Advertising on Facebook is not very complex; but it’s not simple either, and it can get a little overwhelming for businesses. Facebook offers over a dozen objectives, hundreds of targeting options, and 6 main types of formats, for ads. There are 3 broad categories of Facebook Ad Objectives: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversions. This basically refers to what you want to achieve with your ads. Do you want to build brand awareness, increase traffic and engagements, or boost conversions? Depending on your business goals, you need to select the ad objectives.
Now let’s take a look at the different types of ad formats:
• Video
• Photo
• Slideshow
• Carousel
• Dynamic Product Ads
• Lead Form Ads
Facebook displays your ad to users who are most likely to take the action that will fulfill your goal. Ergo, choosing the correct objective is critical. Every objective is designed so that it targets the user when they are in different stages in the sales funnel. You just have to identify which phase of the buyer cycle or sales funnel you want to target, and you’ll know which objective to select.
These 3 broad objective categories are further divided into 15 sub-objectives, and you will need to pick from these.
Objective Ad Types
Awareness Ad Type
This targets the top of the funnel; awareness ads help build brand awareness and creates a buzz about your products and services. Such ads enable you to tell your story and connect with potential customers. You can increase awareness about your local business and reach in addition to your brand. You can use infographics, high quality photos, short videos, and creatives for awareness ads.
Consideration Ad Type
This kind of ad is targeted towards the top-middle phase of the funnel, and are ideal for the content on your site or app, including blogs, email newsletters, testimonial and how-to videos. Type of consideration ads include those that:
• Increase website traffic
• Enhance customer engagement
• Boost page likes on FB
• Enhance engagement with a specific post
• Induce users to claim offers or attend events
• Get more people to watch a video or install apps
• Generate leads through forms on Facebook
• Are sent straight into users’ Messenger inbox.
Conversion Ad Type
These types of ads induce users to take certain actions or buy your products, as their main goal is to convert users into customers. These ads are targeted towards the end of the sales funnel, and the goal is to increase your bottom line. These usually cost more than the others; they involve sending users straight to the checkout page, your store, or completing registration for events. Conversion ads include:
• Driving an action on your site
• Driving product sales
• Driving visitors to your physical store
Types of Facebook Ad Formats
You have a very small window of opportunity to catch the eye of potential customers; this means that the format of the ad you choose for your campaign is crucial.
Video Ads
Videos are usually used to create brand awareness, boosting traffic, enhancing engagement, generating leads, and getting people to install apps or claim offers – basically, to target users in the top and middle of your sales funnel. Videos directly uploaded to Facebook get 30% more views than linked videos.
Facebook Photo Ad
These typically have an image, a link and a CTA, and are used to build brand awareness, promote local business, increase reach and traffic, boost engagement and conversions, generate leads and push product catalog sales. Powerful imagery – genuine photos that grab attention and tell a story works best always.
Slideshow Ads
This is nothing but using a slide show of photos to tell your story; it can be done through the slideshow creation tool in your Ads Manager, or simply create a slideshow yourself and upload it as a video. You can add music, text overlays and other enhancements to make it attractive. These ads can be used for everything you use photo ads for.
Carousel Ads
This format displays a series of cards, each showing a different image, and linking to another page on your site. Carousel ads can be used to build your brand, promote local business, increase reach, conversions, engagement and app installs, and generate leads.
Canvas Ad
These are interactive and immersive ads that deliver a micro-site-type of experience. It allows users to scroll, click, tap or swipe to interact with brands directly on Facebook. They are generally used to create brand awareness and increase traffic to your website.
Dynamic Product Facebook Ad
These ads automatically promote your products to people who have shown interest in them through your website or app, or on third party sites. Once your catalog is uploaded and the campaign set, it will keep finding the ideal users for your products for the time period you specify. These are most suitable for product catalog sales.
Lead Form Ads
These are used to capture information about users who show interest in your ad; when they click on your ad, a form pops up and they are asked to fill in names and contact details. They are of course, used primarily for generating leads which you can pursue to nurture and eventually convert.
