Danny Andrawes 4 March 2025

Guide How Much To Spend On Facebook Ads, Best FB Ad Examples and Common Mistakes

Facebook ads are one of the most powerful tools for businesses looking to reach a targeted audience and boost their online presence. But with so many options and strategies available, it can be tricky to know how much to spend, which ad types work best, and what mistakes to avoid.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essentials of Facebook advertising – how to set a smart budget, how much to spend to see results, showcase top FB ad examples, and how to steer clear of common pitfalls and mistakes to help your social ad campaigns succeed.

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Intro to mastering Facebook ads

One of the first questions many businesses have when starting with Facebook Ads is, “How much do Facebook ads cost?” The cost of Facebook Ads can vary widely based on several factors, such as your industry, target audience, and the ad format you choose.

Facebook uses an auction system, where advertisers set their bids to compete for ad placements. Costs are generally measured in two ways: cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM). CPC charges you every time someone clicks on your ad, while CPM charges you based on the number of impressions (how many times your ad is shown).

To understand how much Facebook ads cost, it’s important to consider your target audience. The more specific your targeting, the higher the cost might be due to increased competition. However, well-targeted ads often lead to better performance and a higher return on ad spend (ROAS). Additionally, your ad quality—in terms of relevance and engagement—also plays a significant role in determining cost, as Facebook rewards high-quality ads with better placement at lower prices.

By understanding how these factors work together, you can set a realistic budget and optimise your campaigns for the best value, ensuring that your investment delivers the best possible results.

Understanding the Cost of Facebook Ads: What You Need to Know

When running Facebook ads, one of the most common questions businesses have is, “How much do Facebook ads cost?” The answer depends on various factors, including your target audience, ad placement, and overall campaign objectives.

Facebook uses an auction-based system where advertisers bid for ad placements. Costs can vary based on competition in your industry, the quality of your ads, and the relevancy of your target audience. Typically, Facebook ads cost can be broken down into two pricing models: cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM).

To better understand and control your budget, it’s important to monitor your ad performance and adjust your bids accordingly. With the right targeting and optimization, you can ensure that your Facebook ads provide excellent value and deliver a solid return on investment.

For starters: How Much To Invest In Facebook Ads To See Results?

Your business is on Facebook. You’ve built up a solid presence and you’re posting content regularly to the platform. Now, you’re ready to up your game with Facebook Ads – but how much should you spend?

Facebook Advertising is one of the most powerful and accessible marketing channels out there for businesses that are looking to grow leads and sales.

But when you’re just starting out, it’s tough to know how much you need to spend to reach your marketing goals.

If you’re too conservative, you might not be using the platform to its full potential. Spend too much, however, and you’ll blow your planned budget out of the water…or invest thousands without seeing any decent ROI.

The art of Facebook budgeting is an important part of nailing your paid social strategy. And in this post, we’re going to show you exactly how to budget your Facebook Ads to maximise your return on investment.

We’ll cover:

  • The average cost of Facebook Ads for different industries
  • Eight factors that affect how much your Facebook Ads cost
  • How the Facebook auction process works
  • 10 strategies to reduce your Facebook Advertising cost
  • And ultimately, we’ll help you figure out if Facebook Ads are worth the investment for your business.

Let’s go.

How much does Facebook advertising cost?

Before you jump into budgeting your own Facebook Ads, it’s a good idea to know how much the average business is paying to advertise on Facebook.

While Facebook itself doesn’t disclose this data, other websites like Wordstream and AdEspresso have compiled valuable insights that give some indication of the average advertising costs for different industries.

According to Wordstream, the average CPC in Facebook Ads at $1.72. However, CPCs can vary wildly between different industries: for example, apparel brands have an average CPC of $0.45, whereas financial advertisers can expect to pay $3.77 per click.

Facebook Ads Cpc.png?width=543&name=facebook Ads Cpc

AdEspresso, on the other hand, breaks its Facebook Advertising cost benchmarks down by month. Based on the chart below, we can see that the average CPC sits at roughly $0.30 to $0.50 depending on the time of year.

Facebook Advertising Cost.png?width=543&name=facebook Advertising Cost

They also analysed the difference in Facebook Ad cost averages between different campaign objectives. The data revealed that the average cost-per-click is far cheaper for lead generation ads than for conversion campaigns:

Facebook Cost Per Click Averages.png?width=543&name=facebook Cost Per Click Averages

From looking at both of these studies, it’s safe to say that the average cost-per-click for any given Facebook Ad falls anywhere between $0.30 USD and $3.77 USD. Keep in mind though that these are ballpark figures, and your mileage may vary significantly depending on a number of factors (which we’ll delve into later).

How much should I budget for Facebook ads per day?

Even with the Facebook Ad budget benchmarks, it’s tough to say how much you should budget for Facebook Ads without actually running the ads yourself.

There are also A LOT of nuances that go into determining how much you should budget for your campaign. On the surface, a retargeting campaign may seem too costly to invest in compared to other campaigns that are focused on impressions or clicks. However, this is going to be your best bet if you want to convert your website visitors.

Based on our experience, we’d recommend setting aside a minimum of $1,500 a month for a Facebook Ad campaign. This evens out to a budget of roughly $50 per day.

With this Facebook Ads budget, you’ll have enough money to run multiple campaigns, test different ideas, and optimise your ads to improve ROI and lower CPC.

The eight factors that determine how much Facebook ads cost

The cost of Facebook Ads isn’t dictated by one factor in particular, such as your industry or your target audience. There is a multitude of considerations that Facebook takes into account when determining the cost of ads on the platform.

1. Your industry

The industry or niche is one of the biggest and most obvious factors that can influence your Facebook Advertising cost. As we saw from the Wordstream findings, some industries can cost significantly more than others.

If you’re in finance, customer service, or home improvement, you can expect to pay more than retail and apparel brands.

2. Ad bid

Facebook Ads Manager offers multiple bidding strategy options for advertisers. The one you choose will influence the overall cost of your ads, as well as how much control you have over your campaigns.

The two options are:

  • Automatic bidding, or lowest cost bid strategy. This strategy is designed to help advertisers achieve the lowest possible cost per action. With this strategy, Facebook will use campaign performance data to automatically adjust an advertiser’s bids to make the most efficient use out of their budget.
  • Manual bidding, or target cost bid strategy. If you’re aiming for a certain CPC or cost per action, then you might choose to go with manual bidding. This strategy optimises your ads to reach your target cost, and can only be used for certain campaign objectives, such as app installs, conversions, lead gen campaigns, or product catalogue sales.

As a general rule of thumb, most advertisers start out with automatic bidding as it’s the cheaper option. Manual bidding is typically more expensive, but it’s ideal if you’re more experienced and want to maximise conversions.

3. Timing of your ads

When you choose to run your ads can also affect your overall Facebook Advertising costs. According to AdEspresso’s analysis of more than $636 million in ad spend, CPC is the lowest between midnight and 6AM, regardless of the time zone you’re in.

This is likely because fewer people are online at night, so advertisers turn off ads during these hours. If you’re running ads during this time, you can expect to pay less per click than ads that run from 7AM to 11PM.

4. Your audience targeting

Any time you shift your targeting, you should expect your ad spend to change along with it.

Here’s why.

Some audience groups are more expensive to advertise to than others, purely because more advertisers are competing for the same demographic.

Ads targeting women have a $0.15 higher CPC than ads targeting men, most likely because more brands are competing to reach this audience on the platform. Ads targeting people aged 55-65 are also more expensive than ads targeting younger users, as there are fewer people in this age bracket using the platform — which means higher competition for the brands that are trying to reach those people.

5. Ad placement

Facebook offers multiple ad placement options, including:

  • Facebook newsfeed and video feeds
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Facebook right column
  • Messenger inbox
  • Instagram feed
  • Instagram Explore and Shop
  • Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels
  • Facebook Search
  • Audience Network

More competitive placements, such as ad space in the feed or Stories, will cost more than a display in the right column on desktop devices.

6. Ad campaign objective

There are different ad objectives on Facebook that are designed to help advertisers reach their goals. These fall broadly into the categories of Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion, with specific objectives within each category:

Unsurprisingly, the ad objective options that are most valuable to businesses are also the ones that cost the most. Bottom-of-funnel objectives, such as product catalogue sales or store visits, will be more expensive than top-of-funnel objectives like awareness and reach.

7. Ad relevance

Facebook wants to show ads that are relevant to its audience. According to the platform:

“People prefer to see ads that are relevant to them. And when businesses show their ads to relevant audiences, they see better business outcomes. That’s why we consider how relevant each ad is to a person before delivering an ad to that person. Ads that are more relevant cost less and see more results. This leads to better experiences for people and businesses alike.”

The main way that Facebook measures relevance and quality is through ad relevance diagnostics. These are calculated based on an ad’s quality, engagement rate, and conversion rate. Ads with more relevance are less expensive to run, whereas ads that are less relevant cost more to run.

We’re not talking slight variations in CPC either. A few years ago, Hootsuite ran an experiment where it created two ads — one with a relevance and engagement score of 2.9, and one with a score of 8.

The former had an average CPC of $0.14.

Guess what the average cost-per-click was for the ad with the higher relevance score?

Just $0.03!

8. Season

Remember the AdEspresso data we looked at earlier?

The average cost-per-click for ads varies significantly based on the month you advertise in, thanks to seasonal trends and events.

Facebook CPC By Month.png?width=543&name=Facebook CPC By Month

Want to run an ad during Black Friday when every other business is running ads? Expect your Facebook Ads costs to go through the roof. This is handy to keep in mind when planning your budgets, so you can adjust your Facebook ad spend accordingly.

Some of the key dates to keep in mind include:

  • Valentines Day
  • Mother’s Day
  • Easter long weekend
  • Father’s Day
  • Black Friday
  • Cyber Monday
  • Christmas
  • New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

How does the Facebook ads auction process work?

The auction process of Facebook ads works much like Google Ads or any other pay-per-click platform.

To avoid overwhelming its audience with ads, Facebook limits the number of ad placements available. Advertisers need to ‘bid’ on a certain action, such as website clicks or ad impressions. The winner’s ad appears for that specific placement.

