Facebook 101 - Ad Formats [Social Media 101]

As a business, you want to gain the attention of potential customers. Social media offers a lot of benefits for business owners and can give you the exposure your business may need. This is a great place to build your audience and engage with them at a low cost, building your brand awareness and loyalty.

Advertising is just another way for you to grow your brand awareness and get your MSP’s products and services out there to the public and business owners. By advertising on social media - especially Facebook, one of the largest social media platforms out there - you can reach a huge audience.

Are you using your Facebook to your business’ advantage? If not, you should be. With Facebook Ads, you can set your own budget; once you have reached the amount set for that particular ad, it stops pushing your ad out there to the targeted audience. Keep in mind that the higher your budget on the ad is, the more users that particular ad can potentially reach.

Facebook is growing in popularity for businesses to advertise with; don’t miss out on your opportunity for business growth.

Advertising Formats Available Through Facebook

Facebook has made it easy to create ads: the platform will walk you through steps where you can choose the type of ad, define your audience, and set your budget and timeframe. This allows businesses more exposure, traffic, and many chances to capture the attention of prospective clients.

As of now, there are eleven ways in which you can advertise on Facebook's platform. Below are very brief overviews on the ad formats you can use to promote your services with Facebook's advertising. Be on the lookout for our upcoming blog series, which will cover each of these in more depth and include mockup examples of each type.

1. Video

Facebook has made creating video ads easier. As you may have noticed, videos are growing in popularity as ads on Facebook. This is because many people prefer hearing and seeing ads rather than reading them. This form of advertising really does help showcase your business and what you can do.

If you choose to create a video ad for Facebook, here are just some of the specs that you need to be aware of.

• Video Ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
• Video File Size: 4GB Max
• Video Length Minimum: 1 second
• Video Length Maximum: 240 minutes

Also note that vertical videos (with aspect ratio taller than 4:5) may be masked to 4:5 and video thumbnail images that consist of more than 20% text may experience reduced delivery.

View Facebook’s Official Recommendations and Requirements for This Ad Type

2. Image

Using an image ad is easy; however, picking the right image is key. You want the image to be inspiring or interesting. You want your image to draw the attention, to engage the prospect. Making someone feel an emotion about an image is a good way to get them to engage with that particular post. A quote comes to mind with this: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

When choosing to create an ad with an image on Facebook, here are some specs you need to be aware of.

• File Type: jpg or png
• Image Ratio: 1.91:1 to 4:5

It’s also recommended to upload the highest resolution image possible.

View Facebook’s Official Recommendations and Requirements for This Ad Type

3. Collection

This ad format is a cover image or video followed up by several other product images. This makes it easy for people to browse products and services in a more visual and immersive way. You’ve basically just created an instant storefront. When a prospect clicks on a collection ad, they will open up an Instant Experience, which opens it up to a full screen. This will drive engagement and encourage interest.

There are some specs that you need to be aware of if you choose this form of advertising on Facebook:

• Image or Video: The cover image or video that displays in your collection ad uses the first media asset from your Instant Experience. Vertical images or videos may be masked to a max 1:1 ratio in Feed
• Headline: 25 characters
• Text: 90 characters

View Facebook’s Official Recommendations and Requirements for This Ad Type

4. Carousel

By using the carousel ad format, you are allowed to showcase up to 10 images or videos within the one ad, each with its own link. There is more space in the ad to be able to promote each product. You can show specific details about one product or service that can grow with each carousel card.

Here are some of the specs that you need to be aware of when choosing this ad format:

• Minimum Number of Cards: 2
• Maximum Number of Cards: 10
• Image File Type: jpg or png
• Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
• Video Length: up to 240 minutes
• Image Maximum File Size: 30MB

View Facebook’s Official Recommendations and Requirements for This Ad Type

5. Slideshow

The slideshow is a video of images put together. You can use these images to tell a story about your products and services. It offers a great way to demonstrate how your services work.

