Facebook is a great site to kickstart your first ad campaign, and there are a selection of types of Facebook ads for you to choose from.
What makes Facebook Ads a great platform is that it’s affordable and really easy to figure out, making it perfect for beginners and experts alike. One question that aspiring marketers tend to wonder is which type of ads they should run on Facebook.
This blog post will explain the main types of Facebook ads and which ones you should be investing the most into.
Types of Facebook Ads
1. Page Likes
Not having a lot of Facebook page likes can discourage people from liking the page. Thus, having a steady number of users liking your business’s page is important and a Page Like Ad helps you achieve this.
This is a really straightforward ad type that can target mobile and desktop users. With an attractive photo and the right text, running these will greatly help boost your page likes.
2. Video Ads
An eye-catching way of getting users’ attention is with a Video Ad. These are particularly great for showing customers how your product works, or showcasing software features.
You have a lot of flexibility with this type of Facebook ad too. Videos can be as long as 240 minutes (which is probably a bit too long for an ad!), 360-degree videos are supported, and they can appear in different places.
Videos ads can also be inserted into existing Facebook videos, stories, or just as a basic video ad that appears on timelines.
3. Carousel Ads
Trying to show off your latest products? A Carousel Ad is the perfect way of doing so. Each image can link to individual product pages. Doing this allows you to run several Carousel campaigns and pinpoint the top-performing products to have in the ad.
For the majority of eCommerce store owners, this is definitely the best type of Facebook ad to use. It enables you to display 10 of your store’s products to customers, monitor which products get the most engagement, and you can then adjust your strategy after finding what sells best.
Carousel ads aren’t just great for stores though. They work just as well for explaining the steps for using a product/service without overdoing it in a single image ad.
4. Lead Generation Ads
Lead generation is a challenge for all businesses, no doubt about it. Facebook’s Lead Gen Ads are aimed at making this process slightly easier to manage and of course, increase the number of leads your business gets.
Rather than taking users to a landing page, Facebook actually does you a favor here. The risk of users going to an external site is that there will always be an issue of trust. Let’s face it: if someone who hasn’t heard of your business before clicks on the ad to a random site which asks them for their name and email address, there’s little chance of them giving personal information.
A lead gen ad that collects the information directly on Facebook, as opposed to on your landing page, removes the issue of trust. This type of Facebook ad is also generally more convenient than taking users to another page.
5. Mobile App Ads
When you run this type of ad on Facebook, it only appears on mobile devices. When the user taps on the ad, they’re taken to the relevant app store’s page.
Facebook gives you some handy targeting options here and lets you specify if:
- the target device is iOS or Android
- only users with a Wi-Fi connection are shown the ad
- you want to target smartphones or tablets
These are important options, especially for mobile ads. You can prepare ads specific to iOS and Android platforms, create different ads for smartphones and tablets, and overall this gives you more flexibility. To get more app store downloads, try running one of these ads.
6. Event Ads
Advertise an upcoming event you’re a part of with an Event Ad which informs people where and when the event is, and lets them join the guest list with one click.
One of the really important things to remember about event ads is that you need to finetune your targeting strategy. If you’re hosting an event in Kansas City, there’s (usually) no reason for your audience to be outside of the city. Forgetting to tweak your target audience can end up costing hundreds of dollars so always double-check.
These don’t have to be just physical events either. You could use a Facebook event ad to advertise an upcoming sale for your online store, or something similar.
7. Local Ads
One of the handy types of Facebook ads for businesses is Local Ads. Whilst a very simple concept, these ads are perfect for specific location targeted ads.
Let’s say you’re running a store and decide to use Facebook ads to grow your business. Running a local ad will allow you to advertise your business to people who are nearby and who your services/products are relevant to.
People who live 10-15 miles away aren’t likely to contact you. On the other hand, local residents will definitely consider clicking the “Call Now” button.
8. Boosted Ads
To finish off our list of types of Facebook ads we’ve got the most common, and probably the one you’re most familiar with: Boosted Ads.
After posting a new status, photo, video, or anything else on your page (in the form of a normal post), the option to “boost” will appear. This is the most convenient way of activating a Facebook ad if you’re a beginner, and it’s very simplistic.
When you boost a post you’ll be able to assign a target audience and choose your budget, just like every other ad. Afterwards your ad will be displayed on timelines and marked as a Sponsored post.
Which Types of Facebook Ads Are the Best?
It’ll come as no surprise that every business benefits from each type of ad differently. So, specifying the best ad for your business would be complete speculation. The first step to finding out which type of ad to run is setting a goal.
Giving an ad campaign something to achieve, like driving 15% more traffic to your landing page within the month, is important. If you fail, in the future when you attempt to achieve a similar goal, you’ll remember, “Well I tried doing this last time and it didn’t work, I’ll try this instead”.
Now that you have a goal, it’s easier to select a type of Facebook ad. Your goal should come under one of Facebook’s 3 goal groups:
- Conversions
- Awareness
- Considerations
In each group, you’ll find various goals and from here, you can experiment to find out the best ad type for your business.
This is just another form of A/B testing – you’re trying out different types of ads to see which performs best. Spreading your budget across too many different types can result in wasteful spending, so be cautious about this.
Get Help with Facebook Ads from KonvertLab
There you have it – the main types of Facebook ads that you need to be aware of for running a campaign.
It’s a lot to take in and there are a few other types we missed out. Figuring out which ones will benefit your business the greatest is going to take time and patience, and you may make a few mistakes along the way which prolong the process.
For that reason, why not get in touch with us? At KonvertLab, we’ve got years of experience delivering high-performing Facebook Ads campaigns. All you need to do is book a meeting and we’ll dive into the specifics with you.