Introduction
Feed Variations are an extremely powerful way of enabling you to rapidly scale your finalised creatives, by audience type, region, country, language and much more.
How do I access Feed Variations?
Navigate to the 'Work' section of your Pencil Pro workspace and then use the search bar or column filters to locate the creative you want to work with.
Alternatively, use the Search icon on the upper right to search by label.
Open the creative and toggle over to the Feed Variations (table icon) view.
You will be presented with the following:
Click 'Create' feed and then choose from one of the following options:
If you are already familiar with Feed Variations you may have prepared a file already but otherwise you can choose 'From Scratch'.
Creating your Feed Variation sheet
Here you can simply start filling out your column headers, which can be optionally mapped later to specific elements/layers of the creative. You can draw on strategy you've already generated in Pencil and include columns such as Product, Market, Audience, Language, Header, Image, Call to Action.
You can hover over the three dots in any of the header cells and, among other things, Filter by value(s) in that column:
Here I am using a template ad for a coffee company, Godi coffee, and I just want to vary the headline text based on AI generated copy referencing the various audiences I have populated in column B.
Using AI within the Feed Variation table
To get the best from using AI for copy within Feed Variations we recommend you take a look at What do I need to consider when prompting for copy?
My headline values for the four variations I have created are currently blank, but hovering over any of the cells gives me the option to 'Ask AI'
Starting with a simple prompt that asks for copy that references the Product in Column one (locking the column using the $ sign)
I am presented with the following copy which I want to refine and also define a word limitation:
Below is my updated prompt and, assuming I am happy with the copy generated, I press 'Accept'
I can then just drag the lower right corner of that initial cell and AI will populate copy for the different audiences referenced:
We will provide guidance in an upcoming article on prompting within Feed Variations specifically, but our general prompting guidelines are still very applicable here.
Mapping your columns to your creative
The critical next step is to map any relevant column headers to the appropriate text or asset in your creative. At the top of each column you will see the below Layers button which opens the mapping dialog box. In this case, the only applicable column for mapping is the Headline
Here you can map any column header by choosing from the drop down, to any Layer shown in the drop down. Here I just mapped Headline to Headline.
Once mapped, I can preview each of the variations here, or by clicking on Variations in the Preview column at the left-most side of the main table.
Once I am happy with my variations, I can choose to export them either via download or directly to a connected media channel.
The 'Export' button is at the top right hand corner of the screen and allows me to export one or more (or all) of the variations generated.