Why are both of these features necessary?
You probably know now that Dynamic Creative is getting phased out for App Promotion and Sales objectives. But it’s still available for all other objectives, at least for now.
Meta says that when running App Promotion or Sales campaigns, you should use Flexible Ad Format instead.
According to Meta’s documentation, Flexible Ad Format is only available for those two objectives. I’m still seeing it for Traffic campaigns, but I assume it’s getting phased out.
Functionality Similarities and Differences
These two features are nearly identical in how they function. There are subtle differences, but they both accomplish a similar goal.
Dynamic Creative allows you to submit up to 10 images or videos, five text options, five headlines, and five descriptions. The algorithm will then mix and match combinations to try to get you the best results.
Flexible Ad Format allows you to submit up to 10 images or videos as well. While Meta’s documentation doesn’t specifically mention text variations, this is a baked-in feature for all ads that was first available because of Dynamic Creative. The result is nearly the same.
Beyond that, there are very minor differences that don’t necessarily make a significant impact on results:
- Dynamic Creative is turned on in the ad set while Flexible Ad Format is turned on in the ad
- Dynamic Creative allows you to test multiple CTA buttons while Flexible Ad Format does not
- Flexible Ad Format generates carousels from the images you provide while Dynamic Creative does not
Beyond these differences, good luck telling the difference — or explaining why one is better than the other.
Objective Specialization
And yet, these two features seem to be specialized by objective. Meta wants us to use Flexible Ad Format for App Promotion and Sales Campaigns and Dynamic Creative for all other objectives.
Why? What’s the point of this? Why can’t there be just one feature that is available for all objectives?
I’m struggling to understand the point of this added complexity. Can anyone explain it?
