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Client Objective
To highlight the durability and performance of its latest product line to Australian consumers, a global electronics brand partnered with Strike Social to expand its reach across Meta platforms.
Strike Social effectively reduced ad costs while enhancing reach and engagement through precise campaign management and strategic execution. By fine-tuning targeting strategies, the team ensured smarter ad spend allocation, reinforcing its expertise in optimizing Facebook video campaigns for maximum performance.

Campaign Outcome
Strike Social effectively reduced ad costs while enhancing reach and engagement through precise campaign management and strategic execution. By fine-tuning targeting strategies, the team ensured smarter ad spend allocation, reinforcing its expertise in optimizing Facebook video ads for maximum performance.
62%
Overall profit margin from the campaign
47%
Cost-per-mille (CPM) efficiency achieved
71%
Impressions from Facebook Feed placements

Maximizing Impact with Meta Video Ads
Using historical insights, Strike Social refined audience targeting by focusing on Parenting and Shopping audiences, which drove stronger engagement. The team’s precise budget distribution ensured:
- 71% of impressions came from Facebook Feed due to its high engagement potential.
- Instream Video placements achieved a 28.35% engagement rate, proving highly effective in audience interaction.
- Stories and Video Feed ads contributed 12% and 15% of impressions, rounding out a multi-placement approach.
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Client Objective
A premium CPG brand sought to maximize brand awareness and engagement for its Valentine’s chocolate collection.
To achieve this, Strike Social implemented a multi-format Facebook ad strategy, using both video and carousel ads to capture user attention, enhance interaction, and optimize cost efficiency during a key seasonal period.

Campaign Outcome
By strategically optimizing video and carousel ads for the right audiences, the campaign achieved higher engagement rates. With Strike Social’s expertise, the brand’s Valentine’s campaign effectively captured audience attention and delivered strong results throughout the season.
43%
Overall savings vs. campaign budget
4.5%
Post engagement rate achieved
25%
Ad clicks driven by Reels placements

Drive Seasonal Brand Awareness with Facebook Ads
- Optimized Multi-Format Approach: Carousel ads on Meta Feeds delivered over 53% of total views, proving their effectiveness despite accounting for only 42% of the budget.
- Leveraging Short-Form Video on Reels: 15-second video ads successfully captured attention on Reels, generating 25% of total ad clicks with only 18% of the ad spend.
- Balancing Reach and Frequency for Stronger Exposure: Maintaining an ad frequency of 1.03 ensured broad reach without audience fatigue, contributing to a 96.7% unique audience reach.
See other Facebook ad case studies.
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Strike Overview
- A social media giant—brands, and businesses starting in Meta are in dire need of a Facebook ads guide because advertising on Facebook is no longer as easy as it would seem.
- By 2025, U.S. social media ad spending is projected to reach US$82 billion, with Facebook leading the pack with more than 80% share, followed by LinkedIn and Pinterest. As more ad spend is being poured onto Facebook advertising, more brands are joining in on the auction.
- Success in Facebook advertising isn’t as simple as just clicking “submit” and letting Meta Ads Manager do the rest. There are key steps to take before launching your campaigns, as well as ongoing management to ensure continued success. Read our comprehensive Facebook Ads guide to set yourself up for big wins on Meta in 2025.
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Facebook Ads Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide for Businesses
By 2025, Facebook’s advertising reach in the U.S. is projected to surpass 250 million users, climbing to over 260 million by 2028. Far from being just a social networking site for sharing updates and connecting with loved ones, Facebook has become a vital platform for businesses, with 52.8% of its users actively following or researching brands and products on the platform.
Whether you’re a business just starting with Facebook ads or looking for a clear refresher to sharpen your strategy, this guide by Strike Social will walk you through everything you need to know to create, launch, and manage effective campaigns.
What Are Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads are a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their target audience directly on Facebook and across the Meta ecosystem. These ads allow advertisers to connect with users through various platforms, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, all under the Meta advertising network.
Ad Specs, Formats, and Safe Zones for Facebook Ads
Because there are plenty of ways to get audience reach and engagement through Facebook ads, we’ll give a quick rundown of the different advertising formats available:
- Single image ads: Eye-catching static visuals designed to highlight promotions, brand offers, or deals in a simple and impactful way.
- Video ads: Dynamic content that captures attention through high-quality videos, suitable for feed, Stories, or Reels placements.
- Carousel ads: A swipeable series of images or videos displayed as individual ‘carousel’ cards. Each card within a Facebook carousel ad is linked to a specific product or service page.
- Collection ads: Interactive ads powered by Meta’s Instant Experience, allowing users to explore multiple products directly within the ad.
Facebook Ad Creative Guidelines
To ensure your ad creatives display perfectly across placements, it’s essential to follow Facebook’s ad size requirements. Ad formats are available in 1:1 (square), 9:16 (vertical), and 16:9 (horizontal) ratios, each designed to optimize visibility and engagement.
Pay attention to the Facebook ad specifications so your ads fit seamlessly on your audience’s devices without being obscured by UI elements.


Another key consideration when designing your Facebook ad is the “safe zone.” Keeping essential elements like calls-to-action (CTAs) and key messages within this area ensures they remain fully visible to your audience.


Further Reading



Facebook Reels Safe Zone Guide
With short-form video content basically taking over social media advertising, you must always make sure your critical messaging is within the safe zone. See the Meta Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok safe zone guide to help you post your ads without worrying about your profile picture, ad copy, or even the like and share buttons covering it up.
Additionally, text limitations for Facebook ads vary depending on the format and placement. Make sure your ad copy aligns with these requirements:


Available Campaign Objectives for Facebook Advertising
Facebook ads offer advertisers flexibility, allowing businesses to target audiences at every stage of the customer journey—from awareness to conversions. This makes them a powerful tool, especially during peak advertising seasons like Mother’s Day, the 4th of July, or Q4 holidays.
For example, Q4 holiday ad trends suggest launching awareness campaigns as early as September, followed by post-engagement campaigns through October to December, to maximize results during the busiest shopping season.
To make the most of your Facebook ad strategy, here are the key campaign objectives available:
Awareness: Introduce your brand to new audiences and expand visibility with:
- Reach
- Brand awareness
- Video views
- Store location awareness
Traffic: Drive users to your desired destination, such as your landing page, website, or app:
- Link clicks
- Landing page views
- Profile or page visits
Engagement: Encourage interaction with your Facebook ads and spark conversations through:
- Post engagement
- Video views
- Contact you via Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram
Leads: Gather potential customers or prospects for newsletters, sales funnels, or direct outreach.
- Instant forms
- Contact you via Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram
- Calls
App promotion: Promote your iOS or Android app to increase installs or engagement with updates:
- App installs
- App events
Sales: Target highly refined audience segments likely to convert or purchase with:
- Conversions
- Catalog sales (through Instant Experience format)
- Calls
Advantage+ Features from Meta Ads Manager
Meta’s Advantage+ suite was introduced as part of Facebook’s effort to leverage AI technology and enhance the advertiser experience. Initially launched for Shopping campaigns to improve the discovery of e-commerce ads and boost sales, it has since expanded to offer more solutions for Facebook advertisers:
Advantage+ Audience: This feature extends your audience targeting beyond the parameters you initially set, using Meta’s AI to discover and engage with new, highly relevant users.
Advantage+ Placements: For targeted campaigns, manual placements allow precise control over where your ads appear. As for broader reach, Meta Advantage+ Placements automatically optimizes your ads to appear in the most engaging placements across the Facebook app and the Meta Audience Network.
When you run Facebook ads, your Facebook video ads and image ads can appear selectively or across all of the following placements, depending on which placements work best:
- Facebook Feed
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Video Feeds
- Facebook Right Column (desktop)
- Business Explore
- Messenger Inbox
- Facebook Stories
- Facebook Reels
- Messenger Stories
- Facebook In-Stream Videos
- Overlay Ads on Reels
- Facebook Search Results
- Meta Audience Network (native, banner, and interstitial)
- Meta Audience Network Rewarded Videos
Advantage+ Creative: At the ad level, Advantage+ offers tools to enhance creative assets, ensuring they resonate with audiences. These include:
- Image templates
- Image brightness and contrast
- Music
- 3D animation
- Image expansion
- Image animation
Advantage+ App Campaigns: Designed for app install campaigns, this feature streamlines ad delivery by minimizing inputs for Facebook targeting, campaign creation, and management.
Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: The pioneering feature of the Advantage+ suite, this tool is tailored for Facebook Shops and e-commerce businesses. Advertisers have reported a 17% decrease in CPA (cost per action) and a 32% increase in ROAS (return on ad spend), proving its effectiveness as an AI solution for advertisers.
Preparing for Your Facebook Ad Campaign
Now that you’re familiar with the fundamentals of Facebook advertising, it’s time to focus on the essential preparations for a successful campaign. While the Meta Business Suite and Facebook’s AI tools simplify the process, understanding the finer details is key to maximizing ad performance.
Proper preparation ensures that your campaigns are effective and aligned with your business goals. Let’s examine the key steps before launching your Facebook advertising campaigns.
Audience Insights and Targeting
As of early 2024, Facebook has over 190 million users in the U.S., and this number is expected to grow by 9% year-over-year through 2025. But with such a large audience, it’s crucial not to target everyone.
Wasted Facebook ad budget is a real risk if you don’t properly define and target your audience. Know the tools within Facebook Ads Manager to help you identify and target the right people.
Know your current audience with Audience Insights
Rather than relying on guesswork, start by using Facebook Audience Insights to gather data on your current audience. Here are the three key sections to explore on the Audience Insights page:
- Demographics: This section reveals key details such as age, gender, and location of your current audience. For example, if your content resonates with users primarily in Chicago, and you’re a local retail brand, you’ll want to focus on targeting Chicago and surrounding areas for better ad relevance.


