Facebook has the largest number of active users online. With over 2.4 billion users, business owners and startups capitalize this huge target audience to get their brand known in the market. As a business owner, it can be overwhelming learning the types of ads Facebook can offer, but with the right knowledge and targeting in your marketing plan, you can definitely nail your audience’s attention and drive more sales to your business.
Importance of Learning Facebook Ad Types
There are different formats you can play around and explore inside Facebook ads manager. And these formats have distinct and unique features that can make or break your marketing plan. Fret not, these ads are not very overwhelming to differentiate. I know that you have seen at least 2 types of Facebook ads while watching videos or scrolling your newsfeed. Once you identified each type of format at the end of this article, you will get an idea of what Facebook ads you want to launch for your brand.
Video Ad
Video ads are well, from the word itself video. They’re basically Facebook ads with video as your chosen graphics. Video ads are great for brand awareness or new product launch campaigns. With video ads, you don’t have to write long description since the video is self-explanatory already.
Video ad specs:
- Video Ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
- Recommended Resolution: Upload the highest resolution video available that meets file size and ratio limits.
- Video File Size: 4GB Max
- Video Length Minimum: 1 second
- Video Length Maximum: 240 Minutes
- Video Captions: Optional but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional but recommended
With video length, we recommend short but the sweet spot for videos range for 15-30 seconds.
Image Ad
Arguably, the easiest and most common ad on Facebook. Trust me, you can’t scroll all the way down to your newsfeed without seeing at least 1 image ad. Usually consisting of 1 image, a call to action and link.
Best way to utilize image ads? Use a powerful image that conveys the message, and leaves a strong impression to your ad viewers. Of course, let’s not forget the image’s high resolution too.
Slideshow Ad
The ad format that academic students are very familiar with. (Hello Powerpoint Slideshow!)
For easier understanding, slideshow ads are a series of photos that tells a story. You can create a slideshow in two ways:
- Create your own slideshow and upload it as video.
- Use the create slideshow tool inside Facebook ads manager.
Get more personalized with your slideshow ads by adding music, text overlays, and other customized effects Facebook now offers to have a more aesthetically appealing slideshow ad.
Carousel Ad
Nope, not the amusement park ride with colorful horses. Carousel ads format is like shuffled cards using images inside one ad. Is this only applicable for images? No. Carousel ads are not only image friendly, but you can also use videos for each card inside the carousel too!
This is highly ideal for e-commerce brands that launch a new line of products. Not an e-commerce business owner? Worry not, even though carousel ads are initially created as a virtual product catalog, you may also use it for your business awareness campaign citing situations. In fact, you can use carousel ads for service-based businesses like hotels too!
Dynamic Product Ad
Facebook’s dynamic product ads are like re-marketing display ads. They target users based on the user’s previous activities on your website. These ads are highly interactive, as the users do not need to hop off from the app once they click the add.
To publish dynamic product ads, just upload your product catalog in ads manager. Make sure that your pixels are set up correctly to your website. And no need to worry for retargeting here, as Facebook will handle the automation and retargeting for you.
Dynamic product ads are very suitable for merchandise businesses or e-commerce brands.
Lead Form Ad
Yes, you guessed it right. Lead form ads are the best ads to get new leads. From the name itself “lead form”, a form will appear when a user clicks lead format ad. This allows Facebook users to download your content or signup to your offer without leaving Facebook. For lead form ads, you can always customize the fields the users need to fill-up or, use the template created by Facebook.
Lead form ads are suitable for service-based businesses like schools, law firms, online coaching services, airlines, banks, etc.
Page Likes
Page likes are created for brands who want to drive more likes to their official Facebook page. The concept is really easy in this one, it’s very similar when creating an image ad however, make sure that your campaign objective is “page likes”. Since it’s page likes ads, your call to action is obviously, “like page”. This allows users to like your business page without leaving their newsfeeds or page they currently at.
Always remember, when advertising for likes, it’s not just about getting as many likes as possible. It’s about picking the right audience who are highly interested in your page that can be converted as your brand’s customers.
And that’s a wrap! As you’ve seen above, Facebook offers a variety of ads that meets every need of your business. Each ad has different features and specs that will surely scale your brand’s popularity in the market. Whenever possible, we suggest testing different ad formats to see which kind of ad drives the best results for you.
Now that you have an idea with different Facebook ad formats. I hope you can now create a full-proof Facebook marketing strategy for your business. Start rocking your business with compelling ad copies and colorful graphics through Facebook ads!
