Facebook Advertising Guide – Chapter VI: Ads Creative

Your ad is what your customers or audience will see. At the ad level, select the ad format and connect the ad to a Facebook Page or Instagram account that you manage. Give the ad an intuitive name to easily find and evaluate it within Ads Manager and in reporting. Bear in mind that you can have multiple ads within a single ad set.

 Image Ads

All ads on Facebook and Instagram have to have an image. Adding a relevant image of your product or service can directly impact the success of your ad. Image ads are available at all placements and for every objective (see image below).

You can choose to use a single image ad or use a carousel, collection, a slideshow, or Instant Experience to advertise with multiple images and a video.

Image Ads Creative Guidelines

• Show people using your product
  That way your ad seems more like a post from friends and less like an ad.
• Remember less text is more
  Be mindful with text overlaying the image (see: Text Penalty).
• Have a single focal point
  Ensure that you’re only asking people to look at one thing, to avoid confusion.
• Maintain visual consistency
  With multiple ad sets in a single campaign, there should be a consistent theme visual relation.
• Use high-resolution images
  Find file size recommendations in the Facebook Ads Guide.
• Experiment with visuals
  Play with different images and formats before you commit to a particular ad.

Some further read on Image Ads:

Creative specs and technical requirements for creating Image ads you can find here.

Facebook prepared a step by step guide to creating an ad with a single image as well as tips and tricks on getting the most from your image ads.

 Video  Ads

With video ads, you can show off product, service or brand features, and draw people in with sound and motion. They can run on Facebook, Audience Network and Messenger. You can create video ads directly from your page, or with one of the advertising tools inside Ads Manager or Business Manager.

They are available for all the placements and objectives (see image).

Video ads are a great option if your objective is to reach more people, engage your audience, promote video views or drive conversions. With videos, you can capture the attention of your audience quickly and tell a brand or business story. Videos are also a great tool for delivering a single message: you can convey a clear, simple message that makes people take action after viewing your ad – such as buying a specific product or visiting a website. You can also drive people to your website to learn more about an upcoming product your launching. You can show off the product in motion in the ad or include testimonials from people using the product.

Video ads support multiple aspect ratios depending on the placement. Specs for supported video formats you can find here  and the recommended placements you can find below:

Facebook created a guide on how to create a video ad and how to use templates to create them too.

360 videos

Facebook also provides an interactive and immersive platform for 360° videos. A 360 video is a video format created with a camera system that simultaneously records all 360 degrees of a scene. Viewers can change the 360 video’s perspective to watch it from different angles.

Facebook guide to creating a 360 video ad you can find here.

Video Ads Creative Guidelines

• Capture attention early
  Due to a short attention span, 47% of a video’s value is delivered in the first 3 seconds. It’s critical to capture attention immediately and condense your message into 15 seconds or less. Go with your most captivating elements first, and incorporate your brand identity early.
• Make the message clear straight away
  Figure out what is the most important message you need to deliver in the video. Express your message clearly, quickly and with impact.
• Design for sound off – but make it even better with sound on
  The video should be able to capture attention and deliver your message without relying on sound. Sight and motion are the foundation of feed, so try to tell your story visually. Add captions as needed. If people do choose to watch with the sound on, it’s a great opportunity to make an even better impact with audio.
• Frame for impact
  The mobile screen gives you a chance to own the advertising space in people’s feeds and hook them within the first few seconds. Your story doesn’t need to be limited to the News Feed frame – challenge it by using different formats such as square crops, vertical video, stacked videos, and 3D framing effects.

 Slideshow Ads

With slideshow ads, you can combine multiple images or videos, text and sound to capture your audience’s attention and tell a compelling story – no matter the connection speed. You can use between 3 to 10 images or a single video in a slideshow ad. Slideshow ads are available when you choose the Single Image or Video format options. These ads are created within Ads Manager and they run as video ads and are available when you choose the Single Image or Video format. It enables you to create a high-quality ad without the expense or challenges of video production.

They are available for all the placements and objectives (see image).

Slideshow ads are a great choice if you want to build a compelling ad from photos or videos quickly and easily. You can upload photos from your Facebook page, use Facebook’s stock image gallery and add text and music. They are also a good choice if you want to reach people with slow internet connections as they use less data than video ads. To target those people you can choose to show the ads to people with older devices or slower connections. Another good use of slideshow ads is if you want to simplify a complex process or story. When walking people through sequences or steps, images can show rather than tell. You can also show off a physical product in a slideshow ad. You could show multiple styles of the same product or different products using a short duration per image to grab attention.