- Trends: This tab helps identify organic engagement patterns. You can see when engagement spikes, such as during a specific promotional period, such as the Super Bowl. If you notice a seasonal uptick in Q1, for example, you might adjust your strategy by ramping up your budget from Q2 to Q4 for more impactful campaigns.
- Potential audience: This section shows broader audience segments who have not yet engaged with your brand but could be a good fit for your ads. If you’re currently reaching the 35-44 age group but want to expand to younger audiences like 18-24-year-olds, the potential audience data will help you determine whether this demographic is worth targeting. While not an exact prediction of success, it provides valuable insights to help guide your targeting decisions.
Reach previously engaged audiences with Retargeting tools
One of the strengths of social media advertising is the ability to retarget audiences who have already interacted with your brand. With the Facebook retargeting feature, you can reach these users based on specific actions they’ve taken across various platforms:
- Visitors to your website or specific landing pages
- Users who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase
- Engagement with your Facebook page content
- Existing customer database (uploaded as a file)
- Lookalike audiences: New users who share similar characteristics to your existing customer base
Facebook Cost and Bidding Optimization
Facebook advertising costs can escalate quickly if not carefully managed. While Advantage+ provides a convenient, automated solution, relying exclusively on Meta’s technology for auction bids may not always yield the most effective outcomes.
Here’s how to better optimize your bidding strategy:
Campaign budget optimization (CBO) vs. manual bid adjustments
With Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO), Meta’s AI automatically allocates your campaign budget across different ad sets based on real-time performance.


Rather than using a fixed bid auction, the CBO system adjusts the budget to favor the best-performing ad sets, ensuring that even lower-performing ones still get a chance to improve and potentially drive conversions. This helps your Facebook campaign achieve more leads or conversions in line with the campaign objective.
However, one potential downside of CBO is that it places full reliance on Meta’s AI. AdTech software integrated with Meta’s API can offer more precision for greater control over bid adjustments and to avoid overspending. Campaign Lab, Strike Social’s proprietary tool, is designed to monitor bid optimization 24/7, ensuring that your campaigns achieve the best possible cost-efficiency.
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How to calculate the cost of Facebook ads?
Facebook ads cost can vary based on your campaign goals, and understanding how to measure these costs is essential for optimizing efficiency. Here are some of the core Facebook cost metrics and how to compute them:
Campaign objective | Core Facebook cost metric | Explained | Formula |
---|---|---|---|
Awareness – Reach | CPM (Cost-Per-Mille) | Measures the cost for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives. | CPM = (Facebook Ad Spend / Impressions) x 1000 |
Engagement – Video Views | CPV (Cost-Per-View) | The cost incurred for each view of your video ad. | CPV = (Ad Spend / Views) |
Traffic – Link Clicks | CPLC (Cost-Per-Link Click) | Indicates the cost for each click on your ad’s link. | CPLC = (Total Facebook Spend / Link Clicks) |
Leads – Instant forms | CPL (Cost-Per-Lead) | The cost associated with acquiring a lead through a form submission. | CPL = (Leads campaign spend / Leads collected) |
Sales – Conversions | Purchase ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) | Evaluates the revenue generated for every dollar spent on ads. | ROAS = (Revenue generated / Amount spent on sales campaign) |
Further Reading



Inaccurate Facebook ROAS? Here’s What You Should Look For
To fix discrepancies in your Facebook ad ROAS, start by uncovering the underlying issue. Understanding the cause will help you apply the right solutions and regain dependable ROAS tracking.
Cost and Performance Benchmarks for Facebook Ads
It’s important that before you fully curate your media plan for your 2025 Facebook campaign, you have a set of benchmarks against which to measure your performance. Understanding industry standards and comparing them to what your ad agency can deliver ensures you maximize your ad spend efficiently.
We analyzed our US campaigns using Strike Social’s in-house proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, to give you the latest cost and performance benchmarks for Facebook ads. See the varying trends based on each campaign objective from our Facebook campaigns:
Campaign goals | Cost benchmarks (range) | Performance benchmarks (range) |
---|---|---|
Impressions | CPM: $2.78 – $9.60 | Engagement rate: 2.90% to 14.40% |
Video views | CPV: $.0045- $.01536 | View rate: 44.81% to 88.92% |
Clicks | CPC: $0.14 – $0.72 | Click-through rate: 1.07% to 3.29% |
Link clicks | CPLC: $0.28 and $1.03 | Link click rate: 0.75% to 1.85% |
Event response/participation | CPER: $0.35 to $1.53 | Event response rate: 0.64% to 0.83% |
While these benchmarks represent typical Facebook performance year-round, be mindful of seasonal spikes—particularly during Q4 holidays or U.S. election years, when political ad spending can drive up auction prices. To avoid these price surges, we recommend launching awareness campaigns earlier, especially during peak advertising periods.
Download the Strike Social Facebook Benchmark Report
Gain valuable takeaways from last year’s Facebook advertising trends, highlighting the key takeaways that shaped industry benchmarks. Download the Strike Social data and trends report to enhance your Facebook ad campaigns, helping you achieve your desired results.


Maintaining Brand Safety in Facebook Ad Campaigns
One of the biggest risks in Facebook advertising is having your brand associated with harmful or explicit content. This can damage your brand’s reputation and undermine the effectiveness of your ads.
In addition to optimizing ad performance and costs, advertisers must ensure their ads aren’t displayed alongside inappropriate or exploitative content. This is where brand safety on Facebook plays a vital role.
Brand safety and suitability controls
Inventory filter: Facebook’s inventory filter is the first layer of brand safety. Similar to YouTube’s inventory types, it offers three options: Expanded, Moderate, and Limited inventory.
The recommended and default setting is Moderate inventory, which ensures ads only appear in safe content. Expanded inventory, while still filtered to comply with Facebook’s Content Monetization Policies, allows for a broader reach.
Publisher block lists: You can create a block list to exclude specific Facebook and Instagram pages, profiles, and apps from showing your ads. These lists can be uploaded as .csv or .txt files, with a maximum of 10,000 publishers per upload. However, do not overly narrow your list, as excluding too many publishers could limit your ad reach.
Content type exclusions: You can exclude your ads from appearing on non-partnered pages or profiles that have not signed up for Facebook’s monetization program. Your ads will only be shown on content produced by registered, vetted Facebook partners, subject to more stringent oversight. Content type exclusions can apply to live videos, in-stream ads, and Facebook Reels ads.
In addition to these advertiser controls, Facebook also enforces brand safety through its Community Standards and Guidelines, Content Review Teams, and quarterly Community Standards Enforcement reports, another measure the platform takes to maintain a safe advertising environment.
Facebook Campaign Guide from Setup to Publish
All set with the Facebook ads preparation! Here are the steps from start to finish to successfully launch and publish your Facebook campaign:
1. Register your Facebook page as a business account. Then, set up your Business Manager account and Ad Account to proceed.
2. Visit Facebook Ads Manager and login to your account.


3. Click the +Create button to start a new campaign.
4. Choose the appropriate campaign objective that aligns with your goals (e.g., Awareness, Traffic, Conversions), then click Continue.
5. Under the Campaign level setup, configure the following:
- Campaign Name: Use an organized naming convention for easy identification (e.g., [Campaign Duration – Objective – Product], such as “Jan-Dec 2025 – Impressions – Sleepwear”).
- Special Ad Categories (Optional; As applicable)
- Advantage+ Campaign Budget: Toggle this for automated budget management or leave it off for more manual control.
- A/B Test (Optional; As applicable)
6. On the Ad Set level, you can create multiple ad sets under one campaign. Here are the details you need to set up:
- Ad Set Name: Make it easy to identify (e.g., “2-Piece Pajama Sets – Images” if your ad set uses image creatives).
- Performance Goal: Set your desired campaign objective (e.g., clicks, impressions, conversions).
- Facebook Page and/or Instagram Account: Choose the page or profile that will display your ads.
- Cost Per Result: Set your auction bid if you have a target CPM or cost benchmark.
- Frequency Cap (for Awareness campaigns): Control how often your ad is shown to each unique user.


- Dynamic Creative (Optional; As applicable)
- Budget & Schedule:
- Budget: Select either a daily or lifetime budget for your campaign.
- Schedule: Set a campaign start and end date.
- Budget Scheduling: If applicable, adjust budget settings for specific times or dates to boost performance.
- Audience Controls:
- Locations
- Age
- Audience list exclusions
- Advantage+ Audience: Use Meta’s AI to add audience segments based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Click on Save audience to reuse the same audience segment for other campaigns.
- Placements:
- Advantage+ Placements: Let Meta decide where to show your ads across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
- Manual Placements: If you prefer control, select specific placements like Facebook feed or Messenger.
7. Lastly, under the Ad level, you can now set up the ad creatives. Here are the items to set up:
- Ad Name
- Partnership Ad: Toggle this on if you are partnering with influencers or content creators to use a branded content ad.
- Identity: Verify the Facebook page under which your ad will appear.
- Create Ad: Choose your ad creative. Upload existing content or create a new one, ensuring it meets the recommended Facebook ad sizes.
- Languages (Optional; As applicable)
- Tracking: For ads with landing page redirects, implement UTM tracking via Facebook Events Manager.
8. On the right side of the screen, view a preview of your ad to check that it appears correctly across your selected placements on Facebook and Instagram.


