On the Variants page, you can edit the swappable elements of a customizable display project to create different variants with different assets.
If you're planning to customize variants according to rules, you can then assign variants to rules to determine when to serve each variant. You can also skip the Variants page, and create and customize variants directly on the Rules page. Or, create display variants offline with spreadsheets.
Viewing modes
You have two options for viewing the Variants page:
- Grid view
– The grid view is more visual and lets you focus on one variant at a time. A preview of the currently selected variant is shown on the right, while all variants are listed in the left-hand pane.
- Table view
– The table view allows you to make bulk edits more easily. Each variant is displayed as a row in a table, with a column for each swappable element.
To switch between views, use the buttons in the upper right corner of the Variants page.
Edit a variant
When you create a new customizable project, the first variant is automatically created for you. Tailor the variant by adding assets.
Add assets
Customize each swappable element according to its type:
- Images
: Drag a file from your computer and drop it on Drop file here or click Browse to select an image from the asset library.
- Text
: Enter the text to display.
- Links
: Enter the destination URL. For some elements, enter the text to display as well.
- Colors
: Enter the hexadecimal color code and opacity percentage.
Add an asset to every size
When you start, all of the sizes of the current variant are selected. Any asset you add will be added to all sizes. This is helpful when you're adding an asset that's the same across all sizes.
You can tell that all sizes are selected when the number of sizes selected matches the total number of sizes you chose to use for this ad. You'll also see blue checkmarks next to each size in the preview.
- If all of the sizes aren't selected, press and hold Shift, then click each size group until all sizes are selected.
- In the Details panel on the right, add an asset. For example, you can add a logo image by dragging an image from your computer and dropping it on Drop file here under "Logo". Or click Browse to select an image file.
- Click Save.
The preview will update to show the uploaded logo file in all of the ad sizes.
Add an asset to one size or a group of sizes
- In the preview, click the size dimensions (for example, 120 × 600) or anywhere in the card the ad preview is shown in. (Note: Clicking on the ad preview itself won't work.) A blue checkmark is shown next to the selected size, and all other checkmarks will turn gray.
- In the Details panel on the right, add or change an asset. For example, change the Headline to "Hello".
- Click Save.
The preview will update to show the updated headline in the selected size only.
Different values in selected sizes
When you select more than one size, if an asset is different between the selected sizes, you'll see "<Different values>" instead of the actual text or image names used. If you edit an asset that shows this message, the different values will be replaced with the updated text or image in all of the sizes you currently have selected.
Rename a variant
Variant names are automatically generated when you create a new variant. Giving each variant a descriptive name can help distinguish it from others.
In grid view:
- Place your cursor over the variant name.
- Click the Edit
icon that appears.
- Enter a new variant name.
- Click Apply.
In table view:
- Click the Edit
- Enter a new variant name.
- Click Apply.
Preview variants
In grid view, a live preview is shown of each ad size as you add assets. Use this preview to check asset sizes, text length, and colors as you edit.
Currently, you can't preview variants in table view.
Filter previews
If you're working with a lot of sizes, you may find it helpful to filter the live previews to show only certain sizes to compare them.
When you apply filters:
- Only the sizes that match your filter are shown in the live preview area.
- The other sizes still exist, but are hidden from view.
- You won't be able to edit any sizes that are hidden from view until you remove the filters that are hiding them.
Add filters to hide sizes
- Find "Filter by", then click the Select creative sizes to filter by menu. It looks like a drop-down menu that shows the number of filtered sizes (for example, "21 sizes"). The size selection window opens. On the left side, the sizes are organized in groups. On the right side is a list with each selected size.
- To hide a group of similarly shaped ads, click the group to hide.
- To hide just one size (for example, 300 × 100), you can expand the mobile size group on the left and click 300 × 100. Or on the right, scroll down to the mobile sizes and click Remove 300 × 100
.
- Hide the sizes you don't want to see right now and keep the ones you do want to see.
- Click Apply. (If you can't click Apply, make sure at least 1 size is selected.)
Remove filters to show sizes
- Next to "Filter by", click the Select creative sizes to filter by menu. It looks like a drop-down menu that shows the number of filtered sizes (for example, "2 sizes").
- Click All sizes.
- Click Apply.
More preview options are also available.
Create more variants
Add more variants and customize them for other groups of people or contexts. If rules have already been set up for this project, you may want to check that you've created the appropriate variants to assign to each row in the rules table.
- To create a new variant with default values for the swappable elements, click New variant
.
- To make a duplicate of an existing variant, select the variant you want to copy, then click Make a copy in grid view, or Copy in table view.
Variant limits
You can have up to 200 variants in a display project. If your variants support multiple sizes, your project can have up to 2000 ads, with each size of each variant counting toward this limit.
If you create a variant that you don't need, you can select it in the left-hand pane and click Delete.
Assign variants to rules
Once you're done customizing all your variants, you can assign them to rules.