Which Facebook Ad Types are Best for your Business?

By Tatyana Parham

While Facebook can be used as a great tool to advertise your small business, it may be difficult to decide which ad type is the best choice for your marketing goals. But this problem may be more common than you think. According to a 2017 survey cited by?Sourceline Media, 62 percent of small business owners say their paid Facebook ads fall flat, and aren't as productive towards their marketing goals as they had imagined.

As the many different types of ads are constantly changing, navigating the use and format of each one can be challenging. Here's an up-to-date breakdown of the different types of Facebook ads available in 2020 that can help you choose the right type to crush your company's goals.

Different Types of Facebook Ads

Photo 
Photo Ads are a great option to create a clean and simple visual advertisement that can quickly increase brand awareness for any business. Photo ads are great to use if you:

• Want to drive more unique traffic to your site 
• Need to create an ad very quickly 
• Want to promote tangible products 

These ads perform the best with clear and minimal text, and a single focal point that draws the reader's attention to one thing, such as a limited dessert item at your new cafe'.

Video
With the potential for excellent levels of engagement, video ads can produce an authentic, captivating advertisement for promoting product features and services, or digital storytelling. Video ad campaigns can complement a successful marketing strategy by connecting people to your brand through a creative and interactive medium, and tracking behaviors of viewers (such as length of watch time) to curate a custom target audience.

Collection
When you need to promote multiple products at once, you can use a Collection Ad. These ads feature a main image or video, with four smaller images representing related products. These ads link to your company's website, and can easily drive customers to make a purchase. Collection ads visually tell your brand's story through high-quality imagery, and can offer an interactive way to explore your catalog of products and services.

Carousel
Carousel ads can be used to feature up to 10 different images or videos that link to different landing pages. This is a great tool to:

• Creatively display different products for eCommerce
• Highlight benefits of a single product or service
• Explain a process step-by-step
• Tell a cohesive story that generates user engagement

Instant Experience
Instant Experience, formerly called Canvas, is a full-screen, interactive, and dynamic mobile experience that allows the user to watch videos, swipe through carousel images, fill out forms, and discover high-quality content. This can be used with most other formats, including photo, video, carousel, and collection.

Lead Generation
Ads Lead ads take out the extra step for users who want to subscribe to event updates, newsletters, and more from your business through email acquisition. Instead of directing the user to your website, these ads pop up a pre-populated form with their contact info that can be sent directly to you. They simplify the lead generation process for both you and the user, and are great for optimizing your niche audience.

Post Engagement
Creating Page post engagement ads allow you to boost metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and views. This helps to maximize your reach and increase brand awareness. These ads are able to be published both as an ad and as a post on your company Page.

Event Responses
When you're planning for an upcoming event, event response ads can be used for promotion, while targeting a widespread audience and driving engagement. These ads can be created as an image or video. You can use these ads to:

• Boost awareness for your event
• Get RSVPs that send automatic updates to attendees
• Sell more tickets by targeting people who may be interested

Offer
Offer ads, designed in the form of a photo, video, or carousel, are promotions and discounts you share with potential customers to attract new business. Discounts can drive sales online or in-store, and creates a beneficial experience for the user through automatic notifications. These are great to use to drive traffic on specific holidays, and increases brand perception.

Page Likes
Drive more traffic to your page by using a customized Page likes ad, in the form of either an image or video. These ads promote your page to people who are interested in similar businesses or content, but may not already be familiar with your business.

Now that you're more familiar with the different types of Facebook ads, you can begin to create engaging advertisements that cater specifically to your goals and target audience.

Watch a free webinar offering more tips on social media marketing for your small business: Which Platform is Right For My Business.