How multi-placement creatives are auto-grouped

Last updated September 17, 2026Auf Deutsch lesen

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 written 1_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.mp4
Hook_9x16_v2.mp4
Hook_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 Ads panel of the Ad Launcher is the source of truth: what you see there is exactly what ships to Meta. Each grouped ad is one tile that shows how many sizes it carries, for example 3 sizes for a 9x16, a 4x5 and a 1x1 of the same creative, and its ad type reads Multi-Placement in Table Mode. Single ads show Single, and carousels show a card count instead. Open Preview and edit on a tile to see each placement.

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.

Assigning placements by hand

When the filenames do not group themselves, you do not have to re-export anything. The Group placements dialog in the Ad Launcher does the same job by hand, and what you set there is what launches.

In the Ad Launcher, open the icon row under the ads (the first icon, Group placements).
Switch to the Placements tab. Every asset has a row and the four sizes have a column: 4x5, 1x1, 16x9, 9x16. Tick the size each file actually is. A dashed tick came from the filename, a solid one is yours.
Switch back to Groups, click the tiles that belong together, then click Group selected.

The order matters. Group selected refuses as long as two selected files do not each hold their own placement, because Meta builds a multi-placement ad out of different sizes of one creative, not out of two files of the same size. If it refuses, the dialog opens Placements for you, so assign the sizes there and group again.

Ungroup splits a group back into single ads, and Auto-Group throws away everything you set by hand and lets the filenames decide again.

Renaming a file that is already in the library

Renaming the file on your computer and uploading it again does not change anything, and it is worth knowing why: uplads recognises a file by its content, not by its name. Identical bytes are the same creative, so the upload resolves to the one you already have, under the name it already has. The upload says so when it happens.

To change the name, rename the stored file:

Open the ... menu on the asset, in the media library or on its tile in the Ad Launcher.
Choose Rename file, type the new name and confirm.

Placement and grouping are re-read from the new name straight away, so a batch in the Ad Launcher re-groups the moment you rename. The extension stays as it was, and a file that is in a launch that is still running cannot be renamed until the launch is done.