In digital marketing, Facebook not only offers instant exposure for content but also has an extremely wide reach. According to Statista, as of the second quarter of 2020, Facebook’s monthly active users had reached 2.7 billion. For businesses, this impressive number represents boundless business opportunities and an ideal platform to discover and reach more potential customers.
However, before launching ads, businesses need to clarify their current marketing priorities, target audience positioning, and the ultimate goals of their ads to take targeted actions. Therefore, understanding the different types of Facebook ads and selecting the ones that suit their needs for promotion is essential to generate revenue—avoiding random efforts that waste ad budgets. Today, let’s explore the different types of Facebook ads, their respective characteristics, and when they are applicable.
Business Tip: Facebook’s ad types go far beyond "Boost". Businesses new to Facebook ads often use the built-in Boost button on their Facebook Page. This entry-level ad option is very limited: it can only achieve relatively single promotion goals and creates disorganized data in the ad backend. Professional Facebook ads should be launched using Facebook Business Manager.
1. Page Like Ads
As the name suggests, Facebook Page Like Ads are a type of ad used to attract and accumulate more followers for a Facebook Page. The Call-To-Action (CTA) for these ads is "Like", which means users can like the brand’s Facebook Page.
Although liking is just a small interaction, it helps your brand reach more people. Facebook is a highly interactive social platform—any post or Page a user likes will immediately appear in the Facebook News Feed of that user’s friends. For businesses, this is an excellent opportunity to create secondary brand exposure: when a user likes your Facebook Page, it is equivalent to subscribing to your future Page content, which will bring hundreds or thousands of exposures in the long run.
Therefore, Page Like Ads are very suitable for brands just starting to use the platform. Whether you are a new business or an established one, you can quickly increase brand exposure and awareness by accumulating precise followers and expanding touchpoints.
Beyond boosting brand exposure, the biggest advantage of Page Like Ads is that they help brands build a fan base on Facebook and accumulate a foundation of potential customers for current and future use. The existence of this fan base can generate discussions and interactions (likes, comments, shares) for the brand, making the Facebook Page more active and increasing the likelihood of customers building online and offline word-of-mouth for the brand after experiencing its products.
2. Traffic Ads
When some businesses transition from traditional marketing to digital marketing, they may face the problem of not being able to let more target audiences know about their newly established websites. Facebook Traffic Ads are designed to solve this problem. These ads are delivered by Facebook to highly relevant target audiences, allowing these audiences to discover that your products or services match their needs or interests while quickly browsing their News Feed. They will then be directed to designated interfaces such as your online store, official website, or app via a click.
The copy of Traffic Ads must be concise, clear, and attractive enough to successfully guide target audiences to click on the Facebook ad, jump to your website or landing page to learn more about product information, and encourage them to complete further conversion actions, such as downloading software or purchasing products.
3. Message Ads
Facebook Message Ads allow users to start a conversation with businesses via Facebook Messenger with just one click when they see the ad. The marketing goals that this ad type can achieve include: acquiring leads, promoting transaction conversions, establishing initial contact with target audiences, and increasing interaction with existing inquiry groups.
This type of Facebook ad is more suitable for intangible service-based products, enabling potential customers to directly consult with businesses about services or resolve issues. During these interactions, businesses can not only demonstrate good service attitudes and professionalism but also directly understand customer needs through conversations, provide consumption suggestions, and seize opportunities to drive conversions.
Take the tourism industry as an example: when a user sees a travel package and becomes interested, being able to immediately consult the business for details (such as itinerary timing, costs, or other customized needs) greatly increases the chance of the customer converting into a paying client. Therefore, the biggest purpose of using Message Ads is to seize the moment when users are interested in a service or product, enabling interaction between customers and businesses in the shortest time possible to significantly boost conversion rates.
In addition, Message Ads can also realize "Remarketing". By using Sponsored Messages, businesses can deliver the latest promotions or promotional information to users who have previously interacted with them via Messenger, increasing the possibility of potential or existing conversions.
4. Remarketing Ads
Most users need multiple touchpoints with a product before completing a purchase. Therefore, even if a user has added your product to their shopping cart, they may never return to the page or complete the purchase once the moment of interest passes. Many businesses may have experienced situations where their website has sufficient traffic but very few conversions.
In such cases, the most important thing is to seize every opportunity to expose the brand to target audiences, increase customer touchpoints, and ensure that the customer experience during each touchpoint is positive and conveys consistent brand or product information. Only then can Facebook Remarketing Ads, when delivered to these audiences, evoke their memory of the brand and strengthen their purchase intention.
Remarketing Ads can target various groups, such as users who have visited your Facebook Page, a specific page on your website, or your app. For example, you can run Remarketing Ads targeting customers who considered purchasing your product (added it to their cart) but did not complete the final purchase in the past 30 days. These ads act as a subtle reminder, prompting potential customers who once "passed by" your product to reconsider making a purchase.
Facebook Remarketing Ads can also be delivered to existing customers. The goals are usually upselling (encouraging them to choose higher-tier products when making another purchase) or cross-selling (stimulating and converting other potential needs of customers by showcasing the diversity of products or services).
Above, we have introduced four basic types of Facebook ads, and we hope readers have gained valuable insights. By adopting different Facebook ad types based on product attributes and marketing strategies, businesses can not only increase brand exposure, reach a wider audience of similar users, and improve conversions to achieve higher revenue but also effectively manage ad budgets and costs, ensuring that every dollar is spent wisely.
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