Social and feed-native

Social and feed-native ad formats in AdCP define buyer-provided assets that platforms wrap in their own UI as promoted posts and sponsored content.

This guide covers how AdCP represents advertising that renders as native content within a platform’s feed — promoted posts, sponsored listings, boosted content, and other formats where the platform wraps buyer assets in its own chrome.

Feed-native ads differ from standard display in a fundamental way: the buyer provides content assets (text, images, links), but the platform controls the visual presentation. The ad inherits the platform’s UI — avatar, engagement buttons, community badges, dark mode — and appears alongside organic content.

How feed-native formats work in AdCP

A platform that hosts feed-native ads implements a creative agent with formats that define buyer-provided assets only. The platform handles rendering at preview and serve time, wrapping the buyer’s content in its UI.

Format definition

The format specifies what the buyer provides. Everything else — layout, typography, engagement UI — is the platform’s responsibility:

{
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://ads.socialplatform.example",
    "id": "promoted_post"
  },
  "name": "Promoted post",
  "type": "native",
  "description": "Sponsored content that appears in the feed alongside organic posts. Renders with platform chrome (user avatar, engagement buttons, community badge).",
  "assets": [
    {
      "item_type": "individual",
      "asset_id": "headline",
      "asset_type": "text",
      "required": true,
      "requirements": { "max_length": 300 }
    },
    {
      "item_type": "individual",
      "asset_id": "body",
      "asset_type": "text",
      "required": false,
      "requirements": { "max_length": 1000 }
    },
    {
      "item_type": "individual",
      "asset_id": "image",
      "asset_type": "image",
      "required": false,
      "requirements": { "max_width": 1200, "max_height": 628, "accepted_types": ["image/jpeg", "image/png"] }
    },
    {
      "item_type": "individual",
      "asset_id": "click_url",
      "asset_type": "url",
      "required": true,
      "requirements": {}
    }
  ]
}

The renders array is optional for feed-native formats because the platform determines the visual dimensions at render time based on device, feed context, and layout rules.

Preview with platform chrome

When a buyer calls preview_creative, the platform renders a preview that includes the full feed experience — not just the buyer’s assets in isolation:

{
  "request_type": "single",
  "creative_manifest": {
    "format_id": {
      "agent_url": "https://ads.socialplatform.example",
      "id": "promoted_post"
    },
    "assets": {
      "headline": { "content": "Introducing our new trail running collection" },
      "body": { "content": "Built for the mountains. Tested on every terrain." },
      "image": { "url": "https://cdn.acme-example.com/trail-hero.jpg", "width": 1200, "height": 628 },
      "click_url": { "url": "https://acme-example.com/trail-running" }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    { "name": "Running community", "context_description": "Appears in r/trailrunning feed between user posts" },
    { "name": "General feed", "context_description": "Appears in home feed between mixed content" }
  ]
}

The inputs let the buyer see how the ad looks in different community contexts — the platform’s rendering may change based on community theme, content density, or feed position.

Community guidelines and creative review

Social platforms enforce content policies beyond standard ad policy — community standards, category restrictions, and promoted content guidelines. These are surfaced through the standard creative review flow:

• rejection_reason in list_creatives or get_media_buys explains which policy was violated
• Community-specific rejections reference the community’s rules, not just the platform’s global policy
• Re-submission after fixing the issue follows the same sync_creatives upsert pattern

See Creative review for the full review flow.

Engagement and interaction models

Feed-native formats often support platform-specific interactions that go beyond click-through:

Interaction	How it maps to AdCP
Like / upvote / reaction	Platform-tracked engagement, not an AdCP creative asset
Comment / reply	Platform-managed, may appear in get_creative_delivery variant data
Share / repost	Platform-tracked, included in delivery metrics
Save / bookmark	Platform-tracked
Click-through	Standard click_url asset
Poll / quiz	Additional format assets (e.g., poll_options text array)

Platforms that expose engagement metrics include them in get_creative_delivery via the ext field on each variant, since engagement types vary by platform.

Carousel and multi-card formats

Many social platforms support carousel or multi-card promoted posts. These use the asset_group pattern:

{
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://ads.socialplatform.example",
    "id": "promoted_carousel"
  },
  "name": "Promoted carousel",
  "type": "native",
  "description": "Multi-card swipeable promoted content with 2-10 cards.",
  "assets": [
    {
      "item_type": "group",
      "asset_id": "cards",
      "min_items": 2,
      "max_items": 10,
      "assets": [
        {
          "item_type": "individual",
          "asset_id": "card_image",
          "asset_type": "image",
          "required": true,
          "requirements": { "min_width": 600, "min_height": 600, "aspect_ratio": "1:1" }
        },
        {
          "item_type": "individual",
          "asset_id": "card_headline",
          "asset_type": "text",
          "required": true,
          "requirements": { "max_length": 100 }
        },
        {
          "item_type": "individual",
          "asset_id": "card_click_url",
          "asset_type": "url",
          "required": true
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "item_type": "individual",
      "asset_id": "headline",
      "asset_type": "text",
      "required": true,
      "requirements": { "max_length": 300 }
    }
  ]
}

See Carousels for carousel-specific guidance on card ordering, aspect ratios, and swipe behavior.

Generative feed-native

Platforms with AI-powered ad generation can offer generative feed-native formats. The buyer provides a brief, and the platform generates feed-native content that matches the community’s voice and visual style.

This follows the brief-in-media-buy pattern. The key difference from standard generative creative: the platform has deep context about its community (trending topics, content style, audience behavior) that informs generation. A generative feed-native ad on a cooking community looks and sounds different from the same brief on a tech community.

Preview with context_description inputs to see how the platform adapts the brief to different community contexts before launch.

Related documentation

• Implementing creative agents — Pattern 4: feed-native — Implementation guide for feed-native format agents
• Carousels — Multi-card format specifications
• Creative review — Approval flow including community guidelines
• Generative creative — AI-powered creative generation workflows