9. Once everything looks good, click Publish to launch your campaign.
The ad review process typically takes up to 24 hours but can be faster. Review common reasons for ad rejection to avoid delays and make sure your campaign goes live without issues.
How a Facebook Ads Agency Can Help Manage and Optimize Your Campaigns
Trust us, setting up and launching the campaign is the easy part. What can be excruciating and require tireless work is monitoring and optimizing your Facebook campaigns as they run.
Ad spending can inflate, performance can slow down, and audience targeting may need to be refined. These tasks require watchful eyes 24/7, and a Facebook ad agency is just what you might need.
Working with a Meta Certified Company
Strike Social is a Meta Certified Company, a prestigious recognition highlighting our expertise as an AdTech Software with a Service (SWaS) business partner. This certification reflects Meta’s trust in our ability to manage and optimize Facebook ad campaigns effectively. With over a decade of experience, we offer in-depth knowledge of Facebook advertising’s nuances, ensuring we can tackle any challenge that arises.
Our Meta-certified media buyers and planners are trained to execute campaigns with precision, leveraging their expertise to deliver outstanding results for our clients.


Integration with Meta API via Campaign Lab
Campaign Lab is a powerful tool that supports our team’s optimization efforts. Powered by AI, it provides real-time performance insights and optimization alerts, but the expertise of our media buying team remains essential to make the best use of this data.
With Campaign Lab’s alerts, we quickly identify areas for improvement, whether it’s adjusting bids or refining performance. Thanks to 24/7 optimization by the Strike Social team, we can immediately implement these changes so your campaigns achieve the best results at the most cost-effective rates.
Success in Facebook Ad Campaigns
To demonstrate how a Facebook ads agency can drive effective campaign management and optimization, nothing illustrates this better than tangible results. Here’s how our team applied tailored strategies to lower costs and boost engagement:
34%
Lower CPLC with targeted Facebook and Meta ad placements
28x
ROAS with thorough Facebook pixel monitoring and conversion tracking
300K+
Sign-ups through timely and strategic Facebook ad creative swaps
Your 2025 Facebook Ads Strategies in One Place
Looking for all the essential insights for your 2025 Facebook ad campaign in one place? Strike Social’s blog covers everything from Facebook ads to strategies for other social media platforms. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends, data, and guides on Facebook advertising by subscribing to our newsletter.
Ready to start your 2025 Facebook campaign? Download our Facebook Ad Sizes Guide here to get a head start.
Did you know that Facebook ads with a higher relevance score can lower your cost per result and improve the click-through rate? To create impactful ads, it’s crucial that they attract interest, resonate with your target audience, and drive engagement. Facebook’s Ad Relevance Score plays a key role in determining the success of your campaigns.
Introduced by Facebook to help advertisers optimize their campaigns, this score influences not only how often your ads are shown but also how much you pay for each impression or click. Ads with higher relevance are rewarded with better visibility and lower costs, leading to a more effective and efficient campaign.
Comprehending the significance of the relevance score and discovering effective ways to enhance it can lead to improved performance, reduced advertising expenses, and ultimately, a greater return on investment.
What is Facebook Ad Relevance Score?
Previously, Facebook’s relevance score was a single score between 1 and 10 that provided a general sense of how relevant your ad was to the audience you targeted. Later, Facebook upgraded this metric by dividing it into three key components: Quality Ranking, Engagement Rate Ranking, and Conversion Rate Ranking. Each of these sub-scores offers a detailed understanding of your ad’s performance and aids in identifying areas for enhancement.
- Quality Ranking: This measures how the quality of your ad is viewed in relation to competing ads aimed at the same audience.
- Engagement Rate Ranking: This evaluates the anticipated level of engagement your ad will receive compared to others.
- Conversion Rate Ranking: This assesses how likely your ad is to achieve conversions compared to other ads with similar goals.
While each ranking plays a distinct role, they all work together to show how effectively your ad meets the expectations and desires of your target audience.
Whether you want more engagement, clicks, or conversions, boosting your relevance score is key to getting better results.


Why is Facebook Ad Relevance Score Important?
A high Facebook relevance score can significantly benefit your advertising efforts in multiple ways:
- Lower Costs: Facebook rewards ads with a higher relevance score by lowering your cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM). This means that ads performing well will be cheaper to run.
- Better Reach: Ads with higher relevance scores tend to be shown more frequently to your target audience because Facebook prefers to show content that users are likely to engage with.
- Increased Engagement: An ad that resonates with your audience will naturally generate more clicks, shares, and conversions. The relevance score helps ensure that you’re delivering ads that matter to your audience.
- Optimized Campaign Performance: With a better understanding of your ad’s performance based on the relevance score metrics, you can adjust and improve future campaigns, leading to more effective results over time.
How to Improve Your Facebook Ad Relevance Score
Enhancing your Facebook Ad relevance score can lead to improved ad performance, a wider audience reach, and lower expenses. Here are some effective strategies you can implement to elevate your score:
Improve Quality Ranking
This is important for improving how your audience sees the quality of your ad compared to other ads aimed at the same people.
Use High-Quality Visuals
Whether it’s an image or video creative, the visual component of your ad is what catches the audience’s attention first. Using clear, sharp, and visually appealing images is essential to stand out in a crowded feed. For instance, if you’re a shoe retail brand, your ad creative could feature a marathon runner showcasing the durability and comfort of your shoes, emphasizing their performance during a high-intensity race.




Your visuals should be relevant to your message and reflect the essence of your brand. Consistent branding through colors, fonts, and imagery can also reinforce your brand identity and make your ads more recognizable. Since Facebook is a highly visual platform, investing in professional or well-designed visuals can significantly improve your quality ranking.
Write Compelling and Relevant Copy
The wording you choose must be brief, straightforward, and specifically cater to the wants and needs of your target audience. Avoid overly complicated language or long-winded explanations; instead, focus on crafting a message that speaks to your audience’s interests and offers a solution to their problems. For example, if your shoe retail brand has recently launched a new line of sneakers, you could create something like: “Step into comfort with our best-selling sneakers – designed for all-day wear, stylish and built to last. Perfect for those who value both fashion and function.”
Strong, compelling headlines can grab attention, while a clear value proposition in the body of your ad can make people more likely to engage with it. Simplifying your message increases the likelihood that your ad will be seen as high-quality.
A/B Test Different Versions of Your Ads
By developing several variations of your ad and experimenting with different components—like headlines, visuals, or calls to action—you can determine which version connects most effectively with your audience. The A/B testing process allows you to fine-tune your ads for better performance.
For example, one version of your ad might attract more engagement, while another might lead to more clicks. Analyzing this data helps you determine which elements contribute to a higher-quality ad, enabling you to continually optimize for better results.


Maintain Ad Consistency with the Landing Page
You must ensure that your ad delivers a consistent experience. This means that the messaging and design of your ad should align with the landing page it directs users to. If your ad promotes a specific offer or product, your landing page should reflect the same offer or product without any surprises.
A smooth transition from ad to landing page helps maintain user trust, reducing bounce rates and improving overall engagement. Additionally, a fast-loading landing page is crucial, as slow speeds can frustrate users and negatively impact your quality ranking.
Enhance Engagement Rate Ranking
An increased engagement rate shows that users are interacting with your ad through likes, shares, or comments, which not only enhances your score but also improves the ad’s visibility.
Target the Right Audience
A highly effective method for enhancing engagement is to make sure your ad is seen by the right audience. You can make use of Facebook’s targeting features to refine your audience by considering factors such as age, interests, behaviors, and geographic location.
The greater the relevance of your ad to its audience, the higher the chances of engagement. For instance, if you’re advertising a fitness product, focusing on users who are passionate about health and wellness can significantly boost engagement rates.
Personalizing your ads based on audience segments can significantly improve conversion rates. If you have different products for men and women, create specific ads that speak directly to each audience. Personalized messaging resonates more and increases the likelihood of conversion.


This particular brand is targeting luxury, yacht interests, and the top 5% of household income because their products, such as premium boat covers or specialized accessories, are designed for high-end consumers who invest in quality and durability. By focusing on individuals with a strong interest in luxury items and high disposable income, the brand ensures they reach an audience that is more likely to appreciate and purchase their premium offerings, which align with their customers’ lifestyle and purchasing power.
Incorporate Strong Calls to Action (CTAs)
A clear and compelling call to action can significantly increase engagement. Encourage your audience to take specific actions, such as liking your post, visiting your website, or sharing their thoughts in the comments. Clear and compelling CTAs help users grasp your intended action, resulting in increased interaction rates.
Utilize Interactive Content
Incorporating interactive elements, such as polls, quizzes, or questions, can boost engagement significantly. Interactive content invites users to participate rather than passively consume information, making them more likely to engage. For example, asking your audience their opinion on a relevant topic can spark conversation and encourage comments.
Retarget Previous Visitors
Retargeting ads at those who have previously engaged with your brand can increase engagement levels. As these individuals are already familiar with your offerings, they are more likely to interact with your ads again. Create tailored ads that speak to their previous interactions or highlight new products and offers relevant to their interests.


