How multi-placement creatives are auto-grouped (Feed, Stories, Reels)
Last updated June 10, 2026
When you upload the same creative concept in several aspect ratios — a square for Feed, a tall version for Stories and Reels — uplads can fold them into a single ad that automatically serves the right size in each placement. You don't have to build separate ads per placement; just name your files consistently and uplads does the grouping for you.
How placement is detected from the filename
For every creative, uplads reads the filename and looks for an aspect-ratio or placement hint anywhere in the name. It recognizes a wide range of conventions, so files from designers, agencies, Dropbox folders, and AI tools all work without renaming. Recognized hints include:
- Ratios:
1x1,4x5,9x16,16x9(also written1_1,9by16,9to16, etc.) - Placement words:
feed,post,story,stories,reel,reels,square,vertical,portrait,landscape,wide - Pixel dimensions: e.g.
1080x1920— uplads computes the real aspect ratio from these, and they win over word hints - German terms (for DACH teams):
hochformat,querformat,quadrat,hoch,quer
Each hint maps to one of four placement categories shown as a badge: 1x1, 4x5, 9x16, or 16x9. If a file has no usable dimensions on upload, uplads can also fall back to the actual pixel dimensions of the image or video, so iPhone exports and hash-named files still get a placement.
You can see the detected placement on each tile in the media library — a small badge in the bottom-left corner of the thumbnail.
What triggers grouping
Detecting a placement is only half the job. To merge files into one ad, uplads strips the placement hint (and noise like v2, final, draft, or date stamps) out of the filename and uses whatever's left — the creative concept — as a group key. Files that share the same key are grouping candidates.
For example, all three of these collapse to the concept Hook and group together:
Hook_1x1.mp4Hook_9x16_v2.mp4Hook_story_final.mp4
A group only becomes one multi-placement ad when all of these hold:
- At least 2 creatives share the same concept key.
- They cover at least 2 distinct placements (e.g. a 1x1 and a 9x16 — two 9x16 files alone won't group).
- They are all the same media type — all video or all image, not a mix.
If a group fails any check, those files simply launch as individual single-placement ads instead. Nothing is dropped.
Knowing when grouping happened in the UI
The launch wizard's Review step is the source of truth — what you see there is exactly what ships to Meta. In the Ads card, each grouped ad shows its placement combo on the line under the ad name, for example 1x1 + 9x16. Single ads show just one placement (or "Single"), and carousels show a card count instead.
If a creative you expected to group is showing up on its own, check that:
- The filenames share the same concept after the placement hint is removed (watch for typos or extra words).
- At least two different placements are present in the group.
- The grouped files are all video or all image.