facebook carousel ads

In 2014, Facebook introduced a new feature that seemed to be the missing link for businesses that want to advertise their products in a creative way and increase engagement—carousel ads. From that moment on, thanks to the expanded ad space, advertisers had extra room to tell their brand's story and display products through rich content, integrated into a single, eye-catching ad. In this article, I'll show you many different Facebook carousel ad examples, 12 creative ways to use them, how businesses make the best of this ad type, and a few best practices that will inspire you. But first thing's first. What Are Facebook Carousel Ads? Carousel is a format that allows businesses to add up to ten images or videos within a single ad unit. What's great about this format is that you can add a brief description to every card, which can be extremely helpful when you advertise several products in a single ad. Facebook carousel ads are available on both desktop and mobile. On mobile, viewers can swipe through the images, while on desktop, they can see the cards by clicking the arrows left or right. When you use the carousel format, you also can let Facebook optimize the order of the cards, based on their performance. But keep in mind that if you're using a sequential story carousel, or a split panoramic image you have to opt-out of this feature, because Facebook may consider putting the card in the middle first, and so the story you created will make no sense. Now, let's go through a few fantastic carousel examples that will hopefully give you some ideas on how you can use this format for your business. 12 Use Cases for Facebook Carousel Ads + Examples 1. Show off multiple products or services Carousel ads on Facebook are an excellent opportunity to show your audience the variety of products or services that you offer. This way, you basically provide your audience with a brief digital catalog to browse through. You have ten cards available for either images or videos. That means you can display anywhere up to ten different products or services. If they have different landing pages, make sure you link the pages in the cards. Here's a great Facebook carousel example that displays various products: 2. Highlight one product, service, or feature Although the carousel format may seem to work better for multiple products, you can also highlight just one product/service/feature in an eye-catching way. We have a Facebook carousel ads example for this category as well. You can see how we decided to show the fact that you can design for print in Bannersnack. Put your product in a different context or on bright backgrounds, link the landing page of the product to the cards, and you're set. Take full advantage of what carousel ads on Facebook have to offer you and alternate the features with the benefits that product or service will offer—promotions, better quality than the competitors have, etc., and send the customers directly to a landing page. 3. Tell a story You can tell a story that reveals itself from card to card. This interactive advertising format encourages people to swipe to see all the images or videos, which can increase engagement on your page. Whenever a user interacts with your ad and moves through the carousel cards, Facebook algorithms records it as an engagement. In the following example, the carousel ad format tells a story that also builds mystery around its protagonist: 4. Explain a process Carousel ads can easily help you give a step-by-step guide of a product or service through images or short videos, keeping the visitors engaged because they have to swipe or click to see the entire explanation. Among plenty of carousel Facebook examples, I found this well-crafted ad for The Sill: 5. Create a split panoramic Probably one of the best Facebook carousel ads ideas you can use to increase engagement is to split a panoramic image in a few carousel cards, so the user has to swipe them until the last one to see the whole picture. You can use this effective method for one product or service, but keep in mind that for this one, you can't let Facebook optimize the carousel cards' performance. Here's how BarkBox used this idea in a hilarious way: 6. Share your content You can choose carousel ads to keep your audience informed by offering them quality content. Each carousel card can show parts from different contents, or you can opt to split the main ideas from a single piece of content throughout the cards. In the example below, Jamf School chose to use each carousel card to present the main idea of their five-part blog series: 7. Promote your events Another way to use a Facebook carousel format is to tell the world about your event, course, training, or virtual conference. Share the details with your target audiences, such as the date, time, location, speakers, and other relevant information. Here's a carousel ad example from World Football Summit that shows how can you make the most out of carousel ad format: 8. Retarget customers Through using Facebook dynamic ads for retargeting, you can remind people about the products they've browsed on your website or any other place where you displayed them. For example, I bought products from Morphe in the past, and now I have ads from them on my Facebook feed. This is an excellent method for continually showing me their products, offers, and new collection launches. 