Render an ad, or a draft creative, exactly as Meta renders it

Previews

Meta renders previews server-side and hands back an embeddable <iframe> HTML snippet, one per requested format. Drop it into your UI and the user sees the real ad, in the real placement, without opening Ads Manager.

Two entry points: one for an ad that already exists, one for a creative you haven't created yet.

Preview an existing ad

GET /v1/ads/{adId}/preview accepts either the Zernio ad id or the Meta ad id.

const { data } = await zernio.adcreatives.getAdPreviews({
  path: { adId: 'AD_ID' },
  query: { formats: 'DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD,INSTAGRAM_STORY' },
});
data.previews.forEach(p => console.log(p.format, p.body));

data = client.ad_creatives.get_ad_previews(
    ad_id="AD_ID",
    formats="DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD,INSTAGRAM_STORY",
)
for p in data.previews:
    print(p.format)

curl "https://zernio.com/api/v1/ads/AD_ID/preview?formats=DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD,INSTAGRAM_STORY" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Up to 10 formats per call. Omitting formats returns DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD.

Preview before you create

POST /v1/ads/preview renders a creative that doesn't exist on an ad yet. Pass exactly one of existingCreativeId or creativeSpec.

// A: a creative id from a previous create (ad.creative.creativeId, or the library)
const { data } = await zernio.adcreatives.generateAdPreviews({
  body: {
    accountId: 'ACCOUNT_ID',
    adAccountId: 'act_1234567890',
    existingCreativeId: '120250000000000000',
    formats: ['DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD', 'INSTAGRAM_STORY'],
  },
});

// B: a raw Meta creative spec, forwarded verbatim
const { data: draft } = await zernio.adcreatives.generateAdPreviews({
  body: {
    accountId: 'ACCOUNT_ID',
    adAccountId: 'act_1234567890',
    formats: ['DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD'],
    creativeSpec: {
      object_story_spec: {
        page_id: 'PAGE_ID',
        link_data: {
          link: 'https://example.com',
          message: 'Primary text',
          name: 'Headline',
          picture: 'https://cdn.example.com/i.jpg',
          call_to_action: { type: 'LEARN_MORE', value: { link: 'https://example.com' } },
        },
      },
    },
  },
});

data = client.ad_creatives.generate_ad_previews(
    account_id="ACCOUNT_ID",
    ad_account_id="act_1234567890",
    existing_creative_id="120250000000000000",
    formats=["DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD", "INSTAGRAM_STORY"],
)

draft = client.ad_creatives.generate_ad_previews(
    account_id="ACCOUNT_ID",
    ad_account_id="act_1234567890",
    formats=["DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD"],
    creative_spec={
        "object_story_spec": {
            "page_id": "PAGE_ID",
            "link_data": {
                "link": "https://example.com",
                "message": "Primary text",
                "name": "Headline",
                "picture": "https://cdn.example.com/i.jpg",
                "call_to_action": {"type": "LEARN_MORE", "value": {"link": "https://example.com"}},
            },
        }
    },
)

curl -X POST "https://zernio.com/api/v1/ads/preview" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "accountId": "ACCOUNT_ID",
    "adAccountId": "act_1234567890",
    "formats": ["DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD", "INSTAGRAM_STORY"],
    "creativeSpec": {
      "object_story_spec": {
        "page_id": "PAGE_ID",
        "link_data": {
          "link": "https://example.com",
          "message": "Primary text",
          "name": "Headline",
          "picture": "https://cdn.example.com/i.jpg",
          "call_to_action": { "type": "LEARN_MORE", "value": { "link": "https://example.com" } }
        }
      }
    }
  }'

No upload needed for a spec preview. link_data.picture takes a plain public image URL, so you can preview a design before it ever reaches the ad account's image library. That makes creativeSpec the cheap way to build a live preview into a creative editor.

Formats

formats passes through to Meta's ad_format enum, which has roughly 60 values. We deliberately don't mirror the list here: it changes, and an unknown value returns Meta's own 400 enumerating every valid format, which is always current.

The ones you'll reach for most:

Format	Placement
`DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD`	Facebook desktop feed
`MOBILE_FEED_STANDARD`	Facebook mobile feed
`INSTAGRAM_STANDARD`	Instagram feed
`INSTAGRAM_STORY`	Instagram Stories
`INSTAGRAM_REELS`	Instagram Reels
`FACEBOOK_STORY_MOBILE`	Facebook Stories
`MOBILE_BANNER`	Audience Network banner

Rendering the snippet

Each entry in previews[] carries the format and Meta's HTML. The HTML is an <iframe> pointing at a signed Meta URL, so:

Render it as-is. Rewriting the markup or proxying the frame breaks the signature.
The URL is short-lived. Fetch previews when the user opens the panel, don't cache them for later.
The frame has fixed dimensions per format. Scale with CSS transform rather than changing the iframe's width and height attributes.

