Facebook Ad Types for Ecommerce: A Complete Guide

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When running an eCommerce business you’ve got only two choices: Get busy promoting or get busy dying. Forever and ever amen.

Turns out Facebook Ads are the best bet to get your eCommerce promotional projects on wheels.
Why, you ask?

It’s because through Facebook ads you could drive maximum leads for your business, specifically in 2017, thanks to its staggering user base.

Some major plus points that make Facebook Ads ads popular among businesses:

• Facebook desktop and mobile users : 1.18 billion daily active users as of September 2016
• Instagram: 600 million users, as of December 2016 – with 50% of all users following a business
• Facebook Messenger: More than one billion monthly active users as of July 2016
• According to Zuckerberg’s Facebook profile, there’s more people on Facebook than there were alive 100 years ago.
• Users spend almost 50 minutes every day on an average on all the above mentioned Facebook properties.
• Organic reach is in decline on Facebook. So Facebook Ads are the best bets to reaching the target audience.
• Businesses can target audience on the basis of demographics, age, gender, interests, behavior, and so on
• Cost per click is relatively cheap.
• Setting up is easier than Google Adwords
• Campaigns are easier to track
• Instant return on investment

For all I know, this is heads and shoulders above any other tech property.

So, if growing your eCommerce brand is your topmost priority this year, choose Facebook Ads. Here’s a list of 8 Facebook ads that eCommerce companies should start taking advantage of without much ado:

#1. Lead Ads

For all the time people spent on smartphones, communicating with businesses is still not that easy when it comes to knowing more about a particular product or service.

Enter Facebook Lead Ads.

When a visitor signs up for these lead ads, businesses connect with them right away through newsletters, quotes and offers.

The best part of lead ads is that they get automatically populated. So when someone clicks on a Lead ad, that person’s contact information, including their name and email address gets automatically filled up.

Facebook-Lead-Ads
Now how does this happen?
Image source: vicimediainc.com

Simple. The information you may have shared with Facebook while opening your account comes handy here.

Metrics that matter – Lead Ads

• Available on both Facebook desktop and mobile and on Instagram (beta)
• Required image size: 1,200 x 628 pixels
• Text: 90 characters
• Headline: 25 characters
• Link Description: 30 characters
• Context card could either be in paragraph format with no character limit.
• Context card could also be in 5-bulletpoint format that allows 80 characters per bullet
• Context card headline: 60 characters
• Context card button: 30 characters
• For more detailed specifications, check out here.

2. Canvas Ads

Canvas ads are meant for B2B storytellers. They help you come up with amazing product video ads for mobile. So if you got a complex product that could do with lot of explaining, try Canvas. You can also use it for displaying data and infographics, not to mention multiple videos.

Just like Instant Articles, Canvas ad opens up on your Facebook app and loads within a second’s time. This is one of the biggest plus points because such rich media ads load far too slowly on mobile.

• The average viewing time of the ads currently is at 31 seconds
• Top Canvas ads are seeing as high as 70 seconds per viewing

Facebook-Canvas-Ads

Image source: socialmediaexaminer.com

Metrics that matter – Canvas ads

• Image size: 1,200 x 628 pixels
• Text: 90 characters
• Headline: 45 characters
• Text should not more than 20% of the image
• Button for offsite links
• Image carousel
• Auto-play video
For more details on Canvas ads check out here.

3. Domain Ads (Directed to your website)

Also referred to as ‘Page Post Link Ads,’ the ads either could be a Desktop or Right-Column ad.
And by the way, this is the most used format on Facebook, mostly because it works. And if your Facebook Pixel works correctly, you could keep track of every visitor clicks and then re-target them on Facebook.

Facebook Ads- Domain ads
Image source: neilpatel.com

However, there’s one caveat: The ad text should cover just 20% of the image. Sure, the rule is no longer official, but you can still be penalized if you fill your ad with too much of text. Use the text overlay tool to know whether you ad abides by the 20% rule.