Here’s the process:

  • Log on to Ad Manager and create your ad campaign
  • Set your daily budget or lifetime budget
  • Pick the actions you’re bidding on, such as impressions or reach
  • Select your targeting for the ad
  • Create your ad copy and upload your media content
  • Submit the ad to Facebook for approval

Once your ad is submitted, Facebook will calculate the potential value of each ad based on three factors: the advertiser bid, ad relevance and ad quality, and estimated action rate on your ad. The ad with the highest value is the winning ad and gets displayed to the audience.

This means that your bid is only one of three factors that affect the outcome of the auction. If you optimise the other elements — ad relevance/quality and action rate — your ad will appear EVEN if you’re not the highest bidder.

10 strategies to reduce your Facebook Ads cost

Once you understand how Facebook Ads work, you can start working on strategies to shave down your spending.

These 10 strategies will help you lower Facebook Advertising costs, so you can maximise your ad spend and ROI from the platform.

1. Start small

When you start out with the Facebook Ads system, it’s tempting to pour in all the budget you have so you can start driving as much traffic as possible to your website.

Resist that urge.

It takes time to figure out what works with your audience, and which ads are most effective at helping you reach your goals. But more importantly, Facebook needs time to show your ad, gather data, and optimise it.

Start with a smaller budget and test a few variations to see what works. After about a week, you should have enough data to evaluate your ad performance and roll out your ad campaign. This way, you’ll be investing the big bucks into ad campaigns that you KNOW will perform well.

2. Split test your campaigns

Split testing is one of the best ways to optimise your ad relevance, quality, and estimated action rate.

Split testing (also known as A/B testing) involves different variations of the same ad to see which one performs better. You can split test all kinds of elements, including:

  • Ad copy variations
  • Ad copy length
  • Call-to-action
  • Image selection
  • Image size
  • Video thumbnail
  • Use of emojis

Let’s take a look at this example from Mailchimp, where they tested two different images:

Faceboo Ads Testing.png?width=543&name=faceboo Ads Testing

Here’s another example from Scoro, which revealed that adding an emoji to the ad headline led to a whopping 241% higher CTR:

Facebook Ads Performance.png?width=543&name=facebook Ads Performance

The key with A/B testing is to test one element at a time and keep everything else the same. If you try to test too many elements at once, you won’t know which change had the biggest impact on your ad performance.

Once you’ve run your split test, note down the findings of each split test, implement it in future ads, then rinse and repeat to create the best Facebook ads possible.

3. Keep an eye on your relevance score

Your relevance score is one of three big factors that influence the cost of your Facebook Ad. A high relevance score is a sign that audiences are engaging positively with your ad, and will go a long way in lowering your Facebook ad cost.

There are a few ways to improve your relevance on Facebook:

  • Ensure you’re targeting the right audience. Even the most effective message will fall on deaf ears if it’s not reaching the right people. Use your buyer persona and Facebook Insights to narrow down your targeting, or create look-a-like audiences based on your existing customers.
  • Use high-quality media. An eye-catching image or an engaging video will grab a user’s attention in the feed and encourage them to interact with your content. Make sure your visual media stands out and looks great on all devices, including mobile and desktop.
  • Keep copy clear and succinct. Facebook likes ad copy that gets straight to the point. This isn’t just limited to your ad description either — having a sharp headline and call-to-action is just as important when it comes to inspiring your audience to take action.

4. Limit your ad frequency

On Facebook, quantity doesn’t equal quality. Showing your ad to the same people multiple times a day, every day, is a recipe for lower engagement and conversions — and higher ad costs.

Think about it. The first time you see an ad on your Facebook newsfeed, it’s new and fresh. The second or third time, you might still be interested and click to learn more. But by the tenth time? You’re not buying whatever that advertiser is selling.

Two things happen when your ad frequency gets too high.

One, it shows you’re not reaching enough new customers (or the ones you are showing it to aren’t converting). Second, you’ll have less interactions on your ad, which tells Facebook that your ad isn’t relevant. At this stage, you can bet that your advertising costs will start to increase.

Facebook recommends keeping your ad frequency capped at 3 to reach its full potential. Once your ad frequency goes above this amount, it’s time to revisit your campaigns and either adjust or pause them to lower this number.

5. Reduce the number of ad sets

Another common mistake advertisers make on Facebook is running too many ads at the same time.

Let’s say that two advertisers have a daily budget of $50. Advertiser A has 20 ads, while advertiser B has one ad set with three ads. With Advertiser A, that $50 budget needs to be spread across 20 different ads. With Advertiser B, the budget only needs to be spread over three.

The biggest challenge here is that your ads need to run for enough time and reach enough people before you can start gathering data on performance. If you have more ads, it’ll take a longer period of time to gain those insights — which leaves you more susceptible to wasted ad spend.

6. Refresh your ads on a regular basis

You should be refreshing your ads on a regular basis to ensure they don’t become stale and lose impact.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean scrapping your old ads and starting from scratch. Rather, this is an opportunity to build on your existing campaigns and implement learnings to improve performance. A new ad refresh is the perfect time to implement some of those learnings from your A/B test, or to revitalise a previous campaign with new content.

Plus, refreshing your ads also helps keep frequency scores low — another win for reducing Facebook costs.

7. Don’t tinker too much

One of the worst things any advertiser can do is constantly change or adjust their Facebook Ads.

At first, this might seem counterintuitive. After all, how are you supposed to improve performance if you’re not tweaking your campaigns?

Here’s the thing. The Facebook algorithm is actually pretty good at allocating budgets to the ad sets that are most likely to perform, and predict future performance. Focus on refining your ad creative, and let Facebook Ads optimise your advertising budget for the best results.

If you do want to make decisions based on data, try to base your decision-making on windows that are larger than 14 days to get the whole picture.

8. Segment your audience for each campaign

Facebook has incredibly sophisticated targeting capabilities — something you need to learn to take advantage of if you want to lower your advertising costs.

There’s no point trying to reach everyone with one ad campaign because your ad will be irrelevant for a large portion of that audience. And if your ad is irrelevant to a large portion of Facebook users, you can bet it’s going to cost you way more money than an ad that’s hyper-targeted and relevant.

Each and every campaign you run should have its own target audience and message. You can choose to segment your target audience based on different buyer personas or try to reach people at different stages of the marketing funnel. You’ll get more clicks and conversions AND lower your ad costs at the same time.

9. Use retargeting and remarketing

Retargeting and remarketing are two of the most powerful advertising tools that you have at your disposal.

Retargeting allows you to display ads to people who have already visited your website, while remarketing allows you to show ads to customers based on their interaction with your email campaigns.

These audiences have already been exposed to your brand, which means they’re more likely to be interested in your products and services. Because of this, retargeting and remarketing campaigns typically result in higher clicks and conversion — and much better ROI.

On top of website and email visitors, you can also use Facebook’s sources to retarget audiences that have watched one of your videos, interacted with your Instagram profile or Instagram Ads, or visited your Facebook page.

Facebook Ads Audience.png?width=543&name=facebook Ads Audience

10. Put bid caps in place

Don’t want to spend more than $5 per conversion? Use a cost cap bid strategy.

Bid caps are a great last line of defence to prevent your Facebook Ad costs from blowing out of the water.  However, there is a trade off: if you can your bid, you might end up missing out on valuable opportunities to reach your audience and drive more qualified traffic to your website.

Is Facebook Advertising worth the cost?

Facebook Ads is absolutely worth the cost because it allows you to reach your target audience where they spend their time online. Couple that with insane targeting capabilities and endless ad formats, and you have a powerhouse for clicks, conversions and sales.

If you’re looking at cost alone, Facebook Advertising can seem pretty expensive. After all, a daily budget of $50 per day translates to roughly $1,500 a month, which can be a lot — particularly if you’re a small business.

That’s why you need to look at ROI with any Facebook Advertising campaign.

For example, if you spend $1,500 a month on Facebook Ads but that $1,500 generates $30,000 in sales, you’re getting an ROI of 20:1. That means every dollar you invest is bringing in $20 in return. If your other advertising platforms are bringing in less ROI, then Facebook Ads is absolutely worth the cost. It’s also completely measurable: unlike traditional advertising, you know exactly how many people you’re reaching and how that’s translating to real traffic and sales for your business.

Another consideration to take into account is your audience. To get the most out of Facebook, you NEED to be leveraging its targeting capabilities to the fullest. Any less than that, and you’ll pay a lot to put your message everywhere but get nowhere in terms of ad spend.

Grow faster with a laser-focused Facebook Ads campaign

With the right Facebook Ads social marketing strategy, you’ll fast track business growth and turn clicks into dollars. It all starts with understanding how the Facebook Ad auction process works, then optimising your campaigns for relevance and actions.

Taking a look at 22+ examples of the very best Facebook Ads

Winning the hearts (and wallets) of your customers can prove a long and arduous process. That’s why it’s important to know the steps for taking your advertising from good to great. But are you wondering what does “the best” mean when it comes Facebook ads?

Does this sound like you?

  • Fresh to creating a Facebook page for your business, launching ads for the first time
  • In and out, you’ve had a crack at running Facebook ads but results just weren’t there
  • Seasoned expert having launched hundreds and thousands of ads before
  • Or anywhere in between…

Then sit tight, because no matter what stage you’re at, we’ve got the answers and the inspiration for you.

Facebook is one of the strongest platforms for advertising.

It has 2.449 billion monthly active users – 1.013 billion of them in APAC alone.

But this also makes the social media platform one of the most competitive.

However, there’s no need to worry.

Getting inspiration from these following ads and knowing what generates an effective Facebook ad campaign will ensure you have the right tools to make your ad stand out from the crowd.

Let’s get to it!

22 of the best Facebook Ad examples

We know that in a highly competitive and expensive advertising landscape, the fight for attention is difficult.

So here are 22 great Facebook ad examples that we’ve compiled.

After all, in the digital age, success is all about standing out.

Best Interactive Facebook Ads Examples

These are the ads that encourage and lead your audience to engage with your post.

They help brands tell stories, enhance personalisation and they offer more data, such as what questions your audience may have engaged with and what their responses are.

Spotify

Spotify 1.png?width=662&name=spotify 1
(Image Source: DigitalMarketer.com)

Encouraging your audience to tag others in your ads is a GREAT marketing tactic.