A well-known brand like SealSkin that sells car, truck, boat, and patio covers relies on retargeting as a key strategy. By using online ads that specifically showcase the benefits and features of their covers, such as durability and protection, retargeting reminds potential customers about the product and encourages them to complete their purchase. This method helps increase conversions by reaching out to individuals who have already shown interest but need an extra nudge to make a decision.
Encourage User-Generated Content
When your audience shares their experiences with your brand, it can actually create a great positive impact. Encourage customers to post photos or reviews, and consider featuring this content in your ads. User-generated content not only increases engagement but also builds trust and authenticity around your brand.
Boost Conversion Rate Ranking
This aspect is crucial for enhancing your Facebook Ad relevance score, as it reflects how effectively your ads are driving users to take actions such as completing purchases or signing up. A higher conversion rate means your ads are reaching the right audience and encouraging them to act.
Optimize Your Landing Page
Your landing page should provide a seamless experience that aligns with your ad’s promise. Make sure that your landing page’s content, design, and messaging align with what users anticipate after clicking your ad.
A landing page that is well-optimized, with a straightforward call to action, can greatly improve conversion rates. You must also ensure the page loads swiftly and is compatible with mobile devices, as slow-loading pages can drive users away.
Offer Incentives
Providing incentives such as discounts, limited-time offers, or free trials can effectively encourage conversions. Highlighting these offers in your ads can capture attention and prompt users to take immediate action. Make sure the incentives are clearly visible in your ad and easily accessible on your landing page to maximize their impact.
Monitor and Analyze Performance
Regularly monitoring your ad performance and analyzing conversion data can help identify what’s working and what isn’t. You can use Facebook Ads Manager to analyze important metrics, including:
- Click-through rates
- Conversion rates
- User interactions on your landing page
Analyzing this data allows you to make the necessary adjustments to your ads, targeting, and landing pages to enhance overall performance.
Final Thoughts
Your ad should deliver on what it promises. If users click on an ad expecting one thing and receive something else, it can hurt engagement, lead to negative feedback, and lower your quality ranking. Clickbait headlines may grab attention but often result in poor user experience. Facebook penalizes ads that use these tactics, which can drop your score.
Facebook wants to prioritize content that delivers value to users. Ads that spark positive engagement (likes, comments, shares) are often considered higher quality. Consider engaging your audience by posing questions, conducting polls, or encouraging them to share their experiences in the comment section. However, avoid engagement baiting (e.g., “Like this post if you agree”), as it can lead to penalization.
Facebook advertising success doesn’t happen overnight, but by consistently optimizing your ads based on relevance score metrics, you’ll be well on your way to achieving sustainable, high-performance ad campaigns.


Andy Beohar is the Managing Partner at SevenAtoms, a leading PPC Advertising agency. SevenAtoms is dedicated to driving growth for SaaS and B2B businesses through innovative and optimized paid search and is recognized by Google as a Google Premier Ads partner. At SevenAtoms, Andy plays a strategic role in managing paid search campaigns.
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Strike Overview
- Facebook engagement campaigns have been more effective than static image ads throughout the year. Reels lead in engagement rates, followed closely by the carousel format.
- The combined U.S. audience for Meta’s advertising networks stands at a substantial 360 million, with 193.8 million on Facebook and 166.2 million on Instagram.
- US retail sales for November and December 2024 are projected to rise by 4.8%, reaching a total of $1.353 trillion. While running various campaigns, post engagement campaigns are set to lead the pack this year.
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Maximizing Q4 2024 Holiday Ad Results with Facebook Engagement Campaigns
The 2024 holiday season is all about reconnecting with audiences through fun, engaging content. After the intensity of U.S. election ads, Thanksgiving and Christmas campaigns focused on post engagement are a refreshing way to re-engage viewers from their Facebook feed. Shoppers are primed to engage, with Meta’s data showing that 55% of holiday buyers reported Meta technologies helped influence their purchases, and 77% of Cyber Five shoppers credit Meta ads for inspiring their purchases this season.
This peak holiday advertising season is the perfect time to move audiences down the funnel and boost conversions. Facebook engagement campaigns are a key strategy for transforming your brand’s reach and visibility into deeper interactions and conversions, making this holiday season your most effective yet.
Post Engagement Ad Formats for Your Q4 and Q5 Holiday Campaigns
Strike Social’s data reveals that Q4 post engagement campaigns achieve engagement rates between 8% and 12%, which is at the upper end of our previous benchmarks of 2.90% to 14.40%. Q4 holiday ad trends indicate an extended shopping period, creating the perfect opportunity to captivate audiences with memorable, interactive campaigns that not only drive purchases but also keep your brand top-of-mind for the holiday season.
Here are the top ad formats we recommend to maximize your Facebook post engagement campaigns this season:
Facebook Reels
Facebook Reels is Meta’s answer to YouTube Shorts and TikTok, aiming to compete directly with these popular short-form video platforms. This innovative format has already demonstrated a 35% higher click-through rate (CTR) compared to other video formats on Facebook.
U.S. users spend an average of 31 minutes daily on Facebook, with 60% of that time devoted to watching videos. As a result, Facebook Reels ads provide an effective means to engage highly attentive audiences.
✓ Facebook Reels ads currently represent 3.3% of total ad impressions on the platform. (Source: Hootsuite)
✓ A French retailer experienced a 51% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) by focusing on Reels ads. (Source: wecantrack)
✓ The estimated audience size for Reels-focused ads in the U.S. is 139 million (excluding Advantage audience). (Source: Meta Ads Manager)


Facebook Carousel Ads
The Facebook carousel ad format allows users to swipe through up to 10 cards, each featuring images, videos, or a combination of both. By incorporating unique headlines and links for each card, your audience can easily browse your offerings and identify products or services that pique their interest.
Carousel ads are particularly effective for post-engagement campaigns, as they encourage viewers to interact with your ad before making a purchase decision.
✓ Carousel ads yield 34% more clicks than single-image ads. (Source: Lebesgue)
✓ A UK-based subscription box brand using carousel ads achieved a 3.24x ROAS. (Source: The Social Shepherd)
✓ 30% reduction in cost per conversion and cost per click compared to single-image ads. (Source: Hootsuite)


Reels + Carousel Holiday Ads
What better way to increase your audiences’ engagement than to be both on the consideration and conversion funnel at the same time? Using both formats together can create a powerful mix of brand storytelling and user interaction.
Nest Commerce’s Q4 2023 report indicates that brands advertising on Meta experienced a 35% increase in return on ad spend between October and November. Throughout Q4, conversion rates rose by 28%, peaking at 52% during Black Friday. This success is attributed to engaging audiences through awareness campaigns and subsequently guiding them to lower-funnel, conversion-based campaigns during the Q4 holiday peak periods.
By utilizing these post engagement-driven ad formats, you can fully maximize your brand’s performance, as 57% of holiday shoppers clamor online for their holiday shopping.
Overlay Ads on Reels
Another effective strategy to engage with the growing Facebook Reels feed for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns is to incorporate image or carousel ad formats as overlay ads on Reels.
These ads appear alongside related Reels content. For example, a department store brand promoting its holiday fashion finds can appear on a fashion content creator’s fit check video featuring a recent shopping haul. This integration allows your ads to blend with the Reels viewing experience, making them less intrusive than other ad formats.
As of July 2024, your overlay ads can also be displayed on Instagram Reels, further expanding your reach within the Meta advertising network.


Further Reading


How a Meta Ad Agency Can Help Optimize Your 2024 Holiday Ad Spend
Collaborating with a Meta ad agency for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns offers more than just ad activation and management—it brings strategic advantages that drive cost-efficiency and peak performance. Here’s why partnering with a Meta ad agency is essential to optimizing your holiday ad costs this season.
Cost and Performance Insights for Your Q4 2024 Facebook Engagement Ads
Data is the best backup to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of utilizing a post-engagement objective as we approach the peak 2024 holiday campaigns. To help you establish benchmarks for this year’s holiday advertising, we have compiled key cost and performance metrics for Q4.
Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) and Engagement Rates (ER%)


In our Q4 2023 analysis, we observed a notable spike in CPE beginning in October, coinciding with the start of holiday advertising. Last year, key retail events such as Target, Prime, and Walmart launched promotions throughout early to mid-October, contributing to this trend.
As we transitioned from November into December, Facebook post engagement campaigns gained traction. We noted a downward trend in CPE alongside an upward trend in engagement rates. For Q4 2024, you can expect to align your holiday ad campaigns against Strike Social’s Facebook ad cost benchmarks, which range from $0.013 to $0.057 in November and decrease to as low as $0.012 to $0.038 by December.
Cost-per-View (CPV) and View Rate (VR%)


Video ad formats, particularly Facebook Reels ads, tend to have a higher view rate with lower costs compared to other formats, making them ideal for engagement during Q4. While view rates saw a slight decrease of 40% in December, they still remain elevated compared to October, reflecting sustained interest from engaged audiences throughout the Christmas season.
This year, Meta is testing a new ad feature that allows brands to showcase promotions and discounts directly within Reels ads. This innovation capitalizes on high shopping intent as viewers consume video content during the Q4 holidays. By highlighting promotions, brands can streamline the journey from consideration to conversion, making it easier for audiences to act on their interest.
Cost-per-Click (CPC) & Click-Through Rate (CTR%)


Click-based campaigns, like Carousel ad formats, provide solid performance metrics throughout the year. Q4 holiday trends indicate that these formats can drive high click engagement while maintaining lower costs. Although CPCs generally trend downward, we anticipate a slight increase of about 5% in December compared to November 2023 as more brands compete for ad space to get traffic and conversions.
To capitalize on this trend, your best strategy is to start your campaigns early. Target shoppers who begin their holiday shopping 1 to 2 months in advance to build momentum. By leveraging click engagement campaigns starting in October and November, you can position your brand effectively, ensuring you capture the attention of eager holiday shoppers before the competition heats up.
Download our Facebook CPLC Case Study
This case study details a luxury watch brand’s Facebook campaign that achieved a CPLC 34.69% below the guaranteed rate, highlighting the benefits of strategic budget allocation and ad format selection for maximizing engagement and controlling costs.



