Choosing the right Facebook ad options
There is a broad range of Facebook Ads Targeting options available combined with a range of objectives and ad formats.
Objectives
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversions
Formats
- Video
- Image
- Carousel
- Collection
- Dynamic
Audiences
These are broken into 3 main segments
- Core audiences
- Custom audiences
- Lookalike audiences
- Audience testing
n.b. Facebook ad objectives and Facebook ad formats are two distinct things:
Facebook ad objectives = Your goals
Facebook ad format = How your ad appears creatively
Facebook ad Objectives
Types of Facebook Ad objectives
Facebook have recently reviewed and simplified ad objectives from:
To:
Facebook objectives are designed to ensure Facebook show your ads to people most likely to complete that objective. The objectives are also aligned with different stages in the sales funnel and should be used in conjunction with other ad campaigns on the same or other ad platforms.
Objectives extracted from FB help pages
Awareness
Objectives that generate interest in your product or service. Increasing brand awareness is about telling people what makes your business valuable. For example, Jasper’s Market is going to launch a small regional chain of supermarkets. Using the Brand Awareness objective, they can create a campaign that highlights their fresh, organic produce to people in the local area.
Consideration
Objectives that get people to think about your business and seek more information. For example, Jasper’s Market has a website that tells their story and lists some of their shop’s unique offerings. Using the Traffic objective, they can create a campaign that encourages people to visit their site to learn more.
Conversions
Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to buy or use your product or service. For example, Jasper’s Market has opened a few new locations. Using the Store Traffic objective, they can create a campaign to encourage potential customers to stop by their nearest shop.
As your business grows, your campaign goals will change. First, your campaigns may focus on building awareness and acquiring new customers. Later, you may encourage people to make a purchase or sign up for an event.
Ad formats
A Facebook ad format is the way your ad is presented creatively. Each ad objective has different ad formats you can choose from, and not all ad formats are available for all ad objectives.
Ad formats you can currently choose include:
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Collection ads
- Dynamic ads
The above ads also have variations in terms of data collection in the form of
- Lead form ads
- Messenger Ads
Image ads
You can use the image format in the Facebook News Feed to show off your product, service or brand. Choose an interesting image of a product to encourage people to learn more about it, or use an eye-catching photo to showcase your brand personality.
Video ads
You can use the video format in the Facebook News Feed to show off your product, service or brand in new ways. Include movement and sound to capture attention quickly and show unique features of a product or tell your brand story.
Carousel ads
You can use the carousel format in the Facebook News Feed to showcase up to ten images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link. With more creative space within an ad, you can highlight different products, showcase specific details about one product, service or promotion, or tell a story about your brand that develops across each carousel card.
Collection ads
Collection ads in Facebook News Feed includes a cover image or video followed by three product images. When someone taps on a collection ad, they see an Instant Experience – a full-screen landing page that drives engagement and nurtures interest and intent. When you create your Instant Experience, you can use the storefront, lookbook or customer acquisition templates, or build a custom Instant Experience.
Dynamic ads
Dynamic creative helps advertisers automatically deliver high-performing combinations of their creative assets to their audiences. Dynamic creative accepts the basic components of a Facebook ad (image, video, title, description, etc) and automatically generates optimised ad combinations based on these components. These ads are then served across placements to explore the performance of each creative element within the given audience. Dynamic creative ads can be applied to Conversion, Traffic, Video Views, Reach, Brand Awareness, and App Install campaigns.
Dynamic creative accepts up to 10 images/videos, and 5 of each text asset (body text, title, description, CTA)
Lead form ads
Lead ads allow you to find people who may be interested in your products or services and collect information from them. Using an Instant Form, you can collect contact information such as name, email address, phone number and more. These forms also let you include custom questions to help you understand your potential customers and reach your business goals.
You can use lead ads to:
- Identify potential customers for your business
- Collect subscriber information for your company newsletter
- Encourage downloads of white papers or brochures
- Understand the interests and behaviours of potential clients
- Get people to enrol in your programmes
You can create lead ads in Ads Manager or from your Facebook Page. Lead ads appear in Facebook News Feed, Facebook Stories, Instant Articles, in-stream videos, Marketplace, Instagram feed and Instagram Stories.When people click on your ad, they will be prompted to fill in your form. Once people have submitted your form, you can download your leads data directly from Ads Manager or your Facebook Page, or connect to a CRM system such as Mailchimp or Salesforce.
Audiences
Facebook has a range of audiences to help you reach the whole world or just a few. Facebook will automatically show your ads to people who are most likely to find your ads relevant. You can further target your ad delivery with three audience selection tools.
Core audiences
With Core Audiences, you set the rules for where your ads are delivered. Adjust your target audience to be as broad or well-defined as you like, based on:
- Location
- Demographics
- Interests
- Behaviour
- Connections
Custom audiences
Custom audiences allow us to target people who have already engaged with your business by way of customer lists, website or Facebook asset engagements e.g. Facebook page, messenger or instagram.
Lookalike audiences
Lookalike Audiences are a fast and effective way to connect with people who are likely to respond to your ads. All you need to do is create a source audience of people you know. Your ads will then reach people with common interests and traits.
Audience testing
Using combinations of above we test which audiences deliver better ROAS. These core audiences are subject to regular update and change in line with Facebook global policies. Ad campaign optimisation also requires dynamic updates to these audiences to avoid remarketing to users who have made meaningful engagements with your ads. This allows 00000’s of potential audience combinations with real time machine learning as a critical support function.