Slideshow ads can be created in a few minutes. You can create these ads from a desktop or mobile device. These typically load quickly and play well on every kind of connection speed. If you do not have images to use in your slideshow, Facebook has provided a selection of free stock images for you to use.

Just like any other form of advertising on Facebook, slideshow has specific specs they require as well. Here are just some of them:

• Video Ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
• Video File Size: 4GB Max
• Video Length Minimum: 1 second
• Video Length Maximum: 240 minutes

It’s also recommended to upload the highest resolution video available that meets file size and ratio limits

View Facebook’s Official Recommendations and Requirements for This Ad Type

6. Instant Experience

This is a full-screen ad experience that allows you to bring your brand, products, and services to life on a mobile device. Prospects are able to watch videos, photos, swipe through carousels, fill out a form, and check out your products and services quickly. This format of advertising gets the attention of the user and it can be used with nearly all Facebook ad formats.

Depending on what ad format you choose, the specs are determined by that format.

View Facebook’s Official Recommendations and Requirements for This Ad Type

7. Lead Generation Ads

This form of ad helps you collect information from people that have shown interest in your business. It is usually shown as a carousel, video or image, and then it will be followed up by a lead form when the person engages with the ad.

When your ad is being shown, the user can just tap/click on your ad and a pre-filled form pops up using their Facebook contact information. You can create the questions in the lead ads so that it will uncover what service they would be most interested in. This makes it easier for the user, and this will generate a qualified lead for your business. Lead ads work on Facebook and Instagram.

View Facebook’s Official Information Regarding This Ad Type

8. Offers

You can encourage clients and prospects to make a purchase by offering discounts or deals with this form of advertising on Facebook. Create coupons or discounts right from your Facebook Business Page to let people in your area know about those deals. You can create your offer as an image, video, or carousel ad. You can design it so the prospect can redeem your offer online or come in to your business, or perhaps both!

Unlike a regular Facebook page post, the users that save your offer will automatically get notified before the offer expires so they will not forget to use it.

View Facebook’s Official Information Regarding This Ad Type

9. Post Engagement

Everytime you share a post on Facebook, you can manage the ad or post by boosting it. By boosting the post, it creates the chance to deliver more likes, comments, shares and views. Boosting helps to get users to engage in a post so you stay top of mind. Check out our blog on Facebook Boosting for more information.

There is no denying that the more people you can reach with your ads, the more you will get noticed. You can select the reach and frequency of the particular ad/post. This ad type is perfect for showcasing your services and products while building brand awareness.

View Facebook’s Official Information Regarding This Ad Type

10. Event Responses

By using the Event Responses ad format, you will create an image or a video that will be used to bring awareness to the event you are hosting and drive traffic to your event. This will get the word out about your upcoming event and help get more people through your door. You want to stay on top of people's minds so when they are ready to buy they think of you.

The technical aspects of using this ad format will depend if you choose to use a video or image; you can see the technical specifications under those formats above.

View Facebook’s Official Information Regarding This Ad Type

11. Page Likes

To be able to create a Page Likes ad with Facebook, you’ll have to have a page role that allows you to advertise. You then will go to your page and promote it. The promote button can be found on the left side of the page.

You will have a few options that you need to fill out to be able to promote your page. Here are just some of the things you will need to do:

• Ad Creative: Provide text and select an image or video for your ad
• Audience: Choose a recommended audience or create a new audience based on specific traits
• Daily Budget: Select a recommended budget or provide a custom budget
• Duration: Select one of the suggested time frames or provide a specific end date
• Payment Method: Review your payment method (you may need to set up a payment method with Facebook)

Once that is done you will be able to select “promote.”

View Facebook’s Official Information Regarding This Ad Type

Get Help from the MSP Marketing Experts

There are so many ways to advertise and technical aspects of advertising with Facebook. They have made it relatively easy and straightforward... but it can still be time consuming to figure things out. That’s what we are here for.

Let us help you with all of your social media advertising needs! At JoomConnect, we would love to assist you with getting your business to grow by social advertising. Give us a call today at 888-546-4384 to get this started for you!