Cost per Link Click (CPLC) & Link Click-Through Rate (LCTR%)


Optimizing for lower-funnel conversions during Q4 becomes easier with well-targeted and engaging post engagement ads focusing on link clicks. Ad auctions can get a bit challenging towards November as there is competition around Black Friday and Cyber Five in particular; thus, we can see quite a spike in CPLC at this time.
Maintain an always-on approach, as costs tend to decrease in December, aligning with predictions from the NRF that 58% of consumers complete their shopping during this month. By focusing your post-engagement campaigns on link clicks that drive conversions, you position yourself well for success during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday advertising periods this Q4.
Driving Strong Results with Post Engagement Campaigns for Q4 and Q5 Holidays in 2024
As Q4 intensifies, the key to holiday success is not just reaching audiences but engaging them. Post engagement campaigns on platforms like Instagram and Facebook empower brands to foster meaningful interactions that can lead to conversions. With increased competition and shifting consumer behaviors during the holiday season, prioritizing post engagement allows brands to scale efficiently, harness Meta’s extensive audience, and enhance performance through cost-effective, high-engagement ad formats.
Are you looking to quickly scale your campaigns this holiday season? Reach out to our team for a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech solutions and discover how you can achieve greater results while saving on your Facebook engagement campaigns.
This case study for a luxury watch brand’s Facebook advertising campaign highlights an achieved CPLC 34.69% lower than the guaranteed rate, showcasing the effectiveness of strategic budget allocation and ad format selection. This initiative successfully introduced the brand’s new product line as part of its anniversary collection, reaching a significantly wider audience. With the client’s endorsement, Strike Social confidently utilized Facebook Reel and Carousel advertisements to reinforce the brand’s strong reputation for offering stylish, durable automatic watches at competitive prices.
77%
Reel overlay ads reach and impressions
10%
Reels efficiency vs overall CPLC
56%
Carousel total landing page distribution
Optimized Approach to Campaign Execution
Strike Social boosted the success of this campaign through daily optimization, including efficiently allocating the advertising budget across multiple Facebook ad formats. The campaign maximized engagement while controlling costs by dividing spending between Reels and Carousel ads.
Smart Budgeting & Ad Format Selection
Strike Social allocated 40% of the total budget to Reels due to their higher engagement potential, contributing to 77% of the campaign’s reach and impressions. Reels effectively expanded the brand’s visibility and proved 10% more cost-efficient regarding Facebook Cost Per Link click (CPLC) than other ad formats. These dynamic ads engaged users interested in video and static content, driving significant traffic at a lower cost.
Meanwhile, despite receiving only 38% of the budget, Carousel ads delivered 56% of the total landing page views. This format allowed the client to present multiple watch models visually engagingly, building a compelling product narrative that resonated with the audience. Finding the balance between Reels and Carousel ads was critical in achieving reach and conversion targets.
Strike Social’s ongoing optimizations—over 1,300 adjustments—pushed the campaign to deliver 39.79% more additional link clicks vs. client guaranteed and achieve a 34.69% cost efficiency improvement. These campaign outcomes highlight how continuous monitoring and agile strategy adjustments, even with competitive platforms like Facebook ads, lead to remarkable outcomes.
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Strike Overview
- Are you one of the 69% of US agencies and businesses that view Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) as a key metric for social media success and are actively looking for strategies to improve Facebook ROAS?
- You might be weighing whether hiring a social media ad agency is worth the investment, especially when considering the potential costs of external support versus handling it in-house.
- When your Facebook ad conversions fall short or your ROAS isn’t meeting its full potential, learn how expert agencies can boost performance through real-time monitoring, fast adjustments, and continuous optimizations.
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Improve Facebook ROAS Results With Expert-Led Ad Agency Solutions
You’re often presented with Facebook ROAS data when it’s time to make critical financial decisions and projections. While you trust your social media team or external agency to manage the day-to-day, ensuring optimal results requires constant oversight and real-time campaign adjustments.
Partnering with a dedicated social media ad agency allows you to focus on strategic decision-making while experts handle the intricate details of campaign optimization, paving the way for higher returns and lower advertising costs.
How Ad Agency Expertise Can Improve Your Facebook Ad ROAS
Identifying the reasons behind subpar Facebook ROAS can range from straightforward issues, such as faulty Meta Pixel tracking, to more complex challenges rooted in campaign optimization. While technical glitches can often be resolved with relative ease, underlying optimization problems require a deep understanding of campaign dynamics and strategy—something that heavily relies on the expertise of your Facebook campaign manager.
An advertising agency’s expertise can significantly enhance your Facebook ad ROAS through targeted specialized skills and strategies. Here are key factors through which an expert-led ad agency can improve Facebook ROAS while effectively managing your campaigns:
Quick Turnaround & Communication
When working with an external advertising agency for your brand’s social media promotions, timely and proper communication is possibly the most basic and number one requirement.
Campaign Activation
Rapid communication facilitates quick turnarounds, allowing your campaigns to launch without delay. Speed is of the essence when it comes to social media advertising campaigns; the sooner your campaigns are launched, the sooner the platform can optimize ad delivery and performance.
Our team is equipped to review and prepare your Facebook ad setup within 48 hours for a swift activation process.
Campaign Management
Without consistent communication, you might miss significant successes, such as increased clicks and purchases. Even worse, if your campaigns are not meeting your expected Facebook ROAS, you may only realize this after the campaign has concluded—making it challenging to pinpoint the source of the issue and implement timely adjustments.
For example, if your target ROAS is 4x and you initially achieve 5x, it may seem like a win. However, further analysis could reveal that the purchase value reported in Meta Ads Manager is lower than anticipated. This discrepancy may be due to the Meta Pixel tracking purchases for a different product, leading to an inflated ROAS figure.
When such issues arise, a responsive ad agency can quickly recalibrate the campaign. While the Meta Pixel tracking is being resolved, budgets can be redirected to properly configured ads or campaigns, allowing for efficient recovery once the issue is fixed.
This rapid communication and adaptability between the ad agency and client can significantly impact the success of your Facebook conversion campaigns.
24/7 Campaign Monitoring
Knowing that your Facebook ads are being managed is one thing; having a dedicated team actively monitoring your campaigns’ costs and performance is another. Your ads operate around the clock, which is why 24/7 campaign management and monitoring are essential for maximizing your Facebook ROAS.
Consider a restaurant in Naperville aiming to boost orders exclusively from the local area. They initially targeted a radius of +10 miles around their location but found the tight market yielded no ad conversions within 24 hours. An expert advertising agency would promptly respond by expanding the target radius to +25 miles, broadening the audience, and increasing potential customer engagement.


At Strike Social, our teams operate in shifts to ensure continuous oversight of your campaigns. This constant vigilance enables us to implement optimizations and updates in real time, whether adjustments are necessary on the platform or require immediate communication with you. Our proactive monitoring allows us to quickly identify anomalies, such as sudden drops in engagement or unexpected spikes in costs, enabling swift action to maintain optimal performance and improve ROAS for your ad conversion campaigns over time.
Media Buying Expertise
Your advertising agency’s experience and expertise in managing and optimizing social media campaigns are critical to achieving optimal ROAS. Beyond simply understanding how various social media platforms operate, they must possess the analytical skills to evaluate each campaign and ad in detail. This ensures they can identify when your ads perform well or if something is amiss.
For instance, if there are issues with pixel setup that lead to inaccurate Facebook ROAS tracking, these problems often remain hidden when only monitoring purchases and costs on Facebook. A media buying expert will investigate all potential avenues of the issue. If the problem isn’t related to the creative content, clicks, or the overall campaign strategy, they will look into the technical aspects, such as Meta pixel tracking and setup.
Strike Social’s media buying experts have duly earned clients’ trust, empowering us to be flexible and take the lead in implementing necessary optimizations that improve campaign performance.
Advanced Machine Learning Technology
Digital advertising is fundamentally driven by technology. While dedicated oversight of your campaigns is essential, it’s equally important for an ad agency to use intelligent ad tech that can notify when issues arise—and especially when your Facebook campaigns meet the desired metrics.
Proficiency in platforms like Google Ads Manager and Meta Ads Manager is basic, but having a unified technology that an advertising agency can use to monitor and manage your campaigns can further enhance campaign management.
Strike Social’s proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, leverages over 10 years of historical data from successful campaigns, allowing us to effectively engage your audiences through hyper-targeted strategies. The advanced features of Campaign Lab include automated data reports, internal alerts, and a pacing and optimization dashboard, all continuously refined by our data science team to improve integration with our media buying efforts.
As an example, our media buying teams receive internal alerts to promptly address any issues and avoid delays in campaign optimization. If an alert requires client intervention, it is quickly forwarded along with our optimization recommendations.
A case in point involved a financial services provider, where Campaign Lab triggered an alert indicating that the Meta pixel required attention. Our assigned media buying team quickly investigated the issue and informed the client, making sure no data was lost while the pixel setup was being properly configured.
Download our Facebook Conversion Campaign Case Study
By closely monitoring Facebook Meta Pixel tracking for precise data collection and identifying high-performing campaigns across different audience segments, we optimized ad spending and achieved an outstanding 28x return on ad spend (ROAS).



