Facebook video ads are a great way to grab your audience’s attention and increase awareness, traffic, and conversions for your brand.
On average, Facebook video ads are 10% of the cost of carousel or single-image ads. With cost-savings like this, you don’t want to pay attention to video advertising.
While this may not work for every campaign, we are confident that you can still find ways to take advantage of this type of social media advertising.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a guide on how to get the most out of Facebook video ads.
Facebook video ad types and placements
First things first, it’s important to know the different video ad types and placements you can create. Ad placements perform differently and costs vary, so it’s good to know what works best for your campaign.
1. Facebook Feed Video Ads
As you scroll down the page, the ads you see most often appear in your feed. Facebook Feed ads can be single-image, carousel, archive, or video ads.
Feed ads look similar to organic posts, which is why they can be really effective. Create an engaging introduction to your Facebook video ad that grabs attention and makes viewers want to stop scrolling.
2. Facebook In-Stream Video Ads
You’ve seen these on YouTube. Facebook now has in-stream video ads on its platform. With video consumption on the rise, it’s no wonder Facebook is taking the opportunity to bring in even more ad revenue.
In the example above, a text bubble appears informing viewers about an upcoming ad.
3. Facebook Stories Video Ads
Like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories also shows ads. Viewers will see these video ads every time they scroll from one user story to another.
Facebook Stories video ads work because they don’t feel intrusive. Your audience may be liking a friend’s story and have reached your product video without a beat.
4. Facebook Marketplace Video Ads
The last placement you might consider are video ads that appear in the Facebook Marketplace—where users are already making a purchase.
As users scroll through the Facebook Marketplace, sponsored listings appear along with organic listings. This ad type is a great way to showcase your product when someone is already interested in making a purchase.
Facebook Video Advertising Requirements
If you want to create a video ad for your next campaign, it’s important to know the technical file requirements.
While advertising specifications vary by ad location, you need to pay attention to five main requirements:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF file types are accepted for all ad placements
- Ratio: Facebook ad size varies by placement
- Feed video ad ratios are 1:1 for desktop and mobile ads or 4:5 for mobile-only ads
- In-stream video ad ratio 16:9 or 1:1. Huh
- Stories video ad ratio 9:16 . Is
- Marketplace video advertising ratio 4:5 . Is
- Video Duration:
- Stories videos must be around 2 minutes max
- Feed and Marketplace videos can go up to 241 minutes (or about 4 hours)
- In-stream video ads can be up to 10 minutes long
- Maximum file size: 4GB for all ad placements
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels for all ad placements
Depending on the type of ad you want to run, you can find more requirements in our Facebook ad size guide.
how to post facebook video ads
With the ad specs done, it’s time to post your video ad on Facebook. To do this, log in to the account associated with your Facebook Business Pages Ads Manager.
step 1. In the main menu, under to create column, click Advertisement,
step 2. Select your campaign objective from the list available. Facebook lists several options for each stage of the content funnel, from brand awareness to acquisition. Choose the objective that best suits your campaign. Then, give your campaign a unique name to track performance.
step 3. Next, set up your advertising budget details. Determine your purchase type, decide whether you want to create A/B testing and most importantly, the amount you want to spend over a specific time period.
You can create an ongoing ad campaign that costs a set amount per day, or you can set a lifetime budget so that ads stop running as soon as it reaches your maximum budget.
step 4. Know your audience. Who is your target audience for your video ad campaign? Are you creating a new audience, using an existing audience list, or using a Lookalike Audience?
Step #5. Finally, upload your video, create your caption and preview your ad before it goes live.
Once everything is set, click To publish To submit your advertisement for approval.
How to Run Facebook Video Ads: 5 Tips for Success
Knowing the specifications and how to create your own ad isn’t all it takes to run a successful Facebook video ad. A bigger strategy is also needed.
Here are some of our best practices to help you create effective video ads.
1. Aim to Be Engaged in the First Three Seconds
Marketers only have 2.7 seconds to grab an audience’s attention, so it’s important to engage your audience right away.
Take this ad from Ritual. The upside down video of a vitamin bottle flying high above the floor deliberately draws viewers in and immediately captures their interest.
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A catchy introduction sets the tone for your ad and encourages the audience to stick around. Play with ideas that will drive your audience to see your entire ad.
2. Create Ads That Resonate Without the Need for Sound
85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. This means you have to either make sure your video doesn’t require sound or add captions for accessibility.
This Daily Harvest video ad is a great example. Audio is just background music and video shows viewers how the product works without the need for voice-overs.
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Facebook also lets you add captions to your videos so that people can understand them without turning up the volume. Captions can be a great option if your video ad doesn’t have the same effect without audio.
3. Retarget people who watch your videos
There may be a large group of Facebook users who have seen your videos but haven’t taken action. Encourage those audiences to convert by creating a retargeting ad with Custom Audiences. This Custom Audience should include people who have seen or interacted with your videos before.
Retargeting ads are great in the middle or bottom of the funnel ads because you’re targeting an audience that is already familiar with your brand. These ads are a way to inspire your audience to take action.
4. Think Mobile-First
Keep this statistic in mind when creating your Facebook video ad: 85% of US adults now own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011. How can you capture the attention of a mobile audience? What’s going to look best on their screen?
Purple did a great job with this video/collection ad. The main video grabs attention, but as the user scrolls through, the ad ends up on full mobile screen, ensuring viewers don’t miss it.
Viewers are also able to interact with the images to learn more while the video ad is playing. Keep aspect ratio in mind when considering mobile-first ads. Who’s going to look best on the small screen? Consider using a larger font size to grab your audience’s attention.
5. Use CPM bidding to make sure your ads are on autoplay
You need your videos to jump to them as users scroll down their feed. Take advantage of autoplay to do this.
Autoplay is only eligible for ads that use cost per impression (CPM) bidding, not cost per click (CPC) bidding. To make sure your ads are making the most impact, you can adjust the bid type when setting your campaign budget.
Get started creating effective Facebook video ads
Now is the time to put these tips and tutorials into action. Start creating your own attention-grabbing video ads that will help increase awareness, traffic and conversions for your brand.
To learn more about how to expand social media for your business, take a look at the Sprout Social Index, Edition XVII: Accelerate. Discover what social media users want to see from brands, and how you can apply it to your social media strategy.
The Digital Marketers Guide to Facebook Video Ads The post first appeared on Sprout Social.