Meterics that matter: Domain ads

• Image size: 600 pixels x 315 pixels
• Single image ad
• The above text description is optional
• The link below the image leads you to the website
• Text: 90 characters

4. Carousel Ads ( Multi-Product Ads)

You could use Facebook Carousel Ads to display, not 1, not 2, but 5 clickable images or videos within a single ad. This means you have got more options to experiment in terms of showcasing your products, services and promotions.

Facebook ads- Carousal Ads
Image source : klemenkonic.com

 Facebook Ads - Carousal Ads
Image source: campusrecmag.com

These ads drive 10 times more traffic to advertisers’ websites than static sponsored posts on Facebook. And more important, received 72 percent higher click-through rate versus single image mobile app ads.

Metrics that matter : Carousel Ads

• Available on both Facebook desktop and mobile and on Instagram
• Image size: 1080 x 1080 or 600 x 600 pixels
• Ad copy text: 90 characters
• Headline: 25 characters
• Link Description: 30 characters

5. Dynamic Ads

Targetting people who visited your app or website? Try Facebook’s Dynamic Product Ads. The ad automatically promotes the product to people who have checked out your app or website on the internet.

But for this you need to upload your product catalogue first, and also you need to set up your campaign by creating a dynamic ad template on Facebook. That’s it. The ads would keep working for you around the clock – targeting the right people for every product in the catalogue. More than anything, it offers up-to-date pricing and availability.

Dynamic Ads - Facebook Ads
Image source: needls.com/

For such ads, you could use Viewed Products, Add to Cart products, Related products, New Arrivals and so on.

In short, Dynamic ads are designed on the basis of the data collected from the website. This helps you connect with your shoppers in a powerful way because you able to personalize product recommendations backed by customer data.

This sort of personalized experience is sure to increase your chances of conversions.

Metrics that matter: Dynamic Ads

• Available for Facebook News Feed (mobile and desktop). Also for Right Hand Column ads, and Audience Network
• Image size: 1,200 x 628 or 600 x 600 pixels
• Ad copy text: 90 characters
• Headline: 25 characters
• Link Description: 30 characters

6. Video Ads

When it comes to brand awareness or retargeting nothing can replace videos. Even ultra-shot videos have magic in them.

You could read the full guide on Facebook video ads here.

Metrics that matter : Video Ads

• Available on Facebook desktop and mobile and on Instagram
• Text: 90 characters
• File size: up to 4 GB max
• Continuous looping available
• Video can be as long as 120 min
• Top-performing videos last 15-30 seconds

7. Offer Ads

When targeting your Page Fans or your old website visitors, Offer Ads are the best.
No doubt they look similar to Standard Ads; however, there are two attractive offers (schemes) that separate the two:

1] a discount code with an expiration date for an online store
2] a barcode if you are running an offline shop as well.

Facebook Ads - Offer Ads
Image source: socialglobalcommunication.com

In the above example, Jasper’s Market sent out a Facebook Ad offer in its first order along with an expiry date.
Besides the discount factor, the ad also conveys a sense of urgency. This makes it ideal for flash and short-term sales.

Metrics that matter : Offer ads

Image size: 1,200 x 628 pixels
Image ratio: 1.9:1
Title: 25 characters
Text: 90 characters

8. Sponsored Mentions

Also known as Branded Content, Sponsored mentions could easily be recognized when the company uses the “with” tag in the content.

Image 8 - Sponsored mentions - Facebook ads

Image source: shopify.in

When the ‘WITH’ tag is used, it means the company has teamed up with yet another ecommerce brand for selling complementary products.

Conclusion :

About 3 million businesses are advertising on Facebook today. And with so many ad options to pick and choose from, not to mention the low advertising cost, it goes without saying that it’s the best time for businesses to promote their products and services on Facebook.

So, which is your favorite Facebook Ad type.

Jini Maxin
Jini Maxin is a Sr. Writer with Openxcell - a top Mobile App Development Company. Besides acting nerdish all the time, she is an opinionated writer with a big appetite for books, buzzwords, and boatloads of bouquets :).

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