Facebook Ad Formats You Should Know About


September 15, 2017
Facebook Ad Formats

With over two billion people using Facebook every month, and Facebook owning Instagram, it’s no surprise that Facebook advertising has become a popular avenue for digital advertising. But what options are available to you? How do you set your campaign up for success?

Choosing a Facebook Ad Objective

When setting up a new Facebook ad campaign, one of the first choices you have to make is your campaign objective. There are a variety of campaign objectives to choose from. When selecting an objective for your Facebook ad campaign, choose wisely! The objective you select affects the format and delivery of your ads and can have a major impact on your campaign’s performance.

Below are the objectives currently available for Facebook ad campaigns:

  • Brand Awareness – Increase awareness of your product or service by targeting the users that are most likely to pay attention to your ads.
  • Reach – Reach as many users as possible within your target audience, and set a limit on the maximum number of times a user can see your ads in a given day.
  • Traffic – Increase visits to your website by targeting the users most likely to click the link in your ad.
  • Engagement – Increase engagement with your brand by targeting the users that are most likely to comment, share, or react to your ads.
  • App Installs – Acquire new users for your app with ads targeting users that are most likely to download it.
  • Video Views – Promote your video content to the users that are most likely to watch it.
  • Lead Generation – Collect new leads for your business with a custom form connected to your CRM.
  • Messages – Encourage users to engage with your business via Messenger.
  • Conversions – Optimize ad delivery to target users that are most likely to take a specific action on your website, such as making a purchase, submitting a form or making a phone call.
  • Catalog Sales – Promote your business’ inventory via carousel-style ads featuring multiple products.
  • Store Traffic – Encourage foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar locations by targeting users that are nearby.

When selecting a campaign objective, there’s no “best” option. It all depends on your budget, business objectives and what you are hoping to achieve with Facebook ads. Many successful ad accounts take advantage of multiple campaigns using different objectives to target users at different stages in the buying process.

Choosing the right Facebook ad format for your Business

Once you choose the objective that matches your goals, a standard ad usually has an image or a video, but there are four other ways you can display your ads that could compel your audience more effectively.

Facebook Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are a more interactive way of displaying your ad. Instead of one image, you can choose to display up to 10 images or videos to help convey your story. Based on Digiday, carousel ads are 10 times more effective at getting people to click through.

Facebook Carousel Ad

Instagram Ads

Facebook advertisers have the option to utilize Instagram for their advertising. 60% of people on Instagram say they discover new products on the platform. Sometimes, depending on your industry, you may want to target only through Instagram if you know that most of your audience is on that network. However, there are some things you need to be aware of:

  • Make sure your Instagram account is a business Instagram account.
    1. Allows business display call-to-actions such as “Call”, “Email”, “Directions”
    2. Allows you to get insights on your posts so that you can track and measure which organic posts work best
    3. Let’s you create Instagram ads directly on Instagram
  • Instagram video ads can only be 60 seconds long vs. 120mins for Facebook
Instagram Ad

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories, like Snapchat allows marketers to create ads to complement the content made in the Instagram feed. Instagram stories play between your followers’ stories. Since they blend in, you have to make sure you make an appealing and compelling enough ad in order to make an impact on the user. 250M people use Instagram Stories, and it lets you create a more interactive ad.

Instagram Stories Ad

Collection Ads

Facebook Collection ads are perfect for businesses that are trying to showcase their product catalog or product features. Underneath the standard layout of the ad, it lists below 4 of your products or features you are trying to promote.

Canvas Ads

If you’re looking for something dramatic, and super interactive, Canvas ads are the choice. Canvas ads provide full-screen experiences for your customer. People can watch videos, or swipe through photos to keep the attention of your customers longer.

Ultimately, if you have the right objective, and the correct ad type chosen, you will more than likely reach the customers you are trying to reach. However, it doesn’t hurt to try other ad types such as the ones mentioned above to see if they can further improve the reach to your customers.

The team at Ontario SEO are specialists in Paid Social Media Marketing. We can help you develop a Facebook marketing strategy, or we can setup and manage your social media advertising for you. We will work with you to determine your goals and objectives to ensure you get the most effective method of advertising for your business. Get in touch with us for a free consultation.