It not only engages your audience, but also increases your outreach with no extra effort or spend.

What makes this ad work: While this is an interactive campaign, it is also seasonal as it was produced around the time of Halloween.

Promotion seasonal advertisements are a great way to engage audiences.

Why?

Campaigns only run for a limited amount of time, and are also themed to the season, making them attractive.

Legendary: Game of Heroes

Game Of Heroes.png?width=507&name=game Of Heroes

(Image Source: AdEspresso)

This unique example of interactive targeting is an effective way of increasing engagement, and conversions.

What makes this ad work: 

  • It is VERY apparent on the targets’ message feed. There’s no way someone’s missing that ad as it’s smack bang in the middle of the screen.
  • The colours stand out. The ad is majority brown and gold, which contrast to Facebook Messenger’s blue and white theme. This makes it extremely eye catching.
  • The CTA button reads ‘Play Now’. This implies the game can be played as soon as the user taps on the CTA, as opposed to the CTA ‘Download Now’, which implies that there are multi-step processes in place to play the game.

The slight difference subconsciously communicates that they won’t have to add information like their email address or credit card number to play the game. This makes it convenient and lucrative.

MobileMonkey

Gamification is basically a tool to engage your audience beyond asking questions in your Facebook Ad copy.

It can be things like quizzes, asking your audience to respond in messenger, playing basic versions of virtual games or solving questions.

Apart from engagement, it encourages loyalty and motivation to buy your product or service.

Basically, it is the idea of adding games into a non-game context.

Just check out this ad creative from MobileMonkey:
Mobile Monkey 1.png?width=436&name=mobile Monkey 1
(Image Source: Facebook

What makes this ad work: Not only is it visually exciting with the bright colours and image of the unicorn, it’s incredibly engaging.

This ad is appealing not only because of its colour and its enticing copy, but also because of its gamification.

Because it asks the audience to type something in to messenger, it automatically makes the ad interactive, engaging the audience after piquing their interest through the colours and copy.

But let’s break it down even further.

Games work when there is a challenge that leads to a reward.

The challenge in this case, or the task, is typing in the phrase “Send Me the Secrets” into messenger.

The reward is receiving the secrets on building a chatbot in 5 minutes.

Simple hey?

This ad is interesting as it goes the extra mile.

It offers a technique on how to build a chatbot, and the gamification part of it is exactly like that of a chatbot.

Talk about meta marketing!

HelloFresh

Hellofresh.png?width=479&name=hellofresh

The interactive concept behind this ad is simple.

With Facebook’s year-old reaction features, marketers have grabbed the opportunity to use them for engagement.

And HelloFresh has mastered just how!

What makes this ad work: HelloFresh invites engagement from its community by asking them to vote on the recipe they’re most excited to cook. Paired with delectable photos, this Facebook Ad gets customers excited about HelloFresh’s menu and placing their orders ASAP.

Best Seasonal Facebook Ad Examples

Shopify

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. With tons of businesses vying for media space, Shopify had to get creative to stand out in the feed.

What makes this ad work: This Shopify ad works well as it uses a person to promote the business’ service.

This establishes a human connection, as your customer feels they are being spoken to by another person, not a business.

It creates a sense of urgency by dropping in the Black Friday Sale.

Target

Another Black Friday ad!

Cyber Weekend is typically when brands pull out all the stops for advertising, so it’s no surprise that this is when Target chose to create a bold ad that piqued customer curiosity.

Target.webp?width=562&name=target
(Image Source: Adespresso)

What makes this ad work: Target reels audiences in with its stand out visuals and copy

By asking ‘it’s here’ three times, audiences have no choice but to question ‘What’s here?’

The dog’s eye as the Target symbol works really well too – on a brand awareness level, customers will not forget the company that created the ad.

Best Testimonial Facebook Ad Examples

This ad type is pretty self-explanatory.

The marketing tactic is to use external validation and reviews to boost a product or service.

Check out these examples below.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines has long been considered one of the best airlines in the world. And for those who might be tossing up between SQ and one of its competitors, this testimonial ad may just be enough to steer them in the right direction.
Singapore Airlines.gif?width=446&name=singapore Airlines

What makes this ad work: This ad works well as it is pitching itself with awards won, AND also adding client testimonials. Coupled with the brand’s iconic “Singapore Girl”, this ad helps build up Singapore Airlines’ brand awareness amongst customers, even if they aren’t planning a trip just yet.

Best Facebook Ad Examples: Scarcity, or fear of missing out (FOMO)

Before we dig deep into some great Facebook ad campaigns, let’s look at the psychology behind FOMO.

It is described as the “fear of making the wrong decision – the one that will leave you feeling like you’re missing out on what could have been.” (i-D)

This is why consumers get FOMO.

And it’s a perfect opportunity to leverage fear-based marketing tactics.

Let’s have a look at some good ones.

Sydney Theatre Company

This ad from Sydney Theatre Company is the perfect example of hyper-targeted FOMO marketing at its finest. It promotes special rates for under 25s for its production, COSI, which can be redeemed using a special code on its website.

Sydney Theatre Company.png?width=440&name=sydney Theatre Company

(Image Source: Facebook)

What makes this ad work:

  • It creates the feeling of FOMO. If you don’t use this coupon by 11 December 2019, it will expire, and you will not be able to get $25 tickets anytime after
  • It uses repetition. $25 tickets for under 25s sticks in your mind.
  • It targets a very specific demographic. Under 25s usually cannot afford pricey theatre tickets, so by having a cheaper deal targeted to a demographic who is most likely to benefit from it, the ad hits the mark
  • Showing demand. Right under the description it shows “192 people got this offer.” This is social proof the advertisement is both legitimate, and popular.

The New Yorker

(Source: Facebook)

Everyone’s paying for a media subscription these days, which is why an offer needs to stand out if a brand wants to gain new customers. That’s exactly what the Nw Yorker did with this Facebook video.

What makes this ad work: This ad works well as it gives two offers in one ad: A cheap subscription to the New Yorker magazine, along with a free tote bag. Two birds with one stone!

Best Emotional Facebook Ad Examples

Nike

Nike.png?width=534&name=nike

Immediately, Nike has your hearts with this canvas ad.

Even if you’re not a parent after sportswear for your bub, this ad is appealing to a wider audience – i.e. anyone who finds babies doing adult things cute.

This is smart advertising, as it works on two levels.

What makes this ad work: It not only appeals to the audience through its cuteness, but also leaves the audience wanting more – and delivers that through the carousel.

The promise of more cute baby photos doing athletics is likely enough to get a parent to swipe through.

And boom – Nike has achieved their objective of getting their target demographic to engage with their ad.

Carousel ads work really well when there are multiple photos and products you as a marketer want to display.

Note as well how simple this ad is. With concise copy, a couple of photos and a clear call to action button, it became one of Nike’s best performing ads.

Promo

Promo.png?width=250&name=promo

(Image Source: Facebook)

Consider the idea behind the video.

It’s simple, appeals to the target audience (small businesses) and uses clever copy and a good idea to deliver its message.

So much so in fact, that it received 4.6k likes and over 600 comments!

What makes this ad work: The humour element of this ad also means it is more likely to stick in the audiences’ minds.

However, as strong as this ad is, there is one downfall.

Notice how the headline truncates after the first five words?

A more effective headline would be one that is concise enough to fit within the specs of that advertisement.

Best GIF and Video Facebook Ad Examples

Best Buy

Best Buy.gif?width=624&name=best Buy

(Image Source: DigitalMarketer.com)

Although Best Buy is an American brand, this motion-based ad speaks to consumers around the world thanks to its eye-catching simplicity. By pairing great Facebook Ads with a great offer, Best Buy’s ad is an enticing call to action for shoppers to get in and pick up this oven at a discount.

What makes this ad work: This ad works well on a range of levels.

It is colourful, and the simple movement draws the user’s eye, even in a cluttered user’s Facebook news feed. Plus, the combination of simultaneously baking cookies and pizza in the oven at the same time is designed to intrigue shoppers and make them ask “how is this possible?”

At the same time, the copy creates a sense of urgency (Prep for the Holiday Savings event), while also promoting an event the company is hosting!

Purple

There are so many bed-in-a-box brands out there today, so you really need to do something different if you want to hook customers in and get them excited about your product. And that’s precisely what Purple has done with this video promoting their motion isolation technology.

Purple.gif?width=624&name=purple

(Image Source: DigitalMarketer.com)

What makes this ad work: This ad works well as, like the HelloFresh ad format, it works on two sides of the screen.

It promotes the product with a video less than 10 seconds, but shows exactly how well the product works.

The copy also guarantees a trial period and a free return in the case of customer dissatisfaction.

This benefits customers, and so is highly appealing.

Accenture

As a professional services company, Accenture creates value for clients with their consulting and project management offerings. While most other B2B companies may advertise exclusively on LinkedIn, Accenture uses Facebook to build awareness and reach working professionals on a channel that their competitors may have overlooked.

Accenture.gif?width=604&name=accenture

(Image Source: Hubspot)

What makes this ad work: This ad takes the meaning of ‘threats’ quite literally.

By synchronising the copy and the video, that ad comes across as cohesive, engaging and credible (one of the very important copywriting Cs!)

DropBox

This fun, short video (falling within 30 seconds) shows the audience exactly how to use DropBox Spaces. The ad includes real footage from Dropbox, along with a voiceover explaining the different features of the platform.

What makes this ad work: There’s nothing more enticing than marketing that tells the audience exactly what it is selling. After watching this ad, users know precisely what’s in store if they sign up for Dropbox — which means those that do click on the ad are likely to be highly qualified site visitors.

HelloFresh

Here’s another great video ad from HelloFresh. This time, the food delivery service is promoting its ready-to-cook boxes, along with an enticing offer for new subscribers to get 40% off their first box.

What makes this ad work: This ad works really well as it is multilayered – playing two videos in one.

These videos correspond with each other, which is what ties the ad together.

As there is a lot happening on the screen, the viewer is forced to concentrate slightly harder to understand what is happening, which in turn increases their engagement.

It is visual, simple and colourful.

Best Facebook Ad Examples: Other Ads

Nespresso

Nespresso is known for its elaborate store displays, but this Facebook ad takes the brand’s creativity to a whole new level. By creating a Facebook video masquerading as a Facebook post, Nespresso surprises and delights audiences with an unexpected take on the traditional newsfeed ad.

