Guide to Facebook’s advertising formats
Are you up to date with Facebook’s advertising formats? Google’s most direct competition is constantly updating and building new tools and features. If we considering that the social network is one of the first options when looking for data around the world, knowing and applying Facebook’s advertising formats is a great opportunity to help your users know you.
As you know, over the years, Facebook has offered more and more advertising options. Formats oriented to mobile ads, formats more focused on desktop browsing, with the possibility of presenting the offered products in a more accessible way, etc.
This platform has evolved in such a way that Facebook Ads is currently one of the most used online advertising channels.
Advantages of advertising on Facebook
The main advantages of using Facebook’s different advertising formats are:
- A truly powerful audience segmentationbased on the users’ actions.
- Creating campaigns is simples.
- Interaction capacity.
- An interesting cost-return investment ratio.
To summarize, the accuracy achieved through Facebook ads maximizes the investment, basically because brands can identify their potential customers easily and efficiently.
However, success always comes from a proper organization and the best choice of ads. And although they all might seem very visual, with attractive value propositions and clear calls to action, Facebook offers you different advertising formats to optimize your proposals.
Advertising formats on Facebook
Facebook’s ads might look slightly different based on the results you seek. Advertising formats on Facebook vary, mainly, in their location. In fact, the main difference between the different formats is where the ads are shown, although factors such as the amount of text or image sizes are also taken into account.
However, Facebook’s advertising formats could be divided into two areas. Look at the top image, which perfectly shows both formats:
- On the left are the ads in the news section.
- The other area is the right side column.
This does not mean that one format is better than the other. What they do have are different characteristics that it is interesting that you are familiar with.
1.- Ads in the news section
The first of Facebook’s advertising formats, ads in the news section, refers to all those ads that appear in between your friends’ posts. Because of this, they look more like native advertising.
This type of ads achieves a higher interaction rate than those placed on the right column, but they are also more expensive.
Why would you say this ad by BFrow is effective? What would it main strengths be if you compare it to the ads on the right column?
- It looks more visual. The size of the image is bigger, and visual contents predominate in social networks, particularly when it comes to capturing the audience’s attention.
- It is relevant and includes value data. This ad can be interesting for a person interested in fashion and blogging, so before launching it, the audience will have been segmented to determine who to show it to. And regarding the ad’s text, it transmits the great community the company has.
- Includes a clear call to action.
2.- Ads on the right side column
This was the first one of all Facebook’s advertising formats. Although users are more likely to interact with ads in the news section because of their native advertising features, this does not mean you have to discard this type of ads.
In fact, they can help you more than once and offer you advantages, especially since clicks and conversions have a lower cost.
Facebook’s own ad guide points out that it is essential to optimize images, videos and texts on the side pieces in order to capture the users’ attention and achieve conversions.
Types of ads on Facebook
Although all ads are divided based on their location and size, this does not mean they have to be static. There is a wide variety of ads you can use to let users know you, regardless of where you place them. Some of them are:
1.- Ad with image
This format is one of the most popular and used formats on Facebook since the platform began to emphasize visual contents. The recommended size and format for these ads are the following:
- Image size: 1200 x 628 pixels.
- Text: 90 characters.
- Headline: 25 characters.
- Description of the link in the newsfeed: 200 characters.
2.- Ads with videos
You are already familiar with the potential of the videos in any social platform. They are more attractive, flashy and get more engagement. And we must not forget that they obtain more interactions. More than half of people who visits Facebook daily watches, at least, one video per day.
That is why this is an option you should always consider. But for it to work, you must be careful with the following aspects:
- The content is very visual and easy to understand. The ad’s message must be understood without the need to activate the sound.
- A clear call to action. For this, your video must include one of the action buttons offered by Facebook.
3.- Collection
Collection is one of Facebook’s new advertising formats, which has been created to make products more accessible. With this kind of ad, the advertiser can show up to 50 products, each of them linked to a specific landing page. This makes the purchase easier, making it more comfortable and agile.
Besides letting the user to access the description of each one of the items being offered, this kind of format allows you to include videos as well.
4.- Ads for several products or sequences
Among Facebook’s different advertising formats, this type of ads is very useful for advertisers. Users can go through different images and, based on which one they click, they will be directed to a specific landing page for each product.
It is possible to apply this type of ads to any article. In fact, it can also be used for e-book downloads or to direct traffic to blog posts.
The best way to create them is using Facebook’s Power Editor.
5.- Canvas, ads in full screen
Canvas helps advertisers achieve their goals by means of an ideal format to create multimedia stories. Canvas spaces open from ads on Facebook’s news section. Advertisers can combine videos, static images, texts, and call-to-action buttons to create brand and products experiences that are attractive and effective on mobile devices.
In this format, users can use their fingers to scroll through a sequence of images, tilt their devices to see panoramic images and zoom in to see their details, thus creating experiences that go beyond the previously analyzed Facebook’s advertising formats.
6.- Retargeting ads
Ads that apply retargeting promote their pieces to a specific list of users that have been identified in advance. These are the ads that seem to follow you through different spaces after you visit a specific page.
They can also be applied on Facebook. In fact, it is as simple as uploading a list of email addresses you already have in the Power Editor to create a personalized audience.
7.- Promoted publications
Promoted posts refer to those that, at first, were place on a company’s Facebook homepage as an organic publication, but were later promoted with money to become an ad.
It is something that is different from other Facebook’s advertising formats, as you cannot create them from the ad manager, although it is possible to edit the description of the text and the links that you include.
Components of advertising pieces on Facebook
To create effective ads on Facebook, it is important for you to consider these factors:
1.- Visual content
Regardless of the type of ad you design, it should always include visual content, which can be an image or a video. You will be more likely to capture your potential customers’ attention if you include this type of content.
2.- The ad must be relevant
Do not launch anything you are not completely sure of. If you publish ads that are not interesting or do not have value for your target audience, you will be wasting time and money.
Facebook itself will help you rate your ads based on their relevance. The more relevant the photographs, texts and links you include are, the higher your rating will be, and therefore, the social network itself will give your pieces an advantage.
3.- Provide an attractive value proposition
The value proposition should be the one pushing the user to click on your ad. You must optimize it, showing the users why you are different and offering them reasons to want to know you and buy your products.
As always, creativity is the key to attract the users’ attention and make them click on your calls to action.
4.- The call to action must be clear
Regardless of which one of Facebook’s advertising format you choose, they all have one thing in common: They include calls to action that must be clear, prominent, motivating and easy to understand.
If you want to create effective ads on Facebook, you should consider all these formats and decide which one fits your goals and your target best. Only then, you will be using the immense potential of this social network in your favor.
At Antevenio Go! we have an internal professional team responsible for managing your campaigns in order to capture leads in real time. Each client has a team that includes a Conversion Designer, a Social Ads expert and a Landing conversion manager. We understand Facebook’s formats deeply, and we know which one of them is the best fit for each objective. Shall we work together?
