Brand kit for ad campaigns: a practical guide to consistent visuals and creative that converts

It is common to open a company’s ad library and find three different brands. The LinkedIn post uses the marketing team’s blue, the Meta ad has the colours last year’s freelancer liked, and the landing page uses a typeface that appears nowhere else. Each piece, taken on its own, is respectable. Lined up together, they look like three different companies.

A brand kit for ad campaigns exists to prevent this: it is the set of rules, files and templates that anyone, inside or outside the company, uses to produce an ad that is recognisable and designed to get the viewer to do something. In this guide we build it piece by piece, using what we use on our paid social and advertising projects: the minimum elements, mobile legibility, formats checked in October 2026, message structure, short-form video, the landing page, file management, testing and generative AI. At the end there are four appendices to print or copy.

Why a brand kit for advertising is different from a logo manual

A logo manual protects the brand; a brand kit for advertising puts it to work. The first says what not to do; the second explains how to build an ad that is recognised in one second, understood in three and ends by asking for a specific action.

What existing guidelines usually lack

Many companies have well-made brand guidelines, born with a logo redesign. For campaigns, the gaps are almost always the same:

• they describe the logo on white and dark backgrounds, but say nothing about what to do on a busy photograph;
• they give colours in Pantone and CMYK, designed for print, and forget the hex values for screens;
• they set out a brochure-style type hierarchy, with headings and subheadings, and nothing for a square visual viewed on a phone;
• they say nothing about formats, aspect ratios, safe zones, video length or subtitles;
• they do not say a word about the tone of ads, which differs from the tone of the website;
• they have no templates, so every designer starts from scratch and interprets.

The result is that the guidelines sit in a shared folder and campaigns are made from memory.

What an advertising kit is for

Recognition. People scroll fast in the feed and the brand needs to land before the message. Colours, typeface, photographic style and one or two recurring graphic signatures mean that, after a few exposures, the ad gets attributed to the right company even without reading the name.

Effectiveness. A headline you can read on a phone, one promise per ad, a proof point, a clear call to action: these are rules of the trade, and the kit makes them repeatable by anyone.

Speed. With templates and standard briefs, five variants of an ad take hours instead of days, and review becomes a check against a list rather than an argument about taste. This is where almost all our paid social and social media management projects start.

	Brand guidelines	Brand kit for advertising
Question it answers	How is the brand used?	How do you build an ad for the brand?
Who uses it	Designers, printers, print suppliers	Designers, video makers, social media managers, agencies, AI tools
Typical contents	Logo, palette, typefaces, don’ts	Hierarchy, formats, safe zones, message structure, tone, templates, checks
Format	Static PDF	PDF plus a folder of templates and source files
Updates	When the identity changes	Every quarter, with platform specifications

Self-assessment question. If a new designer had to prepare a LinkedIn ad for your next event tomorrow, which files would you send them? If the answer is “the logo and a few old examples”, you do not have an advertising kit yet.

The minimum elements: logo, colours, typography, photography, illustration, icons, tone of voice

A minimum advertising kit contains seven elements, each with a few written rules and files ready to use. The golden rule is that every item answers a practical question from whoever has to produce an ad tomorrow morning.

Logo

You need horizontal, compact (or pictogram) and single-colour versions, in SVG and in PNG with a transparent background, in positive and negative. For advertising, add three rules:

• minimum on-screen size, expressed in pixels on the smallest format you use (for example the minimum logo width in a 1080-pixel square);
• standard position in the templates, always the same, outside the areas platforms cover with the page name and buttons;
• behaviour on photos: when to use the white version, when to place it on a colour band, when to leave it out because the brand is already in the name of the sponsoring page.

The logo in an ad should be used sparingly. On Meta and LinkedIn the profile name and picture already appear above the content; a huge logo in the middle of the visual steals space from the message.

Colours

Give the palette in hex and RGB, with a role for each colour: primary, secondary, accent for buttons and highlights, neutrals for backgrounds and text. The role matters more than the hue. If yellow is the action colour, it should be used for the CTA and little else, so the eye learns where to look.

For every text and background pairing you plan to use, check the contrast. The WCAG 2.2 accessibility guidelines require a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text: a good starting point for an ad too, which is often viewed in sunlight with the brightness turned down.