Nespresso.gif?width=624&name=nespresso

(Image Source: DigitalMarketer.com)

What makes this ad work: The copy seeps into the video, which creates excitement for the customer because it is unexpected.

The copy is also clever, as the video responds to it in a quite literal way.

The medieval theme also creates a feeling of adventure, which ads to the appeal and the sense of excitement.

By doing this, your audience is more likely to pause scrolling their news feeds to watch the ad as they understand what is happening in it.

Boom! You’ve got their attention.

Pura Vida Bracelets

Since Facebook launched carousel ads more than half a decade ago, brands have been using this format to engage audiences and encourage them to explore their products and services.

Pura Vida Bracelets’ Facebook ad is a prime example of how combining the carousel format with user-generated content (UGC) can make shoppers stop scrolling and start discovering.

Pura Vida.gif?width=624&name=pura Vida

(Image Source: Sprout Social)

What makes this ad work: This stunning carousel ad works well as showcases the product in the first slide, but then goes on to showcasing more elements and behaviours that are associated with the product.

It is colourful, and doesn’t just sell the product – but the lifestyle too.

Subconsciously, this ad tells customers that by purchasing these bracelets, they will have access to a beachy, carefree and sunny lifestyle.

Shopify

Let’s have a look at this Facebook ad image from Shopify. As one of the world’s biggest eCommerce platforms, Shopify helps millions realise their dream of promoting their products online.

Shopify.png?width=528&name=shopify

(Image Source: Pinterest)

What makes this ad work: This ad immediately sticks out because of its simplicity.

But it also compels the audience as it immediately draws their eyes to the centre of the ad’s image using the dark and lightness contrast.

Simple, yet effective.

As Google puts it: “Straightforward messages deliver results.”

Learn About: Google Ads vs Facebook Ads

Ladder

Insurance is one of those things that everyone knows they should get, but keep putting off. With this ad from the Facebook Ad library, Ladder speaks to this experience by telling users they can tick insurance off their list in just a few minutes.

Ladder.png?width=499&name=ladder

(Image Source: DigitalMarketer.com>)

What makes this ad work: This ad creates a comparison to show how quickly the service delivers.

Making coffee doesn’t take long, so the promise of being able to complete a life insurance plan before finishing coffee is lucrative.

BookClub

Sometimes, there’s nothing more daunting than making a decision — especially when it comes to the next book you’re going to read.

BookBub’s ad makes it easy for audiences by deciding their book for them!

Bookclub.png?width=449&name=bookclub

(Image Source: HubSpot)

What makes this ad work: BookBub’s ad promises users that they can get 7 book recommendations that are tailored to their reading tastes — in just 30 seconds. This low barrier to entry is more than enough reason to make users want to click through, find new books and hopefully make a purchase in the process.

On top of that, it lays out four book covers against a bright yellow background to really make the ad pop in the feed.

NatureBox

NatureBox’s Facebook ad speaks to something that most of us love to do: snack. With delicious healthy snacks delivered every month, NatureBox’s subscription service is appetising in and of itself — and this ad is just the icing on the cake.

Naturebox.png?width=393&name=naturebox

(Image Source: HubSpot)

What makes this ad work: Immediately by looking at this desktop news feed ad, you know what it sells.

The ad visuals are appealing and the food looks fresh and appetising.

Plus, the huge free trial copy is emphasised, while fitting in with the overall colour scheme of the ad.

What Facebook ad types are most effective?

The most effective Facebook ad type depends on your industry, audience, and your objectives.

There are eight different Facebook ad formats you can choose from for your Facebook Advertising campaign, each catering to the specific goals you want your ad to accomplish. Knowing when and how to use each of these is critical if you want to build high-performing campaigns that deliver tangible results for your business.

Photo ad

Photo ads use crisp images to promote a product or event. These ads are best if you have really powerful imagery and you want to use it to make a big impact on the Facebook feed.

Photo ads suit companies with highly visual products, such as travel, food and lifestyle. For ads shown in a Facebook News Feed, the recommended image resolution is at least 1080 X 1080.

Video ad

Video ads have a GIF or video as the centrepiece of the advertisement, and are often used to demonstrate a product or event. There are six types of video ads you can invest in on Facebook:

  • Short videos and GIFs
  • Vertical videos
  • Instagram stories
  • Video carousels
  • Video collections
  • In-stream videos

If you have great video content, a video ad is the best way to engage your audience and increase conversions. According to HubSpot, video is the second most popular type of social media content that’s used to increase audience engagement — and companies that use video increase revenue a whopping 49% faster than those who don’t.

Stories ad

Stories ads are a part of Facebook Stories, which allows users to post temporary clips and images of their day for their friends to see. This type of ad can be played on mobile and desktop, and usually appears inside a stream of Stories.

Stories ads are effective if you want to reach your audience in different places. They can be placed on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, so you’ll be able to maximise the reach of your content.

Messenger ad

A Messenger ad appears as a direct message in a user’s message list when they’re inside Facebook’s Messenger app. These ads allow you to interact with your audience, thus enabling you to show additional ads specifically tailored to their interests.

According to Facebook, Messenger ads are most effective when you reach people at scale, then follow that up by interacting with them individually. This might be sending a promotion to existing customers, extending a welcome back offer to unhappy customers, or letting your audience know about a new product or service.

Carousel ad

Carousel ads contain a series of images or videos that users can rotate through. Each carousel ad can contain up to 10 images or videos helping to describe a single product, service, or event the ad is promoting.

Carousels are most effective if you want to:

  • Endorsing multiple products
  • Promoting multiple features of the same product
  • Telling a story or sequence of events
  • Explaining a process to potential customers

Slideshow ad

Slideshow ads segment your ad into individual images that users view one after another. Unlike carousel, slideshow ads only play images (not videos), and the ad compiles these images into a slideshow that plays automatically like a video. Slideshow ads are effective for:

  • Creating a video-like experience with a small budget
  • Simplifying an otherwise complicated concept or process for potential customers
  • Reaching people who have slower internet connections

Collection ad

Collection ads bring the buying process directly to Facebook, so potential customers can move from “discovery” to “purchase” more easily. These ads feature a central image or video promoting a product, with a collection of added images that viewers can click on to learn more.

There are four types of collection ads:

  • Instant storefront. This ad is ideal for displaying multiple products as part of one campaign.
  • Instant outlook. This ad is ideal for modelling a product in various contexts for your audience.
  • Instant customer acquisition. This ad is ideal for driving traffic to a product’s landing page and prompting action.
  • Instant storytelling. This ad is ideal for telling a story about your brand.

If you’re selling products online and your advertising goal is to increase sales, Collection ads are a powerful way to do just that.

Playables

Catered specifically to app developers, playables allow your audience to watch and preview a new app from directly inside the ad. These are effective for racking up downloads for a platform and increasing your user base.

How do I make a good Facebook ad?

To invest in Facebook ads effectively, you need to know how to create an ad that will be successful with your target audience.

The best Facebook ads campaigns come in all formats, but they have three things in common: they’re targeted, they combine powerful copy and content, and they’re tested and refined over multiple split tests.

If you want to make a revenue-shifting Facebook ad, follow these five steps.

1. Start with a goal in mind

Every success story starts with a plan.

This is why starting with a concrete step-by-step list of what you want to achieve is the right way to go.

Consider what you want. Is it:

  • More conversions. More people buying into your business? Yes, please!
  • Easier lead generation: Are you getting a lot of engagement but finding your customers aren’t showing a lot of interest after reaching landing pages?
  • Increased website traffic. Whether it’s attracting timely visitors for product promotions, to building awareness through educational content amplification, traffic is the ticket for most businesses. Imagine spending $3k on your ad budget, only to sell products worth $150. These ad examples will show you how to market for better ROI.
  • More purchases. With smart targeting, you can drive both new AND repeat purchases for loyal customers
  • Decreasing the number of abandoned shopping carts. This can be done by targeting people who’ve recently viewed product pages.

Once you have this, you can tailor your ad to achieve your goals with targeting, content, and copy.

2. Target the right audience

Well, it’s important your ad is targeted to the correct audience.

This relies on analysing data. So let’s consider the following factors:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Interests
  • Gender
  • Marital and family status
  • Career path
  • Return or first-time customer or visitor
  • Mobile, tablet or desktop visitor
  • Company size re revenue and employees (if your audience are businesses)
  • Industry of work
  • Social network platform used most
  • General interests
  • Professional skills
  • What type of content they consume
  • Shopping preferences (whether they interact with vendors over the phone or in person

With these demographic, professional and personal factors in mind, you can build a persona. I.E. a semi-fictionalised representation of a specific customer group.

Here’s a great example persona from HubSpot:
Right Audience.png?width=624&name=right Audience

(Image Source: HubSpot)

From your persona, you can craft your ad.

Facebook, unlike any other platform, has a comprehensive targeting system which means you can choose who sees your ads.

Cool, hey!

But what if you’re a brand that wants multiple audiences to see your ads because of the products and services you offer?

Well, that’s awesome!

You can use Facebook to your advantage by creating separate ads too.

Let’s say you’re in charge of marketing for a tech store selling everything from laptops, hard drives to security systems.

Your target persona is a first-time mother in her 30s with a young baby.

Knowing this, you can target your baby monitoring system.

You also have a second target audience – university students looking to invest in a new laptop.

You create an ad that is appealing to someone in their late teens or early 20s.

Think about the copy, the images, the design you would have for each.

And consider the pain points.

The mother’s biggest concern is often safety – so your ad should emphasise that your product will keep her baby safe.

Like with this ad:

Owlet.png?width=474&name=owlet

(Image Source: Owlet Facebook)

On the other hand, the university students’ biggest priority is likely cost and features.

If you were to target these ads to the opposite demographic, they wouldn’t work so well.

It’s important to create personas so you can target your audience as accurately as possible.

Targeting based off demographics like gender, ethnicity, location, age, sex and interests will ensure when you put out your ad, it hits the right audience goal.

Once you’ve got this covered, it’ll be easier to nail the tone of your ad.

3. Select the right media

A powerful Facebook ad also sticks in your customers’ minds.

