Facebook is the most popular social networking site worldwide. Offering a good return on ad spend (ROAS), it is a marketing battleground for companies. The victors have, in their arsenal, a good understanding of what effective Facebook ads look like. In this post, we focus on the elements that make a Facebook video ad engaging enough to merit looks and clicks.

Create native ads

Native ads blend seamlessly with the site’s interface and appear unintrusive to users. It’s why they’re better for engagement and make higher effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPMs) i.e., the ad revenue generated per thousand impressions. 

Native ads are great for promoting top-of-the-funnel content. Making the ads look and feel like organic content increases chances of people interacting with them. They can be educational or entertaining, encouraging people to share your content and promoting your brand for free. 

Narrow your audience

A great Facebook video ad speaks to the individual. In order for that to happen, the ad copy must be relatable to your audience. It’s difficult to create a one-size-fits-all ad that resonates with all segments of your audience. Facebook allows you to narrowly target your audience, so you have flexibility to create copy that speaks to that specific audience. 

For example, if you’re a retailer selling men’s and women’s apparel, your customers will be interested in what you offer but many will be interested in some of your products. Women will want to see what you have for them and fitness fans will be interested in activewear. You could create an ad for activewear targeted at those who’ve listed fitness as an interest. 

Set a clear goal

Define your goals from creating Facebook video ads. Are they expected to create brand awareness, get video views, encourage people to start a conversation with your business, or generate conversions? Create ads that align with your goal. 

If you’ve launched your business recently, you could select brand awareness as your Facebook campaign objective. It will tell Facebook that your ad is meant to help new people discover your brand. The main goal of brand awareness ads is to get people to notice your brand, the secondary goal is to encourage them to engage with your content. Introducing your brand works better than pushing sales. 

Capture attention in 3-5 seconds

If your ad can get people’s attention in the first few seconds of watching, there’s a good chance they will watch the entire video and its take home message. Here are some ideas on creating FB ads that grab attention in 3-5 seconds:

• Ask a question. It is a great hook to grab the reader’s attention.

• An affirmation is also an effective hook as it generates surprise/piques curiosity

• Talk about a pain point. It captures attention quickly.

• Deliver a solution to their problem

• Add a call to action phrase 

It’s worth exploring ads on the social media site, and noting what works in ads that get your attention. For example, you may be drawn in by custom thumbnails while you scroll through your feed.You can also list out why some videos don’t do it for you. Try to get a bunch of opinions to discover how people view the same ad differently. This homework will come in handy when you start planning your Facebook ads. 

Add captions 

85% of Facebook video is watched without sound. Many people access the network on their mobile phones and prefer to turn the audio off while watching videos. It’s important to note this behavior and ensure that your video ads on the site generate the right captions.

Facebook has an auto captioning feature. Although the automatic speech recognition works well, it’s not perfect. A review by a human marketer is necessary to ensure the accuracy of captions. You can easily edit the auto-generated captions using the following steps:

• Go to Ads Manager

• Click + Create

• Choose an objective and select Continue

• Go through your targeting, placements, and budget, and click Continue

• Formats > Single Video

• Upload Video or Browse Library 

• Video Captions > Generate Automatically

• Use Review Your Captions. Hover over the caption and edit/delete as needed 

• Click Save to Video 

Follow Facebook video ad specs

Facebook has image and design specs for different types of ads in the feed. They’re there to help you ensure that you make your content look professional and generate a healthy return on ad spend. Use the following recommendations to create engaging video ads:

• File Type: GIF, MP4, MOV

• Ratio: 4:5 

• Resolution: A minimum of 1080 x 1080 pixels 

• Maximum File Size: 4GB

• Minimum Width and height: 120 pixels x 120 pixels

• Duration: 1 second -  241 minutes

• Text: 125 characters 

• Headline: 40 characters 

• Link description: 30 characters 

A short ad is preferable

Longer video ads are unlikely to hold people’s attention any longer than short ones. Short ads are better as they get to the point faster, eliminating the risk that people will lose interest and won’t take the desired action. As a general rule, try to keep your ad to 30 seconds or less. Make sure to mention your brand within the first three seconds. This recommendation is based on a Facebook finding that people are 23% more likely to remember you if your video shows your brand name or logo in the first three seconds. 

Measure your ad performance

Facebook ads are based on goals and measuring the impact of your ads is essential to channel your efforts into gaining better results. Set your goals based on the benchmarks for your industry; a great CTR for eCommerce may be unfeasible for a B2B SaaS company. Consider cost metrics like cost per click (CPC) and cost per action (CPA) based on how much you can afford to spend, the ROI you’re aiming for, and your goal profit margin. 

To measure ad performance, check what people do once they're on your website, how they move through the funnel before converting, and where they fall off. A detailed ad performance measurement system will allow you to plan, design, and execute your Facebook video ads successfully on a consistent basis.