Typography

Two families are enough: one for headings, one for body text. Write down the permitted weights, line spacing, capitals or not, and above all the minimum sizes in pixels on the standard formats. If the brand typeface is licensed, also specify the fallback typeface for tools that do not support it (Canva, platform editors, presentations), so that nobody picks a random substitute on their own.

Photography

This is the item most often missing and the one with the most impact on recognition. Define:

• subjects: real people at work, products in use, company premises, details;
• light and colour: natural or studio, warm or cool, saturation;
• framing: close-ups, wide shots, point of view;
• what to avoid: stock-image handshakes, posed smiles in front of a laptop, offices that do not exist.

Attach ten good photos and five bad ones, with a one-line comment for each. Examples guide people better than any adjective.

Illustration and icons

Set a style (line or solid, stroke weight, corners, reduced palette) and supply a library. Two icons in different styles in the same carousel are enough to make an ad look thrown together.

Tone of voice for ads

The tone of ads is a variant of the brand tone, shorter and more direct. Write down three adjectives with a right and a wrong sentence for each, how formal to be, how to handle technical terms and the banned formulas: unprovable superlatives, promises sales cannot keep, internal jargon.

Example. Imagine a company making components for agricultural machinery. Right sentence: “Tractor spares ready in 48 hours, with a downloadable data sheet”. Wrong sentence: “Innovative solutions for the farming world of the future”. The first says what, how fast and what to do; anyone could have signed the second.

Element	Minimum rule to write	Files to supply	Most common mistake
Logo	Minimum size, position, version on photos	SVG and PNG, positive and negative	Giant logo in the middle of the visual
Colours	Role of each colour, permitted contrast pairs	HEX and RGB palette, style file	CTA colour used everywhere
Typography	Two families, weights, minimum sizes	Fonts or licence, fallback typeface	20-pixel text on a 1080 square
Photography	Subjects, light, framing, don’ts	Ten good examples, five bad	Generic stock photos
Illustration	Style, stroke weights, reduced palette	Vector library	Mixed styles in the same ad
Icons	Single set, sizes	SVG	Icons taken from three different websites
Tone of voice	Adjectives, examples, banned words	One-page document	Sentences interchangeable with competitors’

Visual hierarchy and mobile legibility

An ad works if, glanced at on a phone for a second and a half, it makes clear who is speaking, about what and what to do. Getting there takes a hierarchy with few levels and text big enough to survive the smallest screen.

Three levels are enough

Most effective ads rest on three levels:

1. The subject: the image, the product, the person, or a strong headline if the visual is typographic. It takes up most of the space.
2. The message: a short sentence, two lines at most, with the promise or benefit.
3. The brand and the action: a small logo, possibly a drawn button or an indication of the action.

Every extra element (a second heading, a bullet list, three certification logos) takes legibility away from the others. Details and terms belong in the ad copy or on the landing page.

The thumb test

Before approving a visual, look at it on your phone at real feed size, at arm’s length. Then cover the ad copy with your thumb: does the visual say something on its own? Then cover the visual: does the headline stand up on its own? If either test fails, the problem is the hierarchy.

To do. Create a “previews” folder where every visual is exported and loaded onto a phone before review. Approving on a 27-inch monitor is the quickest way to publish unreadable text.

Legibility rules to put in the kit

• Minimum text size: set it in pixels for each base format. On a 1080-pixel square, text below 40 pixels becomes hard work on many screens; use that as a starting threshold and check it with the phone test.
• Words on the visual: keep them to a minimum. A five- or six-word headline reads at a glance; a paragraph inside the image does not.
• Contrast: text on a solid background or a calm area of the photo, never over detail. If needed, a band or gradient separating the text from the image.
• Margins: at least 5-6% of the side on each edge, and more on vertical formats where platforms overlay icons and buttons (more on this in the formats chapter).
• A single focal point: if the eyes do not know where to go, they scroll on.

Check	How to do it	Approval threshold
Reading in a second and a half	Show the visual to a colleague for a moment and ask what they understood	They can say who is speaking and what is on offer
Contrast	Check the text colours with a contrast tool	At least 4.5:1 for normal text
Text size	Preview on a phone at feed size	Readable at arm’s length
Hierarchy	List the elements in order of visual weight	Three levels, no more
Covered zones	Overlay the platform’s safe zone template	No text or logo in covered zones

Formats and specifications for Meta, LinkedIn, Google and YouTube

Each platform has different preferred aspect ratios, recommended sizes and text limits, and updates them often. The kit needs a formats table with the official source and the date of the last check; ours was updated on 5 October 2026 and is given in full in Appendix B.

