15 Facebook Ad Placements in Ads Manager Explained
Want to reach more customers on Facebook? If so, Facebook Ads Manager allows you to choose the places where your ads are most likely to raise brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, increase app installs, obtain more video views, collect leads, improve conversions, and increase sales. In this post, we’re going to explore 15 Facebook ad placements you can use to reach your target audience.
How to Choose Facebook Ad Placements
Once you have chosen your desired marketing objective and defined your ad audience, Facebook Ads Manager allows businesses to choose from automatic and customized ad placements.
With automatic placements, Facebook will determine the placements for your ads based on your ad budget and where the ads are most likely to perform best.
If you would prefer to choose specific Facebook ad placements, you can select the Edit Placements option instead.
This will allow you to choose specific placements on desktop and/or mobile devices within Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Facebook Audience Network that expands the reach of your ads beyond Facebook.
Now, let’s look at each of the available Facebook ad placements in detail, including where they will appear and the media requirements for each.
Facebook Ad Placements
To reach Facebook’s 1.56 billion daily active users, choose from the following seven ad placements for Facebook desktop and mobile users.
#1 News Feed
Facebook displays ads in the news feed for both desktop and mobile users.
Supported objectives for News Feed Ads include reach, brand awareness, traffic, engagement, page likes, event responses, and app installs.
For example, targeted audiences will see the Shopify Plus ad on their desktop news feed.
As well as their mobile news feed:
Facebook recommends images or video at the highest resolution possible, with a ratio of 9:16 to 16:9. Or images with links with a ratio of 1.91:1 to 1:1.
Videos must have a minimum duration of 1 second and a maximum duration of 240 minutes. News feed ads have a text limit of 125 characters, a headline limit of 25 characters, and a link description limit of 30 characters.
For the best results, your ad should cover as much of the screen as possible and catch the attention of your target audience.
Also, be sure to include captions on videos for those who do not allow video audio to play automatically, or do not have access to sound.
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#2 Right Column Ads (Desktop Only)
In addition to the news feed ads, you can reach your target audience on their desktop using ads in the right column.
These ads would catch the attention of users browsing popular right column items like Stories, People You May Know, Watchlist videos, and more.
Supported objectives for Right Column Ads include traffic, conversions, and catalog sales.
Facebook recommends images with a ratio of 16:9 to 1:1. With a resolution of at least 1,200 x 1,200 px.
Right column ads have a text limit of 125 characters, a headline limit of 25 characters, and a link description limit of 30 characters.
#3 Instant Articles Ads (Mobile Only)
Another placement option for targeting audiences on mobile devices is within Instant Articles.
Instant Articles are mobile-optimized, interactive news articles by approved publishers. Supported objectives for Instant Articles Ads include reach, brand awareness, traffic, engagement, app installs, lead generation, and video views.
The following is an ad within an Instant Article from CNN.
Facebook recommends images or video at the highest resolution possible. With a ratio of 9:16 to 16:9 or images with links with a 1:1 ratio.
Instant Article ads have a headline limit of 25 characters, and a link description limit of 30 characters.
#4 In-Stream Video Ads
To reach target audiences that enjoy watching videos on Facebook, Facebook offers the In-Stream Video ad placement.
These video ads will appear at the beginning or middle of other popular videos on related topics.
Supported objectives for In-Stream Video Ads include reach, brand awareness, engagement, video views, and app installs.
The following In-Stream Video ad from Amazon appeared before a Wired video reviewing a laptop.
Facebook recommends videos at the highest resolution with a ratio of 16:9. Unlike videos in the news feed, In-Stream Video ads are only 5 to 15 seconds in length.
#5 Suggested Video Ads
Another way to reach video lovers on Facebook is through the Suggested Video ad placement.
Suggested Videos are shown in the video news feed along with related videos the target audience is watching.
Supported objectives for Suggested Video Ads include brand awareness, engagement, app installs, video views, reach, and conversions.
Facebook recommends videos at the highest resolution possible with a ratio of 16:9 to 9:16. Videos can be from 1 second to 240 minutes.
#6 Marketplace Ads
If you know your target audience likes to shop in the Facebook Marketplace for local deals, consider placing an ad there.
Supported objectives for Facebook Marketplace Ads include traffic, conversions, catalog sales, reach, brand awareness, event responses, and lead generation. They will appear for desktop users.
As well as mobile users.
Facebook recommends images or video at the highest resolution possible. With a ratio of 9:16 to 16:9 or images with links with a 1:1 ratio.
Marketplace ads have a text limit of 125 characters, a headline limit of 25 characters, and a link description limit of 30 characters.
#7 Stories Ads (Mobile Only)
Ad placement in Facebook Stories allows you to create full-screen vertical ads for mobile users browsing media shared by friends and pages that are only available for 24 hours.
Supported objectives for Stories Ads include traffic, reach, conversions, lead generation, brand awareness, video views, and app installs.
Facebook recommends images or videos at the highest resolution possible.
With ratios of 1.91 to 9:16. If you want text or video captions to appear with your ad, it must be included in the image or video file.
