The Different Ad Formats and Ad Types You Can Explore With Facebook
Did you know that almost two-thirds of all American adults have a Facebook account? This is the perfect platform if you’re looking to reach people who may not ordinarily visit your website but are nonetheless interested in what you have to offer.
Furthermore, your company has a wide variety of advertising options to choose from to target leads with the many Facebook ad formats and types accessible.
By knowing your Facebook ad format and ad type choices, you can create adverts that cater to your target audience and business objectives – maximizing your Facebook advertising experience.
Different Formats of Facebook Ads
Your Facebook ad‘s format determines how it will appear to users. Formats may range from a simple picture with some text to a full-screen interactive video. Even though there are just seven basic ad styles, you may create a wide variety of ads tailored to meet most, if not all, of your marketing goals.
Below, we’ll provide a brief overview of the seven ad forms before diving into the multitude of ad variations possible with each.
- Photo Ads
- Video Ads
- Collection Ads
- Slideshow Ads
- Stories
- Instant Experience
- Carousel
Photo Ads
Photo Ads are quite popular on Facebook. This is because they blend in with the user’s newsfeed since they appear like regular posts. These advertisements include a picture, a call to action (CTA), and a referral to a website.
Since all you need is an eye-catching image and some catchy phrases, photo ads are a great option for companies just getting started with Facebook marketing. Getting this kind of advertising up and running is simple, so you can start attracting genuine leads right away.
Photo ads are convenient and effective in many situations, but they only allow you to use one image to convey your message. The single-image format is not ideal when you need to show off many goods or explain how your product works to potential customers.
Video Ads
Facebook video advertising has shown to be very effective at generating both engagement and sales. This option seems like a no-brainer when you consider that viewers are 139% more likely to remember a brand after seeing their video ad and that 90% of consumers believe that videos influence their purchasing decisions.
Video ads only have one drawback: they take a long time to produce. A picture or a carousel may better convey your message if it’s short and simple.
Collection Ads
Collection Ads facilitate a natural and engaging journey from discovery to purchase. Each collection ad has one large video or picture at the top, with three smaller images below it in a grid pattern. If a customer is interested in your collection and clicks on an ad for it, they won’t have to leave Facebook or Instagram to do so; instead, they’ll be led directly to a visually engaging post-click experience powered by Instant Experience.
The two most common formats for collection ads include:
Instant Lookbook: Uses images to enable customers to see and buy your stuff.
Get this template if:
- You have a catalogue with at least four goods.
- You want to present your items in a grid so that customers can peruse them in a single location.
- You have one primary video or picture to emphasize, followed by linked items.
- You want to attract customers to your website or app so they may make a purchase.
- You want to dynamically organize your catalogue’s items into relevant categories, such as “Suggested for you” and “Most seen.”
Instant Storefront: Uses a grid structure to allow customers to see various goods in one location.
Get this template if:
- You want visitors to see your items in use.
- You want to build a digital version of a print catalogue.
- You want to convey a compelling brand narrative while also boosting product sales.
Slideshow Ads
Slideshow advertisements are one of the easiest forms of advertising available on Facebook. To make this ad, you’ll need to create a slideshow of photographs that tell a narrative or provide useful information.
Slideshow ads often have three to ten still pictures or a single looping video. Designed for markets with slow internet connections, these commercials are like the younger sibling of their video counterparts.
If you don’t have any expertise producing videos yet want to use the movement and music that make video commercials so compelling, creating a slideshow ad might be a great first step.
Stories
Ads in the form of Stories appear in between the videos consumers watch on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger, providing a full-screen, interactive experience. You may create Stories using videos, photos, or carousels.
You can try out different video effects, emojis, and even augmented reality in a story, giving you much more creative leeway than you’d have in a traditional video or photo ad.
While Facebook’s Stories format is ideal for showcasing your business, it is not a silver bullet for advertising since Stories do not appear in users’ news feeds. The media in Stories need different structuring than picture or video advertising, so you may need to create unique material, especially for Stories, which is more effort in the long run.
Instant Experience
Instant Experience advertisements (formerly known as Canvas Ads) are an interactive format exclusive to mobile devices that encourage user interaction with your Facebook content.
Users in your target demographic may interact with your advertising in new ways by swiping through a carousel, tilting the device in various orientations, and pinching and swiping to zoom in and out. In addition, Instant Experience adverts are ten times quicker when loading than regular mobile web apps.
While Facebook’s Instant Experience advertisements are a fantastic resource for savvy marketers, they may be too time-consuming for those just starting with Facebook marketing. If you aren’t too techie, it may be best to stick to more traditional forms of advertising.
Carousel Ads
Carousel advertising allows viewers to scroll through a series of pictures or videos, each with its title, link, or caption.
A carousel is a fantastic way to introduce your visitors to a wide variety of your offerings at once since each picture in the carousel may link to a dedicated landing page for that product.
You may use the carousel style to create a story or describe a process by dividing the content you want to communicate into several slides.