The principle: few master formats, many adaptations

Instead of designing every ad from scratch for every placement, design three master formats and adapt the rest:

• 9:16 vertical for Reels, Stories, Shorts and full-screen placements;
• 4:5 vertical for Meta and LinkedIn feeds and for Demand Gen and Performance Max;
• 1:1 square as a fallback and for many display placements;
• plus the 1.91:1 horizontal that Google and LinkedIn still require in many campaigns, and 16:9 for YouTube video.

The kit should contain a template for each, with grid, margins and safe zones already drawn.

Meta: Facebook and Instagram

According to Meta’s ads guide, the recommended format in the Facebook feed is 4:5 at 1440 × 1800 pixels. For primary text Meta suggests 50 to 150 characters, for the headline 27: beyond that, the text gets truncated.

For Reels and Stories the format is 9:16 at 1440 × 2560 pixels, and Meta asks you to keep roughly the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side free of text and logos, where the profile name, caption and buttons appear. Sound and subtitles are optional but recommended.

LinkedIn

For single image ads the recommended sizes are 1200 × 628 horizontal, 1200 × 1200 square and 720 × 900 vertical, up to 5 MB. Introductory text stays in full up to 150 characters, the headline up to 70. For video LinkedIn recommends 15-30 seconds and wants subtitles as an SRT file. We explain why a different language from Meta works on LinkedIn in the article on LinkedIn Ads for B2B.

Google: Demand Gen, Display and Performance Max

Google campaigns work with separate assets (images, logos, headlines, descriptions, videos) that the system combines on its own. So the kit needs elements that hold up in any combination: a headline that works without the description, an image that works with no text over it. Aspect ratios are almost the same for Demand Gen, responsive display ads and Performance Max: 1.91:1, 1:1 and a vertical (4:5, or 9:16 for display), plus logos. What changes is the text limits: for Performance Max, headlines up to 30 characters and long headlines up to 90; for Demand Gen, headlines up to 40 with at least one within 30.

YouTube

In the Google Ads video specifications the recommended resolution is 1080p in horizontal, vertical and square, with 720p as a minimum. Google warns that overlays and buttons move depending on format and screen: for verticals, use the official safe zone templates and keep text in the central band.

Watch out. Sizes change several times a year. In the kit, write the link to the source and the date checked next to each row of the table, and give one person responsibility for the quarterly check.

The structure of an ad that converts: hook, proof, offer, CTA

An ad that converts answers the viewer’s four questions in order: why should I stop, why should I believe you, what’s in it for me, what should I do now. In the kit, these four answers become mandatory fields in the brief.

Hook: the reason to stop

The hook is the first thing you see or read, and it works when it talks about the viewer before it talks about the seller. Types to list in the kit:

• the recognisable problem: “Does your sales rep spend Fridays filling in quotes?”;
• the concrete result: “Quotes in 24 hours, even for made-to-drawing parts”;
• visual contrast: before and after, full and empty, mess and order;
• the person: a face, a technician, a customer speaking to camera;
• the news: a product, a regulation, a deadline.

Proof: the reason to believe

In B2B, proof carries more weight than elsewhere, because several people decide and choosing the wrong supplier is costly. Usable proof: certifications, years in business, installations, an authorised customer quote, a verifiable technical figure, the face of the person who will run the project. Collect them in an approved proof archive, with source and date, that designers and copywriters can draw on without making anything up.

Offer: what the person clicking gets

The offer is what the person receives straight after the click: a demo, a quote, a guide, a sample, a site survey, a price list. The more concrete it is, and the better matched to how well the audience knows you, the better the ad performs. Asking people who do not know you to “request a sales meeting” straight away is often too much; a useful resource or a calculator lowers the bar.

CTA: what to do now

One action, expressed with a verb: download, book, request, calculate, watch. The CTA in the visual must match the platform button and the landing page headline. If the ad says “download the data sheet” and the button says “Learn more”, the person clicking expects different things.

