The Challenge: Making Dynamic Ads Align with Brand Standards & Aesthetics
Meta dynamic product ads have long since proven themselves to be an effective digital marketing tool, but their default appearance is justifiably not every brand’s cup of tea. Dynamic product ads come with certain limitations that can make it challenging to tailor ads to specific brand standards. While Meta product feed customization services like Socioh exist, they aren't attainable to all businesses. Enter a practical and accessible solution: supplementary feeds.
Supplementary feeds are a powerful tool that enable brands to control the product images that appear in Meta dynamic ads instead of relying on the images automatically pulled from the product feed. If the default product images don’t meet expectations, supplementary feeds provide the flexibility to enhance and optimize visuals for a more brand-aligned ad appearance.
A Real-World Solution: Solving the Mis-matched Image Ratio Dilemma
Our client faced a specific challenge:
Meta DPAs require a 1x1 product image ratio, but both their Shopify and GoDataFeed product feeds exclusively feature 2x3 product images, the preferred ratio for their website images.
As a result, their default product images in DPAs were automatically resized, adding unwanted white borders to the top and bottom of the images—going against their brand’s visual aesthetics.
They wanted to maintain their website’s product image aesthetics while ensuring a clean, brand-aligned appearance in their Meta catalog-based ads.
TLDR: They needed 1x1 product images to pull in exclusively to Meta without existing anywhere in the feeds that power their other channels.
The Meta Supplementary Feed Approach
The solution was straightforward:
Client created 1x1 ratio product images specifically for Meta ads
Client placed links to these images in a Google Sheet*
We added a column with corresponding product IDs (the ID that Meta reads and associates with the products in the feed)
We uploaded the new feed**
Beyond Image Ratio: Creative Possibilities
Supplementary feeds open up numerous creative opportunities that will exclusively apply to the Meta feed:
Overlay brand logo on product images
Add text callouts (e.g., "Best Seller” or “New Arrivals”)
Show different product angles or on-model images (as opposed to the default, oftentimes plain catalog shots)
Feature custom backgrounds
Visually callout discounts or active promotions
Feature seasonal or holiday-themed elements
Create custom backgrounds
Conclusion
Supplementary feeds offer a powerful, flexible way to take control of your Meta dynamic product ads. By thinking creatively and leveraging this tool, brands can create more compelling, on-brand advertising experiences that capture customer attention and drive conversions.
*To ensure proper upload, image links must link directly to the image file. Links that direct to a webpage or require a download will result in upload failure.
**Additionally, we needed to configure our data sources to prioritize images from the supplementary feed over other feed sources.
To do this in Commerce Manager:
Go to Data Sources
Select Configure Data Sources
Navigate to Image
Choose your Supplementary Feed
Click Save
This ensures that Meta pulls the preferred images from the supplementary feed for dynamic ads.
Photo: © cottonbro studio from Pexels