How to use Branded Templates

Brand templates help you scale consistent creative work—whether it’s your product launch, seasonal ad, or performance campaign.

To create a brand template

1. Open a finished design in Ad Studio or Light Editor
2. Click Save as Template
3. Add:
   • Template name and tags
   • Assigned Brand Kit
   • Editing permissions:
     • Fully editable
     • Partially locked
     • Locked (no edits allowed)
4. Click Save Template

To use a brand template

1. Go to Projects > + New Design
2. Click Templates
3. Filter by Brand Kit or tag
4. Select a template
5. Customize text, images, or layouts based on your access level

Brand templates protect consistency while giving your team members the flexibility they need

Brand templates are reusable designs stored within Brand Kits. They help your team members work within brand guidelines while allowing controlled customization. Before we show you how to create a brand template, we want you to know they can only be created by Template designers and above roles.

How to create a Brand Template?

There are three ways to create brand templates within The Brief.

Create a New Template

This method allows you to create a brand template from scratch.

1. Head to a project and select Brand templates from the left sidebar.
2. Click on New template.
3. Select a single size or an entire set (display, social, digital or print).
4. Proceed with creating your template by adding elements and layers.
5. Click on Set Permissions to select which layers can be edited by your Designers and Content editors, and once done, click Save settings.

Add to Templates

You can use this method to create brand templates from existing designs or folders within your projects.

1. Open a project.
2. Go to Creatives.
3. Select one (or more) designs.
4. Go to More.
5. Select Add to templates¹. 

Save as Brand Template

This method allows you to create a Brand template directly from Ad Studio.

1. Open a design in Ad Studio.
2. Head over to the Burger menu.
3. Select Save as Brand template.
4. You will be prompted to set permissions for the template, and you can choose:
   • Full Editing Access².
   • Customize permissions.

Note¹: When you add a design as a template, it is automatically assigned to the Brand Kit corresponding to the project where it was created with full editing permissions. You can always edit the permissions. 

Note²: If you select Full Editing Access, you can always set template permissions later and vice versa.

Brand Template Permissions

Brand templates in The Brief allow teams to maintain consistency while enabling controlled customization. The permissions set by Template designers determine which layers can be modified by Content editors in the Light Editor.

Who can edit Template Permissions?

• Template designers, Admins, Team Owners. Can enable or restrict layer edits.
• Content editors. Can only modify layers with granted permissions.

Below is a detailed breakdown of the different layer types and the properties that can be edited.

Managing Template Permissions

1. Open a Brand template.
2. Select Edit template.
3. Click on Set Permissions located on the header.
4. Enable or disable layer editing as needed.
5. Click Save settings.

Note¹: If you want to set a character limit, you'll need to enable Content.

Note²: If you want to replace an element from additional sources (e.g.: Upload, Stock library, etc.) you'll need to enable Content (from Brand Kit).

How to preserve layer styles in Brand Templates?

When using Brand Templates in Generative flows, you can control how the style and content is applied to your templates by adding specific tags to layers from the Layer list. 

How to use layer tags?

By default, the Generative flows inject styles from your brand kit into the template. However, you can maintain specific layer styles using designated tags within the layer names on your brand templates. Here's how:

1. Go to Brand templates.
2. Open one of your brand templates and go to Edit template.
3. Within Ad Studio, head over to the left sidebar, and click on Layers.
4. Find the layer you want to customize and add one of the following tags, depending on what you want to achieve
   • #ignore_layer - this tag excludes the layer entirely, keeping it unchanged in the generated ad.
   • #keep_color. This ensures the layer retains its original color style attributes.
   • #keep_text. This preserves the layer's text content exactly as defined in the template.