Instagram Ad Placements
In addition to all the Facebook ad placements found in Facebook Ads Manager, you can also create ads targeted to Instagram users in the following places.
#8 News Feed Ads (Mobile Only)
Instagram News Feed ads appear as your target audience scrolls through their main news feed of photos and videos posted by Instagram users they follow.
Supported objectives for News Feed Ads include reach, conversions, traffic, lead generation, brand awareness, engagement, and catalog sales.
Facebook recommends images and videos at the highest resolution possible. With a minimum aspect ratio of 400 x 500 and a maximum aspect ratio of 191 x 100.
Videos can be 1 to 120 seconds in length. Image and video ads will show two rows of text with the character limits based on the user’s device and call to action button selected. Anything over the character limit can be viewed when your target audience clicks the more link.
#9 Stories Ads (Mobile Only)
Similar to ads in Facebook Stories, you can target Instagram users with ads within Instagram Stories.
Supported objectives for the Stories ad placement include reach, traffic, conversions, app installs, lead generation, and brand awareness.
Facebook recommends images and video at the highest resolution possible with ratios 9:16 and 16:9 to 4:5.
Videos can be 1 to 60 seconds in length. If you want text or video captions to appear with your ad, it must be included in the image or video file.
Facebook Messenger Ad Placements
In addition to placing ads on Facebook, you can reach the 1.3 billion people using Facebook Messenger each month through your Facebook Ads Manager in a few ways.
#10 Inbox Ads (Mobile Only)
Messenger Inbox ads appear in your most recent list of chats. When your target audience clicks to view more, they will see more details about your ad.
Supported objectives for Inbox Ads include app installs, traffic, conversions, message engagement, and catalog sales.
Facebook recommends images at the highest resolution possible with a ratio of 16:9 to 1:1. The text limit is 125 characters.
#11 Sponsored Messages Ads (Mobile Only)
Unlike Inbox Ads that appear in your chat list and display an ad when clicked, Sponsored Messages Ads in Messenger are interactive chat messages sent to target audiences that you have engaged with in the past through Messenger.
Supported objectives for Sponsored Messages Ads include traffic, conversions, and message engagement.
Facebook recommends images at the highest resolution possible with a ratio of 9:16 to 16:9, or 1.91:1 with a link.
Sponsored messages have a text limit of 125 characters, headline of 25 characters, and a link description of 30 characters.
#12 Stories Ads (Mobile Only)
Similar to Facebook and Instagram Stories, you can reach target audiences using Messenger via Messenger Stories Ads.
These ads will appear as Messenger users watch Stories from those they have connected with, within Messenger.
Supported objectives for Stories Ads include app installs, conversions, traffic, reach, and brand awareness.
Facebook recommends images and video at the highest resolution possible with ratios 9:16 and 16:9 to 4:5.
Videos can be up to 16 seconds in length. If you want text or video captions to appear with your ad, it must be included in the image or video file.
Audience Network Ad Placements
If you want to reach your target audience outside of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, then try ad placements in the Audience Network.
Facebook’s Audience Network allows mobile app and game developers the ability to monetize their properties with ads from Facebook advertisers.
According to Facebook, 40% of the top 500 apps for smartphones are part of their Audience Network and advertisers who include the Audience Network placement see a 12% increase in conversions.
The following are Facebook ad placements available in the Audience Network.
#13 Native, Banner and Interstitial Ads
Native, Banner, and Interstitial Ads are similar to social media ads, but they are displayed in apps other than Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
For example, the following is a native ad that appears in the news feed for Tango.
Supported objectives for these ads include reach, traffic, app installs, video views, and conversions.
Facebook recommends images at the highest resolution possible with a ratio based on the type of ad you are creating – a network-native rectangular ad, a network banner, or a full-screen interstitial ad (9:16).
#14 In-Stream Videos Ads
Similar to In-Stream Video Ads on Facebook, these ads will play before, during, or after video content displayed on third-party apps using Facebook Audience Network monetization.
Supported objectives for In-Stream Video Ads include reach, brand awareness, engagement, video views, and conversions.
Facebook recommends videos at the highest resolution with a ratio of 16:9. In-Stream Video Ads for the Facebook Audience Network can be 5 to 30 seconds in length.
#15 Rewarded Videos Ads
A favorite amongst mobile gaming developers, Rewarded Video Ads are available to game players who want to earn bonuses (more money, extra lives, unlocked levels, etc.) in exchange for watching a video.
Supported objectives for Rewarded Video Ads include app installs and conversions.
Facebook recommends videos at the highest resolution possible with a ratio of 9:16.
Rewarded Video Ads for the Facebook Audience Network can be 3 to 60 seconds in length.
Conclusion
Facebook Ads Manager allows businesses to choose the best Facebook ad placements to reach target audiences in the places they engage with on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger the most.
As with any advertising campaign, be sure to monitor each of your ad placements continuously and adjust your budget to cover the ads that perform best for your marketing objectives.
What do you think? Which Facebook ad placements do you use for your campaigns? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
