Getting Started: Step 2: Building a Template
Sam Russo avatar
Written by Sam Russo
Updated over a week ago

You have your assets uploaded, and it's time to make a template. Exciting things are happening!

Here's a quick video overview of how template creation works. It's followed by a written version, too.

Getting Started

To make your first ad template, go to the "Create" section.

You have two options when you're just starting out: you can use a pre-made template we've provided, or you can start from scratch.

We'll discuss how to do it from scratch, because if you can do that, you will easily be able to use a preexisting template.

Creating a Template from Scratch

You have a blank canvas in front of you - endless possibilities await!

(Well, kinda. This is why we had you upload assets first, because you'll start needing them right about now.)

In that handy left-hand margin, you'll see categories for the elements we had you upload in our last tutorial: text, branding, images, graphics, etc.

You can go ahead and start choosing things from those Assets to drag and drop onto your template.

You can move your elements around on the template to lay everything out the way you want.

Every asset you add is on its own "layer" - that is, it exists as a singular element you can manipulate without it affecting the other elements.

Static Elements vs. Dynamic Elements

When you add items to the template, they can be either a "constant" element, or a "variable" element.

A static element is something you will NOT be testing, so it will not change in each version. For example, maybe your background is going to stay blue for every creative you make, because you're testing just the headline, or a main image. Because it will remain the same, it's a constant element.

Dynamic elements are the things you want to test versions of. So in the above example, your headline copy or your main image would be marked as "dynamic," so you can swap in multiple assets to test out in the next step.

Marpipe makes it easy for you to spot which is which when you look at the elements you've added in the left margin:

Green = Dynamic

Purple = Static

Creating Multiple Artboards

You can also use artboards to create multiple designs containing the same variants.

This can be helpful to do if you want to understand whether a certain layout or concept does better than another, beyond the individual elements that are in them.

Keep in mind, this will automatically add testing versions to your experiment. That's not a bad thing, but in the next step of adding variants, you'll want to keep an eye on how many ads you'll be testing to make sure it aligns with your allocated budget.

Play around with your elements until you have it the way you want, and then you're ready to make the magic happen: it's time to add your Variants!

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