One way this can happen is through content.

Content takes up a massive part of your ad. It’s the part that gets people to pause and pay attention to what you have to say, read your copy, and even click through to your website.

Whether it’s photos, videos, GIFs or links, you can’t afford to just throw in any old image. You have to put careful thought into it if you want to get the best results from your ad.

Here’s a great example from Headspace. The meditation app is known for helping users focus and gain calm and clarity, which is why this video works so well. Even with the sound off, Headspace speaks to feelings of anxiety and stress — and positions its app as the solution.

Imagery can be JUST as effective as video.

Take a look at this one from Nike promoting its new Nike Air Zoom sneaker:

Nike 2.png?width=596&name=nike 2

The vibrant colours make the ad pop and grab the user’s attention, before directing them to discover more on the Nike website.

4. Ad copy is king

As a marketer, writing is the backbone of your resource pool.

And good copywriting will appeal to Facebook users on a practical and emotional level.

Like the visual design, copy also works when it’s delivered in threes.

Here are some tried and tested formulas to get you started on writing the strongest ad text around.

A. BAB

Before – Here’s what your world was like while the problem was still in it. Identify the customer’s pain point.

After – Here’s what your world will be after the problem/pain point is resolved.

Bridge – Here’s how we can get you there.

The Zebra.png?width=415&name=the Zebra

(Image Source: The Zebra)

Let’s break it down:

Before – The pain point: the customer has spent A LOT of money and time on car insurance. “Want to save money on car insurance in seconds?”

After – The customer can easily get cheap and quick insurance, and can spend those hard-earned dollars elsewhere. “This is the fastest way to compare companies and it’s absolutely free.”

Bridge – The customer can compare “Start comparing.”

B. The four C’s formula.

Clear, concise, compelling, credible.

Why does it matter?

Well, the point of an ad is to get your point across.

So, how does it work with this ad?

Infusionsoft.png?width=399&name=infusionsoft

(Image Source: Proof)

Clear – Software that makes emailing easier for small businesses.

Concise – The description is only one sentence.

Compelling – A brightly coloured video stands out from the crowd.

Credible – Offers a live demo so customers can see what they are signing up to.

C. SSS formula

This stands for Star – Story – Solution.

Let’s consider this ad from Grammarly.

Grammarly 1.png?width=373&name=grammarly 1

This is a killer ad as it uses great branding, standout colours, and eye-catching emojis.

When it comes to copy – it nails what the audience is after.

Star – Professionals want to come across as confident, not naggy or aggressive.

Story – Not knowing how to amend their tone means they come across as “worried”, which leads to awkward office interactions.

Solution – You download Grammarly’s tone detector to avoid sounding worried, and develop a better relationship with your colleagues and professional network.

D. The {Product Name} is a {product category} that {different thing it does best} formula

This is one of the most basic of Facebook ad copywriting formulas, yet is highly effective.

Why?

Because it is straightforward.

After reading the formula, the customer knows exactly what the product or service is, and why the business is promoting it.

Here’s an example:

Mr Rooter Plumbing.png?width=478&name=mr Rooter Plumbing

(Image Source: Webfx)

This ad applies this formula perfectly.

Let’s break it down!

“Mr Rooter is your go-to resource for all things plumbing. Sink, shower and toilet emergency services, we’ve got you covered.”

It hits all three elements of the formula, AND also has clever copy overlaid on the image – which is both graphic and visualises the customer’s pain point (clogged pipes).

Other great tools to take your copy from good to great are headline analysers!

They reveal how clearly and how emotive your headline reads to users.

Some really great resources are ones from CoSchedule and AMI.

And the best part?

They’re free!

5. Test one element at a time

A/B testing in Facebook ads (or multivariate/split testing) is incredibly important.

Split Test

It’s basically testing two of the same ads against each other with one differing element.

Remember high school science experiments?

You tested how quickly something would melt by putting it over a Bunsen burner.

The only factor you changed is what element you were testing.

The rest remained the same.

That’s what split testing does.

You run one standard ad – but create multiple various versions, changing one thing in each version.

This could either be the image used, the copy, the gamification feature, the colours used or a whole host of things.

Here’s one example:

Dominos.png?width=436&name=dominos

(Image source: Facebook)

These ads are almost identical – they have the same copy, same CTA button, same value deal and same headline.

However, the images are slightly different.

As you can see, the first image has just one pizza with the copy on the right-hand side.

The second has three pizzas with the copy on the left-hand side.

This is A/B testing at its most basic form.

The ad variation that performs better will be recirculated.

Let’s have a look at another example.

Bunnings.webp?width=512&name=bunnings

(Image Source: Facebook)

Can you pick out the differences between them?

They are ALMOST identical!

The only difference is the first line of the copy.

The first ad reads ‘Beat the heat at home’, while the second ad reads ‘Keep your cool this summer.’

Though these aren’t major differences, they are still valuable to A/B test as the ad that performs better will tell the business whether their audience prefers negative language (the first example), or positive language (second example).

Writing a Facebook ad isn’t as easy as waving a magic wand, but it isn’t as difficult as Romeo trying to win over Juliet.

With this guide, I hope you see how these ads show what effective advertising is, and you feel empowered to go out and conquer advertising on Facebook.

Which type of ad you choose will highly depend on your budget, your brand, your target audience and their Facebook using behaviours.

This toolbelt offers you how to write effective ad copy, why simplicity delivers and a step-by-step process on creating appealing Facebook ads.

Inspiration can strike at any second – so make sure to have a look at these examples to see how you cn create your next high-quality Facebook ad.

What Are The Biggest Facebook Ad Mistakes People and Companies Make?

With over 91% of Aussies on Facebook, it’s pretty clear that the platform is a must-have for businesses. But while Facebook can be a revenue powerhouse for brands, too often there are more pitfalls than success stories. A lot of companies try their hand at Facebook advertising. But Facebook ad mistakes can be costly, so businesses quickly pull the plug because it’s just not working. And in fact, 61% of all SMBs say their ad campaign doesn’t work out well.

First off, here’s the good news. Generating a mean return on ad spend (ROAS) is ENTIRELY possible when you’re advertising on the world’s largest social media platform.

However, it’s not as simple as hitting “Boost Post” and watching the revenue roll in. You have to be deliberate and if you want to tap into the power of Facebook for your business.

In this post, we’re dishing the dirt on the most common Facebook Ad mistakes businesses make. Then, we’ll give the inside scoop on what you can do instead to get more bang for your marketing buck.

Let’s get started.

Facebook Ad Mistake #1: Pulling the plug too soon

Like any strong online digital marketing campaign, it takes time to create and optimize a Facebook Ads campaign. But more often than not, advertisers fall into the trap of wanting instant gratification.

We get it. You’ve invested precious marketing budget in. You want to drive traffic and increase brand awareness. You want results. You’re constantly refreshing to see if your ad is bringing in more clicks and revenue. And if it doesn’t deliver after a few hours or days, it’s tempting to pull the plug and call it a day.

However, the truth is that optimising your campaign takes time — even if you’ve already jumped in the hot seat before.

In fact, Facebook itself has said that it takes time for the platform to rack up enough data to optimise your campaign for results. That doesn’t even take into account the optimisation and testing you can do on your own, to make sure the creative, audience targeting and timing is all on point.

What to do instead

Wait. It generally takes Facebook at least 24-72 hours to optimise your campaign. Just take a look at this graph below, which shows when cost per click and click-through rates peak:

CTR

Image source: KlientBoost

Then, and only then, can you start to draw conclusions around how your campaign is performing. If it’s still not working, it might be worth tweaking your ad copy, creative or audience targeting. Then, wait another 24-48 hours before drawing conclusions.

The same applies once a campaign is complete. If you didn’t get the results you wanted, it doesn’t mean you should chuck in the towel on Facebook Ads altogether. Tweak, optimise, and try again. From our experience, it can take up to three months before your ad campaigns start hitting the sweet spot when it comes to ROAS.

Facebook Ad Mistake #2: Too many ads or ad types, too little budget

It’s easy to get excited with Facebook Ads and spread yourself too thin. With all the audience targeting options out there, many advertisers get carried away. Simply put: they run too many campaigns, with too many ads or ad types.

And in most cases these ads all have little budget behind them — which means it’s hard to optimise existing campaigns, or scale up when something is working.

At the end of the day, this leads to inefficient ad spend, lacklustre results, and a pretty dismal ROAS.

What to do instead

Consolidate your ads into larger sets with larger budgets. While the idea of trying to hit a niche target audience with a highly personalised message is good in theory, it doesn’t play out quite as well in practice.

Try to cut down your ads to 2-3 ad sets with 3-6 ad types in each set. Focus on developing targeting based on a couple of buyer personas and combine all lookalikes into one set. This way, you feed Facebook enough data to optimise your cost per click, cost per acquisition, and ultimately get better returns.

If you do want to test different creatives or messaging, or target different people don’t create separate campaigns. Use Facebook’s handy split testing tool to run A/B tests and see what works.

Facebook Ad Mistake #3: Focusing only on cost

It’s easy for advertisers (or their CFO) to look at Facebook Ads from the perspective of cost. A lot of marketers limit themselves by thinking about the budget required to run an ad campaign.

There are two potential mistakes that can come a cost-focused mentality:

  1. You can’t get the results you want
  2. You get good results, but can’t scale up

In the first case, you don’t have enough investment behind your campaigns. As we mentioned earlier, optimising campaigns takes time. You have to be in it for the long game. If you sporadically boost a post by $20 every now and then, you won’t see results. It’s as simple as that.

At the same time, if you DO get good returns, focusing on cost means you can’t scale up. You’re capping your revenue potential — and you might be investing more on other platforms that aren’t giving you the same kind of gains.

What to do instead?

Focus on returns. Instead of looking on how much it costs your business, focus on how much it’s bringing in.

To fully take advantage of Facebook Ads’ optimisation algorithm, you need to have at least 50 conversions in one ad set per week.

This means if your mission objective is to have a ROAS of $6 per lead, you need to have a budget of at least $45 per day per ad set. Any less than that, and your campaign won’t be able to work the way YOU want it to.

