Written for a client.
As a solopreneur, you already know there are types of Facebook ads that can help you. Their ad diversity can help promote your local business, increase online sales, generate leads, increase brand awareness, retarget customers, and even promote your mobile app. But within all those goals, there are also a variety of types of Facebook ads. So how do you know which will work best?
Facebook has various targeting options and campaigns to choose from, but they make it easy to start by grouping them into three marketing goals: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.
Once you’ve decided on one of the three goals, the platform narrows your choices to a few basic types of Facebook ads.
7 Types of Facebook Ads You Need to Understand
Image Ads
Facebook image ads are among the most used types of Facebook ads. This is because they blend seamlessly into the native Facebook platform, are easy to create, and combine images and copy for the most significant social media engagement.
When you’re trying to increase awareness, Facebook image ads, paired with engaging copy, are an excellent way to grab a large audience’s attention. With these ads, you have a moment as the user is scrolling their social media feed to attract their notice and make them interested in your product, business, service, or offer.
Think of this ad as a digital billboard; share only small amounts of information here. If your ad requires more than a few words of information, consider different types of Facebook ads.
Tips for engaging Facebook images:
- Show people in your image – these ads run in the social feed alongside pictures of friends and family, so they should feel native to the site and non-intrusive
- Minimize the amount of text – do not cover your image with more than 20 percent of the text, or Facebook will minimize your reach significantly. Consider using only text-free imagery for best results
- Focus on one aspect for each photo – if you want to show more points of focus, use more than one image in a carousel format
- Quality – ensure images are high resolution and not blurry or distorted in any way.
- Try panoramas and 360 photos to receive higher engagement
Video Ads
Facebook video ads allow you to tell a more immersive story with sound and motion when your audience needs more information. They’re also among the most popular and engaging ad choices on the platform. Studies have shown that video often gets users to stop scrolling and pay attention longer than static ads.
Creating a Facebook video ad can be as simple as combining images you have with on-screen text or audio in a slideshow or as involved as a lengthy commercial quality video. The choice is yours according to your budget and what works best for your audience. Captions and sound are optional but recommended.
There are a variety of places to show a Facebook video ad. You can simply boost a video post already on your page or use the ad manager to include a video ad in stories, in-stream in the feed, as part of a carousel story, or an Instant Experience alongside photos and links.
Tips for an Engaging Facebook Video Ad:
- Design for mobile – Facebook native video was created for mobile viewers
- Include sound – viewers expect sound with video, even if it’s only background music, so make sure you’ve included it. But don’t miss this opportunity to share more of your message with voiceover
- Use the carousel – mix video and images or creatively display one video after another with the carousel ads option
- Try an Instant Experience – include video in mini webpages that provide users with an immersive mobile-only way to interact and engage with your content
- Consider a 360 video. Users can turn their device or move their fingers on the screen to see different angles with this ad
Lead Ads
Facebook lead ads are an excellent choice when your customer is ready to provide their information. By this point, they probably already have some familiarity with your product or brand and want to hear more from you on an ongoing basis.
This type of Facebook ad is an efficient choice for marketers trying to grow their email lists.
Using Facebook lead generation ads allows you to use forms to ask questions and collect data. Typically, contact information such as phone number, email, and name are standard data collected on a Facebook lead ad. Customize forms with questions of your choosing.
Lead ads can:
- Grow email lists
- Increase enrollment in programs
- Boost downloads
- Gather information
This type of Facebook ad is particularly effective in converting users because of its ease of use and native format. Users aren’t taken out of the app when they click on a Facebook lead ad but are simply prompted to fill out the form in the app. Facebook will even auto-populate much of the information for them if their settings allow it.
These ads show up through the entire ecosystem, including the newsfeed, stories, Marketplace, Instagram, and Instagram stories, so their reach is extensive for reaching their right audience at the right time.
After users have filled out your form, you can easily download the information from your Facebook Ads Manager page or see the information in your connected CRM account like Salesforce.
Carousel Ads
The Facebook carousel ad is a diverse, dynamic ad solution that allows you to show from 2 to 10 cards in one carousel.
Displayed in a swipe-able row, these types of Facebook ads are especially useful in showcasing multiple products or services because each image or video receives its own headline, description, and link. Carousels must include at least two cards, and any videos can be from 1 second to 240 minutes long.
While the card size is smaller than the standard image or video ad, the impact can be more significant and immersive because it draws the users in with its swipe feature.
You can also use the Facebook carousel ad format when you have a lot of information to convey and multiple images or videos. Each image can have its own copy and tell a story across cards as the user swipes through the series learning more.
