Introduction
Social media is such a dynamic field. New platforms coming up every now and then while others becoming obsolete. It is becoming an increasingly popular mode of marketing. Its no surprise that Facebook advertising is leading the growth of social media marketing- well it has largest number of users to its credit. Also, the Facebook ad formats have evolved quite interestingly over the years adding to its popularity as a marketing platform.
Facebook marketing growing steadily and ad formats are evolving rapidly. Sometimes it becomes difficult for advertisers to decide what Ad format suits their business best.
Guess what? You have found your saviour- by the time this blog concludes, hopefully all your doubts will be cleared.
What is Facebook Marketing?
First of all why facebook marketing?
If the facts such as facebook has over 1.6 billion users and over one million advertisers can not convince you, there are other compelling reasons too. Few reasons are listed below.
Targeted Audience
In other digital media marketing formats, namely Adwords Pay Per Click (PPC), advertisers do keyword research related to their product or service. Target the keywords and bid for them . The ads are optimised such that whenever a customer searches for those keywords, their ad appear in the results. On the contrary, in Facebook advertising you target the audience. Targeting is done according to their interest, hobbies, marital and parental status, etc. Thus your ad appears before the targeted audience only. No search is involved.
Economical
Who doesn’t want to save money? Believe me when I say Facebook is an economical advertising option. I know you wouldn’t take my word for it. Here is the justification of my claim. When you advertise to a targeted audience you automatically save money by avoiding false leads or unnecessary clicks. This is not all, the bidding is fairly less competitive as the competitors are not bidding for the same keywords.
Variety
The better or worse part of Facebook marketing is the variety of ads it offers. Video, Image, carousel are few worth mentioning. More we will discuss in later part of the blog. Variety at times gets confusing. Although, in my personal opinion I feel Facebook has done a decent job in integrating advertising with its interface. It does not makes its user feel cheated or frustrated. We all can agree that too much of online advertising can get a bit irritating at times.
Another factor adding to the charm of Facebook marketing is that it is equally effective and finds audience with the mobile device users through the app. This alone sets Facebook marketing above other digital marketing platforms.
Facebook Ad Formats
Coming on to the much awaited part of the blog- Facebook ad formats. Facebook has a number of ad formats to choose from. When an advertiser is not sure about the objectives s/he wants to fulfill from the ad campaign, it is there when confusion about the ad format arises. Once the objectives are identified, the choice becomes clear. The objectives of the ad campaign could be generating traffic on the website, engagement, brand awareness, etc.
Therefore it will only be appropriate to classify ads based on the objectives they intend to fulfill.
Facebook Ad Formats For Generating Web Traffic
One of the most common purpose of advertising is to generate web traffic. Most of the advertisers want to reach out to maximum audience. Then the challenge is to send them to the landing page and generate lead.
Domain Ad
This is one of the easiest Facebook ad format to create. It only contains a heading description and Url. Also it is relative cheaper than the other ad formats. It appears on the right hand side only and thus is not displayed on mobiles. When clicked, it takes the customer to the website’s landing page.
News Feed Ad
As the name suggests, Ad placement is in the news feed of Facebook. The ad contains heading, description and image. Eligible for both desktop and mobile devices. Most commonly used ad format which also generate likes and comments. Needless to say that the image should be attractive and comments should be answered. This helps in expanding audience interaction.
Facebook Ad Formats For Generating sales
Most effective for those who have many products to advertise such as e-commerce websites. It allows you to showcase multiple products in a single ad.
Multi Product Ads
This ad format is very popular among the e-commerce advertisers or brands. Ads listing is in the news feed of both mobile and desktop. Up To five images can be used in a slideshow of a single ad. Each image has its own url linking to the relevant landing page. Also known as Carousel ads.
Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)
Best format to use if you want to re-target the audience who visited your website but didn’t purchased the product. Facebook Pixel is generated while creating the DPA ad, which is inserted in your website. Pixel tracks those customers who do not complete the purchase.
Lead Generating Ads
As it is obvious from the name these ads are designed to generate leads. These ads have a clickable subscription or submit tab which allows interested viewers to register for information, newsletter, demo, appointment, whatever the advertiser is offering without leaving the Facebook app. It is very similar to other Facebook ads.
Facebook Ad Formats For Engagement
These Facebook ad formats are meant to engage the audience. It could be said that these ads are sponsored posts which viewers can like, comment and share. An advertiser can post a video, image or simply text which appeals to its targeted audience generating engagement and extending reach. Videos are particularly effective as they draw most attention and also provide retargeting opportunity based on the length of video viewers have watched. On the contrary text post is less effective and appealing.
Facebook Ad Formats For Installing App
These ads are specifically designed with a call of action to install advertisers app either on mobile or on desktop. Separate ads are needed for the mobile and desktop users. The URL of the app is to be provided by the advertiser for the google app store or apple app store while creating the particular ad so that customers can directly go to the respective app store and download the app.
Facebook Ad Formats For Events And Offers
This Facebook ad format is suited for brick and mortar business where need is to drive customer to a physical store or an event. The demographic targeting of local and nearby audience is done and usually an offer helps motivate viewers to join the event. Ad comprises of heading, description and an image. Advertiser also has the choice to insert address and map.
Apart from all these Facebook ad formats there is a useful tool called Canva. This tool can help design better and appealing Facebook ads. The word is Facebook will be launching its own Ad designing tool, but this needs a separate blog to deal with.
Comment and share if you find this blog useful. Open to suggestions and opinions.