Facebook Ad Mistake #4: Setting and forgetting campaigns

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is thinking that Facebook Ads run in the background and require no optimisation. It’s easy to set up your account, let it run for a few weeks, and forget about it — especially when you have a lot on your plate.

But if you’re using Facebook Ads, you should focus on doing it right. Simply setting and forgetting ads is a prime recipe for wasted time and budget.

What to do instead

Check in on your Facebook Ads Manager every day. Look at the key performance metrics, including:

If your ad isn’t performing after a few days, tweak and optimise. And, when you see your ad frequency is climbing, it might be time to switch out the creative to make sure your audience doesn’t get ad fatigue.

Truth be told, it’s not always possible to find the time to check in on Facebook every day. If you don’t have the time, another solution is to bring a social media marketing agency on board.

Facebook Ad Mistake #5: Always focusing on launching new campaigns

Got a new marketing campaign or product? That means creating a new ad campaign on Facebook with a new audience…right?

Not necessarily. See, if you’re always focused on creating new campaigns, it’s easy to lose track of what works. Every time you create a new ad, you have to give Facebook the obligatory time to optimise the campaign. Then you have to tweak it accordingly — even though you ALREADY know what works. It’s just time and revenue down the drain.

At the same time, this sets you up to fall into one of the other common mistakes: too many ads. Every time you create a new campaign, you’re adding more confusion into the mix. Plus, it’s much harder to go back and pinpoint what worked for the future.

What to do instead

Rather than thinking of Facebook Ads from a publisher mindset where the focus is on publishing new content on a regular basis, think of it more from a Google Ads mindset.

Put money into a few ad sets in a few campaigns, and focus on optimising your greatest hits. Adjust the creative and the copy as needed, and let it run. Some of the best Facebook Ads campaigns are ones that have been running for months, or even YEARS.

Facebook Ad Mistake #6: Not making the most of features

The beauty of Facebook is that it’s PACKED with features. These features are a treasure trove. You can target people at different times of day, play with placements, target lookalike audiences, use a video ad…and the list goes on, and on, and on. In fact, Facebook is one of THE most comprehensive advertising platforms out there

However, it’s easy to get hit with the paradox of choice here. Unless you understand the value of the different features, or test them, it can quickly get overwhelming.

What to do instead

Test and learn! While it’s tough to try out all of Facebook’s different advertising features, these are a few that you should be taking advantage of.

Ad Placements

On Facebook, it’s not just about sponsoring a post on the newsfeed. You can place your ad on the right-hand column on desktop, post an ad on Instagram, and slot in an in-stream video. Think about the end-goal of your campaign, and the ad placement that will help you meet that goal.

For example, if you’re a plumber, Instagram ads probably won’t work as effectively as a sponsored post. But if you’re a cafe, you’re missing out on an opportunity to convert your audience if you’re not on Instagram.

Ad Frequency Metrics

Nobody wants to see the same ad over and over again. Facebook’s Ad Frequency metric shows you how many times an audience has seen your ad. The higher it is, the higher the chance that your audience gets annoyed with your ad. But at the same time, if they only see it once, they might just forget and move on.

Here’s a great graph illustrating the link between ad frequency, click-through rate and cost per click:

CTR Frenquency CPC Adexpresso

Image source: AdEspresso

Try to keep the single ad frequency between 3-5 points. Once it hits this, change up your creative or pause your ads to prevent the dreaded audience ad fatigue.

Ad scheduling 

There’s no point running every single ad all day, every day. Unless your audience are night shift workers, chances are you won’t be reaching as many people at 2 a.m. as you would at 5:30 p.m. This is where ad scheduling comes in handy.

Set up ad scheduling, so you can ensure that your message gets served up to the right audience when they’re most engaged.

On Facebook, it looks a bit like this:

Facebook Ads Scheduling

Facebook Ad Mistake #7: Focusing on vanity metrics

It’s nice to see your impressions shoot up, or your follower numbers grow. But at the end of the day, while these are important, there’s one goal that all businesses have.

Revenue!

Many advertisers (and agencies) get caught up in looking at vanity metrics, such as the number of followers a Facebook page has or the number of likes on a post. However, if your ads aren’t bringing in revenue, you’re not getting the most out of Facebook Ads.

What to do instead

Track conversions and return on ad spend.

The first step to do this is to install Facebook Pixel on your website. This allows you to look at your audience’s behaviour once they’ve clicked on your ad from Facebook. At the same time, remember to add the conversion tracking code. You’ll get a much more holistic view of your campaign performance, and understand the TRUE value of your ads.

Conversion Codes JonLommer

Image credit: Jon Loomer

Facebook Ad Mistake #8: Overlooking the buyer journey

While Facebook Ads are housed on Facebook, this doesn’t mean that your audience’s journey stops there. Even if your Facebook Ad is a star performer, you won’t get the returns you deserve if your landing page is dragging it down.

Most ads have a call to action that will eventually lead Facebook users off the social media platform — and on to your website. Once they’re here, it’s up to you to engineer the perfect journey that drives them to convert.

What to do instead

Map out the entire customer journey for your audience and design your landing pages accordingly to funnel them further along it. On top of this, remember to match your landing page to your ad type.

Fiverr does this well. On Facebook, they’ve created an ad for Whiteboard video animations like so:

Fiverr Video Facebook Ad

Image source: Klientboost

Once you hit “shop now”, you wind up on a sign-up page for the exact product shown in the ad:

Fiverr Landing Page

Image source: Klientboost

This is a great example of a Facebook ad that considers the buyer journey, and optimises the Facebook Ad AND the landing page for said journey.

Lastly, don’t forget to keep mobile in mind when designing your landing page. Facebook earns more than 80% of revenue from mobile advertising. If your landing page is optimised for desktop, or delivers a poor mobile experience, your ROAS is going to suffer. A lot.

Are your Facebook ads really performing well? Lets find out!

To determine whether your Facebook ads are performing well, you need to carefully track and analyse key performance metrics.

Here are some ways to gauge the success of your Facebook ads:

Engagement Rate

One of the most obvious indicators of a successful Facebook ad is its engagement rate. Engagement includes likes, comments, shares, and other interactions with your ad. A higher engagement rate suggests your ad is resonating with your target audience. However, be mindful of the quality of interactions; not all engagements lead to conversions.

Conversion Rate

Conversions are the ultimate goal of most ads. Whether it’s making a purchase, filling out a lead form, or clicking to learn more, a high conversion rate signals that your Facebook ads are driving the desired actions. Comparing your conversion rate to industry benchmarks or your previous campaigns will help you understand if you’re on track.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

One of the most important metrics is your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which measures the revenue generated for every dollar you spend on Facebook ads. A high ROAS indicates that your ads are effective in generating sales or leads relative to the budget. Generally, a ROAS of 4:1 or higher is considered good, but this can vary by industry.

Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

CPC and CPA are great indicators of the efficiency of your Facebook ads. Lower costs indicate that you’re reaching your target audience cost-effectively. While a low CPC can be a good sign, a low CPA is even more important since it signifies you’re not just driving clicks, but actual business outcomes.

Frequency and Ad Fatigue

While frequency (how many times your ad is shown to the same person) is important to track, it’s crucial to monitor for ad fatigue. If the frequency gets too high, your audience might start ignoring or getting annoyed by your ads, leading to a decrease in performance. Ideally, you want a frequency that’s enough to increase awareness but not so high that it leads to diminishing returns.

Audience Insights and Relevance Score

Facebook provides a relevance score (or now, a “relevance diagnostics” section) that measures how well your ad resonates with your audience. If your relevance score is low, it may indicate that your target audience doesn’t find your ad valuable. The ad performance may improve by refining your targeting or adjusting your ad creative.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

A high click-through rate means that your ad is compelling enough to drive users to click. CTR is a key metric for understanding how well your ad copy and visuals resonate with your audience. The higher your CTR, the more effective your ad is at attracting attention and prompting action.

A/B Testing Results

A/B testing allows you to compare variations of your Facebook ads to see which performs better. By testing different ad creatives, copy, audiences, and calls-to-action, you can continuously optimise your ads. If your A/B test results show significant differences in performance, it’s a clear indicator of which ad variants are driving better results.

If you monitor these metrics regularly, you’ll have a clearer picture of whether your Facebook ads are achieving their goals. If any of these metrics are not performing well, it may be time to revisit your ad targeting, creative, or strategy to improve performance.

Putting it all together

Facebook advertising can deliver insane returns. But it requires planning, time and optimisation. By avoiding these mistakes and taking advantage of Facebook’s awesome suite of advertising features, you’ll be well on your way to maximising your ROAS.

We know navigating the world of Facebook Ads can be tough. That’s why we’re here: to help you supercharge your ad campaigns and boost your revenue into the stratosphere.

Generate More Sales With eCommerce Facebook Ads

eCommerce Facebook Ads –  Want more ready-to-buy customers that convert? Floods of traffic to your eCommerce website? So many sales that you can’t keep up? If so, Facebook Ads needs to be part of your online digital marketing game plan.

Facebook Ads are an essential tool in every eCommerce business’ toolkit — and trust us, this platform is EXTREMELY effective.

According to numbers:

  • Facebook Ads generated $9.82 per user on average in Q4 2020 (FB Earnings Report).
  • Facebook Ads has the highest ROI amongst ALL paid traffic source platforms, including Google Ads (Hubspot).
  • Facebook is responsible for the largest number of eCommerce orders from social media (Paymill).

But with more than 10 million advertisers on the platform, you need to stand out in order to cash out. That’s where a finely tuned strategy, hyper-focused targeting, standout creative, and the right ad formats come in.

In this post, we cover all the essential tips eCommerce companies need to know to maximise return on ad spend (ROAS) and win more customers on the world’s largest social media network.

Ready to convert more customers and rake in the revenue?

Let’s dive in.

How do I run eCommerce Facebook ads?

First, the basics.

If you’ve never run eCommerce Facebook ads, the thought of getting started can feel a little bit daunting. Luckily, Facebook Ads Manager is an incredibly user-friendly platform that makes it easy for any business owner to hop in and get started.

Follow these steps to get your business set up to advertise on Facebook Ads:

1. Set up your Facebook Ads Manager account

Before you do anything, you’ll need to set up an ad account for your business on Facebook Ads Manager (note: this isn’t the same as Facebook Business Manager). Get started by hopping onto the Ads Manager page and selecting “Go to Ads Manager”:

Facebook Ads Manager

Log into the same account that’s linked to your Facebook Business Page. Confirm your information on the account setup page, add in your payment method and details, then hit “save changes”.