Proper Campaign Pacing
Expert ad agencies excel in pacing campaigns by analyzing performance data and adjusting spending based on real-time outcomes. For example, if you have a $20,000 budget for a three-month campaign, it shouldn’t be fully utilized within the first month after achieving a target of 1 million impressions. Instead, the budget should be evenly distributed throughout the campaign, taking into account any expected spikes in engagement, such as during Halloween week.
During peak periods like Halloween, Facebook’s CPM tends to increase. It’s essential to allocate more resources for these times and then readjust auction bids once the peak has passed. Similarly, if impressions are high during a peak period, the remaining campaign flight must be recalibrated to maintain balance.
Here’s an ideal pacing chart illustrating the distribution of delivered objectives:


The chart illustrates that, despite some low and high peaks in ad conversions—specifically purchases—these conversions consistently remained within the 80 to 100 range each day. This consistency demonstrates our team’s ability to effectively manage campaign pacing, highlighting Strike Social’s expertise in this area.
Strike Social’s Expertise in Improving Facebook ROAS and Ad Performance
We’ve outlined the advantages that advertising agencies bring in optimizing Facebook ROAS and enhancing overall campaign results. Now, let’s look at the tangible outcomes of our successful Facebook advertising campaigns, demonstrating how we deliver efficiency and effectiveness for brands and agencies alike.
Improving Reach & Sign-Ups with Facebook Campaigns
One of our major Facebook campaigns for a health and fitness brand focused on increasing membership sign-ups across various locations nationwide. By implementing precise DMA geo-targeting and strategically pacing the budget week by week, we effectively boosted the campaign’s performance.
To ensure accurate Facebook ad metrics, we meticulously configured the Facebook Pixel and linked each club’s specific location page to its corresponding ad. This alignment guaranteed that each campaign reached the right audience and directed potential members to the right website pages.
As a result of our media buying expertise, we were able to achieve the following outcomes:
300K+
Sign-ups
1.5M+
Campaign Clicks
700M+
Impressions
Increasing Facebook Ads ROAS through Constant Optimization & Pixel Monitoring
A leading financial services provider’s objective for their Facebook advertising campaign was to increase leads and conversions. Given the campaign’s large scale, which included both awareness and conversion efforts, meticulous attention was essential to ensure seamless conversion tracking and budget optimization.
Despite managing multiple campaigns and nearly 60 creatives, our team at Strike Social prepared and launched the campaigns within 48 hours, arranging a swift go-live for the client’s Facebook conversion ads. We prioritized accuracy by ensuring the Meta Pixel was correctly configured on all relevant website pages to which audiences were directed. This proactive approach and ongoing monitoring enabled us to refine audience targeting, adjust bidding strategies, and optimize the campaign effectively.
Through the implementation of these strategies, we successfully attained the following results:
66%
More impressions than guaranteed
7,000+
Purchases via the Facebook campaign
$1.5M+
In revenue resulting in a 28x Facebook ROAS
What Strike Social Delivers
We don’t just provide results; we deliver cost-effective solutions backed by over a decade of expertise and advanced technology to help maximize the impact of your Facebook advertising campaigns.
- Campaign Scaling Expertise: Whether you need support for a quick seasonal campaign or a year-long running Facebook advertising strategy, we’re here to help. Our team of experts has extensive experience in scaling campaigns effectively to reach wider audiences and drive better results. We can provide the resources and knowledge needed to expand your campaigns while maintaining consistent performance metrics like clicks, views, and budget throughout the campaign duration.
- Predictive Advertising Solutions: Using our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, we apply over 10 years of campaign data alongside machine learning to fine-tune audience targeting and optimize campaign performance. Campaign Lab evaluates key inputs like ad platform, format, budget, and target metrics to identify the most effective audience segments and budget allocations.
- Cost-Effective Pricing Model: Our focus is to get your campaigns to achieve the desired results at lower costs. We operate on a margin pricing model, where our profit is the margin between what we spend on ads and what we charge you. This means we only make money if we save you ad costs while achieving your campaign objectives.
Drive Better Facebook Outcomes with the Right Ad Agency
Achieving a strong return on ad spend (ROAS) on Facebook requires more than periodic campaign reviews. It demands continuous optimization, real-time oversight, and swift adjustments to performance shifts. The right agency will handle this seamlessly, so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
By partnering with an expert ad agency like Strike Social, you gain access to round-the-clock campaign management, rapid execution, and cutting-edge technology. Our approach ensures your Facebook ads are continually optimized to deliver the best possible ROAS. To learn more, contact us for a personalized walkthrough of our SWAS (Software with a Service) and ad tech, so you can see how it works firsthand.
Running Facebook ad campaigns for financial services requires more than creativity but precise execution and real-time campaign management. In this case study, Strike Social worked with a leading financial services provider and helped overcome several challenges. From the campaign setup, identifying top-performing campaigns across audience segments and keeping a close eye on Facebook Meta Pixel tracking to ensure accurate data collection were a few situations where Strike Social delivered the utmost service to maximize ad spending and eventually achieved a remarkable 28x return on ad spend (ROAS).
66%
More impressions than guaranteed
7,000+
Purchases via the Facebook campaign
$1.5M+
In revenue resulting in a 28x Facebook ROAS
The Importance of Vigilant Campaign Management
For any digital campaign, with media buyers becoming proficient in targeting audiences, vigilant campaign management is critical to success. Managing a large-scale Facebook ad campaign for a global brand, both awareness and conversion effort, came with inherent complexities, requiring close attention to detail and constant monitoring to maximize performance.
This level of vigilance was significant given the following key challenges:
Complex Ad Setup and Execution
The campaign involved nearly 60 distinct creatives, each targeted at different audience segments across retargeting (RT) and lookalike (LAL) campaigns. With such a high number of Facebook ads, managing the initial setup was time-intensive and prone to errors, potentially delaying the campaign launch or misaligning creative execution.
Identifying Top-Performing Ads
With various audience segments and creative formats in play, tracking which ads resonated with specific audiences became critical. Our proprietary tool has enabled our media buying experts to keep campaign pacing on track. Additionally, comparing the performance of creatives across different ad sets and campaigns required diligent, real-time analysis to ensure that the best-performing ads received the highest priority, and our technology and system allow us to stay on top of everything essential.
Pixel Monitoring and Conversion Tracking
Using Meta pixels was essential for tracking conversions and optimizing bidding strategies. Any malfunction or misconfiguration in pixel tracking could lead to inaccurate data reporting, making it difficult to gauge the campaign’s performance. Having a quick eye for 24/7 that ensures Facebook Meta pixel data is reliable and accurate at all times was vital to avoid wasted ad spend and misinformed decision-making.
Vigilant campaign management—through ongoing performance analysis, agile troubleshooting, and constant optimization—was essential to helping achieve 28x Facebook ads ROAS.
Data-Driven Campaign Precision and Agile Execution
To address these challenges effectively, Strike Social implemented solutions focused on streamlining processes, improving real-time monitoring, and making quick, data-informed decisions.
Here’s a quick overview of the team’s approach that helped improve ROAS on Facebook ads and drive the campaign’s success:
Specialized Ad Setup Team with Rapid Turnaround
Recognizing the complexity of managing 60 creatives across multiple ad sets, we deployed a dedicated team that could complete all configurations within 48 hours. This fast turnaround ensured our client’s Facebook advertising campaigns went live quickly, maintaining momentum and maximizing early-stage engagement.
Real-Time Pixel Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Our media buying experts continuously monitored Facebook Meta pixel performance to confirm that conversions, clicks, and other key metrics were accurately tracked. Our team took a proactive approach to identifying pixel issues, diagnosing any anomalies in the data, and fixing problems immediately. This ensured that no data was lost and that the campaign’s performance could be accurately measured at all times.
Facebook Ad Case Studies
See how Strike Social helps brands drive ad efficiency and visibility.
Agile Execution Through Vigilant Monitoring
Strike Social achieved agile execution by diligently monitoring campaign performance and swiftly implementing data-driven optimizations. Continuous tracking of conversion trends, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and other crucial metrics enabled us to promptly detect inefficiencies, such as increasing CPAs or decreased engagement. This agile approach empowered us to fine-tune audience targeting, adjust bidding strategies, and optimize the campaign in real-time. Our constant monitoring ensured that high-performing ads were maximized while minimizing wasted ad spend, thus maintaining the campaign’s trajectory for maximum impact.
Through these strategies, we achieved the following results:
- 66% more impressions than guaranteed
- 2x more link clicks than expected
- 66,000 leads generated and 7,000+ purchases through Facebook ads
- A total of $1.5 million in revenue, translating into an impressive 28x ROAS
In this Facebook ad case study, vigilant monitoring and agile execution highlight how these procedures can drive exceptional outcomes for conversion campaigns. By staying on top of real-time campaign execution, making rapid optimizations, and leveraging a data-driven approach, Strike Social helped our global leader client in the insurance industry achieve a remarkable 28x Facebook ROAS and $1.5 million in revenue.
Whether you’re managing a complex campaign with multiple creatives or prioritizing Facebook ad pixel monitoring, Strike Social’s expertise can help you stay ahead. Our team delivers the precision, speed, and insight necessary to maximize your advertising spend.
Download the Facebook Campaign Management Case Study
Unlock 10-20% better campaign performance with an expert Facebook advertising agency. Complete the form to discover how Strike Social can optimize your results and lower your costs.
Strike Overview
- With Facebook’s average ROAS around 1.80x, any significant deviation—whether notably lower or higher—indicates an urgent need to fix Facebook ROAS tracking.
- For e-commerce and retail brands advertising on Facebook, ROAS is too important a metric to be overlooked. That said, cost and performance metrics on Facebook must always be kept on point to gauge campaigns’ performance effectively.
- While ROAS in Facebook ads can vary across brands and industries, any inconsistencies in your calculations should be addressed promptly to maintain accurate reporting.
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How to Fix Facebook Ad ROAS Errors
The first step in effectively addressing inaccurate Facebook ad ROAS is identifying the root cause of the issue. Once you pinpoint the problem, you can implement the necessary fixes to restore reliable and accurate ROAS tracking.
One of the initial indicators that you need to fix Facebook ROAS tracking is when you calculate your revenue generated divided by your ad spend, and the result displayed on the Meta Ads Manager or your campaign dashboard does not match. Let’s take a moment to clarify how your Facebook advertising costs, particularly ROAS in Facebook ads, is calculated:
How is Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) on Facebook Calculated?


