AAFP Creative
Decision Framework
A platform-specific guide for evaluating, launching, and measuring ad creative across LinkedIn, Meta, and Google. Built for Membership, Events, CME, and FUTURE.
Pre-Launch
Complete the Creative Launch Readiness Check, then review best practices and confirm your specs before any LinkedIn campaign goes live.
Select your format, then answer each question. You'll receive a recommendation before anything goes live.
You are not required to resize every creative to fit each of these dimensions. Uploading one size for a static or video creative is completely sufficient. The rows below are meant to display the options available to you.
| Format | Type | Dimensions | Ratio | File / Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single Image | |||||
| Landscape | Paid | 1200 × 628 px (min 640 × 360) | 1.91:1 | JPG, PNG, GIF · 5MB | Delivers to desktop and mobile |
| Square | Paid | 1200 × 1200 px (min 360 × 360) | 1:1 | JPG, PNG, GIF · 5MB | LinkedIn recommended default; desktop and mobile |
| Vertical | Paid | 720 × 900 px (min 360 × 640) | 4:5 | JPG, PNG, GIF · 5MB | Mobile only; avoids border cropping vs. 1:1.91 |
| Organic Post | Organic | 1200 × 628 px | 1.91:1 | JPG, PNG · 5MB | Standard organic image post dimension |
| Carousel | |||||
| Carousel Card | Paid | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 only | JPG, PNG · 10MB/card | 2–10 cards; 45 char headline max; 1:1 is the only supported ratio |
| Organic Carousel (PDF) | Organic | 1080 × 1080 px recommended | 1:1 | PDF · up to 300 pages · 100MB | Upload PDF to post; LinkedIn splits into slides |
| Video | |||||
| Video, Landscape | Paid | 1920 × 1080 px | 16:9 | MP4 · 75KB–500MB · 3 sec–30 min | 30 fps recommended; AAC or MPEG4 audio |
| Video, Square | Paid | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 | MP4 · 75KB–500MB · 3 sec–30 min | Strong on mobile feed placements |
| Video, Vertical (4:5) | Paid | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 | MP4 · 75KB–500MB · 3 sec–30 min | Mobile only |
| Video, Vertical (9:16) | Paid | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | MP4 · 75KB–500MB · 3 sec–30 min | Mobile only; full screen vertical |
| Organic Video | Organic | 1920 × 1080 px | 16:9 | MP4 · 5GB · 3 sec–10 min | Organic posts support 16:9 and 9:16 |
| Lead Gen Form | |||||
| Lead Gen Form Image | Paid | 1200 × 628 or 1200 × 1200 px | 1.91:1 or 1:1 | JPG, PNG · 5MB | Choose fields LinkedIn can pre-fill; keep to 3–4 fields max |
Sources: Single Image Ads Specs · Video Ads Specs · Carousel Ads Specs (linkedin.com)
Member Groups · Company Industries
LinkedIn offers many targeting options, but not all are equal for reaching family physicians. Job titles are user-generated and inconsistent, the same physician might describe their role as "FP," "Family Doc," "Family Medicine Physician," or dozens of other variations. Member groups and company industries provide a cleaner, more reliable signal.
Post-Launch Evaluation
Open Campaign Manager, pick the symptom that matches what you're seeing, and follow the diagnostic path to a specific fix. Each path ends with a color-coded verdict and a concrete next action.
Pre-Launch
Complete the Creative Launch Readiness Check, then review best practices, specs, and the Andromeda · Lattice · GEM strategy brief before any Meta campaign goes live.
Select your format, then answer each question. You'll receive a recommendation before anything goes live.
For every creative to be launched, it should be resized as a square (1:1), vertical (9:16), and landscape (1.91:1). So, three new creatives to be published would mean a graphic designer turns in a total of nine images.
| Format / Placement | Type | Dimensions | Ratio | File / Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feed, Image | |||||
| Feed, Square (safe default) | Paid | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 | JPG, PNG · 30MB | Universal paid default; works across Feed, Marketplace, Messenger |
| Feed, Landscape | Paid | 1200 × 628 px | 1.91:1 | JPG, PNG · 30MB | Use for link-click campaigns; strong on desktop |
| Organic Feed | Organic | 1080 × 1080 or 1080 × 1350 | 1:1 or 4:5 | JPG, PNG · 30MB | 4:5 works natively in organic feed without mobile restriction |
| Stories & Reels | |||||
| Stories, Image or Video | Paid | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | JPG/PNG 30MB · MP4/MOV 4GB | Keep content between y=250 and y=1670 (safe zone) |
| Reels, Video | Paid | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | MP4, MOV · 4GB | H.264; 15–30 sec ideal; captions required for performance |
| Organic Reels | Organic | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | MP4 · 4GB · 3–90 sec | Same 9:16 spec as paid; min height 960px |
| Carousel & Video | |||||
| Carousel Card | Paid | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 | JPG/PNG 30MB · MP4 4GB/card | All cards must share same ratio; mix images + video OK |
Source: Meta Ads Guide (facebook.com/business/ads-guide)
Andromeda · Lattice · GEM
Meta's ad delivery system is no longer a simple auction. It's a three-layer AI pipeline that decides which ads reach which people, in which order, at which moment. Understanding how these systems work together fundamentally changes how AAFP should build creative.