Block	Viewer’s question	Where it sits in the ad	Hypothetical B2B example
Hook	Why should I stop?	First line of copy, centre of the visual, first seconds of the video	“Machine down for a part you can’t find?”
Proof	Why should I believe you?	Visual or second line	“Warehouse with 12,000 part numbers, shipped in 48 hours”
Offer	What’s in it for me?	Copy and landing page	“Technical catalogue with drawings and tolerances”
CTA	What do I do now?	Button, last line, end of the video	“Download the catalogue”

To do. Take your last five ads and fill in this table for each one. The cells left blank, usually proof and offer, are the first job to do on the kit.

Short-form video and motion: first seconds, subtitles, safe zones

In short-form video the brand and the reason to keep watching must arrive in the first few seconds, the message must work without sound and text must stay clear of the areas covered by the interface. The kit turns these needs into rules and editing templates.

The first seconds

Google has collected its guidance for YouTube video in the ABCD framework: grab attention by getting straight to the point, show the brand early and often, build connection through people and stories, and close with a call to action reinforced by voice. For Shorts, Google changes the order of priority and puts connection first: authenticity and a naturally integrated product, with less formal branding.

In the kit, this becomes a running order for the first three seconds:

• tight framing on a person, a product or an action, with no animated logo intro;
• on-screen text echoing the hook, readable with the sound off;
• brand present discreetly: recognisable product, brand colour, a voice naming the company;
• pace: the first cut comes early, so the video does not feel like a still.

Subtitles and on-screen text

Many people watch video without sound, at the office, on public transport, in waiting rooms. Subtitles and on-screen text therefore need to be part of the design, not an afterthought. Rules to write in the kit:

• subtitle typeface, weight, colour and background (always the same);
• two lines at a time at most, placed in the safe area;
• subtitles burned into the video for Meta and TikTok, a separate SRT file for LinkedIn, which requires that format;
• review of auto-generated subtitles, which get proper names, acronyms and technical terms wrong.

Safe zones and length

In vertical formats, platforms overlay the profile name, caption, engagement buttons and CTA. For Reels and Stories, Meta says to keep the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side clear; for YouTube, Google points to its own safe zone templates by format. In the kit it pays to have a single vertical template that follows the strictest rule, with the zones coloured on a layer you switch off before exporting.

On length, LinkedIn recommends 15-30 seconds for sponsored video, Demand Gen accepts videos of 10 to 60 seconds, and Performance Max requires at least 10 seconds. For more on the language and pace of vertical video, see our guide to Reels and the article on short-form video marketing.

Second	What needs to happen	Mistake to avoid
0-1	Strong image and hook text	Animated logo or black screen
1-3	The problem or promise is clear even without sound	Slow intros, panning shots
3-10	Proof: product in use, person, figure	Lists of features read out by a voice-over
Last 3	Offer and CTA spoken and on screen, clear branding	Ending with just the logo and no action

Even without filming you can do consistent motion: the kit defines two or three permitted animations (duration, easing, direction) and supplies them as presets in the templates.

Watch out. Music is a recurring legal risk. Meta recommends avoiding licensed tracks in ads and using original audio or its own library of royalty-free tracks. In the kit, list the approved music libraries.

Consistency between ad and landing page

The landing page must keep the ad’s promise in the first screen, with the same words, the same images and the same action. Every gap between what the ad promises and what the page shows costs trust and conversions.

The first-screen principle

The person clicking has the ad in mind for a few seconds. The first screen of the landing page, on mobile, needs to confirm they are in the right place:

• headline echoing the ad’s promise, ideally in the same words;
• image from the same family as the visual, preferably the same subject;
• action identical to the ad’s CTA, visible without scrolling;
• brand consistent: colours, typeface, logo.

A common mistake is sending all the traffic to the home page or a generic service page. The person clicked on “Download the spares catalogue” and finds themselves looking at a carousel about the company’s history.

Consistency of message, visuals and offer

Level	Check question	Warning sign
Message	Does the landing page headline echo the ad’s promise?	Corporate headline unrelated to the campaign
Visual	Are the colours, photos and typeface the same?	The landing page looks like another company’s
Offer	Can you get here what the ad promises?	You have to hunt for the form or the download
Action	Does the button use the same verb as the CTA?	“Discover” in the ad, “Contact us” on the page
Audience	Is the language right for the people who saw the ad?	Jargon for a cold audience, the obvious for technicians
Tracking	Do UTMs and click parameters reach the form?	Leads with no source in the CRM

Forms and sales materials

The form is part of the creative: few fields, clear labels, a line on what happens after submission. The same goes for the confirmation email, the downloaded PDF and the salesperson’s presentation: if the one that arrives three days later uses a ten-year-old template, the brand work stops there. We wrote about how user experience affects conversions in the article on UX marketing; here one rule is enough: for each campaign, one sheet linking ad, landing page, form and first material sent.

