Have you tried using the Collection Ad format in your Facebook Marketing campaigns?

In this episode of Online Confidential, where I take you behind the scenes of ‘Secret Ad Manager’ business, I reveal why I love using Collection Ads to tackle those tricky bottom-of-funnel retargeting challenges.

When it comes to retargeting the bottom-of-funnel audience you’ve got two problems. The first problem is getting the ad into the newsfeed, and the second problem is getting people to engage with the ad.

In this article, I share a strategy I’ve been using with Collection ads that solves both those problems.

I’ll give you my Elite Ad Manager tips on,

• What the Collection ad format is,
• How to set up a Collection ad, and
• When to use a Collection ad

I really, really love the Collection Ad format because it looks a bit different in the newsfeed.  Yes, sometimes it’s great to look very organic and very native, like a post from a friend, but sometimes you just want to stand out and get noticed.

Let’s dive in.

What is the Collection Ad format?

The Collection ad format helps you to stand out in the newsfeed, but not in the same way a big graphic design image does that screams “I’m an ad!” Instead, the Collection ad format looks different because it pulls in images and information from an Instant Experience template that’s already been set up.

I love to use Collection ads for retargeting people for webinars. As you know, it’s getting harder to retarget and get back in front of audiences who have clicked over to a website page. With smaller retargeting audiences, it can be tough to see results with a traffic campaign or conversion campaign aimed at getting the people you’re retargeting over to watch a webinar.

Typically, you might try a video campaign where you’ll upload the webinar video, or if it’s been on the Facebook page, you’ll share the video using a video view campaign. The video view campaign is one option. Another option is to use the Collection ad format.

I love using the Collection ad format because when I set up an Instant Experience ad to be the webinar registration page or sales page, I can use the Instant Experience ad template and the Collection ad together.

How do you set up a Collection Ad?

You build out the Instant Experience ad inside the ads set up area with information from the webinar page or offer page, so the Instant Experience acts like a sales page in the Facebook feed.  Or you can set it up to be a hybrid.  For example, I’ll put the webinar at the top of the Instant Experience ad with the Get Customers or Client Acquisition template, which is a really simple and nicely designed template to use.

It’s very easy to set up. First, place the video at the top of the Instant Experience template where there’s an image/video placeholder, then beneath that, you add a headline and a description, and below the headline and description, there’s a carousel space to add three or four additional images for the offer. The carousel images are where you can add things like customer testimonials.

Here are the steps to create the Instant Experience template:

1. Add a video/image at the top of the Instant Experience
2. Add the copy for the headline and description
3. Add three or four images to the carousel section
4. Add the links for the call-to-action buttons

So now you have set up an impressive Instant Experience ad.

To set up the Collections ad, you create a new ad and select Collection as the ad format. Then select the Instant Experience ad template you previously created.

What you’ll see in the newsfeed is the video or image you’ve placed at the top in the Collection ad.  The ad copy and the image or video, which might be the webinar video on the Instant Experience template, will be pulled through with the images in the carousel with the headline and copy you added to the Instant Experience template.

Now you’ve created an impressive Collection ad.

It gets attention when it appears in the newsfeed because it’s a bit different. People stop scrolling because they’re curious and wondering, ‘what kind of ad format is this?’ Anyway, that’s what we ad managers think, right?

Everyone else is just curious because it looks different, and it’s an impressive format.  It grabs attention which is the goal. The more attention you attract from the newsfeed, the more engagement you’re likely to generate.

When they click on it, it opens up the Instant Experience, and they’ll see more information with the call to action to get them over to the registration or checkout page. So if you put enough information in the Instant Experience, people can instantly learn more about the benefits of the offer, and they’ll be primed to go over and buy.

This is an example of how I love to use Collection ads in a campaign strategy for something like a webinar.

When can you use a Collection Ad?

You can use Collection ads with a few different campaign objectives. For example, you can try a Conversion campaign and see if that will feed out. I have seen where it hasn’t fed out as a Conversion campaign, but when we put it into a Reach campaign, it did feed out.

I’ve noticed Collection ads generally have a really good click-through rate. People click on them. They engage with them and open them up.

By using a Collection ad, you solve those two problems I mentioned at the beginning.  The first problem is getting the ad into the newsfeed, and the second problem is getting people to engage with the ad.

Have you used the Collection ad format?

I’d love to hear about your experiences with Collection ads, or if you’re excited to give them a go now that you know more about them.

Send me an email at success@socialcharlie.com.