To compute your ROAS from Facebook ads, use our calculator below:
Facebook ROAS Calculator
This formula is a basic approach for computing your Facebook ads ROAS, particularly for a straightforward e-commerce business where only revenue and ad spend need to be considered.
Example: A fitness apparel brand launches a Facebook ad campaign to promote its new line of workout gear, priced at $100 per unit. The campaign leads to 30 sales.
- Total Revenue: 30 sales × $100 = $3,000
- Ad Spend: $1,000
Without using the Facebook ROAS calculator, the calculation is as follows:
ROAS = Total revenue generated / Ad spend
ROAS = $3,000 / $1,000
ROAS = 3:1 or 3x
In this case, the brand’s ROAS is 3x (or 300%), meaning it generates three dollars in revenue for every dollar spent on Facebook advertising.
For other campaign objectives, the formula for calculating Return on Ad Spend can differ:
Purchase ROAS
- If your e-commerce shop is directly implemented in your Meta platforms, such as Shops, Marketplace, Pages, or Messenger, you should calculate your ROAS based on purchases.
- The computation for Purchase ROAS should be the purchase conversion value divided by the amount spent on this specific campaign. The purchase conversion value is simply the total amount of purchases generated from sales you acquired on the aforementioned Meta apps.
- Try out this Facebook ROAS calculator for direct purchases and compare the numbers shown in the Facebook Ads Manager to check for accuracy:
Facebook Purchase ROAS Calculator
Example: A footwear brand utilized the Collection ad format with Instant Experience to directly attribute sales from their Facebook ads. They launched a sustainable footwear line, pricing each pair at $95. The ad campaign resulted in 50 sales within one week.
- Total Revenue from Meta Sales: 50 sales × $95 = $4,750
- Ad Spend: $500
Here’s how Purchase ROAS is calculated:
Purchase ROAS = Total revenue generated from Facebook sales / Ad spend
Purchase ROAS = $4,750 / $500
Purchase ROAS = 9.5:1 or 9.5x
For this brand, the Purchase ROAS is 9.5x, meaning they earned 9.5 times their ad spend in revenue from the 7-day run of their Facebook campaign.
Website Purchase ROAS
- If your Facebook ads direct audiences to your website for purchases, then the ROAS formula is based on the total value of website purchases (acquired from the specific Facebook ads or campaign) divided by the ad or campaign spending.
- This requires setting up a Meta Pixel or Conversions API to ensure Meta Ads Manager properly records the correct value associated with each website purchase from your campaign.
- To determine if you need to fix Facebook ROAS tracking, use this calculator to compute your Website Purchase ROAS:
Facebook Website Purchase ROAS Calculator
Example: An eyewear brand uses multiple social media networks for advertising, including Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. To accurately track sales and traffic from each platform, all ads are directed to the website using proper UTMs. Based on their tracking system, the following website purchases were generated from Facebook ads over a 30-day campaign:
- Total Revenue from Website Purchases: 425 sales × $150 = $63,750
- Ad Spend: $10,890
Using the Website Purchase ROAS calculator, here’s how the return is calculated:
Website Purchase ROAS = Total revenue from website purchases / Ad spend
Website Purchase ROAS = $63,750 / $10,890
Website Purchase ROAS = 5.85:1 or 5.85x
This means the eyewear brand achieved a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 5.85x, generating $5.85 in revenue for every dollar spent on Facebook advertising during the campaign.
Mobile App Purchase ROAS
- For app advertisements on Facebook that don’t directly attribute sales, you can still track ROAS through in-app purchases.
- Meta refers to these as “shared items,” which are products or services shared between businesses to create ad campaigns. Instead of focusing on clicks or views, the emphasis is on actions taken with purchases of specific in-app items originating from Facebook ads.
- This will be recorded by connecting the mobile app through the Meta SDK, mobile measurement partner, or other third-party API connections, allowing Facebook Ads Manager to accurately calculate the value from ad conversions.
- To compute this, you need the total value of ad conversions from in-app purchases (acquired from your Facebook campaign) divided by the ad/campaign spend. Use the Facebook ROAS calculator below to see if your data matches:
Facebook Mobile App Purchase ROAS Calculator
Example: A video editing app is advertising through Facebook Reels ads. While the app is free to download, it’s offering a discounted 3-month subscription for new sign-ups, which allows access to professional features. The discounted subscription is $99, and 280 users signed up by clicking on its Reels ads:
- Total Revenue from In-App Purchases: 280 subscriptions × $99 = $27,720
- Ad Spend: $3,800
Using the Facebook ROAS calculator, the Return on Ad Spend is calculated as follows:
Mobile App Purchase ROAS = Total revenue from in-app purchases / Ad spend
Mobile App Purchase ROAS = $27,720 / $3,800
Mobile App Purchase ROAS = 7.29:1 or 7.29x
This means the brand achieved a ROAS of 7.29x, effectively earning 7.29 times its ad spend by promoting the app subscription through paid ads on Reels.
Further Reading


How to Generate Sales from Social Media Campaigns
With the right approach, increasing sales through social media advertising is possible. As social media campaigns become more influential during major retail events like Halloween and Thanksgiving, brands have significant opportunities to utilize these platforms and enhance ad conversions.
Common Reasons Why Your Facebook Ad ROAS Might Be Inaccurate
Now that you understand how Return On Ad Spend is computed, you should have a clearer vision of your ideal Facebook ROAS figure. If it’s significantly off from your expectations, consider these common reasons why your Facebook reports might not be providing the results you desire:
Discrepancies Between Facebook and Your Site
One of the most common issues affecting your Facebook ROAS occurs when the purchase value reported on Meta Ads Manager does not align with the actual value recorded on your website. Resolving this requires thoroughly comparing data across multiple platforms to ensure consistency. Here are some steps to identify and fix these discrepancies:
- Cross-check Facebook Conversion Value vs. Actual Purchase Price on Your Website: Compare the conversion value reported by Facebook Ads Manager with the actual purchase amounts posted on your website.
- Example: You previously promoted a product with a 20% discount during your back-to-school sale and now with a 30% discount as indicated in your current ads. Your website may show the purchase value based on the original price of $100, reflecting the 30% discount, which makes it $70. If Facebook Ads Manager still lists the conversion value as $80 (20% discount), this will lead to a $10 discrepancy in your ROAS computation.
- Compare Facebook Conversion Value with E-commerce Platform Reports: If your site runs on platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, verify that the revenue figures reported there match what Facebook is tracking.
- Example: Say you’re offering a product for $50 on your Shopify clothing store's website, but you’ve applied a custom field for a bundled discount. This will effectively reduce the price to $45. Facebook may still record the full $50 as the conversion value if the discount wasn’t communicated through the API, skewing your ROAS calculations by $5 per transaction.
- Cross-check Facebook Conversion Value with Google Analytics or Other Analytics Tools: If you use tools like Google Analytics or other third-party systems for conversion tracking, cross-reference these reports with your Facebook data.
- Example: For your Amazon Prime Day campaign in October, you promote a $120 product at a limited-time offer of $100. Facebook Ads Manager shows 30 purchases at the discounted price, reporting $3,000 in revenue. In contrast, Google Analytics reports only $2,700 in revenue for the same period.
- Upon investigating, you discover that Google Analytics attributes some purchases to direct traffic, while Facebook claims them under the ad campaign. This $300 difference could be due to the differing attribution models used by Facebook (last-click or view-through) and Google Analytics (last-non-direct click).
Improper Meta Pixel Tracking
Further investigation is needed if the error isn’t apparent in the reported conversion values. One of the first essential steps when running Facebook ads is to confirm that events such as website visits, clicks, and submissions (like contact forms or purchases) are tracked accurately. If the pixel is not installed correctly or the events it tracks are misconfigured, reported ad conversions and ROAS discrepancies can occur.
How to Troubleshoot:
Using the Meta Pixel Helper
1. Install the Meta Pixel Helper, a Google Chrome extension that checks if your pixel is firing correctly. (Note: Ensure both your Google Chrome browser and the extension are updated to avoid issues like Chrome crashing.)
2. Open a new tab and go to your website. Look for the Meta Pixel Helper icon alongside your other extensions in the top browser bar.
3. If it’s showing a number, your Meta Pixel is being recognized.


Using the Events Manager
1. Go to Events Manager, hover over the left-side menu, and select Data Sources. Choose the appropriate pixel and click on Test Events.
2. In the dropdown menu, select “Confirm your website’s events are set up correctly.” Enter your website or product URL and click “Open Website” to launch it in a new tab.