Facebook guide to creating slideshow ads you can find here.

Slideshow Ads Creative Guidelines

• Use high resolution still images or an existing video.
• For video uploads, choose .MOV or .MP4 file types.
• Start with 3-10 images, with a recommended image ratio of 16:9, 1:1 or 2:3. Each image should have a similar image ratio.
• Combine with Facebook targeting such as bandwidth, device or demographic targeting to reach people with a slower connection.
• You can select images from stock pages, your Pages library, or your devices.
• You can also upload your own music (if you own the rights). If not, several free tracks are available.
• Experiment with cropping images, reordering them, adding text, using fade and changing the duration for effect.
• Don’t forget to test and optimize your slideshow ad’s performance!

 Collection Ads

Collection Ads make it easy for people to browse your products. They encourage shopping by displaying items from your product catalog – customized for each individual: it lets people move from discovery to purchase in a smooth and immersive way. Each collection ad features a primary video or image with four smaller accompanying images below in a grid-like layout. Customers who tap on your collection ad to browse or learn more will be seamlessly taken to a fast-loading visual post-click experience powered by Instant Experience – all without leaving Facebook or Instagram.

Collections have four templates you can make use of, depending on the product you are advertising.

Collection ads are available only on Facebook and Instagram feeds, and for the following objectives:

You can learn more about the specs of Collection ads, as well as how to create them step-by-step in Facebook’s Guide.

 Carousel Ads

The carousel format lets you show two or more images and/or videos, headlines and links or calls to action in one single ad. Ads are shown your audience and those who see your ad can then scroll through the carousel cards by swiping on mobile phones or tablets or clicking the arrows on a computer screen.

You can create ads in the carousel format in ad creation or Ads AP. For the supported placements and objectives, check the image below.

Note, only Page posts in the carousel format can be run as carousel Page post engagement ads.

With carousel format, you can showcase specific products and show details about specific products, packages or apps. They are a good choice if you want to tell a story through the successive carousel cards or to showcase a long landscape image. With carousel, you can scale the creation of your ad: you can get started with the carousel without having to manually create and upload individual product images.

Ads in the carousel format consistently drive great results for advertisers: many campaigns that use it see a lower cost per conversion or click. However, new carousel features roll out regularly and some features may only be available in Ads Manager or for certain ad objectives at the time.

You can use the carousel format to:

• Feature multiple products that link to different landing pages. Give customers more options and help raise your click-through rate.
• Highlight multiple features of a single product. Show different product angles or details to better inform customers.
• Tell a story. Use images and/or videos in succession to illustrate a compelling narrative.
• Explain a process step-by-step.
• Create a larger canvas. Present one large image using all your frames for an immersive ad experience.
• Sell the benefits. If you don’t sell physical goods, use images and/or videos that show the benefits or results of becoming a customer.

Carousel Ads Creative Guidelines

• Use all the available components of the carousel format to tell your story. The images and/or videos are what grab people’s attention, but don’t ignore snappy headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action that give context, detail, and encouragement.
• Use images and/or videos that are cohesive and engaging. Take images and/or videos from the same shoot or that feel similar to each other (ex: same color schemes). For the video carousel, recommended is square (1:1) aspect ratio and consistent ratios for all videos in a carousel.
• Make sure your text meets guidelines.
• Consider your audience. Use product imagery when targeting people who have visited product pages on your website. Reach prospective customers with lifestyle imagery.
• In most cases, show the best-performing carousel cards first. One of the benefits of the carousel format is that you can test multiple pieces of creative at once and order them based on performance. Then you can replace or remove low-performing carousel cards. However, if you’re using the format to tell a sequential story or as a canvas for one long image, make sure you opt-out of the automatic optimization feature when you create the ad.
• Decide how to best associate each carousel card with a landing page. If you’re a large business with a large inventory, you may want to take people who click on a carousel card with a specific product on it to the page where they can buy that exact product. If you’re a smaller business with a smaller inventory, you may want to take people who click on a carousel card to the page with all your products in that category.
• Get inspired. Check out how other advertisers made use of the carousel format to get ideas for your own campaign.
• Test and optimize!

Facebook compiled all the specifications for carousel assets which are available here.

 Instant experience

Instant Experience (IX), formerly called Canvas, provides a full-screen, mobile-optimized experience instantly from your ad.  Users can watch engaging videos and photos, swipe through carousels, complete a form, quickly view your products and explore lifestyle images with tagged products – all within a single ad.