To do. Open your three live ads on your phone, click through and screenshot the first screen of each landing page. Put them side by side. If it takes an explanation to see they belong to the same campaign, the link needs redoing.

Templates and system: how to organise files, names, variants and approvals

A brand kit stays alive if files can be found quickly, names say what is inside and the approval process is written down. Without a system, even the best kit turns into a folder of exceptions.

Folder structure

We suggest a simple structure, to adapt to whatever tool you use (Drive, SharePoint, Dropbox, a DAM):

• 01_brand: logo, palette, fonts, icons, illustrations, tone of voice, the kit PDF;
• 02_templates: one file per master format, for each tool used (Figma, Adobe, Canva);
• 03_photo-video: approved archive, divided by subject, with usage rights noted;
• 04_proof: data, certifications, authorised customer quotes, with source and date;
• 05_campaigns: one folder per campaign with brief, source files, exports, published versions;
• 06_archive: finished campaigns and withdrawn materials.

Naming convention

The file name should tell you, without opening it, which campaign it belongs to, which platform and format it is for, which creative idea it carries and which version it is. A format that works:

year_campaign_platform_format_concept_variant_version

For example 2026_eima-fair_meta_9x16_downtime-problem_b_v3.mp4. Lower case, no spaces, hyphens within fields and underscores between fields. If you use the same words in the campaign name on the platform and in the UTMs, the report reads without lookup tables: the same principle we describe for tracking in the article on connecting campaigns and CRM.

Field	Allowed values (example)	Notes
year	2026	Four digits
campaign	eima-fair, series-x-launch	Same as the name on the platform
platform	meta, linkedin, google, youtube	Closed list
format	9x16, 4x5, 1x1, 191x1, 16x9	Aspect ratio, not pixels
concept	downtime-problem, warehouse-proof	One or two words per creative idea
variant	a, b, c	Changes a single element compared with variant a
version	v1, v2, v3	Goes up with each review round

Variants: concepts and adaptations

Always distinguish between concepts (different creative ideas: problem, proof, person) and adaptations (the same concept in different formats and lengths). Tests are run on concepts; adaptations cover placements. Twenty files of the same concept with small tweaks give twenty identical results.

The approval process

Write down who approves what and in what order, with indicative timings. A typical process:

1. brief approved by the marketing manager before work starts;
2. draft checked by whoever produces it using the grid in Appendix D;
3. brand and message review by marketing;
4. technical and legal review when there are figures, prices, regulated claims, recognisable people or AI-generated content;
5. publication with tracking and landing page checked.

Every review comment names the grid item not met: “the logo is below minimum size” helps, “I’m not convinced” does not.

Self-assessment question. How long does it take in your company today to go from brief to publication for a simple ad? If it is more than five working days, the bottleneck is almost always approvals, not production.

Creative testing: what to test and how to read results without being fooled

Creative tests show which idea persuades the right audience, and they work if you change one thing at a time, wait long enough and look at metrics close to revenue. Looking only at cost per click or platform ROAS often ends up rewarding the wrong ad.

What to test, in order of impact

In our experience the variables break down like this, from most to least influential:

1. the concept: problem, proof, person, a different offer;
2. the offer: demo, guide, quote, calculator;
3. the hook: first line, first image, first seconds of the video;
4. the format: static, carousel, video, document;
5. the details: background colour, logo position, button text.

Starting with the details is the most common way to waste a test: a blue background against a green one rarely produces a readable difference.

How to set up a test

• A written hypothesis: “Showing the technician on site brings more quote requests than the product photo, among maintenance managers”.
• A single variable changed between versions.
• The right tool: where possible use the platforms’ A/B testing features, which split the audience cleanly, rather than putting two ads in the same ad set and letting the algorithm choose.
• A metric decided in advance: the one that matters for the goal, not the one that looks best afterwards.
• A minimum time and volume: enough conversions per variant to tell a result from a fluctuation.

