Among many ways to captivate the target audience, one favored by advertisers is the innovative use of Facebook’s carousel ad designs to quickly capture eyeballs. These radially appealing ad shapes can in a unique way, be enough to act as a tool for storytelling, feature a set of materials, and guide action. Marketers and social media managers can take advantage of 2024 Facebook carousel ads to dominate the edge-to-edge competition but this time around by mastering their execution.
Table of Contents
- What are Facebook Carousel Ads?
- Reasons to Use Facebook Carousel Ads
- When to use carousel ads?
- How to Create a Carousel Ad
- How much do Facebook carousel ads cost?
- Tips for creating great carousel ads
- FAQs
- Takeaways
What are Facebook Carousel Ads?
Facebook carousel ads are 1 of the different types of ads that invite marketers to put 10 or fewer images or videos within a single ad, each with their respective link. It takes users in as if they walked through an interactive product experience.
Entered at their most surface level, carousel ads are no more than some photos grouped. But, with some adroit use of audio/visual medium, capable copywriting, and placing some buttons strategically, they can communicate even more—all in a single marketing message. This we can read from the studies carried out; some of them mention that carousel ads showed an increase in up to 72% of the views of their website as compared to the effect of static pics ad campaigns.
Reasons to Use Facebook Carousel Ads
Carousel ads have a lot of advantages compared to traditional ad formats, especially on Facebook because it is through carousel ads that interactive content is made available. Here is the targeting effectiveness a person gets if he runs a Facebook ads campaign through carousel-type ad formats.
Engagement & Storytelling
Extra pictures mean additional stories that grab every reader’s fancy. Despite the high cost, carousel ads are considered a chance to show the product’s every detail, a window into use cases, as well as get more emotional with the brand and tell a compelling story.
Mobile Optimization
Considering their interactive nature, carousel ads are best suited for the mobile audience. These thumbnails are designed to be effortless scrolling and have different and varied content which makes such ads like this fit for a generation that is always “on the go”.
Creativity & A/B Testing
If you have different cards, you will be able to choose which you work most effectively. You can create a series of these types of ads that will exhibit different variables – color, design, character, and text—to understand which ads are the most effective for your targeted audience without your ad budget being torn between multiple creatives.
Metrics & Insights
Each card individually links to your site, providing data on which products or services generate the most interest. Using such statistical data for strategic decisions is very helpful during the entire process.
Conversion & Sales
Research signifies that using carousel ads increases the conversion rate at least by 30-50%, while also leading to lower costs of sales by 20-20% phrasing the occurrence of the huge upward trend in sales that businesses have when they tactically employ this format.
When to use carousel ads?
Highlighting Products or Features
In the scenario that you are interested in showcasing a variety of different product features, carousel ads simplify the process of product comparison, making it easier and clearer to make a purchase decision from the buyer’s standpoint.
Telling a Brand Or Product Story
For mindshare or product launch campaigns, telling a story is essential. It can get the consumers to journey through a story that attaches to the brand’s core message or delves into the depth of the new product.
Seasonal Campaigns
Especially in special occasions or seasonal events, the carousel ads can be either live or another way a range of products can be displayed or ad sets can be created for varied user segments with different purchasing motives.
Step-by-Step Guides
When there are more complicated products/services—and a carousel ad is a perfect fit then such ads can make bringing to the fore the benefits or the onboarding process broken down into manageable sizes quite easy.
Sponsored Content
Brands wanting influencers to partner with or to distribute consumer-generated content can effectively utilize carousel ads to feature multiple contributions or perspectives.
Facebook Carousel Ad Specs
For your creative to be displayed correctly on all screens, you must be familiar with the technical specifications of your ad. Here’s an insight into the specs that are current for the carousel ads on Facebook:
Image or Video Specifications:
- File Type: jpg, png, gif, mp4, mov
- Image Ratio: 1.91: 1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Minimum Video Length: 1 second
- Maximum Video Length: 240 minutes
- File Size: Up to 30MB for images, 4GB for videos
Text and Link Specifications:
- Headline: 40 characters
- Body Text: 125 characters
- Link Description: 20 characters
- Call-to-Action Button: Present in all cards, with a maximum of 10 different CTA options across all cards
Technical Details:
- Max Number of Carousel Cards: 10
- Recommended Card Count: 3-5 for best practice
- Loading Times: Each card must load within 10 seconds
- File Names: Use descriptive file names for quick identification
How to Create a Carousel Ad: Step-by-Step Guide
Creating a carousel ad on Facebook is not complicated. It just takes some time to set it up especially needed to get everything strategically placed to accomplish your campaign objectives. The following is a detailed guide to the process:
Set Your Campaign Objective
Login to Facebook Ads Manager and specify the objective to be met, for example, among others, generating as much traffic as possible to your website, getting more app installs, or collecting new leads.
