5 Facebook Advertising Trends You Should Be Following

Facebook has turned out to become a messiah in the world of advertising. With its fast-growing advertising and business platform and a range of solutions for small, medium, and large size businesses, it is creating waves in the world of digital – and even conventional – advertising.

There’s only one other platform whose efficiency and creativity in providing advertising solutions rivals Facebook – and unsurprisingly, that’s Google. But let’s forget that search giant for now.

Facebook’s advertising updates have recently made advertising even more easier for brands across the world. From their connect WhatsApp to Facebook feature to detailed targeting functions, they have made it very convenient for agencies and companies to create fast solutions for their clients and customers, including social media marketing services and paid marketing features with placements across the Internet.

And more so than that, Facebook is changing the way people view ads and content. From multiple ad options like canvases (or as they like to call it now: dynamic ads), carousels, in-stream videos (unskippable – great way to get your message across), and even audience network placements, they’ve made it impossible for audiences to miss the brands they’re connected with. But while Facebook’s platform is growing exponentially day by day, the fact remains that advertisers need to pick and choose trends that can specifically be productive for their businesses. And what are those trends for the year? Let’s find out!

#1. Custom Conversion Ads

Conversion ads were introduced by Facebook in the latter part of 2018, and since then, they’ve updated them to create more options for advertisers to achieve their goals via custom conversions.

Custom conversions enable business owners and advertisers to optimize their ads for the action they want their audience to take without adding pixel codes on their website. Now this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a pixel code installed on your site, but custom conversions make it easier for you to track actions taken on your website without having to add pixel codes on each form or page.

While custom conversions have existed for a long time, the reason why we’re mentioning them in this article is because with higher competition and more brands entering the digital market space, it is important that you track each step your customer takes on your website or digital assets so that you can make sure you’re targeting them for the offer, product or service best suited for them.

#2. Voice Search

Voice search is the new trend in search marketing and social media. With virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa gaining momentum in multiple Android and iOs products, it is inevitable that brands use them to create convenient opportunities for their customers to create competitive edge.

Similarly, Facebook has been working on a voice assistant feature of its own named Aloha. It’s been in works since 2018 and has been a point of discussion and dissection among many marketers. Why should you be concerned? Because if Facebook does decide to launch its voice assistant, it’ll take no time in taking over organic communication on the social media app. Not only that, a spokesperson from Active Web Group says that Aloha will be a more social version of Siri and Alexa, which means it’ll be able to pick up common ways of communication individually across Facebook – which is huge, and can easily be used to create better, more personalized and easily trackable engagement with audiences for your brand.

#3. Video Stories

Videos have already made their mark as one of the most important creative mediums on digital. Not only are they better suited to convey stories and messages, but bumper ads on YouTube and in-stream video ads on Facebook have made them even more concise, creating a whole new world of creative ideas where brands try to sell their ideas in the shortest time, with the best crafted messages.

In 2019, more than ever, video stories are taking up the digital landscape by the storm. Especially if you consider how Facebook has now introduced Facebook story ads worldwide. Yes, static images can easily run as story ads but can they grab attention as rapidly as a colorful video? We’ll have to think about that.

#4. VR, 3D, and 360 Videos

VR is yet another trend taking over the internet by storm. And with the introduction of 3D images, we see Facebook using this trend to their advantage. 3D images not only add depth and layers in the photographs you upload, but also make them way more interesting than those boring static images.

Aside from 3D, 360 videos are making a resurrection as few notable brands have started using them again for promotions. Both these trends show that while videos are great, brands are taking them up a notch by introducing new ways of making them even more engaging and creative.

#5. Retargeting and Audience Network Ads

Audience Network ads have become pretty common across Facebook. But they deserve a notable mention because of the new stats which have emerged for brands using Facebook’s ad platforms. This strong placement competitor for Google Ads and AdRoll are exceptionally effective, and as per Facebook, over 1 billion people see Audience Network ads each month, and the viewability rate for Audience Network videos is 92%. Now that is a huge number, especially if you know what the viewability rate is of Facebook video ads.

So now that we’ve established that Audience Network ads are a great way to reach your audience outside of Facebook, an even better way to create recall for your brand is to retarget them. Yes, Google Ads and AdRoll are platforms which do that already – but why not take it up a notch and get Facebook to do the same? After all, as digital marketers, the more times your audience clicks on your ad, the better results you’re bound to bring for your clients.

Bonus Trend:

Facebook’s creative tools for designers:

Now that we’re done talking about the technical stuff, let’s help out our designer friends as well. With Facebook’s popularity hitting sky high, there are brands who have realized that not only advertisers need effective platforms to market their products, but also apps that can help them create ads that can be optimized to the best on mobile and desktops.

A few of those apps include the Adobe Spark Post tool, Legend, Ripl, Unfold, Mojo and even more. You can take a look at the complete list here.

These tools aren’t just a handy way to create ads on the go, but also make your life easier when you are out of ideas and are looking for inspiration for your ads.

Wrapping Up…

Facebook has become an advertising giant, and there’s no ignoring the new and revolutionary updates it has been introducing to aid advertisers in reaching their customers. From creating ease of communication by working on voice search and adding WhatsApp button on ads and pages, to creating AI based solutions to engage with your audience and providing 360-solutions to marketers and designers, it is leaving no stone unturned in making sure that if you are an advertiser, you don’t miss out on Facebook’s platform while trying to create actionable results for your brand.

Author Bio

Kamil Riaz Kara is a Blogger and Digital Marketing Professional. He frequently blogs on business, marketing and SEO and is associated with digital marketing agency named Digital Eggheads.

Read more posts on Marketing Eggspert about Facebook Advertising here.