Cogitations
Cogitations Marketing

Documentation

How to Use the Ad Manager

The Cogitations Media/Ad Management system lets you create professional ad images using design templates, AI-generated copy, and your own media — without a design team. This guide explains every feature and how they fit together.

Quick-start overview

Every ad is created through a three-step workflow. You must complete step 1 before step 2, and step 2 before step 3.

  1. 1

    Create a template in Templated.io

    Design your ad layout externally at app.templated.io. The template defines the visual structure — text layers, image layers, colors, fonts, and dimensions.

  2. 2

    Create an Ad Profile from that template

    In the Ad Manager, browse the Template Gallery, select your template, and map each layer to your copy fields (headline, body text, CTA, images, etc.). This creates an Ad Profile.

  3. 3

    Generate ads from the Ad Profile

    Open the Ad Profile, supply prompts for your AI image generation, refine your copy with AI assistance if needed, then click Generate. The system sends your content and image prompts to Templated.io and fal.ai, and returns a finished ad image.

Projects

Everything in the Ad Manager is organized inside a Project. A project represents a product, brand, campaign, or client. All ad profiles, media, and generated ads belong to a specific project.

  • The home page lists every project you have access to.
  • Click a project card to open the Project Hub — a dashboard linking to that project's ad profiles, media library, and the Templated.io editor.
  • Admins can create new projects and assign team members from the Admin panel.
  • When you are inside a project, a blue context bar appears below the top navigation showing the project name and quick links to Ad Profiles and Media.

Templated.io API Key

Each project requires a Templated.io API key to connect to your Templated.io account. This key allows the Ad Manager to read your published templates and submit rendering requests on your behalf.

To find your API key, log in to app.templated.io, open your account settings, and copy the API key from the API section.

When you open a project for the first time you will be prompted to enter the key. You can also update it later from the Project Hub settings.

Your API key is never sent to your browser. It is stored encrypted on our servers and used only in server-side requests to Templated.io — it is never included in any page, script, or API response visible to the front end.

Step 1 — Create a template in Templated.io

The Ad Manager does not have a built-in design editor. Instead, it relies on Templated.io — a separate service — for the visual design layer.

You must create and publish a template in Templated.io before you can create an Ad Profile in this app.

In Templated.io you will:

  • Define the canvas size (e.g. 1080 × 1080 for a square social ad).
  • Add text layers — each layer has a name and contains one piece of text (headline, subheadline, body copy, CTA button, etc.).
  • Add image layers for background images or hero photos.
  • Style everything with fonts, colors, and layout tools.
  • Publish or save the template so it appears in this app's Template Gallery.

The "templated.io" link in the top navigation opens Templated.io in a new tab so you can switch back and forth without losing your place.

Template Gallery

Navigate to Templates from the Project Hub (or via the context bar) to see a grid of every published Templated.io template linked to your account. Each card shows a thumbnail, the template name, and the canvas dimensions and layer count.

Click any template card to start creating a new Ad Profile from that template.

Step 2 — Create an Ad Profile

An Ad Profile connects a Templated.io template to your copy and image content. It stores:

  • Name — a label to identify this profile (e.g. "Summer Sale — Square").
  • Headline, Subheadline, Body Text, CTA — the text that fills the template's text layers.
  • Background Description — a description used when an AI generates background imagery.
  • Hero Image Prompt — a prompt for AI-generated hero photos.
  • Bullet Steps — an optional list of icon + label pairs (e.g. feature callouts).
  • Layer mapping — which field goes into which Templated.io layer.

During creation, the template configuration page shows every layer in the template. For each layer you choose what content to put in it: a static value, one of your copy fields, an uploaded image from your Media Library, or an AI-generated image described by a prompt.

Once saved, the Ad Profile appears in the Ad Profiles list for the project. You can create multiple Ad Profiles from the same template — useful for A/B testing different copy, or for producing different ad sizes from a family of templates.

Step 3 — Generate an ad

Open an Ad Profile by clicking Edit / View in the Ad Profiles list. The profile editor shows a preview of the most recent generated ad (if any) alongside all editable copy fields.

When you are ready to produce an image:

  1. Optionally use the AI copy tools (described below) to refine your text.
  2. Click Save Changes if you edited any fields.
  3. Click Generate Ad to send the profile to Templated.io. A new generated ad entry appears in the list with a "generating" status.
  4. Refresh or wait — the image appears when Templated.io finishes rendering.

The View Completed Ads button opens a gallery of every ad image previously generated from this profile. You can download any image or save it to the project's Media Library for reuse.

Generate All Copy with AI rewrites all text fields at once using a copy brief you supply — see the AI features section below.

How AI generates your images

When you click Generate Ad, the app handles images in two ways depending on how each image layer was configured in the Ad Profile:

  • AI-generated images — layers configured with a text prompt are sent to fal.ai Flux 2 Pro, a state-of-the-art text-to-image model. The prompt you wrote (e.g. the Hero Image Prompt or Background Description field) is used to generate a photorealistic or illustrative image at the exact dimensions required by the template. Each AI image is generated fresh on every render.
  • Uploaded images — layers configured to use a Media Library image pull that photo directly from storage without any AI generation step.

Once all image layers are ready — whether AI-generated or uploaded — they are sent to Templated.io along with all text layers. Templated.io composites everything into a single finished ad image at the template's exact pixel dimensions and returns it to the app, where it is saved and shown in the generated ads gallery.

Writing good image prompts is key to high-quality results. Be specific about subject, style, lighting, and mood. For background layers, phrases like "solid flat warm coral background, no texture, no gradient" produce clean results that don't compete with text overlays.

Media Library

Each project has a Media Library where you can upload and organize images. Uploaded images can be selected as the content for image layers in your Ad Profiles.

  • Upload images by dragging and dropping or using the file picker.
  • Organize images into custom folders using the sidebar.
  • The Generated Ads virtual folder shows every ad image produced by the app.
  • Save a generated ad to the Media Library so it can be used as a source image in future profiles.

AI assistance

The Ad Manager uses Google Gemini AI in several places to help you write better copy and review your ads faster.

Generate All Copy

Available on the Ad Profile editor via the Generate All Copy with AI button. Supply a short copy brief — a sentence or two describing your product, audience, and goal — and Gemini generates a complete set of copy fields (headline, subheadline, body text, CTA, background description, hero image prompt) in one step. You can accept all fields, accept individual ones, or discard and try again.

Rewrite a single field

Each text field in the Ad Profile editor has an AI rewrite option. Click it to open a modal where you can give a specific instruction (e.g. "make it more urgent" or "shorten to under 8 words") and Gemini rewrites just that field. You choose whether to apply the suggestion.

Review a generated ad

After an ad image is generated, you can send it to Gemini for a visual review. The AI analyzes the rendered image and responds to a prompt you provide — for example: "Does the text stand out against the background?" or "Is the CTA button readable on mobile?" This uses Gemini's vision capability and returns a written critique you can use to decide whether to revise and regenerate.

Admin panel

Users with the Admin role have access to the Admin panel from the top navigation. Admin capabilities include:

  • User management — view all users, change their role (admin or member), suspend or unsuspend accounts, and invite new users by email.
  • Project management — create new projects, assign users to projects with an owner or editor role, and remove members.

Regular members can only see and work within projects they have been assigned to.