The traps in reading results

The easy click. A curious or provocative ad can have an excellent click-through rate and bring in off-target people. In B2B, always look at lead quality in the CRM, not just cost per lead.

Platform ROAS. Platforms claim conversions that would have happened anyway, and the same sale can appear in several reports. We explained how to correct this in the article on why ROAS can fool you; the basic concept is in the glossary entry on ROAS.

Creative fatigue. An ad that works stops working when the same audience sees it too often. Keep an eye on frequency and the trend over time before declaring a definitive winner or loser.

Small samples. With few leads per variant, a 30% difference can be pure chance. Better a longer test on two variants than a short test on six.

Metric	What it says about the creative	When it is easy to be fooled
View rate of the first seconds	How well the video’s hook works	If the opening is strong but the rest does not lead to action
Click-through rate	How much the ad drives action	If the people clicking are not the right audience
Cost per lead	Efficiency at generating contacts	If leads do not become opportunities
Qualified lead rate	How well the promise attracts the right customer	If qualification is not recorded in the CRM
Opportunities and pipeline value	Impact close to revenue	If sales cycles are long and you judge too soon

Example. Imagine two concepts for business management software. Concept A, humorous, gets more clicks and leads at a lower cost. Concept B, with a finance manager telling the story of a case, brings fewer leads, but twice as many become opportunities in the CRM. Read only cost per lead and A wins; read the pipeline and B wins.

Recording what you learn

Every finished test goes into a shared log: hypothesis, variants, period, results, decision. After a few months the log tells you what works with your audience, and the rules that emerge go into the kit at the next review.

Generative AI for creative: what to use, what to check, rights and transparency

Generative AI is useful for exploring ideas, producing variants, adapting formats and drafting copy, as long as a brand kit guides it and a person checks every output. Before publishing you need three checks: faithfulness to the brand and the product, usage rights, and the transparency obligations of the platforms and the law.

Where it helps and where it does not

Activity	Usefulness of AI	Human check needed
Brainstorming hooks and concepts	High	Selection and rewriting in the brand’s tone
Copy variants by platform	High	Checking claims, figures and character limits
Format adaptation (background extension, cropping)	High	Checking edges, details and the product
Backgrounds and settings	Medium	Consistency with the kit’s photographic style
Product shown in the ad	Low	The product must be the real one, in every detail
Photorealistic people	Low	Risk of labels, deepfakes and distrust
Subtitles and translations	High	Proper names, technical terms, acronyms

The critical point is the product. A generated image showing a component with an extra hole or a machine with controls that do not exist is a false promise, and in B2B the customer notices.

A prompt containing the kit’s rules (photographic style, colours, things to avoid, tone) gives results much closer to the brand: keep a page of approved prompts in the kit, with one accepted and one rejected result for each.

Usage rights

Three questions before using generated content:

• Does the tool allow commercial use on your plan? Terms vary from provider to provider.
• Is the content protectable? In Italy, Law 132 of 2025, the Italian AI law, clarified that copyright protects works created with the help of AI tools as long as they result from the author’s intellectual effort. An image produced entirely from a prompt may not be protected: for key visuals, a significant, documented human contribution is advisable. In other countries, have the applicable rules checked.
• Does the content resemble something protected? Trade marks, characters, recognisable works, faces of real people: avoid them in every case.

Platform labels

Platforms make the use of AI in ads visible, often automatically:

• Meta applies the “AI info” label to ads with images created or significantly edited with its generative AI features, such as background or image generation; according to Meta’s help page, the label sits in the three-dot menu and, when the image contains generated photorealistic people, it appears above the “Sponsored” tag. Minor edits such as resizing or colour correction do not trigger it.
• Google has, since July 2026, allowed text or visual labels to be added directly to creative generated or edited with AI and is introducing a dedicated setting in Google Ads, initially for the European Union, India and New York; Google points out that using it does not on its own guarantee compliance with local rules (source). For election ads, the obligation to disclose synthetic content remains (political content policy).
• LinkedIn shows an icon with Content Credentials (the C2PA standard) on images and videos that carry them: clicking it shows whether AI was used to generate or edit the content.

The practical consequence: assume that generated content can be recognised and labelled, and decide in advance whether the ad still works with that label.

