What’s going on here?
Advertisers are hearing a lot about Flexible Ad Format right now. Since Dynamic Creative is no longer available for all objectives, Meta is recommending using Flexible Ad Format instead.
But, is Flexible Ad Format only available for the Traffic objective? That was originally the requirement. Or is it only available for Sales and App Promotion objectives? Or… is it actually available for all three?
Lots of confusion. Let’s investigate…
Documented Requirements
When Flexible Ad Format was introduced in 2023, it was only for the Traffic objective. I know because I wrote a blog post about it and found it strange.
I’m not sure when it was updated, but documentation for Flexible Ad Format now says it requires either App Promotion of Sales objectives.
But when I select the Traffic objective, I’m still able to use Flexible Ad Format. There’s something else going on that may be related…
This conflicting message coincides with the limited phaseout of Dynamic Creative, which will no longer be available for the App Promotion and Sales Objectives. Meta specifically recommends Flexible Ad Format in those cases.
So, while Flexible Ad Format is currently available to me when using the Traffic objective, I’m guessing that’s temporary.
How to Approach It
If we’re to follow Meta’s recent changes, use Flexible Ad Format for App Promotion and Sales objectives. Use Dynamic Creative for everything else. Of course, that assumes you prioritize creative optimization in this way.
Why two different but similar features are available is a whole different question. I’ll cover that in a separate video.
