How to Create Ads in Agency AI

Overview

Agency AI makes it easy to create Meta (Facebook & Instagram) ads directly from your Shopify admin. This guide walks you through every step of the ad creation process, covering all available paths and ad types so you can get your campaigns live quickly.

Before You Start

Make sure you've completed the following before creating your first ad:

Agency AI is installed and your Meta account is connected (see: Connecting Your Meta Business Account to Agency AI)
Your Ad Account, Facebook Page, and Pixel all show a connected status on the Agency AI dashboard
Your Meta Pixel is actively tracking events on your store
If you plan to use Dynamic ads, your product catalog must be synced through the Meta Shopify App

Step 1: Select Your Ad Platform

From the Agency AI Create Ad screen, you'll see the Ad Platform section at the top. Select Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram). If your Pixel is properly set up, you'll see a green checkmark confirming "Pixel is setup."

Google Ads is coming soon and will appear here once available.

Step 2: Choose Your Target Audience

Next, select who you want your ads to reach:

New Customers — Reach people who haven't purchased from you before. This is the best choice for growing your customer base and driving first-time sales.

Remarketing — Target previous visitors and customers. This is ideal for re-engaging people who have already interacted with your store — such as those who viewed products, added items to their cart, or made a previous purchase.

Remarketing Tip: When creating remarketing ads, Agency AI will display a performance tip recommending no more than 2 remarketing ads live at a time. Keeping your remarketing ads focused prevents audience overlap and ensures optimal delivery.

Step 3: Choose Your Ad Creation Option

Agency AI offers three ways to create ads, depending on whether you want to work within an existing campaign structure or start fresh.

Option A: Create New Ad

Use this when you already have a campaign and ad set running and want to add another ad to it. This is the most common option for merchants who are testing new creative within an existing campaign.

Select Create New Ad ("Create new ad in existing adset").
Choose your campaign from the Select Campaign dropdown.
Choose your ad set from the Select Ad Set dropdown.

If your campaigns aren't appearing, click the Refresh button next to "Missing Campaigns?" to resync your data.

Option B: Create New Ad Set

Use this when you want to create a new ad set within an existing campaign. This is useful when you want to test a different audience segment, placement, or strategy while keeping everything organized under the same campaign.

Select Create New Ad Set ("Create new ad set with ad").
Choose your campaign from the Select Campaign dropdown.
Enter a name for your new ad set in the Ad Set Name field.

Option C: Create New Campaign

Use this when you're starting completely from scratch. This creates a new campaign, a new ad set within it, and your first ad all at once.

Click the Create New Campaign button (blue button in the top right of the Ad Creation Options section).
You'll see a warning: "We recommend avoiding creating new campaigns to ensure optimal performance." This is because Meta's algorithm performs best when it has existing data to optimize from. If you already have a running campaign, consider adding new ads or ad sets to it instead.
Enter a Campaign Name.
Enter an Ad Set Name.
Set your Daily Budget (USD). This defaults to $10. Set this to the daily amount you're comfortable spending. We recommend at least $20–$50 per day for meaningful results, but start where your budget allows.

Which Option Should I Choose?

If you're brand new to Agency AI and launching your first ad, Create New Campaign is where you'll start since you won't have an existing campaign yet.

After your first campaign is running, the general best practice is to add new creative and audiences to your existing campaigns using Create New Ad or Create New Ad Set rather than creating new campaigns each time. This gives Meta's algorithm more data to work with and typically results in better performance.

Step 4: Set Your Duration

For all three creation options, you can set an optional End Date for your ad. If you leave this blank, your ad will run continuously until you manually pause or stop it. Setting an end date is useful for time-limited promotions, seasonal sales, or testing with a fixed window.

Step 5: Choose Your Ad Type

Agency AI supports three ad types, each suited to different creative strategies:

Dynamic Ad

Best for: Product catalog retargeting, showing personalized products to each viewer.

Dynamic ads automatically pull product images, titles, and descriptions from your Meta product catalog and personalize what each person sees based on their browsing behavior on your store. For example, someone who viewed a specific product on your site might see that exact product in their Facebook feed.

What you'll configure:

Product Catalog — Select the catalog synced from your Shopify store. This dropdown shows catalogs from your business (both owned and shared).
Product Sets — Optionally narrow your ad to a specific subset of products from your catalog (e.g., a specific collection or category).
Ad Summary — Describe your ad and how you want to promote it. This helps Agency AI generate more relevant content for you.
Copywriting Angle — Choose the tone Agency AI will use when generating your ad copy. "Neutral" uses your brand voice without a specific angle. Other options allow you to dial in a more specific approach.
Caption (Primary Text) — This is the main text that appears above your ad in the feed (500 characters max, minimum 5 words required for Meta's AI optimization). You can write your own or click ✨ Generate with AI to have Agency AI create it for you.
Call to Action — Select the button text on your ad. "Shop Now" is the default and recommended choice for e-commerce.

