Last updated: October 1, 2026 · Will Cousin, VinScroll
What is an automotive inventory ad?
An automotive inventory ad (AIA) is Meta's catalog ad format for dealers. You send Meta a vehicle feed, Meta builds a catalog, and Meta fills one ad template with whichever unit each shopper seems most likely to want, based on your pixel and the shopper's activity. The creative is usually the unit's feed photos, price, and mileage.
How does Meta define automotive inventory ads?
Meta's help center describes them as a type of dynamic ad tuned for people who are in the market for a vehicle. Like other dynamic ads, they use your Meta pixel or SDK to reach in-market shoppers, both people who recently visited your website and people beyond them. Meta now uses the name Advantage+ catalog ads for dynamic ads in much of Ads Manager, so you may see either name.
source (checked September 30, 2026)
What are the catalog and the feed?
The feed is a file listing every unit for sale, with VIN, year, make, model, trim, price, mileage, photos, and the VDP link. Your inventory provider or website vendor usually sends it on a schedule. Meta turns the feed into a vehicle catalog, and the catalog is what the ads draw from. If the feed is wrong, the ads are wrong, so a stale price or a sold unit in the feed ends up in front of shoppers.
How does Meta decide which car a shopper sees?
You build one ad template, and Meta fills it in for each viewer. If a shopper looked at a used F-150 on your site, Meta can show them that truck or similar units from your catalog. It also reaches people who never visited your site but whose activity on and off Meta suggests they are shopping. Price and mileage come from the feed, so the ad updates when the feed does. Meta also has an older, separate setting called dynamic creative, which mixes headlines and images within one ad.
How is a per-VIN video ad different?
Both run off the same kind of feed and on the same Meta placements. The difference is the creative and who picks the car.
| Automotive inventory ad | Per-VIN video ad | |
|---|---|---|
| Creative | The unit's feed photos, usually a single image or carousel | A short vertical video built from the unit's photos |
| Who picks the unit | Meta, per viewer, from the catalog | Every unit gets its own ad |
| Targeting | Past site visitors plus broad in-market shoppers | In-market shoppers in your radius |
| Setup | A catalog, the pixel, and one template | A feed and a video for each unit |
Should a dealer run both?
They can. AIA uses the pixel to show a shopper the car they already viewed, which makes it a natural retargeting tool. A video ad for each unit gives shoppers who haven't visited your site yet something to stop scrolling for. Run them as separate campaigns and compare cost per VDP view over the same month.
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Common questions
Do automotive inventory ads need the Meta pixel?
To retarget shoppers who visited your site, yes. Meta uses the pixel to see which VDPs a shopper viewed and match them to units in your catalog. Without it, Meta has much less to go on.
Is AIA the same as Google VLA?
No. Both run off an inventory feed, but AIA shows units on Facebook and Instagram, and VLA shows them when someone searches on Google. The AIA vs VLA page covers the differences side by side.
Can VinScroll run alongside my AIA campaigns?
Yes. The video ads run in your own Meta ad account, in separate campaigns, so you can compare them with AIA by cost per VDP view for the same month.
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