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Start with single image ads in separate ad sets for first campaign. You need clean data to understand what actually converts before letting Meta’s AI optimize.
Flexible ads can perform better once the algorithm has data to work with but early on they muddy your attribution. You won’t know if format A worked because of the creative or the placement or just random variance.
Run single image for 2-3 weeks minimum depending on your budget and traffic. Once you have clear winners on creative and placement, then test flexible format against your best performer. Gives you an actual baseline to measure against instead of guessing.
The funky AI ads you’re seeing are usually from advertisers who let Meta auto-generate everything without setting proper creative controls. You can use flexible format and still maintain brand consistency by locking down fonts, colors, layouts in the setup.