Note: For Dynamic ads, the headline and description are automatically populated from your product catalog.

Image Ad

Best for: Promoting a specific product, collection, or offer with a single static image.

Image ads use one creative shown uniformly to all audiences. They're straightforward to create and work well for showcasing a hero product, announcing a sale, or driving traffic to a specific landing page.

What you'll configure:

Ad Summary — Describe your ad and promotion goals for Agency AI's content generation.
Copywriting Angle — Set the tone for AI-generated copy.
Headline — A short, punchy line that appears below your image (40 characters max). Click ✨ Generate with AI or write your own. Minimum 5 words required for Meta's AI optimization.
Description — Supporting text that appears below the headline (125 characters max). Click ✨ Generate with AI or write your own. Minimum 5 words required.
Caption (Primary Text) — The main body text above your ad (500 characters max). Click ✨ Generate with AI or write your own. Minimum 5 words required.
Landing Page — Enter the URL where people will go when they click your ad (e.g., https://yourstore.com/products/product-name).
Call to Action — Select the button text. Default is "Shop Now."
Images — Upload up to 2 images in .jpg or .png format (max 30 MB). Use the checkboxes to select which images to include in your ad.

Image best practices:

For best results, upload one Square (1:1) image for Feed placements and one Vertical (9:16) image for Stories and Reels placements.
If you only have one image, that's fine — Agency AI will optimize it to fit all placements.
You can also access AI Tools to generate or enhance images, or pull from your Asset Library using the tabs above the upload area.

Video Ad

Best for: Showcasing products in action, telling your brand story, or grabbing attention with motion in the feed.

Video ads use short-form video with the same targeting controls as image ads. Video tends to stop the scroll more effectively than static images and can be powerful for demonstrating product features or creating emotional connections.

What you'll configure:

Ad Summary — Describe your ad and promotion goals.
Copywriting Angle — Set the tone for AI-generated copy.
Headline — Short text below your video (40 characters max). ✨ Generate with AI available.
Description — Supporting text below the headline (125 characters max). ✨ Generate with AI available.
Caption (Primary Text) — Main body text above your video (500 characters max). ✨ Generate with AI available.
Landing Page — The destination URL for clicks.
Call to Action — Button text. Default is "Shop Now."
Videos — Upload up to 2 videos in .mp4 or .mov format (max 100 MB per video).

Video best practices:

For best results, upload one Square (1:1) video for Feed placements and one Vertical (9:16) video for Stories and Reels placements.
If you only have one video, Agency AI will optimize it for all placements.
Keep videos short — 15 to 30 seconds tends to perform best on Meta platforms.
Front-load the most compelling content in the first 3 seconds to capture attention before people scroll past.

Using "Generate with AI"

Throughout the ad creation process, you'll see the ✨ Generate with AI option next to text fields like Headline, Description, and Caption. This feature uses AI to generate ad copy tailored to your product and audience.

To get the best AI-generated results:

Fill in the Ad Summary first. This field gives Agency AI context about what you're promoting and how you want to position it. The more detail you provide here, the more relevant the generated copy will be.
Choose your Copywriting Angle. This sets the tone of the generated content. "Neutral" works well as a default, but experimenting with different angles can help you discover what resonates most with your audience.
Click ✨ Generate with AI on the field you want to populate. Agency AI will generate copy based on your Ad Summary, Copywriting Angle, and your product data.
Review and edit. AI-generated copy is a strong starting point, but you know your brand and customers best. Feel free to tweak the output to match your voice.

Step 6: Review and Submit

Once you've filled in all the required fields, review your selections and click submit to create your ad. Your ad will be sent to Meta for review, which typically takes a few hours but can take up to 24 hours.

You can monitor the status of your ad from the Agency AI dashboard. Once approved by Meta, your ad will begin delivering to your selected audience.

Tips for Getting the Best Results

Start with one ad type and test. If you're new to Meta advertising, start with a single Image or Dynamic ad before branching into multiple ad types. This gives you a clean baseline to learn from.

Use Dynamic ads for remarketing. Dynamic ads are especially powerful for remarketing campaigns because they show people the specific products they already browsed on your store, which leads to higher conversion rates.

Test multiple creatives. Once your first ad is running, use the Create New Ad option to add additional creative variations to your existing campaign. Testing different images, headlines, and copy helps you discover what resonates best with your audience.

Don't create unnecessary campaigns. Agency AI's recommendation to avoid creating new campaigns isn't arbitrary — Meta's algorithm performs better with more data concentrated in fewer campaigns. Add new ads and ad sets to existing campaigns whenever possible.

Give your ads time. Avoid making changes in the first 3–5 days after launch. Meta's algorithm needs time to exit the learning phase and optimize delivery. Early changes reset this process and can hurt performance.

Need Help?

If you run into any issues during the ad creation process or have questions about which ad type or creation option is right for you, contact our support team. We're here to help you get your ads live and performing.