The AI Act and Article 50

Since 2 August 2026 the transparency obligations of Article 50 of the EU AI Act have applied. For advertisers there are two points to know. Providers of generative AI systems must mark content in a machine-readable way. Deployers, which includes companies using these tools for their own content, must disclose when an image, audio or video is a deepfake, meaning generated or manipulated content that resembles real people, places or events and could appear authentic. For evidently artistic, creative or satirical works the obligation is lighter, but it does not disappear. In June 2026 the Commission published a voluntary code of practice on the transparency of generated content, with a system of common icons for labelling.

In the kit, write a simple, prudent rule: no generated photorealistic people who could look real without a visible disclosure, and legal review for every doubtful case.

Watch out. The information on labels and obligations is up to date as of 5 October 2026 and changes often. It is not legal advice: for campaigns with people, testimonials or regulated sectors, involve whoever handles legal matters in your company.

A half-page AI policy

Every kit should contain a short AI policy for creative:

• approved tools and plans with commercial use;
• what can be generated (backgrounds, variants, adaptations) and what cannot (the product, real people, other brands);
• who checks every output before publication;
• when and how AI use is disclosed;
• where prompts and original files are archived, to document the human contribution;
• who decides in doubtful cases.

Appendix A: 40-point advertising brand kit checklist

Tick the items that are present and complete. The ones left blank are your work plan.

Brand

• Horizontal, compact and single-colour logo in SVG
• Transparent PNG versions in positive and negative
• Minimum logo size in pixels on the master formats
• Standard logo position in the templates
• Rules for the logo on photographs
• Cases where the logo is left out

Colour and typography

• Palette in HEX and RGB with the role of each colour
• Colour reserved for actions (CTA, highlights)
• Text and background pairs checked for contrast
• Two typeface families with permitted weights
• Fallback typeface for tools without the brand font
• Minimum text sizes by format

Images

• Rules on subjects, light and framing for photos
• Ten examples of approved photos and five to avoid
• Photo archive with usage rights noted
• Illustration style and library
• Single icon set in SVG
• Approved music libraries for video

Message

• Three tone adjectives with right and wrong example sentences
• Level of formality and handling of technical terms
• List of banned words and claims
• Approved proof archive with source and date
• List of recurring hooks by type
• Offers available for each funnel stage

Formats and templates

• Formats table with source and date checked (Appendix B)
• 9:16 template with safe zones drawn
• 4:5 template
• 1:1 template
• 1.91:1 and 16:9 templates
• Subtitle style and animation presets

System

• Shared folder structure
• File naming convention aligned with UTMs
• Creative brief form (Appendix C)
• Written approval process with roles and timings
• Pre-publication review grid (Appendix D)
• Creative test log

AI and compliance

• Approved AI tools with commercial use checked
• What can and cannot be generated
• Rule for disclosing generated content and deepfakes
• Person responsible for legal review in doubtful cases

Appendix B: Formats and sizes by platform

Data checked on 5 October 2026 against the official help centres. Platforms update these specifications often: recheck the links before each new campaign and update the date.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

Placement	Aspect ratio	Recommended size	File and size	Text	Source
Feed, image	4:5	1440 × 1800 px (minimum 600 × 750)	JPG, PNG, up to 30 MB	Primary text 50-150 characters, headline 27	Meta, images
Feed, video	4:5	1440 × 1800 px	MP4, MOV, GIF, up to 4 GB	Primary text 50-150 characters, headline 27	Meta, video
Instagram Reels	9:16	1440 × 2560 px	MP4, MOV, up to 4 GB	Safe zones: 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% sides	Meta, Reels
Instagram Stories	9:16	1440 × 2560 px	MP4, MOV, GIF, up to 4 GB	Safe zones: 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% sides	Meta, Stories

LinkedIn

Format	Aspect ratio	Recommended size	File and size	Text	Source
Single image	1.91:1	1200 × 628 px	JPG, PNG, GIF, up to 5 MB	Intro text 150 characters visible (max 3,000), headline 70 (max 200)	LinkedIn, image
Single image	1:1	1200 × 1200 px	As above	As above	As above
Single image	4:5	720 × 900 px	As above	As above	As above
Video	16:9, 1:1, 4:5, 9:16	4:5 at 720 × 900, 9:16 at 720 × 1280	MP4, 75 KB-500 MB	3 s to 30 min, 15-30 s recommended; SRT subtitles	LinkedIn, video

