your decisions just on that gut-feeling, let Zalster help you make smart decisions based on machine learning – sign up for a 14-day free trial here.