Facebook continues to be among the most popular social media platforms as well as a marketers’ favorite advertising platform.
Facebook ads are an easy way to get your products or services in front of a wide audience with little effort and digital marketing knowledge.
However, as simple as it may look, there are still some things you need to get right to be able to enjoy the benefits.
For instance, creating high-quality Facebook ad creatives is one of those things you need to master to ensure the success of your campaigns.
That’s why today we’ll discuss:
- What a Facebook ad creative is
- Ways to create content for enticing Facebook ad creatives
- Tips to optimize your ad creatives
And more!
Let’s get into it.
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What’s a Facebook Ad Creative?
A Facebook ad creative is a visual element containing advertising data serving different campaign objectives.
It is also simply known as an ad and is an integral part of the Facebook ad structure illustrated in the image below.
You can think of an ad campaign as a filing cabinet.
Using the same metaphor, inside the filing cabinet, you will add your ad sets which are like folders.
Inside those folders, you will add multiple files, which are your ad creatives.
Now let’s see a real-life example of two ad creative from the same ad set from Oscar de la Renta.
The creatives above are basically two versions of an ad. They have the same Facebook ad copy and call to action (CTA) button.
Why use two creatives instead of one?
When you’re using multiple creatives you are able to use A/B testing to see which piece of content performs best to convey your message. And, as soon as you figure that one out, you will also know which ad to scale.
But before being able to tell which creatives are right for your target audience, you need to decide which types of ads to use.
Let’s talk about that!
The 4 Most Prominent Ad Types on Facebook (with Examples)
In this section, we’re going to discuss the best Facebook ad types that you can use to create effective Facebook ad campaigns.
In detail, we’re going to talk about:
- Video ads
- Image ads
- Carousel or slideshow ads
- Collection ads
Additionally, we’ve included high-quality examples for each ad category so you can get inspired before creating your ad creatives.
Let’s see the first ad type and Facebook ad example.
1. Video
The first ad we’ll be covering is the video ad—a super effective way to showcase new products.
Social media users view around 8 billion video ads like the one above per day!
No wonder the video ad is among the most popular choices among digital marketers. In fact, half of Facebook’s advertising earnings comes from mobile-focused video ads.
Aside from being the most popular Facebook ad format, video is the preferred type of content consumed by internet users.
Specifically, as much as 54% of a survey’s respondents reported that they would like to view more videos from brands.
Not only that, but 84% of consumers say that they were inspired to make a purchase after watching a video posted by a brand.
There’s no doubt that video ads are among the most effective ways to advertise a service or product.
But what about image ads?
2. Image
Image ads are a simpler method of showcasing a product. But that doesn’t make it less effective.
In fact, 48% of marketers prefer image ads over videos.
Let’s see why that might be.
The ad image above is a perfect example of how you can attract users’ interest with high-quality photographs.
But does an image have the same advertising potential as a video?
It depends on your campaign goals.
For example, a Databox case study discovered that image ads reached a higher number of people and generated more impressions than video ads.
On the other hand, Facebook video ads got a 47% higher click-through rate (CTR).
So, images are great if your objective is to increase brand awareness among Facebook users.
Now that we’ve established that, we can go further and explore different layouts you can use to mix image and video ad creatives for a successful social media marketing strategy.
3. Carousel
The first ad type that allows you to combine multiple images and videos is the carousel ad.
As you can see in the example above, the carousel ad acts as a slideshow with different media files.
It’s a very engaging way to include multiple products or multiple images or videos of the same product from different angles.
When to use this ad type?
Apparently, the carousel ad is great for driving traffic to your website.
Digiday states that the slideshow ad is 10 times better than single image ads in terms of getting users to visit a landing page or a brand's website.
Moreover, according to Facebook, carousel link ads can help marketers reduce their cost-per-conversion by 30-50%.
Plus, the same source reports that carousel ads generally have up to 30% lower cost-per-click (CPC) than single ads with images.
Therefore, carousel or slideshow ads are better to be used for boosting app installs, website traffic, and conversion rates.
Next, we’ll look at collection ads.
4. Collection
Similar to carousel ads, collection ads enable you to promote multiple images and videos simultaneously in a mobile-only format.