Types of Facebook Ads
Facebook advertisements are designed with specific goals in mind, such as increasing brand recognition, sales, or leads. This is a specific kind of advertisement (an ad type) created to reach each of these targets.
This section will discuss the various Facebook ad formats available to you. We’ve categorized them according to where you’d use each type.
There are two sites where you may create adverts for use on Facebook:
- Your Facebook Page
- Ads Manager
Typically, your Facebook page’s ad creator prioritizes simplicity and quickness, while the ad creator in Ads Manager provides more flexibility. Understanding what you can accomplish on both platforms is essential for creating Facebook advertisements.
Making ads on your Facebook page is a breeze and the simplest way to start. All you need to do to promote your business and its offerings is click the Promote button. While you can’t make every type of ad from your Facebook Page, you can still make:
- Boosted posts
- Page Likes ads
- Website Visitors ads
- Website Purchases ads
- Automated ads
- Lead ads
- Event ads
The ads manager can also make lead ads and event ads.
Boosted Posts
With every update to your Facebook Page, you can promote that post to a wider audience using a Boosted Post. Simply choose Boost a Post after clicking Promote to get your post seen by more users. The Boosted Post will have the same format as a regular Facebook post, except for a small “Sponsored” label at the top.
Related Article: Why Your Social Media Marketing Campaigns are Not Working
Page Likes Ads
If you want more likes on your Facebook page, Page Likes ads do just that. They are available for use in any setting and have a clear call to action (CTA) that makes it simple for users to like your page right away. Simply choose to Promote My Page from the Promote menu to create Page Likes Ad.
Website Visitors Ad
Market your website with this ad type and drive traffic to specific landing pages or blog articles. You may reach a wide audience using website visitor advertisements which are suitable for many placements. To use this service, select Get More Website Visitors from the Promote menu.
Website Purchases Ads
The website purchases ad leverages your Facebook pixel data to promote products to individuals who have previously demonstrated interest in your website’s merchandise.
Before using these adverts, you must configure your Facebook pixel to capture all the necessary data. You may create a website purchases ad by selecting Get More Website Purchases from the Promote menu.
Automated Ads
An automated ad strikes a middle ground between a page boost and a full-fledged marketing campaign controlled through your Ads Manager. Instead of doing everything yourself, automated ad guides you through the process, maximizing your targeting, placements, and advertising budget with the use of AI. Create an automated ad by selecting it from the Promote menu.
Messenger Ads
They appear on the primary tab in the Messenger App, where people hold private conversations. Your ad will appear in the inbox with the users’ other messages, and they may click on it to start a conversation with your Facebook page.
Ads Manager
The other place to make Facebook ads is the Ads Manager. When compared to your Facebook Page, Ads Manager offers more customization options. Ads Manager is essentially a one-stop shop for all things related to running Facebook ads since it is the only place where you can build custom audiences and catalogues.
It’s possible to create the following using the Ads Manager:
- Event ads
- Offer ads
- Lead ads
- Dynamic creative ads
- Dynamic ads
- Mobile app ads
Event Ads
Advertise your Facebook events to the people most likely to be interested in them with an event ad and increase your events’ attendance and influence. Depending on the scale and importance of the event you’re advertising, you may only want the ad to be seen by individuals in the surrounding area.
Offer Ads
You should consider this option if you operate a virtual or physical business and want to increase your customer base.
An offer ad allows you to promote a discount or other incentive to buy your products. Facebook promotions and discounts are a great way to get new clients interested in your product and to attract back existing ones who may have lost interest.
Lead Ads
A lead ad includes an Instant Form to collect information about prospective clients. Lead advertising may be used to do market research, increase brand engagement, or collect contact details for future marketing campaigns.
Dynamic Creative Ads
To create a dynamic creative ad, you must provide Facebook with several different ad creatives, call-to-actions, and text sets so that it may customize messages to each viewer.
When advertising a product with a broad appeal, such adverts are ideal. To advertise your Christmas sale to a wider audience, you may use Facebook’s dynamic creative ad feature to include several products and creative options tailored to different demographics, such as couples, parents, and grandparents.
Dynamic Ads
What Facebook’s dynamic advertisements amount to is an amplified version of retargeting display ads. Customers are singled out for an ad that is tailored according to their actions or inactions on your site in the past.
Just make sure your Facebook pixel is properly set on your site and publish your whole product catalogue to the social media platform. Facebook takes care of all the bots and remarketing!
Mobile App Ads
Mobile App Ads are the best way to increase the downloads of your app. This app only appears on the mobile version of the News Feed.
When people interact with your ad by clicking the Install CTA, they will be sent directly to the App Store. This facilitates a swift transition for your readers from initial curiosity to actual app downloads.
Since you’re now enlightened about the different types and formats of Facebook ads, we recommend you try them out and find out which ones work best for you and your company. Out of all these options, one must certainly fit your budget, marketing objectives, and style.
