Create Facebook ads in bulk

Save time and gain more control over split testing campaigns with the aggregated campaign builder (or grid composer). Upload a spreadsheet of ad creative and targeting combinations, and let the builder create your ads and split testing for you. You can upload as many or as few parameters as you like, and complete the remaining creative and targeting fields in the campaign builder as usual. Aggregated campaigns have the same limits as any other campaigns; 50 ads per adset, and 250 ads in total.

Aggregated campaigns can be created for the External Website and Local Awareness campaign types.

To prepare an aggregated spreadsheet

For your first aggregated campaign, download and fill in the sample template from your Hootsuite Ads dashboard.

1. Click New campaign on the main navigation bar, scroll down to How do you want to create your campaign? and then select Aggregated campaign.
   
   
2. Select the campaign type; External Website or Local Awareness.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Download the template spreadsheet. The template will contain different columns depending on the campaign type.
4. Populate the file with your creative and targeting values.
   The template spreadsheet contains columns for all parameters that can be uploaded, but they aren’t all required. If you choose not to include a parameter, delete the heading from the spreadsheet.
   Note that Call to Action and CTA Phone Number or CTA Address are required in Local Awareness spreadsheets.
5. Enter variations for each parameter in a new row to create split tests for them.
   
   
6. Save/export the spreadsheet as an XLSX or CSV file (max 20 MB in size).

Available parameters for bulk uploading

Creative

• Page (by ID or name)
• Headline
• Ad Text
• Image
• Video
• URL (http:// or https:// required)
• Display Link
• Link Description
• Call to Action
• CTA Phone Number (Local awareness only)
• CTA Address (Local awareness only)

Targeting

• Countries (External website only)
• Exclude Countries (External website only)
• Global Regions (External website only)
• Excluded Global Regions (External website only)
• Cities
• Excluded Cities
• Regions
• Excluded Regions
• Zip
• Excluded Zip
• Genders
• Age min.
• Age max.
• Saved audience

Custom placeholders

Add custom parameters to the first row of your spreadsheet, and all corresponding variable values in the rows below it. These can be used as placeholder values in the creative fields of the campaign builder.

For example, by adding the custom parameter StoreName, with values LA Magic Burger and LA Big Burger, these variations can be inserted with a placeholder into creative fields like the Headline: Visit our store {StoreName}. This creates two ad variations with the headlines: Visit our store LA Magic Burger and Visit our store LA Big Burger.

To create an aggregated campaign

1. Click New campaign on the main navigation bar, enter a campaign name and select an ad account.
2. Under How do you want to create your campaign? click Aggregated campaign.
3. Under What do you want to promote? select one of the available campaign types.
4. Click Select your spreadsheet to upload your file, and then click Proceed.
   The import may take a minute to complete.
   
5. If the aggregated campaign builder detects any errors in the uploaded file, those parameters will be highlighted in red. Click Edit  to view the explanation and fix the error before proceeding.
   Empty parameter values in the spreadsheet may be identified as errors. To exclude a parameter, delete the heading from your spreadsheet, and upload the file again.
   
   When the aggregated parameters are successfully uploaded, those fields will be greyed out in the campaign builder, and will display Value from your preset combinations.
   
   
6. If your spreadsheet included custom placeholders, click the aggregated file icon  next to any fields that support placeholder content to insert one.
7. Under Placement and Previews, preview all the ad variations created from your uploaded spreadsheet.
8. Proceed through the campaign builder to complete and publish your campaign.

See how to create more campaign types.