The Complete Guide: Social Media Ad Format

This guide will assist you in understanding the ad format landscape and driving campaign results, regardless of whether you are new to paid advertising on social media or a seasoned paid specialist.

It’s easy to get lost in the maze of social media ad formats and the ever-evolving ad specs. Herein, you’ll find information that will:

  • Ad formats should be selected with care to achieve the desired results.

  • Make your ad as interesting to look at as possible.

  • Prevent design problems for quicker platform acceptance.

  • Although Image Ads, Video Ads, and Carousel Ads receive the most attention, there are actually many more ad formats available to you to help you win the pay-to-win game. We’ll explain what they are, how they function, and the best way to utilise them.

What kind of social media advertisement works best?

When deciding on the optimal social media ad format for your campaign, you should take your target demographic into account. What system do they use? Why are you trying to motivate that response? A Product Carousel Ad could be a good choice if you’re trying to boost product sales. An Interactive Story Ad is the way to go if you want to give your audience a one-of-a-kind experience and you have access to a lot of artistic tools. Equally effective for generating B2B leads is running a LinkedIn Lead Form Ad. Knowing the features and benefits of the various ad formats will help you improve your paid advertising strategy on social media, regardless of which format you ultimately choose to use.

Visual Ads

Advertising with images is a fantastic way to get people to visit your site. They’re simple to create and work well when paired with links that go directly to relevant sections of your site. They’re widely distributed across the various social media platforms, but they really shine on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Pinterest because that’s where people go to see visual content. Facebook will only show your ad if text makes up 20% of the image or less, as this provides a better user experience for the target audience.

Ads that rotate in a carousel

When you want to give your audience a more in-depth look at your brand, Carousel Ads are the way to go. You can take your audience on an interactive journey and show them more than they’ve ever seen in an advertisement before. Most carousel ad formats are compatible with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network, and they let you feature up to 10 images or videos, each with its own unique link and call-to-action button, in a single ad unit. If you’d prefer a more minimalist design, you can also do away with the CTAs entirely.

Promotional Ads

If you sell more than 10 items or want to retarget customers in a more nuanced way, Product Ads are for you. After browsing a shopping website, you may have noticed these ingenious Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) appearing in your social media feeds. The Facebook Pixel is used to keep track of which products customers have viewed and which ones have performed the best. Instagram is a great example of a platform that allows businesses to tag multiple products directly in posts, which increases the likelihood that consumers will see and interact with those products. Excellent product ads rely on striking, high-quality visuals and minimal text.

Advertisements for a group

As a special case of Product Ads, Collection Ads provide a more comprehensive and visually appealing experience for viewers. They function similarly to a storefront, displaying four products in a row beneath a large image (or video) banner. Users can learn more without leaving Facebook or Instagram by tapping on a Collection Ad, which takes them directly to a visually engaging experience powered by Instant Experience. The hope is that doing so will foster enthusiasm and dedication. In Snapchat, each picture can have its own link to a web page, and there’s also a “swipe up” option for a second link. Because you can showcase images of the same product from a variety of perspectives, this is also a great way to give your audience more information about a single product.

Engaging commercials

Innovative digital technology is used in interactive ads to keep viewers engaged for longer. They frequently try new things in an effort to get people involved beyond simply clicking a link, such as rotating a photo 360 degrees, providing an answer to a question, or voting in a poll. Better brand recall and consumer satisfaction can result from engaging with an audience through interactive ads. The longer people spend on your site, the cheaper it is for you as an advertiser.

Conversion-Oriented Advertisements

Ads that take the form of a lead form, also known as lead ads or lead generation ads, are a great way to increase the number of people who sign up for your newsletter, use your follow-up services, or register for an upcoming event. Use them whenever you’re going above and beyond to provide something of value to the customer, like an e-book or Guide, and they’ll shine. If you can provide this, users of your platform will gladly part with their personal information in exchange for whatever you’re offering.

Commercials in video form

On social media, people tend to watch videos more than any other type of advertisement. Not only can you find them on every major platform, but they’re also generally preferred to more experimental forms of advertising. Visually appealing ads, such as videos, are effective at capturing and keeping people’s attention. Every day, Facebook users consume nearly 3 billion hours of video content, much of which consists of ads or is surrounded by them. Like image ads, video ads have a core “video + text” format that evolves depending on the medium and the advertiser’s goals.

Maximizing video views, reach, and engagement on social media platforms relies on using the correct video specs.