2. Create a new campaign and set your objective

Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be presented with a dashboard where you’ll be able to see and manage all of your campaigns, ad sets and ads. Click on ‘Create’ to get started.

Create New Campaign

You’ll then be presented with a page asking you to pick your objective. As an online business, the objectives you’ll most likely want to focus on are Awareness and Reach for Top-of-Funnel audiences, Traffic for Middle-of-Funnel, and Conversions or Product Catalog Sales for Bottom-of-Funnel.

3. Select your target audience

After setting up your objectives, Facebook Ads Manager will prompt you to pick your target audience for each ad set. Facebook created a ton of targeting options for businesses to use, including:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Language
  • Relationship status
  • Education
  • Work
  • Life events
  • Home
  • Interests
  • Behaviours
  • Connections

Another option here is Custom Audiences, where you can target people who are already in your email database or who visited a page on your website that was tracked with Facebook Pixel (more on this soon).

4. Set your budget

With eCommerce Facebook Ads, you can either set a daily budget for how much you want to spend every day, or a lifetime budget if you want to run your Facebook Ad campaigns for a fixed length of time. In both cases, Facebook will pace your spending to ensure that it’s evenly distributed over the course of the day or your campaign lifetime.

You can also access advanced options for your budget on this page, such as:

  • Ad scheduling so your ad only shows on specific days of the week or hours of the day
  • Ad bidding optimisation or manual bidding
  • Standard ad delivery, which paces your ads throughout the day, or accelerated ad delivery to reach audiences faster

5. Create your Facebook Ad

On the next step, Facebook will prompt you to choose the type of ad you want to create — Link or Carousel. Link ads are displayed with a call-to-action and a link to your eCommerce website / online store like so:

Facebook Ad Type

While Carousel Ads allow users to scroll through different options:

Carousel Ads For Ecommerce Example

Finally, it’s time to upload your creative. The Facebook Ads Guide provides exact specifications for different ad types, including image formats, image and video ratios, image and video resolutions, text recommendations for your primary text, headline and description, technical requirements, and more.

Once you’ve finalised your ads, they’ll be sent to Facebook for approval. After Facebook gives them the go-ahead (which can take up to 48 hours), your eCommerce ads will be up and running — and you’ll be able to keep an eye on your audience insights and campaign performance through the dashboard.

6 essential tips for running eCommerce Facebook Ads

1. Implement the Facebook Pixel

Want to get more out of your e-Commerce Facebook Ads? If so, then implementing Facebook Pixel is a non-negotiable. This HTML tag goes on your store’s website and allows you to keep track of the different Facebook users who have visited your online store.

Having this data on hand opens up a world of possibilities when it comes to retargeting options. Not only does it allow you to reach people who have already visited your store and shown an interest in your products — you can also run ads specifically geared towards completing a certain action on your store, such as adding an item to their cart or viewing a specific product.

Implementing the Facebook Pixel is simple. Start out by creating a Pixel in Facebook Ads Manager by following the instructions. After this, you have to add it to your online store using one of two options:

  • Manually add your Pixel to your website. To do this, you’ll either need access to your website’s HTML code or send it to your developer to do it for you.
  • Use a partner integration with your eCommerce platform. Most eCommerce websites, including Shopify and Squarespace, have a dedicated place for you to paste your Facebook Pixel ID.

Check your Facebook Pixel is working correctly using the Pixel Helper, then you’re ready to go.

It takes roughly 30 days for your Facebook Pixel to gather enough data, depending on how much traffic your website gets.

2. Go further with Custom Audiences

Facebook has a plethora of pre-existing targeting options that allow you to drill down to the people you want to reach. However, if you really want to maximise your eCommerce store’s ROAS from Facebook Ads, there are some custom audience options that you need to try ASAP.

Leverage intent-based targeting

What if you could reach potential customers who have ALREADY engaged with your competitors and are dissatisfied with their offering? It’s not too good to be true. It’s intent-based targeting, and you need to try it, stat.

These users have already demonstrated high buying intent and conversion potential. What’s more, they’re looking for alternative brands to shop from. Brands like yours.

Building an intent-based audience is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is use Facebook’s existing custom audiences feature and have your competitor’s brand name included an ‘interest’.

Do this by jumping into an ad set and inserting relevant keywords in the detailed targeting section. This will either trigger Facebook to populate a relevant domain, brand name, or Facebook page. If this doesn’t happen, you’ll need to get more specific with your keywords to target those potential shoppers.

Remember: finding these shoppers is only half the battle. After you create your audience, you’ll need to target them with hyper-specific messaging that’s geared towards moving them through the sales funnel.

Upload your own customer list

This is another great custom audience’s option for eCommerce businesses. Also known as ‘custom audiences from a customer list’, this Facebook Ad feature allows you to upload a spreadsheet with your customer name and email. Facebook will then cross-reference your customer data to user profiles and create a custom audience from this list.

Create and target a lookalike audience

If you want to find a bunch of new customers, one of the best ways to do so is to look at your existing customers and try to find audiences just like them. Luckily, Facebook gives you the option to do just that using Lookalike Audiences.

You’ll first need to upload an existing customer list with at least several hundred people. Then, go into Facebook and select the Lookalike Audience option:

Creating A Lookalike Audience

Facebook will cross-reference your uploaded list with existing customer user profiles, and use this data to find audiences with similar interests and demographics.

3. Run retargeting campaigns for cart abandonment

On top of generating custom audiences, you should be able to run retargeting campaigns with all the data that your Facebook Pixel has collected. Retargeting is insanely effective because you can reach people who are ALREADY engaged in your brand, business or products — meaning it’ll take a lot less effort to push them further down the Facebook marketing funnel.

In fact, data from Wishpond shows that the average site can use Facebook Ad retargeting to bring back more than a quarter of cart abandoners to complete their purchase. Without retargeting, this figure is only a meagre 8%.

There are several different options to retarget audiences on Facebook, depending on where users are in the funnel. The most obvious is to focus on the quick wins, such as those people who have added an existing item to their cart then abandoned it before making a purchase. These customers have clearly indicated that they want to buy your products, but need a little nudge or reminder to convert them from browser to buyer.

Here are three targeting options for your cart abandonment campaigns on Facebook:

  • Target users who visited your product pages, clicked “add to cart”, but didn’t visit their cart.
  • Target browsers who clicked on the cart page but didn’t checkout.
  • Target shoppers who clicked through to your checkout page but never sealed the deal.

The best part? You already know what these buyers are interested in and where they dropped off, which means you can create laser-targeted messaging that’s specifically geared to get them over the line.

For example, if a user added an item to their cart but never checked out, you could show them a Facebook Ad with an image of the product they’re interested in, along with primary text talking about its limited availability.

On the other hand, if you have a shopper who clicked through to checkout but never made a purchase, it might pay to remind them of your free shipping and returns policy to give them peace of mind when online shopping.

4. Retarget potential customers who have visited your eCommerce store

On top of abandoned cart retargeting, you can improve customer acquisition by retargeting audiences that are starting out in their customer journey. These might be people who have visited your website once but never went to the product page, or people who have viewed certain items without taking any further action.

The beauty here is that these audiences are already familiar with your brand, so you don’t have to do the hard work in getting them to discover your store or introduce who you are. Instead, focus on building ads that highlight your competitive advantage, encourage customers to test your product, or sign up for your email newsletter.

Last but not least, remember to keep your Facebook audiences as segmented as possible. This means once a user engages with your retargeting ad campaign, they should be moved to another segment — otherwise you risk inundating them with the same message over and over again or losing their interest.

5. Upsell to your existing customers

65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers. What’s more, it costs five times as much money to attract new customers than it does to keep your current customers. If you want to improve your ROAS and get more out of your Facebook Ads for eCommerce, you absolutely without a doubt should be targeting your existing customers as well as trying to find new ones.

To do this, start by uploading your customer database to Facebook as a custom audience. Try to segment your customers as much as possible based on their purchase behaviour. For example, you might have different lists for:

  • Brand new customers
  • Customers who have only shopped with you once previously
  • Customers who are interested in a certain product category
  • Loyal customers who regularly shop with you
  • Customers who haven’t shopped with you for X amount of time

Harness this information to upsell to these customers based on their shopping history and their interests. This could be a list of your latest products in stock, a reminder to sign up for VIP access to a sale, a referral bonus, or a welcome back offer.

6. Keep an eye on your competitors

It’s not enough to run your own ads on Facebook. The savviest eCommerce companies also keep an eye on how your competitors are running Facebook Ads, then use this information to adapt their own creative to stand out in the news feed.

Believe it or not, spying on your competitors’ current Facebook campaign doesn’t require any sleuthing or technical know-how. It’s as easy as going to the Facebook Ad Library, typing in the name of your competitor, and selecting their ad account from a list.

Facebook Ad Library

Simply click on the advertiser’s name, and you’ll be able to see all of the different campaigns they’re running in your country.

You can also opt to enter keywords if you prefer to get a broader category or seasonal view. For example, if you’re running a Black Friday campaign, you can type in “Black Friday” to see a list of all the different advertisers who have launched ads containing this phrase in the past month:

Black Friday Ad Examples

The best Facebook ads for eCommerce

Along with targeting, ad creative is one of the most important factors in the success of your eCommerce Facebook Ads. Facebook Advertising is packed to the brim with different ad types that help achieve different goals — and if you want to get sky-high ROAS, you need to choose the right ones for your Facebook Advertising strategy.

Here are the best Facebook ad types that eCommerce businesses can leverage to drive more traffic and sales.

Dynamic Ads

Ever been browsing a product online, only to have that product appear on your newsfeed a few hours later? If so, Dynamic Product Ads are responsible.

Dynamic Product Ads deliver one of the highest returns out of all the different Facebook ad types out there because you’re targeting potential buyers with the exact products that you know they’re already interested in. And it probably goes without saying, but they’re a no-brainer for Facebook advertisers.

Not convinced yet? What makes dynamic ads one of the best Facebook Ads for eCommerce is the fact that you don’t even have to create ads for each product. All you need is a template — then Facebook will do the rest.