Post-Launch Evaluation
Open Ads Manager, pick the symptom that matches what you're seeing, and follow the diagnostic path to a specific fix. Each path ends with a color-coded verdict and a concrete next action.
Pre-Launch
Complete the Creative Launch Readiness Check, then review best practices and confirm your asset specs before any Google campaign goes live.
Answer each question based on your specific creative. You'll receive a recommendation before anything goes live.
| Asset Type | Recommended | Minimum | Ratio | Max File Size | Quantity | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text Assets | ||||||
| Headline | Max 30 characters | , | , | , | 1–5 | Required |
| Long Headline | Max 90 characters | , | , | , | 1 | Required |
| Description | Max 90 characters | , | , | , | 1–5 | Required |
| Image Assets | ||||||
| Horizontal Image | 1200 × 628 px | 600 × 314 px | 1.91:1 | 5120 KB | 4+ (up to 20) | Required |
| Square Image | 1200 × 1200 px | 300 × 300 px | 1:1 | 5120 KB | 4+ (up to 20) | Required |
| Vertical Image | 960 × 1200 px | 480 × 600 px | 4:5 | , | 2+ (up to 20) | Optional |
| Square Logo | 1200 × 1200 px | 128 × 128 px | 1:1 | 5120 KB | 1 (up to 5) | Required |
| Horizontal Logo | 1200 × 300 px | 512 × 128 px | 4:1 | 5120 KB | 1 (up to 5) | Optional |
| Video Assets | ||||||
| Horizontal Video | Preferred 30 sec | , | 16:9 | , | 1–5 · Rec: 2 | Optional |
| Square Video | Preferred 30 sec | , | 1:1 | , | 1–5 · Rec: 2 | Optional |
| Vertical Video | Preferred 30 sec | , | 2:3 | , | 1–5 · Rec: 2 | Optional |
Source: Google Ads Help, Asset Specifications (support.google.com)
Creative Consistency · Asset Variety · Message Clarity
Google's system learns from what you give it. The creative team's job isn't just to make good-looking ads — it's to give Google enough variety, enough consistency, and enough clarity to optimize effectively. These three concepts explain what that looks like in practice.
Inconsistent creative resets Google's learning. Repetitive assets give it nothing to test. Blended messaging teaches it nothing about your audience. All three need to be right for the campaign to compound its performance over time.
Post-Launch Evaluation
Open Google Ads, pick the symptom that matches what you're seeing, and follow the diagnostic path to a specific fix. Each path ends with a color-coded verdict and a concrete next action.
Creative Request Template
Choose your request type, fill in the fields, and copy the completed message to paste directly into Slack or email. This gives the creative team everything they need from the start.
Additional Resources
Tools and concepts to help AAFP go deeper on creative measurement and performance. Not required to get started but worth building into the workflow as the program matures.
Both Meta and LinkedIn maintain public libraries of every active ad on their platforms. Search by brand name and see what competitors or peer organizations are running right now, formats, copy angles, creative styles, and how long ads have been live. Look up what AMA, ACOG, or other medical associations are doing before briefing new work.
Creative fatigue happens when your audience has seen the same ad too many times, engagement drops, costs rise, the algorithm deprioritizes delivery. Given AAFP's small addressable audience, fatigue sets in faster than most advertisers expect. Watch frequency weekly and refresh creative before the numbers tell you to.
Heatmapping records where real visitors click, scroll, and spend time on a webpage. Instead of guessing whether a landing page is working, you can see exactly where people drop off. Especially valuable for FMX and CME registration pages, if people are landing but not converting, heatmapping reveals whether they're reading or bouncing before the form.
UTM parameters are small tags added to URLs that tell Google Analytics exactly where a click came from, platform, campaign, ad, creative. Without them, traffic from ads shows up as "direct" or "unknown." For AAFP, this answers: did the people who clicked the FMX LinkedIn ad actually register, or did they bounce?
Click-through attribution misses conversions from people who saw your ad but didn't click, and later converted on their own. When AAFP runs FMX display or video ads, many physicians will see the ad, not click, and register later via organic search. Without view-through tracking, that conversion is invisible and the display campaign looks like it's failing when it's actually working.