I have been using Carousel Ads pretty much ever since they were released.
When they first came out there was a lot of speculation on how well this would actually perform and how long it would work for. A lot of people were cynical about it but I believed in it from the beginning, I saw exactly how it could be used and who could benefit from it.
Being the person that I am, (trust me when I say that there’s nothing the guys hate more on a Monday morning but to hear me say as soon as I walk through the door “I was thinking this weekend…, I swear the sighs of desperation are just getting louder and louder) I had to know everything there is to know about the multiple ads on Facebook, better known as Carousel Ads.
Once I was satisfied that I understood and had checked every crevice and little detail I decided to put them to test, first with our own Facebook page.
On the first 5 days I could see huge increases in interaction with my ads. Now was the time for me to test it out with clients accounts. Because it has been a while since I first did with my original client, I’ve decided to pick another client at random and show you how to set up the carousel ads. The lucky client picked to be shown on our blog is Michael, from Snug Mattress. I know, I know how lucky is he??
What are Carousel Ads?
Carousel ads are an ad format by which several product images are displayed and rotate within the banner. This format allows advertisers to showcase up to 5 images and links in one ad, as well as allowing for videos, headlines, links and calls to action. These ads are interactive, attention grabbing and effective, making this advertising style very effective for direct response and brand awareness.
How do they work?
Firstly you must grab people’s attention. That has to be done with the first image, you need to leave them wanting more, enough that they will not only check the other images but click through to the website at the end. Here you can go all out. This is the time where you can never start out too strong.
Nowadays it’s really hard to stand out in the cluttered advertisement space, so think outside the box, break rules and take your audience along for the ride.
Create a scene, you need to evoke an emotion with your audience, make them reminisce, provide the relevant information to make your audience feel like they are right there with you every step of the way.
Consider sequence, it’s essential to have a beginning, a middle and an end to any story, so each image needs to follow this rule.
Most importantly consider the platform you are advertising in, these ads can be placed on Facebook but also Instagram, knowing where your audience is will ensure that you are aware of how to best convey your story to them.
Who can use Carousel Ads?
Everyone! These ads were originally designed for those selling products as this is a great way to showcase several items from your shop, but I have learnt that anyone selling anything including services can also use them effectively.
These ads are very effective for promoting different sides of your services, for example we use these ads to display the difference services we provide such as SEO, PPC and Mentoring Sessions.
Another thing that I find extremely successful to push forward with Carousel Ads in terms of conversion rates and click through rates are promotional offers.
Do these ads really perform better?
I get asked this all the time, but we have tested this many times with ourselves and different clients and it works better every time.
No matter the business or industry you might find yourself in, I strongly suggest that you don’t let this opportunity pass you by as Carousel ads have proved to be 10 times better at getting people to click and convert.
It has been recorded that some people have increased their click-through rates by 300% while reducing the click through costs simply by using Carousel Ads instead of normal product advertising.
Another great thing about these ads is that they are available in desktop and mobile alike making its reach far greater.
Do you want to stand out from your competitors?
Have you thought about using Facebook to do this?
What are you waiting for. I can guarantee that your customers are on Facebook and knowing what I do, that they check their Facebook newsfeed at least 14 times a day, this is the perfect advertising platform.
In order to create Carousel Ads you need to create a new advert (if you don’t know how to create adverts from scratch, download and read my step-by-step guide on the right which will teach you everything you need to know).
I’m going to show you how to create Carousel Ads with Snug Mattress as an example.
The first screen shown is the same screen for any campaign as the differences only come further down the line.
Once you have set and named your new campaign, the first screen shown is the one below, here you will have to specify your daily budget and from when you would like these ads to start being shown.
For Snug Mattresses I selected £5 daily to start with and to start advertising ASAP.
If you scroll down your page, these are the next steps that you will see.
You will now be prompted to select where you would like your ad to be shown, in this instance we have removed Instagram as the client doesn’t have an account, and we have also unpicked “Audience Network”.
The Optimisation & pricing is set as “Clicks to your website” as that is what we want people to do.
Once you are done adding the information needed, click on the tab highlighted on the left. Now you will have to add the destination, “Snug Mattress”, and on create advert now you need to select “Advert with multiple images or videos in a carousel”.
If you continue scrolling down, the next screens will ask you to add the text which is what will show up next to the logo (as can be seen on the screen below).
Now add the destination URL, which should be the same as the page where the image is coming from so that you are redirecting people specifically to the advert page to ensure that people stay on the page and won’t bounce.