Google Ads

Campaign	Asset	Recommended size (minimum)	Text limits	Source
Demand Gen	Image 1.91:1	1200 × 628 (600 × 314)	Headlines 40 characters, at least one within 30; descriptions 90; business name 25	Google, Demand Gen
Demand Gen	Image 1:1	1200 × 1200 (300 × 300)		As above
Demand Gen	Image 4:5	960 × 1200 (480 × 600)		As above
Demand Gen	Logo 1:1	1200 × 1200 (144 × 144)		As above
Demand Gen	Video	16:9, 9:16, 4:5, 1:1, 10 to 60 s		As above
Responsive display	Images 1.91:1, 1:1, 9:16	1200 × 628, 1200 × 1200, 900 × 1600 (600 × 1067)	Up to 5,120 KB per image	Google, responsive display ads
Performance Max	Images 1.91:1, 1:1, 4:5	1200 × 628, 1200 × 1200, 960 × 1200	Headlines 30 characters (3-15), long headlines 90 (1-5), descriptions 90 (2-5), business name 25	Google, Performance Max
Performance Max	Logos 1:1 and 4:1	1200 × 1200 (128 × 128), 1200 × 300 (512 × 128)	Up to 5,120 KB	As above
Performance Max	Video	16:9, 1:1, 9:16, at least 10 s		As above

YouTube

Orientation	Aspect ratio	Recommended size	Minimum	Source
Horizontal	16:9	1920 × 1080 px	1280 × 720 px	Google, video specifications
Vertical (Shorts)	9:16	1080 × 1920 px	720p	As above; use the official safe zone templates
Square	1:1	1080 × 1080 px	720p	As above
Thumbnail	16:9	1280 × 720 px, JPG, GIF or PNG under 2 MB		As above

Check log

Date checked	Platform	What changed	Checked by
5 October 2026	All	First compilation	Digital Runner

Appendix C: Creative brief template for an ad

Fill in a brief for each creative concept, before opening a design file or writing a prompt. A well-made one-page brief saves two rounds of review.

Request details

Field	To fill in
Campaign name (same as on the platform and in UTMs)
Requested by
Produced by (in-house, agency, freelancer, AI)
Draft delivery date
Publication date
Approved by

Goal and audience

Field	To fill in
Campaign goal (awareness, leads, sales, event attendance)
Action we are asking for (download, book, request, watch)
Audience: role, industry, company size
Brand familiarity (cold, warm, customer)
The audience’s main problem, in their own words
Most likely objection

Message

Field	To fill in
Hook (first line or first image)
Promise in one sentence
Proof (from the approved proof archive, with source)
Offer (what the person clicking gets)
CTA (verb, same as the button and the landing page)
Phrases or claims not to use

Execution

Field	To fill in
Platforms and placements
Master formats required (9:16, 4:5, 1:1, 1.91:1, 16:9)
Type (static, carousel, video, document)
Video length
Photos or footage to use (archive path)
Planned use of AI and for which elements
References: our ads or others’ that point in the right direction

Landing page and measurement

Field	To fill in
Landing page URL
Headline of the landing page’s first screen
Planned UTMs
Main test metric
Hypothesis to test

Appendix D: Pre-publication review grid

Twenty checks to run on every ad before publishing it. The reviewer ticks the items met; a single “no” in the Landing page and tracking or AI and compliance sections blocks publication.

Brand

• The logo is the right version, above minimum size, in the standard position
• Colours and typefaces are those in the kit
• Photos, illustrations and icons follow the specified style

Legibility

• The ad passes the arm’s-length phone test
• Contrast between text and background is sufficient
• There are no more than three levels of hierarchy
• No text or logo falls in the platform’s safe zones
• Videos make sense without sound and subtitles are correct

Message

• The hook talks about the audience before the company
• There is a documented proof point in the archive
• The offer is clear and matched to the audience
• The CTA uses a verb and matches the platform button
• Copy within character limits, with no banned words or claims

Landing page and tracking

• The landing page’s first screen echoes the ad’s headline, image and action
• The form works on mobile and sends the confirmation
• UTMs and file name follow the convention
• The conversion is recorded on the platform and in the CRM

AI and compliance

• The product shown matches the real product
• AI-generated content has been checked, archived with prompts and originals, and disclosed where required
• Music, photos and people have the rights and releases for advertising use

Ad (file name)	Reviewer	Date	Outcome (ok, to fix, blocked)	Notes