There’s flexibility in how each image shows up: optimized by best performing or sequential in the order you choose. If you’re telling a story, you might want one card to follow another without diversion.
Because there are up to ten links in each Facebook carousel ad, the chances of receiving a click and an increased click-through rate are greater too.
Use Facebook carousel ads to:
- Showcase multiple products, or services
- Highlight different aspects of the same product or service
- Give users a way to engage with your brand
- Tell a story in a unique, interactive way
- Tip: Use a consistent theme with multiple photos to ensure they appear to go together visually
Dynamic Ads
Facebook dynamic ads are a great way to implement personalized ad variations into your ad strategy without extra work after the initial setup.
Suppose you have a product catalog and a Facebook Business Manager account. In that case, Facebook dynamic ads can automatically work behind the scenes to retarget and promote your products to users most likely to convert.
Using the Facebook Pixel for websites or SDK for apps, once someone has visited your website, app or engaged with your other ads, Facebook dynamic ads will automatically retarget them. Once they later visit Facebook or Instagram, they’ll see an ad with the same product they viewed on your site or app. The retargeted ad will be highly relevant based on the page or product they interacted with, reminding them to buy and helping you close the sale.
Facebook dynamically pulls the images and information from your catalog and creates the ads, so you don’t have to. When your catalog changes, your ads will change accordingly, whether that’s images, pricing, or availability.
How to connect Facebook dynamic ads
- Ensure you have an active Facebook Business Manager account
- Set up the Facebook Pixel on your website for tracking or SDK for apps
- Upload a current product catalog – if you have an integration with a Facebook partner like Shopify, your catalog will automatically be available
Messenger Ads
Facebook Messenger ads supply a full-funnel ad solution. Whether your goal is awareness, consideration, or conversion, messenger ads offer enough flexibility and variety to help you to get your message through and interact with your customers and fans.
These types of Facebook ads find users who’d be interested in having a conversation with your brand or business or learning more information.
These mobile ads are shown in the chat tab of the Facebook Messenger app. When they open the message ad, they’ll be engaged with an automated message and be able to respond, or will be shown a call to action that takes them to a website or app.
Like other ad formats, Facebook messenger ads work across the Facebook network to find the Facebook and Instagram users most interested in your message.
For awareness campaigns, full-screen Messenger story ads give you the option to quickly capture user attention at scale and reengage them individually with a conversation. This provides a conduit for one-to-one communication and has uses as a promotion or customer service channel.
Once users have engaged, retargeting them in Messenger with sponsored messages is a personal way to highly target your lowest funnel communications for the best conversion rates.
Best practice for messenger ads:
- Have staff on hand and ready to respond to sponsored messages
- Automate responses with every possible answer to common questions
- Set an away message letting users know when you’re available for discussion or how they can expect a response
Stories Ads
One of the newest ad formats is Facebook storybook ads created for mobile users who prefer full-screen vertical viewing. Stories ads can be used to extend your reach, gain brand awareness among mass audiences, obtain video views, receive app installs, and even lead generation.
These ads are a great choice if you need to grab attention and engage savvy mobile users. Stories ads receive interaction because of their seeming immediacy and convenience. For users, storybook ads are immersive, inclusive, authentic feeling and increasingly receive high engagement rates. For advertisers, they’re fully customizable, have a lot of innovative features, seem real-time and allow you to appear as a part of the social media conversation.
Why use Facebook story book ads:
- 73% of US users say they enable them to find new things
- 65% of US users say they allow them to stay current
- 57% of US users say they make them feel included in the community
- 62% of US users say they plan to use stories more going forward
Conclusion
Choosing the best types of Facebook ads depends on your available content and the goal you are trying to meet. From basic image ads boosted from your Facebook page to more complex Dynamic ads that require planning and integrations, the ad type you choose is more a function of your goals, ability, and assets than any right or wrong ad choice.
Regardless of your ad choice, the Facebook ad network will match your target user with your goal to help you obtain the best outcome at the lowest cost. They try to show the ads to the people they think will take the action you’ve indicated as your goal. The difference for you will be in the assets you create and the metrics you report.
A few suggestions:
- Consider mobile first – most users of Facebook and Instagram are mobile-first
- Create content for your audience – knowing what your specific audience responds to is what you should create and choose the ad format accordingly
When choosing your types of Facebook ads, if you’ve chosen the correct goal, there’s no wrong choice for which ad type you’ll choose. Aim to select the ad types that are most likely to inspire your audience and give them the information they need to take the action you’d like them to take. That’s what makes a successful ad.