Carousel format: Creative best practices for Autos The carousel format provides your ads with more creative real estate to achieve your business objective across Facebook, Instagram and the Audience Network. With the carousel format, you can showcase up to 5 clickable images, as well as video on Facebook, within a single ad unit to showcase your brand, products and services. Carousel format for Autos Auto advertisers are using the carousel format across objectives and are already seeing success. While one of the most common use cases for the carousel format is to retarget website and mobile app visitors, auto advertisers can also use the carousel format in creative ways to showcase different car features and different models of cars. We ve compiled a list of creative best practices for the carousel format to help you achieve your objectives.
Carousel format creative best practices Tell a story: The carousel format provides you with more creative real estate to tell your story and create deeper emotive bonds with your target audience. Showcasing a variety of products is one way of leveraging the carousel format, yet the possibilities are much greater. What if you told a story sequentially throughout the different images of the unit? What if you linked these images together into one larger panorama that gave a view into a wider story? What if you zoomed in to specific product features from the first image to the last? What if you rotated views of the product across the carousel format? What if the first image hid something, whilst the next revealed it? There are many dimensions to the unit that have yet to be explored and played with. Utilize thumb-stopping creative: The first piece of any creative that an audience engages with is the main image or video. To ensure your ad captures attention in News Feed, ensure your creative has a strong focal point, is well art-directed, leverages depth of space, is thoughtfully composed, and most importantly, evokes an emotive response from our audience that gets them to remember you and act. Imply continuation: Once you ve captured your audience s attention, you want them to swipe through the carousel format to see the rest of your creative. You can compel your audiences to swipe by creating a need-tocomplete approach in your creative. For example, your first piece of creative can tease your second, or your first piece of creative can imply that the rest of the creative will continue the story.
Develop creative consistency: Ensure that all of your creative within the carousel format has a similar visual style, across lighting, colors and composition, and in its communication of your brand. A visual thread is key, as if the creative feels disjointed, it detracts from the story you want to tell. Don t forget the copy: Whilst the image portion of the creative is usually what captures your audience s attention, it can be easy to forget the copy. It is important to remember that the copy is just as much a part of the creative as the image or video, and can be additive to the stories you re trying to tell. For instance, copy can be used to imply continuation that gets people to click on the ad or swipe to the final creative, through either the language it uses, or the way in which the sentences are composed.
Demonstrate brand identity: To be remembered, ensure your creative incorporates your brand. For more established brands, this can come across subtly in the visual execution of the ad, but for those who need to be more front and center, you may want to be more explicit. The final frame is often the destination of choice to showcase your brand, but does it need to be the last thing people see? Consider incorporating your brand earlier in the carousel format or across all of your creative. Get people to act: For campaigns with a direct response objective, ensure your call-to-action is prominent and additive to the story being told. Keep it short and allow it to connect with your campaign, not just the individual image or video. On Facebook, you can use different captions per creative, so make it work hard.
Creative specs for the carousel format Facebook Instagram Audience Network Objectives Web Clicks, Mobile App Installs, Mobile App Engagement, Web Conversions, Brand Awareness, Page Post Engagement, Product Catalog Sales Web Clicks, Mobile App Installs Web Clicks, Mobile App Installs, Mobile App Engagement, Web Conversions, Brand Awareness, Page Post Engagement, Product Catalog Sales Media types Photos, Video Photos Photos Aspect ratio 1:1 1:1 1:1 Creative specs File type:.jpg,.png,.mp4,.mov File type:.jpg,.png File type:.jpg,.png Video specs Resolution: at least 720p Recommended aspect ratio: square (1:1) Length: 45 minutes max File size: 1.75 GB max N/A N/A Minimum resolution 200 x 200 600 x 600 200 x 200 Cards Visible format Subsequent cards partially visible Full bleed 1 card visible at a time Subsequent cards partially visible End card Optional No Optional Card optimization Optional, but not for video No cards shown in specified order Optional, but not for video Caption Text: 90 characters Headline: 40 characters Link description: 20 characters Caption: 300 characters Text: 90 characters Headline: 40 characters Link description: 20 characters Calls-to-action No Button optional. Callsto-action not required for Facebook Carousel Ads No Button optional. Callsto-action not required for Facebook Carousel Ads