Facebook has more than 3 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social media platform. It’s also a great platform for promoting your business through paid ads — particularly video ads. 

But running video advertising campaigns on Facebook can be a bit more intimidating than other marketing campaigns. If you’re not sure where to start, follow these nine best practices for Facebook video ads. 

9 Best Practices for Facebook Video Ads

Each Facebook ad campaign is unique, but there are a few key tactics that can help you succeed regardless of your industry or target audience. Keep these Facebook video ad best practices in mind as you design your campaign. 

1. Grab Attention Quickly

Your Facebook ad has only a few seconds, at most, to grab the audience’s attention while competing with organic posts and other ads. Make those first few seconds count by including something that makes the audience want to stick around. 

That could be:

• A surprising statistic
• An interesting visual effect
• A thought-provoking question
• A joke
• An unusual image

Choose something that fits your brand's tone and the topic of your video. You don’t want to mislead the potential customers watching your ad, since that can lower their trust in your business, but don’t be afraid to experiment a little. Something unusual or funky could be just what you need to make your ad stand out. 

2. Design for Sound-Off Viewing

Many business owners don’t realize that lots of users watch social media videos with the sound off. If users can understand and engage with your Facebook video ad only by listening to the audio, you’re probably cutting out a large part of your target audience right off the bat. 

Instead of missing out on those Facebook users, design your Facebook video ads so that people can watch them with or without sound. A common way to do this is by adding captions. Or just don’t include any vital information in the audio and use background music instead. 

3. Retarget Engaged Users

Only a small portion of the users who see your Facebook advertising campaign will actually stop and engage with the content. That’s perfectly normal. But the group that is watching your ads, liking them, commenting, and clicking on them consists of the potential customers who are the most likely to actually make a purchase.

Design your campaign to retarget users who've engaged with your ads in the past. You can also retarget customers who['ve engaged with your brand in other ways, like by visiting your website or following your Facebook account. These retargeting campaigns not only lead to higher engagement rates but also generally have higher conversion rates. You’re advertising to people who have already shown interest, so your chances of securing conversions are higher. 

4. Optimize for Mobile Devices

More than 80% of Facebook users use only mobile devices to browse the platform, so it’s absolutely essential to optimize your ads for mobile devices. Otherwise, you’re accidentally missing out on the vast majority of users. 

Optimizing Facebook videos for mobile devices generally involves:

• Creating vertical videos with the right aspect ratio (often 9:16) 
• Reducing the file size so the video loads quickly
• Choosing a file format that’s compatible with most mobile devices, like MP4
• Filming high-resolution videos

Before launching your campaign, test to make sure your video looks good on different mobile devices. That’s one of the general best practices for posting videos on Facebook, and it applies to video ads, too. 

5. Incorporate a Clear Call to Action

Ideally, Facebook users will view your ad and want to learn more or interact with your brand further. But what exactly should they do next? That’s what your call to action (CTA) is for. 

The CTA is how you tell interested viewers exactly what to do next. Keep your CTA short and sweet, and make sure it's prominent. It can be a button, hyperlinked text, or a clickable image. 

Common examples include:

• Sign up here
• Learn more
• Get your free download
• Join the list
• Subscribe

Use strong action verbs to make the CTA as compelling as possible. You can even test different versions to compare the click-through rates and see which gets the best response from your target audience.

6. Test Different Creative Styles and Lengths

When you’re just getting started, you may not know which video styles and lengths will work best for your brand, so experiment. Make a variety of videos to determine what feels right. 

If you already have organic brand pages on Facebook or other social media platforms, look at what kinds of content perform best on those pages. There’s a good chance that those styles will also connect with your Facebook ad campaign's audience. 

7. Use Influencer Content

Influencers are some of the most recognizable figures on the internet, and you can leverage their popularity in your Facebook video ads. Consider partnering with influencers to create ads that promote your products or services. 

Users may recognize the influencer and stop to see what they’re talking about, giving you an in to get them interested in your brand. Plus, influencers have experience creating social media content that performs well, which may be helpful. 

8. Leverage Current Trends

Social media trends change all the time, so there are always new opportunities to hop on ones that fit with your brand. Don’t dismiss all trends as silly and not worth participating in. Since they’re currently popular, trends often have large audiences that you can tap into by taking part. 

You may be able to expand your reach, have some fun with your customers, and make your ads more impactful. Check which short videos on social media are trending to see what they have in common and consider putting your own spin on the ideas. 

9. Include Captions

Adding captions is a great way to make your video ads more accessible to people with hearing loss. Even Facebook users who don’t have any hearing loss often appreciate captions, since they eliminate the need to turn up the volume. Remember to caption any relevant sound effects or music as well as the dialogue from the video. 

What You Shouldn't Be Doing With Facebook Video Ads

You want to get the best return on your investment with your Facebook video ads, so avoid these common mistakes:

• Making the videos too long (try to stick to two minutes or less)
• Neglecting the visual hook
• Covering topics that are irrelevant to your target audience
• Relying on audio to convey your main message
• Trying to reach too broad of an audience
• Leaving out a compelling CTA

We Can Help You Create Successful Facebook Video Ads

Building a successful Facebook video ad campaign can bring huge rewards, but it takes a lot of work. You may not have time to become an expert social media manager on top of running your business. Consider our social media management services. 

Optimize Digital Marketing will develop a tailored social media strategy for your brand to help drive engagement, brand loyalty, and conversions. You’ll get a bespoke content plan and consistent, engaging posts for your social media pages. Optimize can also help you leverage that content in your Facebook ads to grow your reach. 

Contact Optimize today to start creating Facebook ads that drive real results for your business.