File Naming Conventions

Ads Uploader reads your file names to organize your media for you. Name your files the right way and thumbnails attach themselves, and different aspect ratios of the same creative become one ad. This saves you from matching files by hand.

Attach Thumbnails

Add _thumbnail to the end of an image's name to use it as the thumbnail for the video with the same base name.

summer_sale.mp4
summer_sale_thumbnail.jpg

Matching is not case-sensitive, so summer_sale_Thumbnail.jpg works too. See Thumbnail Attachment for the full rules.

Group Aspect Ratios

Add a ratio token to files that share a base name, and Ads Uploader turns them into one ad with several versions. Each version is then sent to the Meta placements it suits. You can use up to five ratios per group.

File name	Ratio	Best for
`brand_video_1x1.mp4`	1:1	Facebook and Instagram Feed
`brand_video_4x5.mp4`	4:5	Threads, vertical feed slots
`brand_video_9x16.mp4`	9:16	Stories, Reels
`brand_video_16x9.mp4`	16:9	In-Stream Video, Right Column
`brand_video_1.91x1.mp4`	1.91:1	Wide placements, Marketplace

Rules for ratio tokens:

Only these tokens group at upload: 1x1, 4x5, 9x16, 16x9 and 1.91x1. Other ways of writing a ratio, such as 191x100 or 19x10, do not group.
Legacy words: vertical and horizontal still work and mean 9x16 and 16x9. They only work at the end of the name, for example brand_video_vertical.mp4.
Case does not matter: brand_video_9X16.mp4 groups the same way as brand_video_9x16.mp4, and base names are compared without regard to case.
Images and videos stay apart: an image and a video with the same base name are never grouped together, even if both have ratio tokens.
Token position: the recommended place is the end of the name, but ratio tokens also work at the start (1x1_brand_video.mp4) or in the middle (brand_video_1x1_v2.mp4).

See Aspect Ratio Variations for how groups are built and routed.

Group Variations into Ad Sets

You can also put related files into the same ad set based on a shared part of their names, for example to test different hooks on one video. This does not happen at upload. It happens when you create ads, and only if you turn it on:

In the ad set options, tick Create new ad set per upload or group.
Tick Group variations.
Enter a Variation Identifier. Ads Uploader uses the part of each file name before the identifier as the ad set group.

Files	Variation Identifier	Grouped as
`video1-hook1.mp4` `video1-hook2.mp4` `video1-hook3.mp4`	`-hook`	Ad set "video1"
`offer-discount.mp4` `offer-bonus.mp4` `offer-trial.mp4`	`-`	Ad set "offer"

See Ad Grouping for the details.

Quick Reference

Feature	Pattern	Example
Thumbnail	`_thumbnail`	`video_thumbnail.jpg`
1:1 (square)	`_1x1`	`video_1x1.mp4`
4:5 (portrait)	`_4x5`	`video_4x5.mp4`
9:16 (story)	`_9x16` (or `_vertical`)	`video_9x16.mp4`
16:9 (landscape)	`_16x9` (or `_horizontal`)	`video_16x9.mp4`
1.91:1 (wide)	`_1.91x1`	`video_1.91x1.mp4`
Variations	Your Variation Identifier	`video-hook1.mp4`, `video-hook2.mp4`

Change the Separators

The examples above use an underscore (_) between the base name and the token. You can change this: