You've probably heard a lot lately about advertising tools and opportunities from trending platforms like Google Ads, Instagram Ads, or even TikTok Ads.

It’s understandable, given that some of them have been generating a lot of buzz as of late. However, if you’re thinking about launching an ad campaign for your business and you are not considering Facebook as the primary outlet, you are making a big mistake.

Facebook remains the most visited social network in the world and, as such, offers many possibilities to promote your company. Moreover, each advertising format you choose within the platform can be adapted entirely to your needs to achieve the best results.

Since videos tend to perform best out of all types of content intended for social networks, we'll focus this article on the basics you need to launch a video ad campaign on Facebook.

But, before we dive into the details, let's check some of the statistics that make this social network one of the best platforms to be part of your marketing strategy.

Facebook Video Ads — The Numbers Don’t Lie

If you’re still hesitant about Facebook, this data will make you change your mind. Let's start with the most important of all: more than 4 billion video views are registered on Facebook every day, for a total of 100 million hours of video.

Another interesting fact? The percentage of click-through rate (clicks that a link obtains regarding the number of impressions) for a video ad is higher on Facebook than on any other platform: between 1.05 and 3.42%, according to age. Meanwhile, on YouTube it’s between 0.05 and 0.11%, and on Instagram between 0.46 and 1.8%.

If you’re concerned about costs, this stat should put them to rest: average cost per ad on the platform has been falling since the fourth quarter of 2019, and even faster since 2020. This is a trend most experts agree will continue as a consequence of the pandemic.

As you can see, Facebook has pretty interesting numbers. So, if you’re keen to launch a marketing campaign on this platform, we’ll give you the basics to kick off.

Figure Out Your Audience — Ad Campaign Segmentation is Key

Probably the biggest advantage of running a virtual marketing campaign is the possibility that digital platforms offer to send your message exactly to those who will be interested.

Well, Facebook provides the cutting edge of these tools, with extremely detailed options to choose the type of audience that will see your ads. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind as you start to get used to it.

Segmenting Your Target

Facebook Ad Manager allows you to choose your segmentation according to a varied number of elements. The most important thing is to know (and let the algorithm know, of course) where your ad will show up, what the demography of your audience is, what their interests are, and how they behave.

So, the first step to make a good segmentation is to know very well who your customer is. The more information you give to the platform, the easier it will be to have the right people seeing your ad, and the more effective it will become, since it will pop up to those really interested.

Your Client List is a Great Place to Start

If you’re a little lost about how to segment your ad, Facebook Ad Manager lets you to upload a list of clients. Based on this information, the platform will automatically direct your campaign to profiles similar to those who are already your customers, increasing the chances that they will buy from you.

To use this tool, you don’t need too much data from your customers. Their email addresses will be enough. But, again, the more information you add (first name and last name, telephone, ZIP code, etc.), the more accurate the segmentation will be, improving your chances of getting more accurate (and effective) results.

Create Different Ad Campaigns for Mobile and Desktop

User experience is quite different on mobile and desktop, therefore it’s a good idea to create separate ad campaigns for each one.

First, desktop and mobile users tend to differ quite a bit as audiences go. People who access Facebook from their phone generally don’t also use it on desktop, and vice versa. This is important since your ad will look and behave differently depending on the platform it pops up on!

So, an ad may look perfect on a desktop, but not so much on mobile, or the other way around.

Want to get the most efficiency and effectiveness out of your campaign? Then either choose which audience to target, and set it all up to target them exclusively, or (ideally) create both variants to get the best out of both audience pools.

Retarget to Achieve Maximum Effectiveness

Don’t worry! It sounds harder than it actually is!

Retargeting on Facebook is finding who has interacted with you after watching your video ad, and then use this information to adjust the specificity of your segmentation.

Why is it important? Retargeted users are much more likely to engage with your content because they’re the ones that were interested before and presumably will be again.

How to retarget? Facebook statistics will let you know who followed your page, who watched other videos of yours, who commented, or interacted in any way. Then, Facebook Ad Manager will allow you to add this information to the parameters that decide who your ads target.

Choose a Video Style That Fits Your Marketing Goal

Now, in addition to choosing your target and segmenting your audience, and for your video ad to be truly impactful, it's key that you pick a type of video that fits your campaign’s objectives. How? First, identify where your ad fits in the marketing funnel.

If you’re not familiar with the stages of the marketing funnel, it can be divided into three: awareness, consideration, and decision. Different stages tend to pursue different types of marketing goals, and different types of audiences, so figuring it out at this point will help you shape your campaign and set your ads for success.

Initially, if your goal is to build awareness about your product, you must tell your potential customers about your brand and your product and educate them. So, it’s a good option to go for a product ad or branded social videos. Short pieces meant to get your customers one step closer to your brand.

The second stage of the marketing funnel is about getting viewers to consider buying your product. Explainer videos and how-to’s tend to excel at this stage and make it easier for potential customers to convert.

Finally, if your goal is to give your customers that final push, or retain clients you already have, corporate videos, testimonials, and FAQs can be very effective, but you’ll very rarely see these as parts of an ad campaign (which tends to favor shorter videos).

4 Crucial Tips for a Successful Facebook Video Ad Campaign

So, effective Facebook ad segmentation and choosing the right video styles will put you ahead of many competitors on the platform. But there are four more things that can give your ad campaign a bit of an extra boost and help it perform better on Facebook.

Create Videos That’ll Be Easily Understood Even Without Sound

According to multiple data, most videos on Facebook are played on mute. So, developing video ads that are not only attractive, but work even without sound, through captions or subtitles, is always a good approach.

Engage Fast

Your videos have to attract the audience within the first three seconds, because that is approximately the time that viewers will take to decide whether or not to watch the whole ad.

If they’re not intrigued right from the start, they’ll probably scroll away. So, leave suspense for Hollywood and make your ads compelling from the start!

Add Video Polls Whenever They Fit

Among the available tools, Facebook also allows you to add video polls to your ads. Polling stickers tend to generate interaction with viewers that can be powerful to increase your audience's engagement. In addition, you can get interesting feedback from the viewers' responses that you can then implement into future campaigns.

Think Mobile

As mentioned before, most of Facebook traffic comes from mobile devices. So, if you have to choose, prime your content for these devices. Creating vertical videos that fill the screen better and avoiding tiny details that can’t be fully appreciated on small screens are two good principles.

Just Jump In

With its huge user base and its advanced ad manager, Facebook is an indispensable marketing tool. As such, it can be very helpful to promote your business.

However, Facebook and its advertising tools are constantly evolving. Therefore, it’s very important to always keep up with its new features and the opportunities they represent.

We hope this guide has helped you understand the benefits of a video ad on this social network and will help you make your Facebook marketing strategy as successful as it can be. Good luck!