Meta Dynamic Product Ad (DPA) Campaigns

General

Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) is a Meta campaign subtype in Flight Control that allows advertisers to promote their Commerce Manager catalogs across Meta's platforms.

Flight Control enables you to create a product catalog feed source for Meta DPA by combining a product feed and creative, which can enhance the visual quality of the product images used within your Meta catalog.

Then, you can create Meta DPA campaigns in Flight Control to publish ads that incorporate this Meta product catalog.

Differences exist between Meta DPA campaigns and other campaign types in Flight Control, primarily:

• You need to have a DPA campaign already set up in Meta with:
  • Objective = Sales
  • Linked to an existing Meta catalog; here, you have two options:
    • Select the catalog at the Meta campaign level and the product set at the Meta ad set level in Ads Manager.
    • Or, select the Meta catalog and product set at the creative card level in Flight Control
• Unlike other campaign-type ads that include fixed media videos or images, in Meta DPA campaigns, the ads are templates showing products from the Meta catalog. Meta decides which product to show per impression in real time.

Important: A social platform ad set/group can only contain a maximum of 50 ads. 

Note: In some cases, publishing and activation may be impacted by service disruptions on Meta's platform. To verify availability or review ongoing incidents affecting Meta Business products, see https://metastatus.com.

User Permissions 

• You need the Campaigns user permission to create or edit campaigns.

Prerequisites 

• Integrate a Meta Ads Manager account with your Flight Control account.
  • For more information on social media advertising account integrations, see Integrations Overview.
• Create a Meta product catalog in Meta Ads Manager. 
• Create or use a pre-existing Meta campaign with a Sales objective.

Meta (DPA) Campaign Workflow

Once you've started a new campaign by clicking Create from the Campaigns page and selecting Meta > DPA Campaign as the campaign type, follow the steps below to set up and activate your Meta DPA campaign in Flight Control.

At a high level, the setup process follows the steps outlined in the campaign header:

1. General Campaign Settings
2. Sync Meta Ad Sets with Flight Control.
3. Set Up the Campaign Logic.
4. Generate and Render Ads.
5. Publish Ads.
6. Activate the Campaign Version.

Detailed Campaign Setup and Activation Workflow

1. General Campaign Settings

The Campaign Homepage is the first step of the campaign, where you can: 

1. Add a campaign description.
2. Select any premium services (e.g., Sports, Weather).
3. Add campaign tags for reporting purposes.

2. Sync Meta Ad Sets with Flight Control

1. Navigate to the campaign's Ad Sets step of the workflow in the Header.
   • This is where you can connect your Flight Control campaign to the Meta advertising account.
2. Click Add.
3. Select a Meta account.
4. Select a Meta campaign.
5. Click OK.
   • This process can take a few seconds. Once finished, all connected Meta campaign ad sets will be displayed.

3. Configure the Campaign Logic

1. Go to the Campaign Logic step in the campaign header.
   • This is where you can configure your decisioning logic to toggle ads on and off in Meta.
2. Add and connect decision cards to your campaign card as needed for your strategy:
   • Content Selection Card - This card selects a content item from a content feed to display in an ad using a specified selection strategy.
   • Condition Card - This card conditions by one or more attributes (usually ad sets/groups) and selects which card output and creative to use for an impression.
   • Schedule Card - This card lets you perform campaign actions like dayparting and other date/time ad-serving specifications.
   • Distribution Card - This card generates multiple ads for each ad set/group based on the number of card outputs used. The social media platform optimizes the ad serving between these ads using their personal optimization methods.
3. Add creative cards to the campaign. Each creative card in Flight Control represents one or more ads published to Meta and references the Meta catalog ID. However, standard creative attributes such as primary text, headline, and so on need to be added. Unlike creative cards in other campaign types, you don't select creatives used in the cards from your Creative Library. Instead, the videos and images are pulled from your Meta Ads Manager product catalog.
   1. Select either a Single Image/Video or Carousel ad type.
      • Note: When selecting Single Image/Video for your ad type, the campaign prioritizes video, if present in the product catalog, over image.
      • Note: The creative card previews the first item for Single Image/Video ad types and the first three items for carousel ad types.
   2. Select a Meta catalog to use.
      • Note: This is only applicable if you have not already defined the Meta catalog in Ads Manager at the Meta campaign level.
   3. Select a Meta product set to use.
      • Note: This is only applicable if you have not already defined the Meta product set in Ads Manager at the Meta ad set level.
4. Continue setting up the creative cards. See the table below for information on fields in Meta DPA campaign creative cards:

