Template Collections
What Are Template Collections?
To run campaigns with desired templates, those templates must be part of a platform catalog — something you would typically create manually through the ad platform's own tools (such as Meta's Commerce Manager). In Hunch, this process involves Template Collections: an upgraded form of catalogs that allow you to group and manage multiple templates per collection, across both Meta and Snapchat.
You can manually assign templates to collections during publishing, providing full control over template combinations. The same collection workflow applies whether you are publishing to Meta or Snapchat — the key difference lies in how many templates each platform supports and which artboard formats are used. See the Platform Comparison table at the end of this article for a full breakdown.
The Template Collections page allows you to create, manage, and monitor collections, including template assignment, replacement, and usage tracking.
How Template Collections Are Created and Managed
1. Claiming a Catalog or Destination Setup
If you created your Hunch catalog by claiming an already-running catalog on the ad platform, that catalog will now be used as a Template Collection for Meta. All your running ads will continue to run as they have previously, and on top of that you can use templates for any new ads you create in Hunch.
If you manually created your catalog, you must authorize the platform and configure destination details during the catalog creation process to enable Template Collections.
💡 To use Snapchat you first need to connect Meta Business. This can either be done through Catalog Claim feature or in Destination Details during creation or in settings section.
2. Publishing and Manual Template Assignment
When publishing compatible templates (a square format is required as a minimum), you choose from 4 assignment options:
Assign to Collection — Select a collection with available slots
Replace Template — Swap an existing template in any collection
Create New Collection — You can create a new template collection for connected platforms
Assign Later — Mark the template as ready but not yet published for campaign use
Incompatible templates are marked as ready and can be used for enriched feeds or assigned later. The maximum number of templates per collection depends on the platform — see the Platform Comparison table below.
3. (Optional) Adding CPV Packages
CPV packages work similarly to legacy catalogs. You can pair CPV packages with image templates, adding video creative in supported formats to the collection for campaign use. Both Meta and Snapchat support video templates within collections.
💡 CPV package requires Square, Story & Portrait artboards for a video template. Meta uses all three formats, where Snapchat only uses Square.
4. Managing Template Collections
From the Template Collections page, you can:
Create new collections manually
Monitor usage of templates and template collections
Replace templates using the Manage action
Delete outdated Dynamic Media catalogs
💡 To upgrade your Retargeting catalogs to Template Collections, reach out to your CS or Support team
Template Collection Features
Feature | Description | Usage |
Multi-Placement Support | Each collection supports multiple templates across placement types, with limits varying by platform | Maximizes reach and performance with consolidated learning across placements |
Manual Assignment | You select which collection to assign templates to during publishing | Provides control over template organization and combinations across collections |
Template Replacement | Replace unused or unnecessary templates in existing collections | Maintains an optimal template mix without creating new collections |
Campaign Flexibility | Collections can be assigned at both campaign and ad levels | Enables precise targeting and creative control |
Why Use Template Collections?
Improved Performance — Multi-placement support with consolidated learning data
Faster Syncing — Fewer platform catalogs mean less syncing and rendering, and faster template updates
Better Organization — Manual assignment gives you control over template combinations across collections
Campaign Optimization — Template replacement enables continuous catalog optimization without a performance ramp-up, resulting in a faster learning phase
Common Issues and Solutions
Issue | Solution |
Template published before platform authorization is not available for assignment | Complete authorization, then republish or manually assign from the Template Collections page |
Cannot create a new collection during assignment | All existing collections must be at full template capacity to enable new collection creation |
Templates not appearing in campaigns | Ensure the template is assigned to a collection and that sync is complete |
Need to replace a template but unsure of its usage | Use the Manage action on the Template Collections page to check template usage in active campaigns |
Platform Comparison
| Meta | Snapchat |
Max image templates per collection | 6 | 19 |
Supported artboards | Square, Story, Portrait | Square only |
Multi-artboard templates | Fully supported — all artboards (Square, Story, Portrait) are used | Supported — but only the Square artboard will be published; additional artboards are ignored |
Video support | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Minimum required artboard | Square | Square |
⚠️ If you assign a multi-artboard template to a Snapchat collection, only its Square artboard will be used. Story and Portrait artboards are not supported on Snapchat and will not be published.