Facebook recently launched their newest ad type – multi-product ads, which allows advertisers to showcase multiple products, services or promotions, each with its own image and URL, all in a single advertisement. The ad format currently allows the use of 3 – 5 images in each ad which users can scroll through, using the scroll arrow buttons on each side of the ad. For those of you who haven’t come across these ads in your newsfeed yet, here’s what they look like on the desktop newsfeed:
Two images are initially visible and the user has to scroll through to see the rest:
On the mobile newsfeed, only one image is visible and the rest can be viewed upon scrolling:
Why these ads are definitely worth a try:
We have tried these out for some of our clients and have seen some really good results in our early tests. Here are some benefits of using multi-product ads:
More visual and interactive format:
As facebook users keep seeing the standard ad formats in their newsfeed, these formats do suffer a drop in performance over time. The multi-product format which is both more visual, as well as interactive, is a welcome change. It is bound to get more attention from facebook users, especially while it is still new.
Higher Click-through-rates:
Apart from being more visual and interactive, having more products in the same ad gives users more reasons to click, which increases click-through rates. For ads we have run for our clients, we have seen a click-through-rate improvement of up to 60 % as compared to standard Facebook newsfeed ads.
“Apart from being more visual and interactive, having more products in the same ad gives users more reasons to click, which increases click-through rates.”
Lower acquisition cost:
Higher click-throughs eventually contribute to lower cost-per-click and a lower acquisition cost. Here as well, we saw a drop in cost-per-acquisition of up to 40 % as compared to standard Facebook newsfeed ads.
Improved remarketing results:
When combined with custom audience targeting, these ads tend to work much better as multiple products are being shown to users who have already seen them.
The “creative optimization” feature:
Probably the best part of these ads is this feature which automatically re-orders the product creatives, based on which image is performing the best. This automatically optimizes the ad. This feature is optional though and can be turned off if you want to stick to the order you have given.
Though the multi-product ad type is primarily targeted towards e-commerce, there is no reason why marketers cannot get creative and use them to showcase multiple products, offers, and services across other industries as well.
Your detailed guide to creating multi-product ads:
As these ads have been recently launched, they are not yet available in the Facebook ads manager. However, they can be created using either the facebook ads API or Power Editor. Below is a step-by-step process of creating these ads using Power Editor.
For those of you who are new to Power Editor, it is an advanced ads editor included in the facebook ads manager. You will find it in the left menu bar of your ads manager:
1. Once you open Power editor, ensure you are on the “Campaigns” tab (not the “Ad sets” or “Ads” tab) and then click on the “+” button in the top menu to create a new campaign.
2. After entering the campaign name and choosing the objective (similar to what you would choose for the standard ad format), click on the “Ad sets” tab and click the “+” button to create a new ad set.
3. Name the ad set and choose the budget, targeting and placement. These ads would work best when targeted to the right audience, so make sure you make use of the advanced facebook ad targeting options available. Then click on the “Ads” tab, followed by the “+” button to create a new ad.
4. After entering the ad name and choosing your facebook, page, you will see two options – to create a single image ad or a multiple image ad. Choose the option “Multiple Images and links in one ad”.
5. Next, scroll down to the ad creation area and fill up each of the fields as explained below:
I. Text: This is the text that will show above all your ad images. You could use this to explain clearly what the images and ad are about.
II. Destination URL: This is the URL you would want the user to go to when he clicks on the first image in your ad.
III. Headline: Enter the ad headline to go with the first image in your ad
IV. Description: This field is optional and you could use it to give any additional information about your first product such as a key USP, special offer or discount code.
V. Image: Upload your first product image. The recommended size is 600 x 600 pixels.
6. Repeat steps II-V above for the remaining product images. Keep in mind that you can have a minimum of three and a maximum of 5 images.
7. As you scroll down further, you will see the “Creative Optimization” feature explained earlier. Do not check this if you would want your product images to show only in one particular order irrespective of performance.
8. See More URL: This is the URL that you would want to go when they click on your display image in the end after scrolling through all your products. If all your products belong to the same category, this could be the URL of the category page.
9. See More Display URL: This is the URL that would be visible to the user, which when clicked on, would lead to the “See more URL” above. This is optional, but we would definitely recommend entering this so the user sees a shorter URL as compared to the original URL.
10. Once all the data has been entered, click on the green coloured “Upload Changes” button in the top menu bar to upload the newly created campaign (with the ad set and ad) to the ads manager.
Your multi-product ads are now ready to run!
I hope this article has given you a clear idea of what facebook multi-product ads are, why you should use them and how you can create them with ease using Power Editor. And always remember that most new ad types work best when they are still new – the proverbial early bird always gets the worm. So what are you waiting for? Get started! And if you have any questions, do reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you out!
This post by originally written by Rohit Uttamchandani for the Zepo Blog: The Ecommerce Blog for Small and Medium Enterprises.
Rohit is Senior Manager – Social Media & Client Servicing at SocialBeat.in one of South India’s leading digital marketing agencies.