It can be difficult to find the right ad type for your Facebook campaign. You may wonder if a specific ad format is suitable for your campaign’s goal. Don’t worry, this is a common issue that almost every business faces when starting to advertise on Facebook.
Choosing the right ad type helps your campaign achieve high performance, ensures your ads reach the target audience, and enables you to achieve the desired results. If you are a newbie and are just starting to learn about Facebook advertising, this article is for you. This blog post will introduce you to the most popular Facebook ad types today and provide a strategy for choosing the right ad type for your campaign.
Understanding ad types based on campaign objectives
Many experienced Facebook advertisers don’t fully understand what campaign objectives are. To help you grasp the concept, I’ll explain it this way: If a campaign is a journey, the Campaign Objective is your final destination. Ad objectives are divided into three main groups, corresponding to different stages of the customer journey:
Awareness
When you start a campaign, your goal is for your brand to be known by as many people as possible. Your ads will be shown to as many Facebook users as possible. This helps customers subconsciously recognize what your brand is selling and what it wants to promote. So, when should you use the awareness objective?
- If your business is launching a new product, service, or brand, you should use the awareness objective.
- If your business wants to attract interested people by creating campaigns with major promotions or special events.
- If your business wants its brand to be visible in the market for a long time and to be known by many people.
Consideration
This objective group aims to encourage users to interact, learn about, and seriously consider your product/service. When you promote your products or services, you need to evaluate whether your customer base is interested. This objective acts as a bridge between “knowing” and “buying.” Let’s look at some cases where you should use this objective group.
+) Your business wants to attract users to visit your website, blog, or landing page to view your content and products.
+) Your ad wants to increase engagement (likes, comments, shares) for a post or video.
+) Your ad wants to receive more messages from potential customers.
Examples of sub-objectives: Traffic, Engagement, Leads, Video Views, and Messages.
Conversion
This objective group focuses on creating conversions, such as purchases or service sign-ups. Unlike other objective groups, this one focuses on the customer’s action, where they must choose to buy a product, sign up for a service, or fill out a form. Let’s look at some cases where you should apply the conversion objective group.
- You want your ads to generate sales and increase online sales (for an e-commerce website).
- You are promoting a service or event and want customers to fill out a registration form.
- You are promoting an app on a mobile device and want to encourage users to install it.
Examples of sub-objectives: Conversions, Sales, and App Promotion.
All the Facebook ad types you need to know
In this article, we’ve listed the most popular Facebook ad types today. The ad types below are taken from examples of Facebook ads in industries with high revenue on the platform.
Video ads
First is the video ad, which is an ad type that many individuals and businesses prioritize using in 2025. Video ads on Facebook are a form of online advertising that uses video to convey content to customers. By watching the video, customers will understand the benefits and value of a business’s products and services. There are many forms of video advertising on Facebook, such as ads in the Feed and Stories or in-stream ads that appear in longer videos on Facebook.
It can be said that video ads are more engaging and captivating than image ads because they can be used to introduce, explain, and convey a message. You won’t spend hours creating content; instead, a video will help you convey everything.
Technical specifications:
- The recommended video settings are H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+.
- Resolution must be at least 1080 x 1080 pixels.
- Video length can be from 1 second to 241 minutes.
- The maximum file size is 4GB.
Image ads
Most ads now have only 3-5 seconds to grab a customer’s attention, unlike the 3-5 minutes they might have had before. This is why you need to choose an ad type that fits the time customers will spend on your ad. Facebook Image Ads are the key to capturing customers’ hearts. With this simple yet effective format, you don’t have to put in the effort to build complex websites full of text and data. Instead, a high-quality static image, combined with concise copy and a clear call-to-action (CTA) button, will instantly attract users as they scroll through their feed. Whether you choose to boost an existing post or create a standalone ad, this is still one of the fastest and most popular ways to reach millions of potential customers.
The power of image ads lies not only in their simplicity but also in their ability to convey a message visually and powerfully. An image can tell your brand’s story, clearly show your business’s position, and create a deeper emotional connection than text. Now, let’s look at the technical specifications for image ads:
For Images:
- Size: at least 1080 x 1080 pixels.