Dynamic Ads can either be for a single product or a carousel with multiple products:

Dynamic Ad

The first step to getting Dynamic Ads set up is to upload your eCommerce product feed to Facebook. Luckily, platforms like Shopify already have apps designed to help manage this part of the process.

After you’ve linked the two, make sure you have a Facebook Pixel installed and that it’s reporting on customer purchasing behaviour. From here, create a Facebook Ad campaign with the Catalog Sales objective and set placeholders for Facebook to populate your product images, product names, and prices for the ad. Then sit back, relax, and watch the sales roll in.

Collection Ads

Facebook Collection Ads are a great way to highlight items from your range or showcase specific features for a product in your store. When used together with Lookalike Audiences or Retargeting ad campaigns, they’re an almost unstoppable revenue-generating machine.

Collection Ads are powerful precisely because they tell a story about your brand and products in an eye-catching way, while also being hyper-targeted to what your customers are looking for. Take, for example, this retargeting ad from Dollar Shave Club that explores the benefits of switching from a traditional razor brand like Gilette:

Collection Ads

The key with Collection Ads is to test, run Facebook Ads, optimise, and test again. Start out with images that align with your brand story and that are eye-catching in the feed, then play with different combinations to see what speaks to your audience.

Video ads

Fact: a shopper who watches a video is statistically nearly twice as likely to convert as one who doesn’t. Add this to the fact that Facebook generates 8 billion views per day and it’s a no-brainer that video ads should be part of your eCommerce Facebook Ads strategy.

Videos are highly engaging and allow you to get more information across in a single Facebook ad campaign. And if your competitors aren’t using them already in their campaigns, you’ll get the leg up simply because your ads will stand out.

You don’t need to have a million-dollar marketing budget to create video ads either — just try these affordable yet effective ideas for Facebook video ads:

  • Add in movement through GIFs
  • Combine multiple images with text in a video slideshow
  • Invest in an animated video that speaks to your product benefits or features
  • Work with an influencer or content creator to produce a video review
  • Shoot a product tour featuring your company founder

Last but not least, keep your videos short. According to the social media platform, more people will watch to the end of your video if it’s less than 15 seconds long.

Here’s a great one from Allbirds promoting the materials they use in their shoes:

Video Ad

Domain ads

Domain ads are links that point visitors directly to your eCommerce website. With these ads, you can build brand awareness and drive users to your store to browse your collection, and eventually buy your products.

The key with domain ads is to keep your copy short and sweet. You only have a very limited character count to get your point across, so you’ll need to test which options work best for your target audience.

Don’t neglect your CTA or image either: these two elements will play a big role in getting users to stop scrolling in the Facebook feed, pay attention, and take action.

Domain Ads

Messenger ads

1.3 billion people use Facebook Messenger every month, so this ad type is definitely worth your time and effort. Messenger ads are a great way to slide directly into your target audience’s DMs and reach potential shoppers while they’re browsing social media.

Messenger Ads

Messenger Ads Example

Messenger Ads come in multiple formats, including:

  • Inbox ads that appear in a user’s Chats tab
  • Stories ads that show up alongside a user’s Facebook Stories
  • Click-to-Messenger Ads that appear in the Facebook news feed and invite users to reach out to your business via Messenger
  • Sponsored Messages that retarget people who have already engaged with your business on Messenger

Instant Experience ads

Previously known as Canvas Ads, Instant Experience ads are immersive full-screen displays that tell a story using image, video and text. Instant Experiences capture and engage Facebook fans in a way that other ad formats simply don’t, while inviting interaction with different elements of your campaign. These types of ads have achieved jaw-dropping results for other e-Commerce businesses such as Sephora, which managed to get a 32% higher ROAS using Instant Experiences.

As you’d probably expect with a full-screen display, your creative can literally make or break the success of your ad placements. Use bright, bold colours and professional imagery to bring your products to life, and include interactive elements to invite engagement from your audience.

Lead ads

If you’re trying to reach Facebook users at the beginning of their customer journey, Facebook Lead Ads are your best friend. This ad format is useful for growing your eCommerce mailing list so you can communicate with them at a later date, or if you’re looking to rack up more customers for your subscription-based business.

Lead ads allow you to display an Instant Form with customisable fields, such as name, email address or phone number. With these ads, the offer is everything — try to create campaigns that entice people to sign up using an incentive or social media competition.

Carousel ad

Last but not least, we have Carousel Ads. Carousel Ads are one of the most popular ad types for eCommerce businesses because of their versatility and their ability to capture audiences as they scroll through Facebook.

You can use carousel ads to talk about the specific features of one product or show how your product works, like Beardbrand:

Carousel Ad

Another option for a Carousel Ad is to simply showcase multiple products in your catalogue, such as your latest arrivals or best-sellers:

Carousel Ad Products

7 examples of successful Facebook Ads

Gymshark: Collection Ads

As one of the biggest brands in fitness, Gymshark leverages user-generated content, influencer marketing, and Facebook Ad strategies to connect to gym-goers. Although this Collection ad is simple, it’s incredibly effective thanks to an eye-catching image of Gymshark leggings on an influencer, relatable copy that speaks to its target audience, and sharp CTA inviting audiences to shop now.

Gymshark Collection Ads

In addition to the leggings on display, Gymshark has also featured other similar items in their range underneath the main image in the ad — inviting customers to browse its products and eventually make a purchase.

Peleton: Domain Ads

As one of the biggest home exercise brands in the world, Peleton used a clever combination of user reviews, a timely offer, and sharp copy in their New Year’s Facebook campaigns. The ad starts off with a rhetorical question that the audience is probably wondering — why buy a Peleton bike? — then answers the question with social proof directly from customers.

Peleton Domain Ads

The ad reinforces the ad with a headline promoting $100 off accessories, along with a deadline of 15 January. Couple this offer with the wave of people setting New Year’s fitness goals, and Peleton has all the ingredients for a killer Facebook Ad.

Clinique: Instant Experience and Messenger Ads

Clinique launched an APAC-wide Instant Experience ad campaign to launch Clinique iD, its new custom-blend product line. The immersive Stories format instantly captures a user’s attention, while the bold colours and simple message allowed the product benefits to truly shine.

Clinique Instant Experience And Messenger Ads

On top of Stories Ads, Clinique also utilised Click-to-Messenger ads to invite customers to learn more directly from the brand — all in all leading to a 36-point lift average in add to cart.

Click To Messenger Ads

Crown Reef: Lead Generation Ad

Facebook’s sophisticated targeting options include the ability to target parents — which makes the platform perfect for brands like Crown Reef. This Facebook Lead Ad invites parents to sign up for free to the resort’s newsletter and benefit from big savings on their next holiday.

Crown Reef Lead Generation Ad

Although the messaging is fairly simple, it works because it appeals to parents looking for an affordable family-friendly holiday. The concise copy and a clear call-to-action work effectively to help Crown Reef grow their email subscribers for future online ecommerce marketing campaigns.

Club W: Domain Ad

As a wine subscription box, Club W helps match customers with a curated selection of wines every month. The primary text in this Facebook ad provides shoppers with a tangible outcome — wines they’re guaranteed to love — coupled with a fast delivery time of just two days.

In addition, their image puts the wine selection front and centre, which instantly appeals to wine lovers, while the headline and 100% satisfaction guarantee give customers no reason not to buy.

Club W Domain Ad

MILO: Video Ad

As an iconic Aussie drink typically sold in supermarkets, MILO wanted to take a different approach and drive more sales for its limited-edition personalised tins. The brand leveraged video ads to showcase the level of customisation offered to customers, from the tin design to the name on the box.

MILO Video Ad

At the same time, MILO used Facebook Pixel on its website to make targeting as efficient as possible, while also creating dynamic ads to retarget visitors. An added seasonal message around stocking fillers was the icing on top of this hugely successful campaign, which saw a 4.3x lift in online sales for the brand.

BarkBox: Carousel Ads

The beauty of Carousel Ads is that you’re truly limited only by your imagination — as evidenced by BarkBox, a pet subscription box service. BarkBox combined a hyper-relevant message targeted to pet owners with a fun carousel that broke up one sausage dog into several smaller images:

Bark Box Ad

On top of piquing interest, each headline on their carousel ad highlights a different unique benefit to signing up — making the Facebook ad a perfect combination of creative and compelling.

eBay: Dynamic Ads

The beauty of Dynamic Ads is that they are literally promoting products that your audience has seen before and demonstrated an interest in. That’s why eBay kept it short and simple with their retargeting campaign.

EBay Dynamic Ads

By using universal primary text that suits a variety of products and images of bags that users previously looked at, eBay is giving audiences a compelling reason to come back and buy.

Get more conversions, not just followers with our eCommerce Facebook ads tips!

Make no mistake: eCommerce Facebook Ads are a powerful way to bolster your digital presence, bring more click-happy customers to your online store, and skyrocket sales. And if you want to maximise your ROAS and watch revenue go through the roof, you need to have the best team possible running your Facebook Advertising strategy. That’s us.

Our Australian SEO agency Gurus will pinpoint your audience with laser-focused precision, then capture their attention with finely tuned creative that gets them to show you the money. We will show you results based on the very best SEO practices for eCommerce! Begin generating sales today with your free $2,000 audit and digital marketing game plan — just fill out the form to get started.

If you’re ready to get more out of Facebook, the first step is to claim your FREE digital audit and game plan, worth $2,000. We’ll take a look at your social media marketing, tell you what’s working, and spot any mistakes. Then, we’ll deliver a 6-month plan to skyrocket your revenue from the world’s biggest social media platform. No obligations or catches — just click on the link below to get started and connect with the top Australian SEO services agency.

About the Author

Danny Andrawes

Danny Andrawes, Chief Executive Officer of OMG, plays a pivotal role in shaping the agency's strategic direction. With nearly 20 years of experience, he progressed from Content Specialist and Digital SEO Specialist to CEO, leveraging his impressive background in SEO/SEM delivery, client acquisition and retention, and change management to enhance OMG's service offerings. Danny’s leadership emphasises client partnerships and the integration of cutting-edge tools to optimise digital campaigns, positioning OMG as a trusted partner for businesses worldwide.

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