For instance, the collection ad in the screenshot above used several images to promote their best-selling products in the same ad.
When users tap on such an ad, they are immersed in a full-screen experience where they can have a closer look at the showcased products.
In the screenshot above, you can see what a collection ad looks like in a user’s Facebook feed as well as how the ad expands upon tapping on it.
What's it good for?
It’s best to use this type of mobile ads for:
- Brand discovery and intent generation
- Interest and intent nurturing
- Conversions
In addition to these four popular ad types, there are a couple more you can read about inside our comprehensive Facebook ads guide. The guide covers insightful info on:
- Ad placements
- Ad spend and ad performance metrics
- Image sizes and other ad specs
- Audience retargeting
- Creating a new ad using the Facebook Ads Manager
Now that you know what the main ad types are, you can go ahead and work on the content for your campaigns.
Below, you can read all about how to create ad creatives for your Facebook advertising efforts in just three easy steps.
How to Make a Facebook Ad Creative in 3 Simple Steps
In this section, we’re going to give you a simple three-step method of creating ad creatives for your Facebook campaigns.
So, what makes a great Facebook ad?
Is it all about ad design?
What about copywriting?
Can I use stock photos in my ads?
We’re going to answer all of these questions in the next two sections.
But first, let’s see what you can do to ensure you’re producing high-quality ad content.
Head over to the first step.
Step #1: Choose the products and services you’re going to make ad creatives for
The first thing you need to do before getting started with content creation is to choose the products or services you’re going to promote.
How are you going to do that?
Well, let’s have a look at Facebook’s audience demographics to understand what people your ads can potentially reach on this platform.
According to Statista, U.S. Facebook users are aged from 13 to 65+ years old.
However, the most prevalent age group is the 24-35 year-olds, accounting for 26.4% of the total U.S. Facebook user base.
Moreover, 60% of the users are aged between 18 and 44 years old.
This tells us that you can reach any age group of 18+ year-olds when advertising on Facebook, but you would harness the best result with products that appeal to a younger audience.
Speaking of your audience…
Step #2: Focus on defining your target audience and make ad creatives that will resonate with them
This step is essential when using any pay-per-click (PPC) marketing channel. Facebook is no different.
When each click is costing you money, you need to make sure you’re advertising to people that are most likely to be interested in your products.
Moreover, properly defining your target audience will not only help you get a better return on ad spend (ROAS) but can also give you a better idea of what content is relevant for your audience.
A good method to do that is by looking at brands with similar audiences as yours. Identify their best-performing posts and look at the ad copy, images, videos, CTA buttons, etc.
Keep doing this until you are able to draw some conclusions and pinpoint some common practices.
As soon as you have a better understanding of what an audience similar to yours expects from a brand, you can start experimenting with different content formats and types.
As we’ve previously mentioned, you can use multiple creatives as part of the same ad set to see what drives better results.
For example, you can use the same ad copy with different ad creatives. Or, you can create different ad texts for the same image.
You get the point.
Just try to deliver relevant and engaging content to your audience.
To circle back to your question, stock photos would not be ideal for ads.
But what can I do instead? You see… Design is not my strong point.
We’re super glad you’ve asked!
See step number three.
Step #3: Work with great content creators in your niche
The easiest way to get great content for your Facebook page is by collaborating with professional content creators.
Regardless of your graphic design or video-editing experience, creating content on a regular basis by yourself might not be sustainable.
We say this assuming you already have tons of other tasks on your priority list.
To free up some slots from your agenda, we’ve created Insense—a platform where businesses can effortlessly collaborate with creative influencers and creators.
Our platform helps brands like yours fulfill their high-quality content needs in a community based on trust and skills.
Plus, Insense is super easy to use.
Namely, all you have to do to get the content you need is to fill out a brief where you provide as many relevant details about your project as possible.
Then, your project will be visible to creators looking for work.
Next, the content creators interested in collaborating with you will submit their application that you can then review and decide whether the respective creator’s proposal aligns with your vision and budget.
Another method to find the right creators for the job is to access our Creators Marketplace.
Here you can filter-search content creators based on multiple criteria, including audience demographics, location, social media platform, price, category, and more.