- Ratio: should be between 1.91:1 and 1:1.
- File type: must be JPG or PNG.
For Text Descriptions:
- Primary text: must have 125 characters.
- Headline: must have 27 characters.
- Description: must also have 27 characters.
Reels ads
In a world where users are increasingly drawn to short-form content, Facebook Reels ads are an indispensable tool for you to reach your target audience most effectively. Appearing naturally in the Reels feed, this ad type allows you to tell your brand story, showcase products, or services through a short, creative, and captivating video format. Thanks to their seamless integration with organic Reels content, your ads will easily grab users’ attention, turning a simple scroll into an opportunity for engagement and conversion.
The appeal of Reels ads lies in their ability to create an emotional connection and hold a viewer’s attention. With short, dynamic videos, you can quickly and vividly convey a message, thereby increasing brand visibility, driving engagement, and generating revenue. This is the perfect choice for your business to stand out among the vast amount of content on the platform, turning short-form videos into a powerful marketing tool that delivers outstanding results. Here are the technical specifications:
- File Type: MP4, MOV.
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16.
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+.
- Resolution: At least 500 x 888 pixels.
- Video Length: from 0 seconds to 15 minutes.
- Maximum File Size: 4GB.
- Captions and Video Sound: Optional but highly recommended.
Carousel ads
Carousel ads are an ad type that helps you tell a visual and detailed story. Instead of a single image or video, this ad type allows you to display up to 10 different cards in one post, creating a highly interactive experience as users swipe horizontally to explore. Each card can not only contain unique content but also link to a different destination URL, allowing you to guide customers to specific product pages, landing pages, or any other relevant content.
The true power of Carousel ads lies in their unlimited creative potential. This is not just a way to showcase a series of individual products but also an opportunity to highlight specific features, share compelling brand stories, or even tell a sequential narrative through each image. With this flexibility, Carousel ads help you maximize display effectiveness, enhance user experience, and drive conversions effectively.
Messenger ads
Messenger ads are a tool that allows businesses to connect directly with individual customers. This ad type allows your ad to appear directly on the Messenger app’s main screen and between messages, naturally catching users’ attention. By connecting directly, you can easily start a conversation, answer questions, provide customer service, or even guide users to your website for a purchase.
The power of Messenger ads lies in their two-way interaction, turning simple ads into meaningful conversations. Instead of just displaying a one-way message, you can proactively engage with potential customers immediately. This not only helps increase trust but also optimizes the user experience, thereby driving conversions and building a loyal customer community.
Tips for choosing the perfect ad for your campaign
There are many questions like: “How do I choose the right ad type for my campaign?” Are you also wondering about the same thing we just mentioned? Now, we want you to look at some methods we have applied to our clients’ ad campaigns to find the right Facebook ad types.
First, you need to know what your ad campaign’s objective is.
Clearly define the ad objective
As I mentioned to you in the first part of the article, there are three main objective groups: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Each objective group has a different purpose. You need to clearly understand what the campaign’s goal is and choose the appropriate objective group.
For example, I want to talk about targeting for Awareness. Typically, with this objective group, businesses want to promote and gain brand visibility among as many customers on Facebook as possible. Marketers often use Video Ads and Story/Reels Ads to promote their brand in the fastest way. This is because these ad types can quickly attract hundreds of thousands of customers and generate interest if the video goes viral. If you want to know how to create viral ads, we have an article on it.
Understand the ad types
Let’s get familiar with the different Facebook ad types and how to use them wisely. Many advertisers often advise you that if you want to sell, you should use video ads or Carousel ads. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. You need to understand the message you want to convey to your customers, and then choose the appropriate ad type.
For example, if you want to find leads, you should use lead ads.
In conclusion
If you are looking for one perfect ad type for your business’s ad campaign, the answer is that there isn’t one. Each campaign type has different advantages. To choose the right ad format, you need to know your campaign objective, and from there, select the ad creative that helps you convey your message most easily. We hope that the knowledge we’ve shared in this blog will be helpful to you and give you a better understanding when creating Facebook ads for your business.
