Facebook Ads Explained

By Sek Lam on September 18, 2022

Do you want to learn how to make money with Facebook advertising? Are you looking for a way to get started without spending thousands of dollars?

Facebook ads are a great way to promote your products and services online. They work well because they target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviours, and geography. In fact, Facebook ads are so effective that many businesses spend over 50% of their ad budget on Facebook alone.

If you've never used Facebook Ads before, then you might not know where to begin. This article will help you understand exactly what Facebook advertising is, why it works, and how to get started.

What is Facebook Ad?

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Facebook ads are advertisements that appear in the news feed of users' Facebook pages. You can use them to promote any product or service, but most people use them to sell something.

You can create an ad campaign by selecting one or more options from the drop-down menu at the top right corner of the screen. 

Facebook Ads Placement

The places where you can run your ads are called placements. Depending on the objective you choose when you create your campaign, your ads can appear on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.

Ads Manager groups placements by how people experience your ads across platforms. For example, people have similar experiences with your Stories ads on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.

These are the current placements available across Facebook's platforms:

Feeds

Your ad appears to people scrolling through their inbox, desktop or mobile feeds.

  • Facebook News Feed
  • Instagram feed
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Facebook video feeds
  • Facebook right column
  • Instagram Explore
  • Instagram Shop
  • Messenger Inbox
Example of Facebook Ad

Stories

Your full-screen vertical ad appears in people's stories.

  • Facebook Stories
  • Instagram Stories
  • Messenger Stories

In-stream

Your ads appear before, during or after video content.

  • Facebook in-stream videos
  • Instagram in-stream videos
  • Instagram Reels

Search

  • Facebook search results

Messages

  • Messenger sponsored messages

In-article

  • Facebook Instant Articles

Apps

Your ads appear in external apps.

  • Audience Network native, banner and interstitial
  • Audience Network rewarded videos

Oculus

Your ads appear in the Store section of the Oculus mobile app.

  • Oculus Mobile App Feed
  • Oculus Mobile App Search Results:

Types of Facebook Ads Format

Here are the ad formats that are available for Facebook Ads

1. Image

Image ads allow you to show off your product, service or brand using a single photo and an optional footer.

Image Ads are best to be used for:

  • To increase interest in your product or services.
  • To raise awareness of your products or services
  • To deliver a simple message.

2. Carousel

The carousel format lets you show two or more images and/or videos in a single ad, each with its own headline, description, link and call to action.

You can use carousel ads to:

  • Showcase multiple products that each link to different landing pages.
  • Explain the multiple benefits of a single product.
  • Tell a story.
  • Explain a flow or process.
  • Create a larger canvas.

3. Collection

The collection format includes an Instant Experience and makes it easier for people to discover, browse and purchase products and services from their phones in a visual and immersive way. Your collection ad includes a cover image or video with multiple products shown underneath. When someone taps on the ad, a full-screen Instant Experience opens.

You can use collection ads to:

  • Drive product discovery.
  • Deliver a seamless browsing experience on mobile devices.
  • Convert demand into sales.
  • Show off your product catalogue.

4. Instant experience

Instant Experience is a full-screen experience that opens after someone taps your ad on a mobile device.

Use Instant Experience to:

  • Capture the attention of your audience.
  • Tell a story about your brand.
  • Highlight your products or services.
  • Add more content to your ad.

Within an Instant Experience, people can watch videos, swipe through photos in a carousel, view products in your catalogue, explore images with tagged products and tap buttons to go to other web pages.

5. Video

Video ads allow you to show off your product, service or brand using a video.

You can use video ads to:

  • Show off your product, service or brand in new ways.
  • Capture attention quickly.
  • Deliver a single message.

6. Stories

Stories ads are full-screen image, video or carousel ads that appear between stories on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Unlike organic Stories, Stories ads do not disappear after 24 hours.

Creating Stories ads is a great way for businesses to engage people:

You will find some compelling statistics here that showcase the power of Stories Ads.

7. Branded content

Branded content is a creator or publisher's content that features or is influenced by a business partner for an exchange of value. Creators or publishers are responsible for tagging a business partner's Page when posting branded content.

  • Creators include celebrities, influencers or public figures that post branded content.
  • Publishers include media companies and entities that post branded content.
  • Business partners include brands, advertisers, marketers or sponsors that sponsor branded content.

Benefits of Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads have become one of the most effective marketing tools for small businesses. They offer many benefits such as reach, cost-effectiveness, flexibility and ease of management.

Reach

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The first benefit of Facebook Ads is its reach. With over 1.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook has a huge potential customer base. It also offers a wide range of targeting options which allows you to target specific audiences based on their interests, location, age, gender, relationship status, education level, occupation, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and even what they like to eat!

Cost Effectiveness

The second advantage of Facebook Ads is its low cost per conversion. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and converts into a lead or sale. This means that if you’re running a campaign with a budget of $100, you only need to spend $1 to get 100 leads or sales.

Flexibility

Another advantage of Facebook Ads is that it gives you complete control over how you want to run your campaigns. You can set up multiple ad groups, create different types of ads (text, display, etc.), choose from various targeting options, and manage your budget all at once.

Ease of Management

Finally, Facebook Ads makes managing your advertising campaigns easy. You can easily track performance using insights and reports. You can also see detailed information about each individual user who clicked on your ad.

Conclusion

Hope we managed to simplify and explain what is Facebook Ads and the benefit of running one for your business.

We know it can be hard to manage your Facebook Ads while working on your business at the same time. Well now you save your time and concentrate on your business. We will help with your Facebook Ads. Specflux is the trusted provider for Facebook Ads marketing.

Article written by Sek Lam
Co-founder of Specflux Solution, he helps business increase their marketing ROI. He is also running Ipoh based digital marketing agency with his partner.

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