Sounds better than watching webinars and tutorials on how to use Photoshop, right?
Let’s make things even more clear with the following three tips on how to get the best results with your ads.
3 Tips to Make the Most of Your Facebook Ads
Before you go, let us give you three tips on how to optimize your ad content for the best results.
First, we're focusing on how to create a high volume of diverse content to stay ahead of creative fatigue.
Tip #1: Create diverse content to stay ahead of creative fatigue
Creative fatigue is not a myth!
This happens when your target audience gets tired of seeing the same ad creatives over and over again.
Naturally, when people get tired of seeing the same ad, they will obviously not going to interact with it.
The solution?
Creating high volumes of high-quality content to use in your ad campaigns.
What’s great is that you can do that with Insense with minimal effort from your side.
To be able to do this successfully, you’ll have to fill out a detailed influencer brief.
When doing so, you’ll want to include as many relevant details about your campaign as possible. For instance, you can provide info on your campaign objective, campaign schedule, product description, etc.
Moreover, Insense offers you the ability to provide as much detail about the needed creative asset as possible.
For example, our briefs enable you to specify:
- The format you’s like the creative to be
- The placement of your creative
- The number of creatives required
- Technical details
- Video scripts
Plus anything else content-related that you think it’s important to note.
You could also provide creators with examples you’d like them to take inspiration from.
Don’t know where to find those?
Tip #2: Use Facebook Library to perform competitive analysis
Facebook offers you tools that can help you find inspiring content.
Such tools include the Facebook Ad Library which you can use not only to get content ideas, but also to analyze the content produced by your competitors.
To use the Ad library, follow these steps:
- Select the country you want to see content from
- Choose the ad category you want to explore
- Input a keyword in the search bar
- Examine the related searches suggested by Facebook
- Click on the advertiser you want to analyze
For this example, we’re going to look for advertisers that create ads in the beauty category.
Now let’s see what content the first advertiser produces for the beauty category.
As soon as you click an advertiser, you will be prompted to a page where you can see all the ads they’re currently running.
Furthermore, for each individual ad on this advertiser’s page, you can get details on:
- Whether the ad is still running or not
- The date on which the ad was launched
- The platforms the ad is running on
- Whether the ad has multiple versions or not
After you’ve gained the insights you needed into your competitors’ content and created your own ad creatives there’s only one thing left to do.
Tip #3: Do quantitative creative testing
Naturally, after launching an ad campaign, you should keep an eye on the metrics to see how your ads are doing in terms of performance.
But you might want to take a more active approach than just waiting for reports.
Specifically, you can start experimenting with quantitative creative testing.
This means to test simple variations of the same ad in terms of ad copy, media files, image format, CTA buttons, etc.
For example, MAC Cosmetics runs six variations of the same ad.
When doing so, you have the ability to learn more about your audience and see what content best fits their preferences so you can create better content with each campaign.
Are you ready to get your ads into people’s News Feeds?
Just one more thing before you go…
Now Over to You
We hope that our insights and tips on creating quality content for your Facebook ad creatives bring you closer to meeting your advertising goals.
Have you given more thought to outsourcing your content creation process?
If so, we’d be happy to show you how it works.
Feel free to book a free demo with Insense whenever you’re ready to take your content to the next level.
We’re eager to show you what our platform can do for your brand!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. What’s the difference between an ad creative and a Facebook ad?
The main difference between an ad creative and a Facebook ad is that an ad creative is a part of the Facebook ad.
In detail, when people say “Facebook ad” they’re most likely referring to an ad campaign. That ad campaign can contain multiple ad sets that in turn are composed of multiple ad creatives.
So, an ad creative is the media file used together with the ad copy in a Facebook ad campaign.
Q2. What’s the purpose of an ad creative?
The purpose of an ad creative is to capture the interest and attention of the target audience through visual content and text and persuade the viewer to perform the action highlighted by the CTA button.
Q3. Why is it important to make a Facebook ad creative?
Making Facebook ad creatives is important because visual content can be used to back up and reinforce the message you’re trying to deliver to the target audience.
Moreover, an ad creative makes an ad more enticing to the audience and has the power to make a user more likely to interact with the ad.
