Facebook Ads has obviously been a major part of the growth of many e-commerce brands, and their ability to market products to a wider target audience. As the biggest social media platform, Facebook is the perfect marketing tool for E-commerce brands to reach more people and increase revenue. Some would argue the main reason Direct-to-Consumer e-commerce has grown tremendously is solely due to Facebook’s Advertising platform.
In the past, Google Ads was the primary method for generating sales online, due to it’s intent based nature. And, while the reliance on Google Ads has decreased, it is still a major part of Customer Acquisition funnels. But, the discovery aspect of products via Social Media channels like Facebook and Instagram have brought a new wave of customers in the door, because it’s broadened awareness.
The reason behind Facebook success is the interaction and ads that are visually appealing and engaging. Besides the videos, one of the best ad formats for E-Commerce brands are Carousel Ads.
Why Carousel Ads?
A Carousel Ad is one of the best ways to promote your products on Facebook. The reason why this method is so popular is that it’s fully customizable, it offers an engaging outline in the newsfeed and you can promote a couple of products or features in one ad set.
Also, something we really love, is the ability to tell a story within Carousel Ads. This allows you to engage the customer and also create a relationship with them in the story you created.
The format allows you to add up to 10 images or videos to your ad set and each of the images can be customized with separate links and text. This format can be used for:
• Promoting a bundle of different products
• Promoting different specifics of one product
• Or simply to tell a story about your brand, if you are still in the brand awareness stage
Certain rules apply to these ads. You need to remember to:
• Use at least two cards
• Use the maximum of ten cards
• Use image file types such as jpg and png
• Use only the supported video file formats by Facebook
• Maximum video file size needs to be 4GB
• The maximum image size needs to be 30MB
• The recommended resolution for images is: 1080px * 1080 px
• Recommended ratio: 1:1
• Maximum text: 125 characters
The list looks long but the requirements are not restrictive. Compared to Google Ads, on Facebook, businesses have the freedom to express their style in a longer and interactive format. Again, it gives the ability to tell a story via a simple, engaging ad-format. Simple solutions such as a bundle of images and videos are good for a start but what most Facebook users find engaging is the pronged branding experience. People want something that moves in their newsfeeds. They are thirsty for a unique experience that will hold their attention while they are scrolling on their mobile devices in the morning while still lying in bed.
What is a pronged branding experience?
A pronged branding experience is simply a unique presentation of your products on Facebook to your target audience. Below are some examples that showcase the importance of creativity and thinking outside of the box.
The below carousel ads promote a product while describing the features and the quality of the product, inside and out, literally. Again, it allows the brand to tell more of the story and description of the product that previously, just wasn’t possible.
The engagement on these types of ads is good for obvious reasons. It reminds people of the normal brick to mortar experience and provides the benefits you will get from buying the product.
How to optimize your carousel ads
As we mentioned before carousel ads are easy to create on Facebook if you, of course, have the right visuals prepared before. To maximize the success of your carousel ads you need to follow these rules:
- Create a cohesive story as the used examples above
- Use each ad as the basis of the previous one
- To offer an interactive experience to your target audience each card should be different.
- The text should be part of the cohesive story, it needs to follow the visuals.
- Make every card unique with the headlines and the CTA buttons
- If you know how to tell your story right you wouldn’t have to use all of the 10 cards available. Sometimes you will need three cards to say the things you want to say.
Carousel ads as any other form of advertising on Facebook can be used for all of the goals available, such as:
- Brand awareness
- Traffic
- Lead Generation
- Conversions
Carousel Ads are the best way to promote your products on Facebook. According to the latest marketing reports:
- Carousel Ads offer 10 times better experience than any other format
- With Carousel Ads, you will get 72% higher CTR than a single image banners and ads
- According to Facebook cost per conversion is 30-50% lower and the cost per click is 20-30% lower than the other offered formats by Facebook.
Carousel Ads can be used to drive good ROI, however, testing is everything. To find out what will work better, a video, image or gif on your carousel ads you need to test and iterate through it to find the best results. Like all the other digital marketing activities it’s all about finding the best solution for your business model. Even if carousel ads can offer much, still the optimization and the managing part is up to your digital marketing team. How you optimize your ads or use your creativity is another element that will determine if your carousel efforts will be fruitful.
