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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Engagement and interaction models

Feed-native formats often support platform-specific interactions that go beyond click-through:
InteractionHow it maps to AdCP
Like / upvote / reactionPlatform-tracked engagement, not an AdCP creative asset
Comment / replyPlatform-managed, may appear in get_creative_delivery variant data
Share / repostPlatform-tracked, included in delivery metrics
Save / bookmarkPlatform-tracked
Click-throughStandard click_url asset
Poll / quizAdditional 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. 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.

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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.