9. Show the benefit As we already know, Facebook carousel ads allow you to show up to ten cards. Each of them can have a different benefit description to convince your audience that your product or service is worth trying. This interactive method to exhibit the benefits is more effective than just listing them in a post, allowing your customers to see why they should check out and pay for your products or services. Just like in the following Facebook carousel ad example: 10. Promote a guide With the help of a carousel ad format, you can showcase your product or service's features and, at the same time, offer a how-to guide to your audience. In this manner, you're not just displaying something, but you're also offering actionable steps on how a customer can get the best out of it. Here is one of the carousel Facebook examples that make use out of this format: 11. Create an experience By using Facebook carousel ads, your products or services will pop on several users' feeds. If done right, these ads can offer an experience to the people interacting with the carousel. This means you can create your carousel ad in such a way so they will get a first impression on what your brand has to offer. It's like a trailer, a preview if you want, of that particular product/service. A trailer should have some of the main features, but without showing too much. In this way, your audience will get intrigued and will click on it to discover some more. Your landing page will do the rest. To get an idea about this category, check out these Facebook carousel ad examples: 12. Social proof Do you want to show how many others are using your brand? Or maybe you want to share their testimonials as social proof? The carousel ad format can help you with this one too. Nowadays, consumers do their research online, and sometimes your incredibly good looking ad needs a backup. Using your previous clients as social proof will boost your credibility, and other people will have the confidence to buy from you. The following ad uses the testimonial method: Why You Should Use Facebook Carousel Ads Besides the already mentioned and most important feature—showing more in one ad—Facebook carousel ads can benefit you even more. Let's see how. They are cost-effective All businesses want lower costs when it comes to Facebook advertising. It appears that Facebook carousel ads can contribute to better conversion rates when comparing them to single image ads. They are more engaging The interactive format of carousel ads simply makes users stop and swipe to see the next card. That way, they're actively engaging with your ad, instead of just seeing it for a split second and then continuing to scroll their feed. They allow you to be creative Carousel ads allow advertisers to display more images and videos that they previously personalized according to their brand's identity. All the ten carousel cards can include ten different products or services, each with their details, headlines, and call to action button. Because of the generous ad space the carousel ads offer, you can even tell your brand's story, as you've seen in a previous example. They're versatile Carousel ads allow up to ten CTAs, one for each card. This means you can guide users to take different steps on each card: visit your website, a landing page, or download a guide. The carousel ad format makes it possible to include various call to action buttons in one ad. How to Make Facebook Carousel Ads Look Good After you decided that you want to use the carousel format to showcase your products or services, follow these steps to create a compelling ad. Grab the Attention with the First Visual The first step would be to think of an engaging visual strategy. If you want your audience to notice it and stop to see what's it all about, you need to make your ad stand out from all the Facebook noise, and so the first card is vital. Choose the right combination of colors and fonts, use a compelling image, but don't forget about the ad copy either. If the first image or video is attractive enough to make a potential customer stop, they will most likely swipe to see the rest. Stick to Facebook's Carousel Design Recommendations Another essential aspect to consider is the design and copy specifications, but luckily, we have Facebook carousel specs directly from the source. Here are the carousel design specifications: Minimum number of carousel cards: 2 Maximum number of carousel cards: 10 Aspect ratio: 1:1 (recommended) Aspect ratio tolerance: 3% (Facebook only) Resolution: 1080 x 1080 pixels (recommended) Image file format: .jpg and .png Image maximum file size: 30MB Video length: up to 240 minutes (15 seconds recommended) Video file format: See the full list of supported video formats Video maximum file size: 4GB Ad Copy Guidelines Text: 125 characters Headline: 40 characters Link description: 25 characters Use a Template Now that you know how your ad should look, with all the specs and guidelines to appeal to your audience, you can increase your productivity and search through the available resources that make your work easier. Our recommendation is to use a Facebook carousel ad template, in case you're going to stick with the same theme. Bannersnack has to offer you lots of well designed, fully customizable templates. Take a look below and see if you find something you like. Start from this Start from this Start from this Start from this Start from this Conclusion With today's crowded ad space, it may be challenging to create an ad that stands out. People scroll through their feed without even noticing them most of the time. If you want your ad to get attention, start working on your brand's visuals, and create a carousel ad. It has more chances of getting noticed. The purpose of carousel ads is to give your audience a taste of what you have to offer, but always leave them wondering what is on the landing page, so they'll click on it. Are you using carousel ads on Facebook? Let us know in the comments section.

facebook carousel ads

12 Creative Facebook Carousel Ads Examples + Templates