A digital marketers dilemma if ever there was one: which facebook ad formats work best at different stages of the customer journey?
Recently I was asked, alongside other experts in the field, to comment on the topic for an article by Jessica Malnik from Databox. The article looked specifically at which ad formats work best at different stages of the customer journey, including driving brand awareness, increasing traffic, and generating conversions. Opinions differed in some respects. Different industries, clients experiences and objectives lead to variances in opinions, outlined in the full Databox article here.
At alphawhale, in a majority of our client's circumstances, we feel Facebook ad formats themselves aren't as important as the objectives and the bidding strategy that you use. So anybody trying to get the best awareness, traffic or conversion should start with clear objectives and a subsequent bidding strategy. With that said, these are our thoughts on the best tactics for driving awareness, traffic and conversions:
Videos with an engagement objective usually drive the most awareness because you’re asking people to stay within the facebook environment. People are then either liking, commenting, or watching the video, and that will drive awareness without taking them away from the social media channel they’re on. We feel that’s the best thing you can do for social awareness.
When it comes to traffic, a facebook carousel is often the most effective as every slide can link to a different page. Using a carousel, you can collate content together that’s relevant, and drive consumers to multiple pages. You could also have a storyline message that’s more digestible than one static ad. In essence every tile is an opportunity to click through, so carousels or slide shows are some of the best traffic generators that we have.
For conversions, anything around catalogue sale ads and any ad that’s performing well with an instant experience, or any ad that’s been set up with an integrated marketing campaign as a result of re-marketing would be the best for conversion.
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