Orchestra Digital Campaign Benchmarks: YoY Performance Trends
Meta Retired Flexible Ads: What Arts Marketers Need to Know
AUTHOR:
Capacity
Meta has officially deprecated Flexible Ads.
If you’ve run Meta campaigns over the past year, you’ve likely relied on Flexible Ads to leverage Meta’s algorithm in choosing the top-performing asset combinations. While this specific ad format is gone, the option to upload multiple assets (images, videos, headlines, post copy), enabling Meta to match the right creative with the right audience, is not.
The bottom line is: your campaigns aren’t losing capability, the workflow is shifting because Meta is simplifying the campaign build process. While it is frustrating when Meta changes features seemingly every week, this is a good thing.
Why Meta Made the Change
This update is part and parcel to Meta’s broader push towards leveraging AI for more automated campaign delivery.
Instead of asking marketers to choose from an ever-changing list of specialized formats, Meta is centralizing additional creative options within the standard campaign set up. Their AI systems now handle more of the optimization process, helping select the best-performing creative variations and placements.
This will effectively release arts marketers from the responsibility of navigating technical format decisions so they can, alternatively, dedicate their attention to the heart of the work: crafting spectacular stories that connect people with performances, exhibitions, and programs.
What’s the Same, What’s New
It’s important to note that the core ad formats haven’t changed: single media (image/video) and carousel ads are still available.
The biggest shift is how these formats are configured during campaign set-up. We now have more control over how the ad will show up in people’s feeds as we’re building it. We no longer have to leave it up to Meta and guess at the final result.
Single Image or Video
We used multiple images and copy options to color the dreamy experience of summertime at Grounds for Sculpture:
Marketers can still upload multiple images and/or videos to serve as single media, as we did for Flexible Ads. What’s new is that we can now customize the placements through creative cropping and selecting display options to help ads adapt across Meta’s inventory, such as adding sitelinks or products from your catalog.
Carousel
The set-up for carousel ads is unchanged, too. The update is that they can now also be served as single image or video ads, collections, or video slideshows when Meta predicts these formats will improve performance.
The Takeaway
Flexible Ads are gone, but the strategy, display flexibility, and insights remain.
It still holds true that the strongest Meta campaigns begin with high-quality creative. The updated format options simply enable a more streamlined way to package said creative while Meta continues leveraging AI to match the right ads to the right audiences.
As Meta evolves its advertising platform, so will our approach. We’ll keep adapting our strategies to take advantage of new features and best practices, ensuring your campaigns remain results-focused and benefit from the latest capabilities without adding unnecessary complexity.
If you’re wondering how these updates may fit into your marketing strategy, Capacity can help! Our Digital Advertising team stays up to date on the latest platform changes so you can focus on the fun part: connecting audiences with your work.