Define Your Audience
Curate values depending on the age, sex, interests, and habits of the customers that you have calculated as your example of “the perfect customer”.
Choose Placements
Select the places the ads will be displayed – it might be on the Facebook news feed, Instagram, or Audience Network.
Budget and Schedule
Indicate your budget and arrange a throughput for which your ad should work. Choose your advertising schedule based on the longer-term trend or a set schedule for a day.
Create Your Carousel
Develop all the media cards of your carousel first, and ensure that all of them together deliver a coherent story or can communicate similarly styled messages. You can add text, images, or videos, use a CTA, and quickly start each sample of them.
Optimize for Conversions
Let’s say you are trying to get sales, then be sure to not only install the Facebook pixel to monitor user activity on your website but also adjust your ad to target such movements.
Review and Publish
After proofreading your carousel ad, please check the accuracy of each element and then proceed to launch the ad campaign.
How much do Facebook carousel ads cost?
When being charged for advertising on Facebook through the means of Carousel Ads, the price varies due to the scale of the bid, competition in the target audience, and relevance of your ad. A typical rate for the carousel ad is between $0.50 and $1.00 per click (CPC).
Understanding Ad Auctions
Facebook holds ad auctions where marketers place their ads to run the ads. The ad is either relevant or not because of your bid, ad relevancy, and the foreseen action rates.
The Relevance Score
A higher Relevance score can significantly lower the cost of running a carousel ad on Facebook. By optimizing your ad setup with appropriate targeting and high-quality content, you can achieve this goal.
Tips for creating great carousel ads
To maximize the potential of your Carousel Ads by Facebook, implement the following recommendations for the protection of your data:
Theme and Storytelling
The ethical use of your picturesque atmosphere as in the carousel and the narrative of it are made up as one. Every slide in continuing order shall be part of the same story exposing the company and the firm.
Focus on Quality
Altogether, high-definition images as well as videos shall be employed to give a clean professional look to the carousel and make it an easy choice for the customers. Using poor-quality videos and images can give your company a negative image.
Be Consistent
The card layout should always contain elements and typography that are consistent throughout the whole carousel, color scheme fonts, and elements of your product. The approach will help to formulate your ad professionally and give your brand a specific identity.
Optimize for Mobile
Hit the nail on the head for a carousel ad that is mobile-optimized and that doesn’t lose the quality of the material because of the small size of the device. The ad will be more user-friendly that way and your website will be more recognized.
Test Different CTAs
It’s crucial to try different CTAs on each card to find the best of all the clicks they might do.
FAQs
Can Facebook Carousel Ads be used for lead generation?
Yes, indeed. You can gather leads by taking users to a landing page on the right of each card on the carousel opting over a simple form on the landing page in a step that is more fun and interactive. It can be less engaging.
What is the ideal number of cards for a carousel ad?
While you are given the option of creating up to 10 cards, on a high-level count it is suggested to deliver the five best ones that are made so efficiently that every search query is perfectly crafted. It gives the user some variety in the information displayed but does not profoundly annoyingly overdo it. It is challenging to do but very simple to do as well.
How long should each card be visible before auto-advancing?
By doing so, in turn, you’ll make sure that viewers have plenty of time to consume the information. Using the default auto-advance for card length, which takes 10 seconds can ensure enough visibility for the users.
Should I include a CTA in every carousel card?
There’s no need to always put a CTA in every card but adding one can serve the purpose of guiding the user to the target content. Consider adding call-to-action buttons very carefully, such as on the last card for gluing the story flow together or the most captivating card for product discovery.
Do carousel ads require different targeting for each card?
No, the actual targeting might apply to every card in the same carousel ad. But, on the other hand, if you want a higher personal touch for your users, you might be considering adjusting different sets of content for different user segments within the same ad set.
What is the ideal number of cards to use in a carousel ad?
Facebook has a maximum high of up to 10 carousels in a single carousel ad. The choice of which and how many cards to use depends on what you want to say and what kind of story you want to tell. It is very important to add value to each card and to engage the user to reach out to everyone. You should not overuse it as it has passed the point as well and the message will become unclear.
Takeaways
Leveraging the multiple cards within a single ad for A/B testing and garnering insights make carousel ads an invaluable component of any Facebook advertising strategy. By following the guidance provided in this master guide and always keeping your campaign goals front and center, the potential for your business to shine through on Facebook’s crowded marketplace is within your grasp. As you design your campaigns, remember the golden rule of marketing: content is king.