Instant Experience is linked to another ad and launched when a user taps in that ad. It is available only on Facebook and for the following objectives:

Facebook offers five different easy-to-use templates for Instant Experience; to help you meet your most important business objectives.

 Playable ads

If you are a game developer or marketer, you’re in for a special treat with Playable ads. The playable ad is an interactive video ad format for News Feed that allows mobile app advertisers to offer a short preview of their game, app or brand. They are a great tool to allow users to test-drive your app through an immersive preview and pinpoint those who want to install your app.

Playable ads are made up of three mandatory parts:

1. Lead-in video (introduction for the demo.)
   Each playable ad includes a lead-in video that plays as someone scrolls through their News Feed. Overlaying each video is a game controller icon and a tap-to-try tip.
2. Game demo (a playable ad)
   After tapping on the video, a short interactive demo lets people experience your app before they install it. There are certain requirements:
   • • Must be in Portrait mode
     • HTML format
     • Must be under 2 MB
     • The outgoing actions in your playable ad must be a link
3. Call to action
   When the demo is complete, a call to action lets people tap through to install the app from the App Store or Google Play Store. Note, no JavaScript or other code is allowed to execute when the user exits the playable ad.

Playable Ads Creative Guidelines

• Make sure that your video and demo match. Accurately represent your app in your lead-in video and demo.
• Keep your tutorial simple. Let people know how to play in as few steps as possible – two seems to work best.
• Show a call-to-action throughout the demo. Give people the option to download your app at any time.
• Test your creative. Consider testing different copy and see what encourages more people to play.

Objective-oriented ads

Facebook also objective-oriented ads, which are available when a certain objective is used. They use the above-stated ad formats and are optimized only for the objective in question.

Lead Generation Ads

Lead ads on Facebook and Instagram help you collect info from people who are interested in your business. A lead ad is presented using an image, video or carousel, and followed by a lead form when the user engages with the ad.

Offers

Offers are discounts you can share with your customers on Facebook. You can design your offer ad to appear as an image, video or carousel.

Page Engagement

Most Page posts on Facebook can be boosted to deliver more likes, comments, shares and photo views.

Event Responses

Page likes ads can be used to drive users to like your Page. You can design your Page likes ad with a video or an image masked to a ratio of 1.91:1.

Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads look similar to other ads on Facebook but they come with one major advantage. Instead of individually creating an ad for each of your products, you can create an ad template that automatically uses images and details from your data feed for things you’d like to advertise to people who have expressed interest. You can upload your product catalog and set up your campaign once, and it will continue working for you for as long as you want – finding the correct people for each product and always using up-to-date pricing and availability. Dynamic ads use your Facebook pixel or SDK to show ads to people who have already shown interest in your business by taking actions you care about on your site.

What you need to set up dynamic ads:

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1. Facebook pixel or SDK
   Dynamic ads work best if there’s a strong feedback loop between an online product catalog and the ads, for what you need Facebook pixel on your site. To increase app installs by showing relevant ads that drive directly to download – you’ll need to install the Facebook SDK.
2. Business Manager account
   Dynamic ads work at a larger scale than most ads, so you need a Business Manager account.
3. A product catalog
   Finally, create and upload a product catalog to the Business Manager. If your website is powered by Shopify, Magento or BigCommerce, you can automatically set up dynamic ads for your business.

You can learn more about the Dynamic Ads at Facebook Business and this Facebook Blueprint 15-minute course.

Ad Content Guidelines

When it comes to ad content, Facebook established clear guidelines that work best if you want your ad to be successful. They listed DO and DON’Ts.

DO

• Be Authentic
  Consider the tone of voice, which reflects your business’s identity and personality. It can be funny, business-like, adventurous – whatever works for you. The more authentic you are, the more effective your ads are likely to be. Be consistent.
• Understand your target audience
  Address their motivations or the barriers preventing them from becoming your customer. Communicate the value you provide and the role your business can fill in for them. A good trick is to have different versions of creative for different audiences.
• Define your theme
  The theme can be a concept, an idea or even a visual theme to create consistency amongst all of your ads.
  It should respond to your brand’s unique point of view and accentuate what makes you stand out.

DON’T

• Personal characteristics
  Ads can’t assert or imply — directly or indirectly — that advertiser knows a person’s personal characteristics such as person’s name, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability or medical condition, financial status, and more.
• Vulgar Language
  Vulgar, profane, or insulting language is not allowed. Ad text should never be rude, offensive, or bullying.
• Deceptive Claims
  Facebook and Instagram ads can’t contain false, fraudulent, or misleading claims or content. Any claims have to be adequately substantiated.

Ad Creative Guidelines