What Types of Facebook Ad Formats Should You Use to Grow Your Business?
What Types of Facebook Ad Formats Should You Use to Grow Your Business?
To give you an idea of the most effective Facebook ad formats and campaign objective recommendations, we’ll analyze them and the most suitable ways of adapting them to your specific marketing goals to help you reach your business objectives on Facebook.
Driving Website Traffic
Single Image/Video: Image and video ads stand out in the Facebook news feed. They’re effective for storytelling or demonstrating your product/service.
Carousel ads allow you to use multiple images/videos and optimize different creatives. They are great for showcasing products, services, content, etc.
Slideshow: Similar to carousel ads, but slides automatically. It helps focus attention on one visual/message at a time.
Instant Experience: This feature directs clicks to an immersive, full-screen mobile experience on Facebook and highlights key brand/product messages.
Driving Conversions
If your goal is direct conversions like sales or lead generation, these tend to perform well:
Lead Ad: Users enter their name, email, phone, etc., in the Facebook ad to convert instantly. This is great for building your contact lists.
Catalog Sales: Showcase product catalogs and enable purchases directly on Facebook/Instagram. Works for e-commerce sites.
App Install: Drive downloads of your iOS or Android app with video or image ads focused on install conversions.
Building Engagement
If you want more comments, shares, event sign-ups, or increased follower growth, try these engaging formats:
- Instant Article: Article content directly in the Facebook news feed. You can add links, call buttons, and lead gen forms.
- Offer Claim: Users claim an offer directly within the ad via a call-to-action button. Increase clicks.
- Page Like Campaign: Explicitly focused on getting more people to follow/like your Page and its content.
- Event Response: Drive sign-ups and engagement for events you host online or in person.
Raising Brand Awareness
These tend to work well when your primary goal is increasing overall brand visibility:
Collection: Combine multiple visually rich ads with carousels, videos, and images in one larger ad unit. Highly visible.
Canvas: Full-screen immersive experience similar to Instant Experience ads. Very eye-catching.
Instant Article: As mentioned above in the engagement section, the article content can generate significant visibility for your brand.
Video: Video content garners high attention on Facebook. You can use videos to showcase your brand story and value prop.
Most Effective Facebook Ad Placement Options
In addition to choosing the ad format, you also want to consider ad placement. Where your ads appear on a Facebook ad, and Instagram impacts performance.
Here are top-performing placements to leverage:
Facebook News Feed
Desktop and mobile news feeds provide the best visibility and response rates for most objectives. Mid-funnel traffic and conversion goals do well here.
Facebook Right Column
The right-hand column ads stand out in the desktop feed. They are helpful for lower funnel conversion objectives focused on website visitors already engaging with content.
Instagram Feed
This is for visual formats like photo/video ads. It aims to drive brand awareness and interest from Instagram’s photo-centric audience.
Instagram Stories
Vertical, full-screen ads in Instagram stories. Story ads tend to have higher attention and recall compared to feed placements.
Facebook Messenger
Highly targeted messaging ads via Facebook conversations. Solid returns for conversion-focused objectives.
Facebook Marketplace
Ad listings get visibility in Facebook’s community buy-and-sell platform, perfect for e-commerce product/catalog sales goals.
Instagram Reels
Video ads in the newest Instagram content format, Reels. Capitalize on trending short-form vertical video content styles.
Facebook Audience Network
Reach targeted audiences off Facebook on sites/apps in the Audience Network. Expands reach beyond just FB/IG feeds for lower funnel conversions.
Top Facebook Ad Formats, Sizes, and Specs
Here’s an overview of key Facebook ad formats and technical requirements/specs to keep in mind:
- Single image: 1200 x 628 pixels; under 20% Text overlay; PNG or JPEG under 5MB
- Single video: Under 240 minutes; sound on by default; Facebook video specs
- Carousel: 2-10 images/videos; square 1:1 and horizontal 16:9 aspect ratios recommended
- Slideshow: 2-10 images; up to 15 seconds per slide
- Collection: 2-10 square/horizontal images or videos; the last asset is a call-to-action image
- Canvas: 800 x 720 pixels up to 8000 x 8000 pixels; under 200MB; external hosting required
- Dynamic: 1200 x 628 pixels up to 6000 x 600 pixels; multiple variations created automatically
- Lead ad: Can customize form fields displayed, e.g., name, email, phone number, etc
- Catalog sales: Connect Facebook pixel; upload product catalogs; enable checkout
- Instant Article: Images and video alongside 2000-8000 words of article body Text
- Review Facebook’s latest advertising policies and format specs for up-to-date technical requirements.
Check the Facebook Ad Library for Inspiration
Are you wondering what Facebook ad formats work well for other businesses in your industry? Check out the Facebook Ad Library database for examples! The library has millions of ads from across Facebook and Instagram in an easy-to-browse format dating back to May 2018 in the US.
You can filter ads by region, category, advertiser name, format type, and paid/organic status to analyze high-quality creatives related to your niche. Identify trends in ad objectives, design preferences, and specific products/offers different businesses promote via Facebook campaigns. Reviewing relevant Facebook ad examples that generate engagement and conversions provides excellent inspiration you can model for your video ads, image ads, carousels, and other formats.
FAQ Section:
What image sizes should I use?
1200 x 628 pixels for single-image ads. Square 1:1 and horizontal 16:9 ratios are recommended for carousel images. Photos should be high-resolution 72 dpi PNG or JPEG files under 5MB.
Can I create different ads for mobile vs desktop feeds?
Yes! When setting up the campaign, you can show separate mobile and desktop ads to tailor image dimensions, Text, and design specifically for those screens.
How often should I create new ad creative?
We recommend testing at least three new ad images/videos per campaign every two weeks. The Facebook algorithm favors new creatives, so updating frequently improves reach and performance.
What call-to-action button Text works best?
“Shop Now” for e-commerce, “Sign Up” for lead gen, “Learn More” for awareness, etc. Test a few top-performing base options. Dynamic ads will also automatically test variations of CTA Text.
In Summary
Please remember to review competitor examples in the Facebook Ad Library, frequently refresh creatives, and leverage different placements beyond just the news feed to maximize visibility and engagement.
Now that you know what types of Facebook ads to invest in, it’s time to put that knowledge into action leads and sales growth for your business!
If you want to know how we can grow our client’s business, book a free consultancy with our experts,
