Facebook has become one of the leading social media platforms for businesses. Although it is a great way to socialize, Facebook ads’ have revolutionized the way brands are advertised to prospects.
Everyone gets confused with Facebook ads at first. 1,300 targeting options, 15 possible objectives to choose from, and 6 main ad formats make it difficult to fully understand how Facebook ads work without committing time to learn. You can hardly get it right by trial and error. You need to understand how to use ads wisely otherwise you risk losing valuable dollars.
Before you create an ad, first consider what your business goals are. Your advertising objectives should be in line with your business goals. It is important to know what you hope to achieve to choose the most appropriate ad format.
Types of Facebook Ad Formats
Images
Whatever business goals you have, photo ads are a great way to capture your audience’s interests and increase awareness of who you are and what you do. Photo ads give you a clean, simple, and straightforward format you can capitalize on by inspiring imagery and engaging ad copy.
Video
Video ads are one of the primary ways in which people discover new products and offerings. Unlike images, video can feature motion and voice and display several key features of a product, making them more eye-catching in Feed.
There are three types of video ads namely:
- In-stream
- Feeds
- Stories
In-stream ad videos are a very common option for brands. They play whenever the content is viewed.
Carousel
Carousel ads can display up to ten videos or images in a single ad. With more ad space, you can showcase different products and highlight specific details about one of your products, services, or promotions.
Instant Experience
Instant experience is an immersive ad format that delivers a full-screen experience. When the viewer clicks on an ad, it enlarges to fill up the screen so you have more room to highlight your brand, products, and services.
Within an instant experience ad, people can watch videos, swipe through images, products and explore web pages.
Collection
Collections are best used when targeting audiences who want to browse through products and make purchases. This type of ad format lets people move from discovery to purchase in a smooth and immersive way.
The collection features one primary image/video and then a grid-like layout below to showcase other images. Customers who see your ads first focus on the primary ad, but they can also scroll through other images to learn more in a seamless experience.
Benefits of Using Facebook Ads
Awareness
Ads are used to create awareness of your business and products. Using Facebook audience targeting, you can broadcast your ads to reach the largest number of people, who are most likely to find your ad helpful.
Traffic
Ads can have hyperlinks that redirect viewers to an online destination of your choice. Facebook ads can be used as a direct portal to your landing page, product page, app, and other social media pages.
Engagement
Facebook’s 1,300 targeting options have categorized audiences based on their locations, ages, and interests. Using the right demographics significantly increases your chances of finding people more likely to engage with your business.
Leads
Ads can carry request forms which is a brilliant way to collect leads for your brand. You can request phone numbers to make calls, or email addresses to send updates and interesting offers.
Using ads is another way you can find people likely to purchase your goods or services.
App Promotion
Ads can be used to update your viewers about your app and its benefits. Having a good portion of your customers using your mobile app has its unique benefits. For starters, you won’t have to pay anyone to run promotional ads on your app. Secondly, you can guarantee quality service without relying on a third party.