Previews

Two entry points: one for an ad that already exists, one for a creative you haven't created yet.

Preview an existing ad

GET /v1/ads/{adId}/preview accepts either the Zernio ad id or the Meta ad id.

const { data } = await zernio.adcreatives.getAdPreviews({
  path: { adId: 'AD_ID' },
  query: { formats: 'DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD,INSTAGRAM_STORY' },
});
data.previews.forEach(p => console.log(p.format, p.body));

data = client.ad_creatives.get_ad_previews(
    ad_id="AD_ID",
    formats="DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD,INSTAGRAM_STORY",
)
for p in data.previews:
    print(p.format)

curl "https://zernio.com/api/v1/ads/AD_ID/preview?formats=DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD,INSTAGRAM_STORY" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Up to 10 formats per call. Omitting formats returns DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD.

Preview before you create

POST /v1/ads/preview renders a creative that doesn't exist on an ad yet. Pass exactly one of existingCreativeId or creativeSpec.

// A: a creative id from a previous create (ad.creative.creativeId, or the library)
const { data } = await zernio.adcreatives.generateAdPreviews({
  body: {
    accountId: 'ACCOUNT_ID',
    adAccountId: 'act_1234567890',
    existingCreativeId: '120250000000000000',
    formats: ['DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD', 'INSTAGRAM_STORY'],
  },
});

// B: a raw Meta creative spec, forwarded verbatim
const { data: draft } = await zernio.adcreatives.generateAdPreviews({
  body: {
    accountId: 'ACCOUNT_ID',
    adAccountId: 'act_1234567890',
    formats: ['DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD'],
    creativeSpec: {
      object_story_spec: {
        page_id: 'PAGE_ID',
        link_data: {
          link: 'https://example.com',
          message: 'Primary text',
          name: 'Headline',
          picture: 'https://cdn.example.com/i.jpg',
          call_to_action: { type: 'LEARN_MORE', value: { link: 'https://example.com' } },
        },
      },
    },
  },
});

data = client.ad_creatives.generate_ad_previews(
    account_id="ACCOUNT_ID",
    ad_account_id="act_1234567890",
    existing_creative_id="120250000000000000",
    formats=["DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD", "INSTAGRAM_STORY"],
)

draft = client.ad_creatives.generate_ad_previews(
    account_id="ACCOUNT_ID",
    ad_account_id="act_1234567890",
    formats=["DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD"],
    creative_spec={
        "object_story_spec": {
            "page_id": "PAGE_ID",
            "link_data": {
                "link": "https://example.com",
                "message": "Primary text",
                "name": "Headline",
                "picture": "https://cdn.example.com/i.jpg",
                "call_to_action": {"type": "LEARN_MORE", "value": {"link": "https://example.com"}},
            },
        }
    },
)

curl -X POST "https://zernio.com/api/v1/ads/preview" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "accountId": "ACCOUNT_ID",
    "adAccountId": "act_1234567890",
    "formats": ["DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD", "INSTAGRAM_STORY"],
    "creativeSpec": {
      "object_story_spec": {
        "page_id": "PAGE_ID",
        "link_data": {
          "link": "https://example.com",
          "message": "Primary text",
          "name": "Headline",
          "picture": "https://cdn.example.com/i.jpg",
          "call_to_action": { "type": "LEARN_MORE", "value": { "link": "https://example.com" } }
        }
      }
    }
  }'

Formats

The ones you'll reach for most:

Format	Placement
`DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD`	Facebook desktop feed
`MOBILE_FEED_STANDARD`	Facebook mobile feed
`INSTAGRAM_STANDARD`	Instagram feed
`INSTAGRAM_STORY`	Instagram Stories
`INSTAGRAM_REELS`	Instagram Reels
`FACEBOOK_STORY_MOBILE`	Facebook Stories
`MOBILE_BANNER`	Audience Network banner

Rendering the snippet

Each entry in previews[] carries the format and Meta's HTML. The HTML is an <iframe> pointing at a signed Meta URL, so:

Render it as-is. Rewriting the markup or proxying the frame breaks the signature.
The URL is short-lived. Fetch previews when the user opens the panel, don't cache them for later.
The frame has fixed dimensions per format. Scale with CSS transform rather than changing the iframe's width and height attributes.

Previews

Previews

Preview an existing ad

Preview before you create

Formats

Rendering the snippet

On this page

Previews

Previews

Preview an existing ad

Preview before you create

Formats

Rendering the snippet

On this page