How To Creatively Target Facebook Ads

It’s no longer news that Facebook has risen to become one of the best digital marketing tools if not the best out there. The recent development in Facebook makes it even more attractive to users and a more useful avenue for social marketers to advertise their products and services. As a result, the more time and money you invest on Facebook ads, the higher the likelihood of improving your return on investment (ROI).

However, good creativity is very crucial to the success of your ads. For instance, irrespective of how solid your ad targeting strategy is towards your target audience, if your Facebook ad creative isn’t persuading enough to compel your target audience into taking any action, your strategy may not generate any sales, Yes!

With the different Facebook ad creative formats available and the different goals of Facebook ad strategy, you may have some difficulties choosing the right ad format and which format to use at what time i.e. you may be stuck at when the product video is the best, or when to use a carousel with a video in it, or probably a carousel of product images. This guide will help you in developing the right Facebook ad creative. The very first step involved in this process is for you to understand all the available Facebook ads formats and the goals that each ad option can best achieve.

Understanding the Facebook Ad Platform

Here are some basic things to understand when advertising on Facebook:

• User-generated content is the best – being a social media networks, Facebook users prefer to see organic-looking content, pictures or videos that are mostly captured with a standard smartphone camera.
• Your ads can be easily ignored – Facebook users can easily skip your ad either when it appears in a group or in their feed. Hence, your ad must be able to capture users’ attention within the first few seconds to be successful on Facebook.
• Videos are muted by default on Facebook – about 85 percent of Facebook users watch videos on the platform without sound – Digiday. However, adding product demonstrations, eye-catching visuals, and subtitles would help to get your message across whether there is sound or not.
• Facebook users can engage with your ads – Facebook users have the ability to interact and engage with your ads through likes, comments, and shares. The more engaging your ad is, the more rated it would be on Facebook. Therefore, create an ad that engages with the audience. This can increase the reach of your ad beyond your target audience.

The Available Facebook Ad Formats

There are basically 4 different types of Facebook ads formats you can choose from. Choosing and optimizing the right format for your business goals is essential to driving conversions.

Single image Ad

The single image ad is the oldest ad format on Facebook after the text ads. It led the foundation for the carousel of product image and video ads when social marketers began to shift attention from the static image format

However, the single image ad is still of great value till now but with a few improvements. Here are the improved elements of a single image ad:

• The recommended aspect ratio of the single image ad is 1:1 or 16:9.
• Text should appear above the image ad.
• Ensure that the image is hosted so that a display URL (typically, your brand’s domain name) would be displayed above the headline or use the destination URL for the relevant landing page for your Facebook ad.
• Bold the headline below the image ad to attract attention.
• Add a call to action, such as Learn more, Shop now, etc.

A single image ad will work best for you if:

• You sell only one product, which your audience generally understand how it works.
• You’re trying to convey a simple, straightforward message.
• You just want to optimize for clicks especially if you only focus on generating a high volume of traffic to your online store.

Single Video Ad

Video ad is the latest adoption on the Facebook platform. Facebook recently released new videos watching experiences on its platform, such as Facebook Watch and IGTV. All these signaled the rising importance of video on it platforms as a good medium for social marketers. Here are general elements of the video ads suitable on Facebook:

• Video may be vertical or horizontal, but with a recommended aspect ratio of 1:1 or 16:9.
• Text should appear on top of the ad.
• Bold the headline below the video to attract attention.
• Ensure that the video is hosted so that a display URL (typically, your brand’s domain name) would be displayed above the headline or use the destination URL for the relevant landing page for your Facebook ad.
• Add a call to action, such as Learn more, Shop now, etc.

With up to about 60 seconds of a single video ad on the Facebook Feed and 15 seconds on stories, advertisers can use video ads to demonstrate their product’s value as well as highlight several reasons why prospects should buy it.

A video ad is very effective in the following cases:

• If you sell products that need a demonstration i.e. if the unique value of your product cannot be communicated to prospects with photos alone.
• Brand building. You can build your brand by using a single video ad to tell your company’s story.
• Prospecting for potential customers. Facebook made it possible for you to retarget any user who has watched at least 25% of the single video Facebook ads. With this, you can reach a larger group of potential new customers.

Carousel ad

These type of Facebook ads contains multiple images, multiple videos, or a combination of both. This makes it a more useful ad format. For instance, if your product requires more images to communicate its value, but you don’t have any means of producing the video ad, you can opt-in for the carousel ad.

Here are the elements of the carousel ad:

• About 10 square images or videos, recommended aspect ratio of 1:1
• Text should appear above the image ad.
• Ensure that the image/video is hosted so that a display URL (typically, your brand’s domain name) would be displayed above the headline (one per-image/video, though optional)
• Bold the headline below the image ad to attract attention.
• Add a call to action, such as Learn more, Shop now, etc.

A carousel ad is a smart option for the following cases:

• Dynamic Product Ads. These ads use the interest and behaviors of users to show them relevant products from your catalog in the carousel ad.
• Showing products in different styles like clothes on different body types.
• Showcasing testimonials. If your brand has user-generated content like video reviews or photos reviews, you can put them together in the carousel ad. This adds a level of authenticity to your ad.

 Collection ad

This is the latest ad format on Facebook. It’s possible that you’ve seen a number of collection ads in your News Feed. The collection ad has the potential to pair your product catalog with an engaging video just like seen above.

A collection ad has the following features:

• Text should appear above the image ad.
• The recommended aspect ratio of the hero image or video is 1:1 or 16:9.
• Collection of images that are linked to your Facebook product catalog
• A customized Instant Experience.

This new ad format is best used for the following:

• Creating a branded shopping experience. The collection ad helps to increase brand awareness with its video inclusion while still selling the products directly via the attached product catalog. Sometimes the product catalog images may not be enough to create interest and conversion, but with the video, your products will impart more value and bring more meaning to the prospective buyer.
• Using a single video to promote multiple products. The collection ad pairs your product catalog with multiple product pages with a single hero video or image.

Remember, targeting is one of the most important aspects of social marketing strategy and having a good ad creative is almost always the determining success factor.

In order for you to get your Facebook ad creative right, you need to understand how the Facebook platform works and the type of content that performs best on the platform.

Study all the various types of Facebook ads above to know which one you would likely need to communicate your messages across to users and which ad format would attract users, encourage them to stop scrolling, pay more attention, and then engage with your product.