Facebook Ads: Selecting Placements, Formats, and Creative

— November 24, 2017

When you see a video ad in your Facebook News Feed, you’re seeing an ad’s placement. As well as its format (video). Simply, placements are where your ads will appear and formats are how your ads will appear. The creative portion of the ads is not graphics. It is the type of media you’ll use in your ad such as a video file or image.

Always think about what you are trying to accomplish with your ads. This is what Facebook calls the Objective. Without this your not spending your money wisely. Just putting an ad on Facebook is not as simple as “just.” You have to think about who, what and why. Most campaigns have more than 1 ad or rather in 1 campaign there are 2 ad sets containing ads. This gets you better results as you can create different placements to see what works best.

Facebook Ads: Selecting Placements, Formats, and Creative

Different types of Placements can reach specific audiences. So choosing the right placement is paramount to a campaigns success. Below are some examples of placements:

  • Facebook News Feed (mobile and desktop)
  • Instant Articles (mobile only)
  • In-Stream Videos (mobile and desktop)
  • Right Column (desktop only)Instagram (mobile only)
  • Audience Network (mobile and desktop)
  • Messenger (mobile and desktop)

Placements

Specific placements are only available for your campaign depending on the Objective. Only certain campaigns will be eligible for certain placements listed above. If you use the brand awareness objective, you can deliver ads across Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook Ads: Selecting Placements, Formats, and Creative

When possible, we recommend selecting all eligible placements, but we understand that cost is a real concern. Therefore, we’ll help you choose the best based on your budget and spend.

Formats and Creative Types of Ads

Objectives determine your ads placements, but creative does too. The following are the most popular creative ways to display your ads on Facebook’s News feed to your potential customers. For this post we’ll only list 4 to keep things simple.

  • Single Image
  • Carousel
  • Single Video
  • Slideshow

Single Image Ad

Create an ad with a single compelling lifestyle imagery. This imagery can target people who have viewed products on your website. But beware not to add to much text to the image, that’s what your feed titles and descriptions are for. Moreover, don’t become concerned about your logo in the shot. It’s on your Facebook account, so customers will know it’s you.

Carousel Ad

Facebook Ads: Selecting Placements, Formats, and Creative

Create an ad with 2–4 clickable images or videos. You can do up to 10 as of this article but we don’t recommend that due to attention spans. These ads give you more creative real estate. And can capture attention if you are careful to choose the right imagery to hook your audience.

Single Video Ad

Create an ad with one video that brings your brand to life through sight, sound, and motion. Capture attention quickly with visuals. Start with your more captivating content and incorporate your brand identity early. Telling your story visually with text and graphics. Don’t go always for the shock or viral approach. Just be clear, concise and genuine.

Slideshow Ad

Create a looping video. Start with a strong opening to hook your audience from the News Feed. Grab their attention and motivate them to click through and view the rest of the Canvas. It’s possible that your audience may not always reach the end of your ad, so make sure your creative and messaging gets to the point.

  • Creating a slideshow usually requires much less bandwidth to meet your storytelling needs.
  • Use pre-existing assets including images from your product catalog and print campaigns. You can use up to 10 images.
  • Create a slideshow using clips from pre-existing videos.

Conclusion

We hope that this was helpful as you start your Facebook Ads strategy. If you have questions contact us or leave a comment below and our team representatives will be in touch soon.

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Author: Jason Davis

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