Digital Advertising Templates
Every Digital Advertising ad is built from a Template. Templates live under each advertising channel and are organized by Objective, so Fullpath can run ads at scale, dynamically swapping in the right vehicle, offer, or dealership data for each ad using merge tags.
System Templates vs Custom Templates
There are two types of templates:
-
System Templates are generated automatically. They can be enabled or disabled, but their content cannot be edited.
- Custom Templates are created by duplicating a System Template and editing the copy. If only the new version should run, disable the original System Template so the two don't run at the same time.
Navigating to the Templates page
Activation > Digital Advertising > Templates: https://dashboard.fullpath.com/acquire/templates/search
The Templates Page
The Templates page is organized as follows:
-
Channel tabs across the top let you switch between advertising channels (for example, Search and Social).
-
Objective tabs on the left filter templates by advertising objective.
- Within an Objective, templates are grouped into expandable Ad Bundle panels (organized by Google Micro-Moment where applicable). Each panel header shows the bundle name and how many templates it contains; click a panel to expand it and load its templates.
- A Search field in the page header lets you filter templates by name.
- A date range selector controls the performance window reflected in the metrics columns (Clicks, Impressions, Click-Through Rate, Conversion Rate, Leads, and Running Ads). Changing the date range refreshes the metrics for every template on the page.
Managing a Template
Each template row includes:
- An enable/disable toggle for quickly turning a template on or off.
- A preview icon (eye icon) next to the template name that opens a preview of an ad built from that template.
- A three-dot menu at the end of the row with the following options:
- View (for System Templates) or Edit (for Custom Templates) — opens the template.
- Enable / Disable — mirrors the row toggle.
- Duplicate — creates a copy of the template as a new Custom Template.
-
Duplicate and Edit — creates a copy and opens it directly for editing.
Disabling a Template also pauses every ad running under it. The dashboard will warn you before disabling and show how many live ads will be paused. A disabled Template can always be reactivated from the Templates page.
Prioritizing Templates
You can mark up to three Templates as prioritized for each Channel/Objective combination. Prioritized Templates are promoted first; however, other (non-prioritized) Templates may also be promoted alongside them; a specific spend level or share of promotion isn't guaranteed for a prioritized Template, since this depends on its performance.
- Use the Priority column (a star/checkbox) to mark or unmark a Template as prioritized.
- Prioritized Templates for the current Channel/Objective combination are surfaced in a summary section at the top of the view.
- Only active Templates can be marked as prioritized. If a Template is manually disabled, its priority status is automatically removed.
- Custom Templates are supported. Duplicating a prioritized Template does not carry the priority over to the copy.
- Every priority change is recorded in the Change Log, along with the name of the user who made the change.
For Social, we recommend limiting how often priorities are assigned to ensure optimal performance.
Viewing Template Details
Click a Template name, or select View/Edit from the three-dot menu, to open it. The Template screen has two tabs:
-
Details — shows the Template's data source, targeting, and performance metrics.
-
Content — shows the actual ad content (headlines, descriptions, images, and merge tags) used to build the ad.
Data Sources
Every Template pulls information dynamically from a data source using merge tags:
| Data Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Dealership | City, state, dealership links, and other info from Dealership Settings |
| New Car | VIN-specific data where condition is new |
| New Model | Model-specific data where condition is new |
| Used Car | Model-specific data where condition is used |
| Offers | Off MSRP, Lease, Finance, or Cash Back offers from the dealer or manufacturer |
| OEM | The dealership's brand |
Creating and Editing a Custom Template
To create a Custom Template, duplicate a System Template (or an existing Custom Template) using Duplicate or Duplicate and Edit from the three-dot menu, then edit the copy from the Content tab. New Custom Templates are labeled accordingly on the Templates page; it is recommend to rename them to something more descriptive.
.
Only three ads can run per ad group in Search. Adding five Templates without disabling existing ones means the newest Templates won't run.
For Search ads, each Headline within a single ad must be unique — a minimum of 3 and up to 15 unique Headlines is required per ad, or the ad will not run. It's fine for a duplicated ad to share the same or similar Headlines as the original, as long as there's no duplication within that single ad.
Merge Tags
Merge Tags are placeholders that get replaced with real values when the ad runs (for example, a "Car Year" merge tag is replaced with an actual year like 2010).
Available merge tags vary by Template type and Objective, and are listed inside the relevant field by clicking the "+" icon.
Merge tags fall into two groups: Dealership tags and inventory tags.
Merge tags cannot be edited or altered once selected. They can be removed, but not changed.
Images
Display and Social Templates support images either through merge tags (pulling images uploaded in Settings) or by uploading a custom image directly in the Template editor. Read more about images in Digital Advertising here.