There are a TON of options when it comes to creating ads for Facebook. But in our brand-new YouTube series, Marketing Mastery with Justin Rondeau (yeah that’s me), I talk about the 5 types of ads you should be trying first!
And we KNOW they work, because we’ve been using them successfully for a while now. 😉
So check out the video, and keep scrolling if you want to read more about the 5 types of ads every marketer should be using on Facebook.
Facebook Ad Type 1: Top-of-Funnel Video Ads
As marketers we KNOW that video is king right now, and that’s no different in the Facebook Ad Game.
We’ve seen a TON of success using videos to drive traffic to our content at an incredibly low Cost Per Click (I’m talking like 10 cents or less).
Video ads are also SUPER versatile at any stage. You can set different CTA’s, whether it be driving them to a landing page like we do for top funnel content OR set video watch events to kick off a top funnel drip video series that keeps them on Facebook!
Either way, this strategy is all about audience building. Whether you’re trying to build a solid retargeting audience based on page visits or build up an engaged audience that will eventually get to your site.
Facebook Ad Type 2: Newsfeed Ads Driving to Content
This one works very similarly to the TOFU video ads. The goal of these types of online ads is to stop people in their tracks and get them to your content.
Now this content needs to be un-gated. This is important. The goal here is to keep a low CPC, build your audience, and provide VALUE FIRST. If you’re doing a good job showcasing value in the ad and deliverables, these ads should have a high relevance score.
In general, we’ve seen animated gifs out-perform static images, but we test a variety of image types and styles to keep things fresh.
Static, animated, or video ads at the top of funnel that push to content are the best way to keep CPCs low, expand your audience, and set yourself up for the next type of ad that will move your audience through another step of the customer value journey.
Facebook Ad Type 3: Newsfeed Ad Driving to Lead Magnet
Alright so you successfully got people aware of your brand and some of your offerings… well, maybe…
Whenever we send a visitor to traffic, we ALWAYS make sure to have a relevant CTA for a downloadable resource (the Lead Magnet).
If they’re interested in blogging content, we’d share one of our gated blogging resources.
The assumption being that if they visited the page, we know their interest AND we know they could have seen our offer.
If you’re not doing this… do it… then move on to running these ads.
At this point, use whatever creative medium works for you—static image, gif, video, whatever… when providing a free resources I’d try to keep the time and monetary investment down, so we stick with images.
If you’ve been running top of funnel ads to content, then you should have a pretty decent audience to retarget. These audiences will perform better than simply running direct Lead Magnet ads to cold traffic.
(One thing about tracking: When looking at the success of the retargeting ads and comparing them to cold prospect ads, you’re going to need to factor in the initial spend from the content clicks. Even IF it costs the same as a cold prospect, you’re still getting the benefit of an expanded audience and boosting up traffic to your site, which is always a good thing.)
Facebook Ad Type 4: Carousel Ads
Normally this is when I’d say, “carousel ads are great for e-commerce brands,” and move on. However, I’ve seen some really interesting uses of carousel ads that have that “thumb stopping” capabilities and get high engagement, high CPCs, and drive high quality leads & sales.
As it is with all Facebook ads, the success of a carousel ad is all about the targeting, the offer, and the creative. Carousel ads are a great pattern interrupt.
At DM we used this for one of our highest ticket products, our Certified Partner Program. We targeted an audience of agencies and consultants who visited our partner page and hit them with a carousel ad FILLED with testimonials from customers who saw serious success with this program
At the end, we had a static image with our logo and a specific CTA to learn more about the program.
We kept these clips to about 15–30 seconds to kept them focused on tangible results that this customer avatar wanted to hear.
Sure, carousel ads are a great way to showcase multiple products, but they’re even better at telling stories… and the best stories win.
Facebook Ad Type 5: Hyper-Targeted Retargeting Ads
Did you catch a theme in our favorite types of online ads and how we use them? We are hyper focused on our audiences, and not just on the ads we want them to see now, but what they’ll see next.
You should be retargeting at every stage of the funnel and using similar copy, hooks, images, videos, or whatever they may have seen when they didn’t take you up on your first offer.
The creative has to feel familiar but be different enough so they know they need to take an action that they haven’t done before.
Our digital advertising strategy really breaks down to audience expansion with content and retargeting our audiences through each step of the Customer Value Journey.
So try out these 5 types of Facebook ads, and if you want more examples, stats, and ad types, sign up for a free DM Insider account and grab the Facebook Ad Template Library download.
And head over to our YouTube channel every Wednesday at 12pm Central for more Marketing Mastery tips with me, Justin Rondeau.
