Gone are the days when people spend enormous time watching films on traditional television stations. The current economic realities have changed the ways people engage with media content, from reading newspapers to shopping for daily needs. Since the advent of mobile phones and internet service, hundreds of hours are constantly spent on pc and smartphones. But Guess what? Many of those hours are spent on social media platforms, especially Facebook.
In the real sense, people use Facebook to reach out to friends and explore the latest information and trending products. Through those means, they can make an informed buying decision when necessary. For these reasons, digital marketers must find profitable ways to promote their products effectively. Utilizing the “Facebook collection ads” format allows you to tailor your ads to the right audiences.
This article will uncover beneficial ways to use Facebook collection ads and the best practices to adopt. Let’s proceed.
What are facebook collection ads?
Facebook’s primary concept behind the Collections Ads feature enables sellers to advertise a portion of their product catalog in a well-optimized manner to increase user engagement. Facebook Collection Ads are displayed in a grid layout. This grid layout is powered based on “Instant Experience.”
The Collections allows enterprises to efficiently engage mobile users with high shopping experiences, making it possible for customers to find and browse goods and services via Facebook before purchasing them on a seller store.
How Facebook Collection Ads Work
Now that you have a background understanding of what collections ads are all about, it’s time for the next big thing; how do the collection ads work on Facebook? Clear your doubts as we will uncover the collection mechanism in three steps:
- First, the Facebook collection ads algorithm gathers intent by shuffling products with media to aid a unique mobile ads experience.
- Immediately after a user clicks on the Facebook ads, interest and engagement count are generated.
- Then the ads are linked to the associated website from where the intent got converted into a likely buying action.
How Do I Create a Collection Ad On Facebook
To benefit from the beautiful feature of Collections Ads, you must learn how to create these forms of Ads. The steps required are:
- Create a Facebook business page for your brand.
- Launch the Facebook Ads Manager and Set up your account.
- Create a new Facebook Ad campaign.
- Select one of the supported or listed marketing objectives.
- Customize your preferred Ad set.
- Make a Carousel Products Ad.
- Finish up and Launch your Collection ad campaign.
Specifications for Facebook Collection Ads
To provide your targeted audience with a captivating product layout, you must adhere to the ideal specifications for collections Ads on Facebook. We will examine the required specifications for Collection Ad Visuals and Collection Ad Copy.
Specifications for Collection Ad Visuals
From the Facebook Ads Manager, four types of visuals that can be added to Collection Ads are slideshows, images, video, and text.
- Slideshows
To implement slideshows to the Collections Ad set, here are the requirements:
Video: For high profile, progressive scan, square pixels, H.264 video compression
Aspect ratio: Maintain 16:9 or 1:1
Audio: Stereo AAC full audio compression, 128 kilobytes per sec
Music: OGG, MP3, FLAC, WAV, M4A
Note: If you intend to use a background song in the Slideshow Collection ad, try to avoid using copyrighted songs.
- Images
For Collection ads with image content, the specifications are:
Image size: 1200×628 pixels
Aspect ratio: Maintain 1.9:1 (1:1 or 16:9 on Instagram)
- Video
Aspect Ratio: 1:1or 16:9
Video: Square pixels, H.264 video compression, and progressive scan
Audio: Stereo AAC full audio compression, 128 kbps
- Text
Title: Maximum of 25 characters (above the main image)
Text: Maximum of 90 characters (above the picture)
Specifications for main Collection Ad Copy
The specifications for creating Facebook Carousel ads are;
Headline (for four image cards): The maximum specified length is 90 characters
Body (above the visual): The fixed full size is 25 characters
Note: Instagram does not allow headlines to be used in Carousel ads.
Supported Placements for Facebook Collection Ads
To date, only two supported ad placements are available when running Collection ads:
- Instagram Mobile Feed
- Facebook Mobile Feed
Note: Your target audience can only see Collection Ads via mobile devices.
What Are the Objectives supported by Facebook Collection Ads?
The main objectives or goals supported when running Facebook ads campaign are:
- Conversions
- Catalog sales
- Traffic
- In-store visits
What is the format of the Facebook Collection Ad?
It is imperative to know that the marketing goal of the enterprise determines the template a seller is going to choose. The four main templates available when deploying Collection Ads are:
- Instant Storytelling
- Instant Storefront
- Instant Lookbook
- Instant Customer Acquisition
Discover Collection Ads Vs. Carousel Ads
Best Practices for using Facebook Collection Ads
- Focus on retargeting
The main goal of creating a custom audience segment is to retarget users who have previously engaged with a brand advertisement. This set of users may have visited your website or interacted with your company’s Facebook profile.
By setting up a retargeting ads campaign, your adverts will be seen by potential leads who have a higher chance of buying your services or products. Since the potential buyers are initially aware of your brand and its product offerings, a caption in your new ads may prompt them to make the long-awaited purchase.
- Increase Web Traffic With External Links
Once a potential customer clicks the ad and opens the ad Instant Experience, users can navigate to other pages like the sales page and product page if a Call To Action (CTA) or external link is embedded in the Collection campaign.
To know where the Facebook Ad traffic is coming from, add a link (URL) parameter to identify respective traffic from different ad campaigns.
- Know Your Target Audience
With the Facebook Pixel and Insights analytics, you will be able to ascertain the set of persons that interacted with your ads campaign. Then you can segment your target audience based on location, demographics, interests, and age with the insights generated.
- Select An Appropriate Featured Product
When setting up the Featured product, you must decide the order in which the four product images will display in the ad, either in a specific or dynamic order. If you select “Order dynamically,” this will allow Facebook to choose four products from the product and catalog set. That way, the product will be displayed based on the likelihood of purchase or popularity.
At least four products are required to create a collection ad, but it is advisable to use a more extensive product set (50+) when some products are out of stock. When you tick “Choose a specific order,” it enables you to select four images from the product set; by entering the product IDs, names, and color variation of the products to be added.
Note: The selected product images are not ranked based on the likelihood of purchase but on order; it was chosen during set-up.
- Focus on Campaign Tracking to Minimize Unforeseen Risk
The primary goal of setting up ads is to get conversions. Therefore, when your ads are running, you must check the ads’ performance from time to time. Depending on how the Collection ads campaign performs, you can switch ad placement in situations where you don’t see the expected results.
- Implement eye-catching Copy
The success or down-turn of an ad campaign starts with the copy. Do it right, and you will smile at the bank. But if you do it wrong, you will have to gift Facebook your money again. For your Collection ads to yield expected results, you must use an engaging ads copy. Since the essence of the ad copy is to persuade a user to click on the ads, ensure to use videos or images that resonate with the ad copy.
- Use A Good Cover Visual
Cover videos usually yield 20% engagement rates on collection ads compared to cover images. For enterprises that don’t have top-notch video assets, you can blend a series of pictures into an auto-play slideshow of unique photos.
Note: Learn to use videos that showcase actual use cases of customers using the advertised product or service. After all, seeing is believing.
- A/B Testing
Use the A/B Testing technique offered by Facebook. To monitor your ads campaign, Facebook enables you to test the obtainable ads campaign before it goes public. Based on Facebook’s terms of use, you can pick two or more ad variations for a specific period and start testing.
With the aid of the testing tool, you will be able to deduce the ad type that will be suited for your brand and the number of conversions the ad type will be able to generate.
Wrapping Up
As a business person, you should understand the importance of Facebook advertising, but the most important thing to remember is that; a seller must continuously provide the audience with engaging ad experiences. Facebook Collection ads take care of the rigorous processes so that you can focus on conversion.
