Facebook Advertising: Which Ad Types Are Best For Your Business?

When you’re just getting started with Facebook Advertising, it can be challenging to know which types of ads are the most effective. This post provides a breakdown of each ad type available on Facebook and its respective benefits.

A quick disclaimer before we begin: when choosing an ad type, it’s crucial to consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your ad. This can include anything from generating more leads to increasing conversions on a product page. However, with a thorough understanding of your target audience and the type of ad you want to create (which we’ll discuss below), you should find an option that works best for you.

Image Ads

Image ads are shown within the newsfeed and take up a significant chunk of space. They’re 728 x 90 pixels on a desktop and 160 x 600 pixels on mobile devices.

Image Ads Benefits

Image ads have a substantially higher click-through rate (CTR) than other ad types. Because of this, image ads are used more often than other ad types. Although the initial setup process can be time-consuming for new users, it’s easy to use and maintain once you’ve finalized your design.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Image Ads

Image ads work best for brands that want to catch the viewer’s attention with an eye-catching image. This makes them great for eCommerce businesses because they can show a product alongside their ad copy.

Video Ads

Video ads are shown within the newsfeed and can be up to 60 seconds in length. They’re essentially the same as image ads, except they have the ability to loop.

Video Ads Benefits

Video ads allow a brand to tell its story through video or even GIFs. Similar to image ads, video ads have a 20% higher click-through rate than other ad types. They also have an engagement rate of 8%, which is 25% higher than that of different ad types.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Video Ads

Video ads are beneficial for brands that want to engage their viewers with a product demonstration or testimonial. They’re also great for companies that wish to humanize their brand by showcasing the faces behind the company and provide the story behind their products.

Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are an extension of image ads, giving you the chance to showcase multiple images within a single post. They’re shown in the newsfeed and work best when looking for incremental reach.

Carousel Ads Benefits

Carousel ads allow brands to showcase up to 10 images or videos in a single ad. Like video ads, they have a 20% higher click-through rate than other ad types. They also have an engagement rate of 10%, which is higher than that of different ad types.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are beneficial for brands that want to increase their reach without making multiple ad sets within their ad account. In addition, they’re helpful for companies that have a lot of inventory to show and want to give their viewers the ability to click through each image within the carousel or for those that want to feature more than one product within their ad copy.

Poll Ads

This mobile-only Facebook ad format allows you to incorporate an interactive component by adding a two-option poll about your image or video topic. In addition, you can add separate links that will direct people to different pages for each choice, depending on what they vote on in the poll.

Benefits of Poll Ads

Poll ads are an excellent way for brands to connect with their audience by providing something fun and engaging. Like video and carousel ads, poll ads have a higher click-through rate than other ad types. In addition, because they are specifically designed to encourage engagement, they rank among the highest ad types for user interaction.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Poll Ads

Brands that want a simple way to establish a conversation with their audience are best suited for poll ads. Because they provide the viewer with a question, they help build rapport by starting the discussion with your brand. The question can be as specific or abstract as you make it, so they’re a good fit for almost any business.

Lead Ads

Lead ads are a mobile-only option because they’re designed to allow users to quickly sign up for more information on a product or service by pre-filling their email addresses. In addition, they can only be used in conjunction with Facebook’s lead generation forms, which are automatically generated when you create the ad.

Benefits of Using Lead Ads

Lead ads allow brands to grow their email lists and nurture relationships with their customers. They also enable marketers to follow up with leads off the Facebook platform by integrating with email autoresponder services like MailChimp or Active Campaign.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Lead Ads

Brands that post frequent deals, coupons, or specials can benefit from lead ads because the cost of reaching leads go down dramatically once they are captured into your CRM. They’re also beneficial for companies who want to increase awareness about their products and services by establishing lasting relationships with their customers.

Dynamic Ads

This ad type allows you to target recipients based on activities they have taken in the past, such as interacting with your webpage or even looking at a specific product. The dynamic ad is an excellent way to help you reach customers that are already interested in your products.

Benefits of Using Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads help marketers increase engagement and conversion rates through hyper-targeting potential customers based on their activity. In addition, dynamic ads allow for better targeting of existing users instead of looking for new leads outside of the immediate customer base.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Dynamic Ads

Ecommerce sites can particularly benefit from dynamic ads since they can reach viewers who have already expressed interest in their particular products in the past. By continuing to put these products in front of the viewer, they’re able to increase the likelihood of a conversion.

Promoted Posts

This Facebook ad type allows a marketer to boost any post they’ve created on their newsfeed by promoting it with an ad and increased reach. This is a great option for marketers trying to establish engagement with their audience because it’s organic content that your customers are already interested in.

Benefits of Promoted Posts

Since an existing page administrator makes the post, it already has a valuable voice and reputation to back it up. Promoted posts are also great for reaching new audiences that haven’t seen your organic content before. It allows marketers to increase awareness of their product or service outside of their typical audience base.

Types of Businesses Best Suited for Promoted Posts

Any company that’s already established a solid presence on Facebook can benefit from promoting its posts with ads. However, this is particularly beneficial for pages that have content that has been generating interaction among users. This often includes brands sharing their product updates, announcements, or industry news.

Conclusion

There’s no denying the power of Facebook advertising. The platform’s sheer amount of users makes it a great way for marketers to acquire new leads, but the number of different advertising options they offer can be overwhelming.

By efficiently understanding and taking advantage of these Facebook advertising options, businesses can improve ROI and build their online following. Each one offers distinct benefits for different types of companies and business models. At the end of the day, it’s essential to find the ad type that works best for your brand and use it to increase your revenue.