Field Name	Description	Image	Video	Carousel
Ad Name	Allows you to define the name of the ad that will be created. If nothing is inserted, the creative name will be used.	Yes	Yes	Yes - In General settings tab
Image Name Video Name Media Name	Allows you to create a name for the media, image, or video asset published to the social platform (instead of using the creative ID as the default name).	Yes	Yes	Yes
Catalog	Meta DPA Campaigns only. Allows you to select a product catalog to use from the Meta Ads Manager account that is synced with your DPA Facebook campaign. Note: Flight Control enables you to create a product catalog feed source for Meta DPA by combining a product feed and creative, which can enhance the visual quality of the product images used within your Meta catalog.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Product Set	Meta DPA Campaigns only. Allows you to select a product set to use from the Meta catalog synced with your Meta DPA campaign. You can select from a predefined list of product sets or enter a custom text value or macro.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Landing Page	Lets you choose the source for the ad's landing page. You can enter a URL to use by selecting Insert Manual Link.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Landing Page URL	Lets you enter a URL to use as the ad's landing page. Note: This field only displays if you selected Insert Manual Link for the Landing Page field.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Display URL	Lets you enter a "URL name" that will be displayed in the ad. When clicked or tapped, the user will be directed to the card's configured landing page URL.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Media Selection	Meta DPA Campaigns only. Lets you select the media column you want to display as your product image in the ad.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Facebook Page	Lets you select a Facebook page to publish the ad to.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Instagram Account	Lets you select an Instagram account or enter an Instagram account ID to publish the ad to. You can also select Use Facebook Page, which will use the profile picture and title of your Facebook page in the Instagram account placements. Note: If you choose Use Facebook Page, and the page has an Instagram account associated with it, the Instagram account will be selected instead.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Primary Text	This text will appear on most placements, although its position will vary. Use @ to tag Facebook profiles or pages. It is recommended to use no more than 125 characters. Add up to five versions using the Add Primary Text option. Facebook will decide which text to use based on its campaign optimization while running the campaign.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Headline (optional)	Add up to five short headlines for image and video ads. Meta will decide which text to use based on its campaign optimization while running the campaign. For carousel ads, only one headline is needed. Note: A 255-character limit exists for image and video headlines.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Call to Action	Required. Use this to show a button or link in the ad that represents the action you want the user to take. Select from a predefined list of CTAs or macros.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tracking	Lists all available website events for the synced account.	Yes	Yes	Yes
Carousel Optimization	Select the options that meet your requirements: Display carousel cards as a video: on the Facebook Feed, the carousel ad will display as a video based on potential performance lift. Automatically show the best performing cards first: on the Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, and Instagram Stories, shows the carousel card that performs the best. Note: for all other placements, the cards will appear in the order you arrange them. Add a card at the end with your page profile picture  Add music: on supported placements, Flight Control will sync your ad with music at no additional cost. All other placements will not be synced.	No	No	Yes

Step 4: Generate and Render Ads

Once the campaign logic has been set up without any errors, the Generate Ads icon on the far right section of the header will become highlighted.

You must now generate all possible ad variations (outcomes) from your campaign map logic:

1. Click Generate Ads within the campaign's header to start the process of generating ads. Once ads have been generated, the system will automatically start rendering the ads.
   • You'll be directed to the campaign's Ads step once ads start generating.
2. Review your rendered ad variations within the Ads table.
   • Note: These are simulated social media previews. Minor preview discrepancies may exist before publishing ads to a social media platform.
3. Optional. Update ad variation elements individually or in bulk as needed (examples: primary text, headline, and CTA changes).

Note: The campaign logic will be locked once ad generation begins. Changes made to the campaign's feeds or creatives won't affect the campaign unless you click Generate Ads again.

5. Publish Ads

Once all ads have been automatically generated, the Publish icon on the far right section of the header will become highlighted, indicating that ads are ready to be published.

1. Click Publish to upload the generated ads to the Meta platform. This will bring up the Publish Ads window, where you can:

   Review the number of ads being published, updated, or deleted between the last version and the current version being published. Choose whether to pause all ads from the previous version or keep them running until the new version activates. Decide whether to permanently delete or simply turn off ads marked for deletion in the connected social media account. Choose whether the campaign version should activate automatically after ads are published, with options to enter a custom version name and description. Schedule a future activation time and determine what happens if ads fail to publish or are rejected by the social platform. Select how you want to activate the campaign: Once the first ad is approved (Recommended) Once all ads complete the review process, and at least one is approved Only if all ads are approved Click Publish and Activate or Publish, depending on the previously selected activation settings.

   2. Await the "published" status for all ad variations in the Ads step.
      • Note: Campaign version actions are disabled while ads are being published to social media platforms.

If publishing is successful, all ad variations in the Ads step will display a "published" status, and their social media platform ad IDs will populate. At this point, Flight Control uses actual social media placement renderings for creative previews.

Ads published to social media platforms are paused until you activate your Flight Control campaign, which is outlined in the last step of the workflow.

6. Activate the Campaign Version

Once ads are successfully published, the Activate icon on the far right section of the Header will become highlighted, indicating that the campaign version is ready to be activated.

To activate the campaign version:

Click Activate in the campaign Header. The Activate Ads window will be displayed. Optional. Enter a custom version name. Optional. Enter a version description. Select the Set time for future activation  checkbox and enter a day and time for the version to activate on. To cancel the scheduled activation, click the "x" symbol of the Scheduled Activation badge in the campaign header. You can then click Activate to initiate or reschedule activation. Select how you want to activate the campaign: Once the first ad is approved (Recommended) Once all ads complete the review process, and at least one is approved Only if all ads are approved Click Activate.

The campaign version will be activated and "locked" by default after activation occurs. Once a campaign version is activated, Flight Control will begin serving ads on Meta, toggling ads on and off according to your campaign map configurations.

Important: Once your campaign is running on the social platform, you must make changes to Flight Control-related ads directly within Flight Control, not the social platform. Otherwise, unintentional changes and data overwrites may occur.