How to launch flexible / multi-format ads

A flexible (or multi-format) ad gives Meta several pieces of copy and media for a single ad, then lets Meta's delivery system mix and match the best-performing combination for each person who sees it. Instead of locking in one primary text and one headline, you supply variants and let the auction do the optimizing. uplads builds this automatically — you just add the variants.

What flexible / multi-format ads are

A standard ad ships exactly one primary text and one headline. A flexible ad ships up to 5 primary texts and up to 5 headlines for the same creative. Meta then tests combinations and serves the one most likely to perform, without you creating separate ads for each pairing.

Under the hood, uplads packs your variants into Meta's flexible creative format (an asset_feed_spec). When there's more than one primary text or headline, uplads sends the full list so Meta can optimize between them; with a single value each, it ships an ordinary single ad. You don't toggle anything — adding a second variant is what makes the ad flexible.

Add multiple primary texts and headlines

You add variants on the Text & Creative Setup step of the launch wizard, in the Ad copy section.

1. Open the launch wizard and reach the Text & Creative Setup step.
2. In the Primary Text card, type your first text. Click Add variant to add another field, then fill it in.
3. Do the same in the Headlines card — click Add variant to add headline options.
4. Repeat until you have the variants you want. The Add variant button disappears once you hit the limit of 5 per field.
5. To drop a variant, use the X button next to it (you can't remove the last remaining one).

A few things worth knowing:

• The limit is 5 primary texts and 5 headlines — Meta's cap for a flexible creative.
• You still set a single Description, Destination URL, and Call to Action; only the primary text and headline lists carry variants.
• Only variants with actual text count — empty fields are skipped before launch, so you can leave a spare field blank without breaking anything.

How uplads assembles the ad

When you launch, uplads collects up to 5 non-empty primary texts and up to 5 non-empty headlines and builds one flexible creative per piece of media. Meta receives all the variants together and rotates through combinations during delivery, reporting back which performed best. Every selected creative in your launch gets the same treatment, so you can pair a batch of images or videos with the same set of copy variants in one pass.

For a deeper walkthrough of the copy step itself, see Write ad copy on the Text step.

How this differs from a standard ad

• Standard ad: one primary text + one headline, shown exactly as written.
• Flexible / multi-format ad: several texts and headlines for the same media, combined automatically by Meta to optimize delivery.

The creative is identical — what changes is that you've handed Meta room to optimize the wording.

How it compares to carousel and DLO

Flexible ads, carousel ads, and multi-language ads all let one ad do more than one thing, but they solve different problems:

• Flexible / multi-format: multiple copy variants (texts and headlines) over one creative. Best when you're unsure which wording wins.
• Carousel: multiple media cards in a single swipeable ad, each with its own image or video. Use it to tell a sequence or showcase several products. uplads offers this once you select 2+ creatives — see Launch carousel ads.
• Multi-language (DLO): the same ad translated into several languages, with Meta showing each viewer their language automatically. See Launch multi-language ads.

You can combine these — for example, a carousel ad can still carry multiple primary text and headline variants. Pick flexible ads when your main lever is the copy, and reach for carousel or DLO when the media or the language is what you need to vary.