Five ways brands use the latest trends in Facebook advertising

Facebook is determined to take its advertising format to the next level and it might be a great opportunity for a brand to market its services through the popular social network.

It’s not always easy to be heard on Facebook, as the rising number of users also leads to an increased “noise” that brands need to overcome.

However, the creative flexibility of Facebook marketing offers many opportunities to reach any business goal, whether it is the promotion of a brand, the increase of engagement, the leads to a site, or the narration of a brand’s story.

As it may be confusing to decide which option works better for your business, here are some examples to inspire you for your next campaign…

1. Create a canvas ad for storytelling

Facebook introduced Canvas in February, as a new immersive mobile experience that enhances creative advertising, at a loading time which is 10 times faster than the standard mobile website.

Storytelling is a powerful way for a brand to grab the audience’s attention, and the full screen ads that Canvas offers make it even easier.

It may still look like a typical Facebook post, but once you click it you are directed to a full-screen ad, which is both interesting and effective.

The early results indicate that Canvas ads lead to an increased view time, as users are more willing to engage with a brand.

For example, L’Occitane created an appealing Canvas story that informed people how they source their ingredients and this led to an 11% increase in ad recall, which is certainly an important step when trying to build brand awareness.

2. Gain leads with a lead ad

Lead ads allow a business to make the mobile sign up process easier for anyone interested in learning more about its products.

Whether it’s a newsletter, an (Read more...) or an offer, people appreciate Facebook’s latest type of ads, as it reduces the number of steps needed for a sign up.

Nobody likes filling a complicated form to subscribe to any service, even if there is a genuine interest in signing up for it.

Thus, a quick process helps a business boost the interest on its products, services, or offers by also increasing its leads through the creation of appealing lead ads.

Stuart Weitzman used lead ads in order to provide exclusive updates to its subscribers, which led to a 52% more efficient cost per lead, both across domestic and international markets.

Properati focuses in the field of real estate and experimented with lead ads to help people learn more about its listed properties.

This tripled the number of leads in Brazil and reduced by four times the number of cost per lead. This proves that users are indeed more willing to subscribe to a service that has an easy sign up process, while a business is happy to see the reduced cost per lead.

3. Showcase your products with a carousel ad

Carousel ads have been very popular on Facebook during the past year, as they are ideal for a business that wants to showcase several images, videos, or links of its products in just one ad.

According to Facebook, carousel ads drive 30-50% lower cost-per-conversion and 20-30% lower cost-per-click than a single-image ad and this makes them very appealing for brands.

MVMT Watches showed carousel ads to all the site’s past visitors, which led to increased click-through rates of 75%, comparing to other advertising methods.

Neiman Marcus wanted to showcase its catalogue on Facebook and used carousel ads with images from their spring collection.

This drove triple conversions, an 85% improvement in click-through rates, again compared to other advertising methods.

What makes carousel ads special is the creative freedom to mix images with videos, or even links, in the best possible way, serving as an ideal promotion for any type of product, service, or event.

4. Add captions to a video

Native videos are very powerful on Facebook and they tend to be preferred from brands looking to increase brand awareness by providing useful content.

Even a short video may be enough to help a brand reach a wider audience, provided that it’s creative, informative, or even entertaining.

As users get more demanding about the content they are willing to consume, attention span gets shorter, which means that a video ad has to be appealing from the first seconds. What’s more, users are easily annoyed by the sudden sound a video may play, which creates the challenge of producing videos that stay relevant even without sound.

Facebook introduced the automatic video captions for video ads, in order to find a balance between the brand’s and the user’s needs and the results were successful, as this idea led to an increased view time for video ads.

Kleenex found the video captions very useful for their authentic stories, and as you can see in the ad “A Shining School”, it helps the viewers stay engaged and watch more.

This increased the ad recall by 6 points, while the average viewer watched 23 seconds of the video.

Sedal Sunsilk decided to engage with young women in Brazil with a series of hair style video tutorials and text overlay has significantly contributed to the success of the campaign.

As the videos were clear even without sound, the average view time was 21 seconds, and it also led to an increase of 7 points in brand awareness.

5. Increase click rate with a canvas ad

Canvas ads offer an interactive full-screen environment that favours engagement, as it keeps the user away from disruptions.

This is ideal for brands that want to increase awareness and clicks to their sites and it seems to be more effective than other types of ads.

ASUS used Canvas to promote its products for the holiday season and this resulted in an average view time of 12 seconds and a 42% increase in ad clicks.

People certainly liked this type of advertising and the way they were introduced to the brand’s products, with 70% of them who clicked on the ad also visiting the site of ASUS to learn more about the products.

How to pick the right type of ad

Each type of Facebook ad depends on the goals of each business and the results it expects from the campaign. Not every type of ad is equally effective for every occasion and of course, optimisation is crucial.

For example, a site looking to increase its email subscribers can benefit from a visually appealing lead ad, while Canvas may be a better option for a beauty brand trying to promote its new products.

The key to success

Creativity and testing in Facebook advertising may help a brand achieve any set goal. There is no secret algorithm (yet) that guarantees success, but experimentation and willingness to try out the latest trends always help.