3. Attempt a test purchase or initiate a cart checkout. Return to the Events Manager window to ensure that all events, from page views to clicks and submissions, are recognized.
4. If your purchase is not recorded as a website event or other events are missing from the “Events Received” section, contact your agency or campaign manager to coordinate with your website developer for proper pixel setup.
Incorrect Conversion Value Reporting
In addition to correctly setting up the Meta Pixel, the conversion value for each sale or purchase must also be properly configured. While this primarily falls on the website developer, knowing which codes should be installed alongside the Meta Pixel is helpful for correctly recording purchase amounts as they are processed.
1. Navigate to your product’s thank you or confirmation page (where customers land after completing payment). Right-click on the page and select Inspect.
2. The HTML code will display on the right side of your Chrome browser. Search for the words “Meta Pixel.”
3. Expand the code to locate the corresponding event code (e.g., the standard event code for Purchase on the order confirmation page). If the code or value is missing or incorrect, contact your agency or campaign manager to coordinate with your website developer.


Delayed Conversion Reporting
77% of marketers today believe that last-click attribution, while the easiest, is not the most effective way to track campaign performance. However, for conversion tracking and calculating Facebook ROAS specifically, you must monitor attribution windows to avoid missing purchases that occur during your campaign period (even during the campaign cooldown period).
Facebook's default attribution window (7 days click, 28 days view) may not capture all conversions, especially for longer sales cycles. Users may click on an ad but complete their purchase days or weeks later, leading to an underreported ROAS if the attribution window is not appropriately set.
How to Fix Facebook ROAS Tracking:
Adjust your attribution settings to account for delayed conversions. Facebook allows you to customize attribution windows (e.g., 1-day click, 7-day click) based on your sales cycle.


By extending the attribution window, you can capture more conversions that occur after the initial ad engagement.
Example:
High-end electronics are usually not purchased within the same day after a user clicks on an ad. For instance, a potential customer clicks on your Facebook ad for a $1,000 laptop but doesn’t immediately make the purchase. Instead, they spend several days comparing options before finally completing the purchase 12 days later.
In this case, Facebook’s default 7-day click window is insufficient for capturing the delayed conversion. The solution is to extend the attribution window to 28-day click to make sure purchases made up to four weeks after the ad click are counted.
Further Reading



Understanding ROI vs. ROAS on YouTube
The key distinction between ROI and ROAS is that ROI reflects your profit after deducting expenses, while ROAS shows a ratio comparing revenue to the amount spent on ads. Learn which metric best captures your YouTube ad performance and overall campaign effectiveness.
Steps to Prevent Issues in Facebook ROAS Reporting
While we’ve outlined common causes of inaccuracies in Facebook ads ROAS, it’s important to recognize that occasional discrepancies are inevitable. However, with the right measures, you can achieve 90% or higher accuracy in conversion tracking and reporting.
Here’s how you can proactively prevent significant issues in your Facebook ROAS calculations:
Ensure Proper Tracking Setup
- Make sure Meta Pixel and Conversions API (if applicable) are implemented correctly to track customer actions from different touchpoints, providing more accurate attribution of sales and conversions. Familiarize yourself with the Facebook Events Manager and Conversions API Gateway so you can occasionally touch base at the ROAS computation and tell right away if it needs to be fixed.
- For advanced tracking setups, integrating your tracking tools with Google Tag Manager (GTM) offers greater flexibility and granularity, helping capture every action that leads to conversions.
Review Attribution Settings Regularly
- Adjust attribution settings according to your business goals and sales cycle. Use a 7-day click window for quick conversions, while a 28-day click window is better suited for delayed conversions, especially for high-ticket items.
- Align your attribution settings with your typical customer journey, considering how long it usually takes for your audience to act after viewing your ad.
Regularly Monitor and Adjust Campaigns
- We understand you can’t be glued to every social media campaign. Strike Social’s 24/7 monitoring and optimization using our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, ensures that your tracking always aligns with real-time performance data.
- Our team will handle tracking errors, optimize conversion values, and regularly adjust your campaigns, ensuring your Facebook ads ROAS data is up-to-date and accurate throughout the campaign lifecycle.
Contact Us
Scale your holiday campaigns with Strike Social’s SwaS solutions and enhance your campaign results by 10-20%.
Getting Accurate ROAS on Facebook Ads For Informed Decision-Making
The Facebook ROAS might appear as just another line in your report or presentation, but it’s a key factor in determining whether your ad spend delivers value. It helps you make informed decisions about your advertising budget, including how much to allocate to Facebook and what conversions you can expect based on this data.
Strike Social specializes in reducing costs while delivering outstanding results. To learn how our SwaS (software with a service) innovation can produce measurable outcomes for your campaigns, contact us for a personalized walkthrough of our technology and services.
Strike Overview
- Before setting benchmark targets, it’s vital to focus on tracking the right Facebook ad metrics as your starting point.
- With Facebook ad spending projected to reach approximately $121.80 billion by 2024, it’s more important than ever for companies and advertisers to assess whether their Facebook ads are performing according to the media plan.
- To do this, one must know what each Facebook metric represents and which metrics best suit different campaign objectives.
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What Are the Basic Metrics in Facebook Ads That Advertisers Should Know?
To determine the effectiveness of your Facebook advertising efforts, you must know the different Facebook ad metrics available on the platform. Whether you are doing organic posts or paid Facebook advertising, you should be able to differentiate which Facebook metrics you should be tracking.
What Are Facebook Ad Metrics?
Before we get into the details of which Facebook ad metrics you should keep an eye on for your campaigns, let’s establish a clear understanding of the definitions:
Facebook Metrics: These are all the measurable data points on Facebook related to your Page, posts, and ads. They provide insights into your Facebook presence, audience, and overall performance.
Facebook Engagement Metrics: These focus on audience engagement with your posts, such as likes, comments, and shares. You can find these within your Facebook profile’s dashboard.


Facebook Advertising Metrics: These are the Facebook KPIs to note when running paid ad campaigns on Facebook. These can be found within the Meta Ads Manager.


Dissecting the Different Facebook Advertising Metrics
Within Meta Ads Manager, you can select predefined columns that display the specific Facebook ad metrics you want to observe on your dashboard. Additionally, you can customize the columns based on your preference.
Let’s break them down to analyze each metric further.
Performance Metrics
Your Facebook ad performance metrics represent an overview of your campaign’s reach and visibility. These metrics assess how many people your ads reach and how often they are seen. Your performance metrics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Reach
- Impressions
- Delivery
- Results (based on campaign objective, e.g., if the campaign is running on Leads objective, Results will show the number of website leads)


Engagement Metrics
Paid ads on Facebook appear on users’ feeds, similar to regular posts. Users can also interact with them via reactions, comments, and shares.
These metrics focus on how users interact with your ads, indicating their level of interest and responsiveness. While similar to the Facebook engagement metrics we mentioned earlier, these are specifically related to your paid ads. These are the Facebook ad metrics included in this view:
- Page engagement
- Post reactions
- Post comments
- Post shares
- Link clicks
For Facebook ad formats with video ads, here are the video engagement metrics you should monitor:
- 2-second continuous video play
- 3-second video play
- ThruPlays
- Video Plays
- Video Plays at 25%
- Video Plays at 50%
- Video Plays at 75%
- Video Plays at 95%
- Video Plays at 100%
Further Reading




The Complete List of Facebook Ad Sizes for Different Formats
Before starting your Facebook campaigns, one of the top priorities should be ensuring your ad creative fits the correct format. Check the most up-to-date ad sizes for each Facebook advertising format and placement.
Conversion Metrics
These metrics correlate directly to your campaign objective and are ideal for evaluating Facebook campaigns aimed at generating leads or sales. They help determine if your ads achieve the desired outcomes and if your ad spend is cost-effective.
Common Facebook ad metrics in this view include:
- CTR (Click-Through Rate)
- Link clicks
- CPC (Cost Per Click)
- Purchase ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
- Results (e.g., add to cart, purchases)
- CPR (Cost per Result)
Cost Metrics
Cost metrics focus on the financial aspects of your Facebook ad campaign, helping you understand your spending and the efficiency of that spending. These metrics allow you to analyze cost rates at various levels.
For example, you can analyze CPM against reach and frequency for Awareness, CPC against link clicks or website visits for Traffic campaigns, and CPA against leads or website actions for Leads campaigns. Key cost metrics include:
- Budget
- Amount spent
- CPC (Cost Per Click)
- CPM (Cost per Mille / Cost per 1,000 Impressions)
- CPA (Cost per Action)
- Cost per ThruPlay (for video ad formats)
Further Reading



Facebook Advertising Costs and Performance Benchmarks
To ensure your Facebook advertising costs stay within budget, explore the various expenses to consider and review Strike Social’s current benchmarks to assess where you stand.
The Right Facebook Ads Metrics for Different Campaign Objectives
By discerning what each Facebook ad metric corresponds to, what it represents, and which category it belongs to, you’re on the road to identifying which metrics align with your campaign goals.
Let’s explore various Facebook advertising objectives and the metrics you should focus on to optimize your campaigns accordingly.


Facebook Ad Metrics FAQs
Why are Facebook metrics important?
- Media buying teams must monitor the right Facebook metrics to optimize campaigns effectively. By analyzing these metrics, teams can make informed decisions to improve their campaigns’ outcomes, such as adjusting ad set budgets, refining audience targeting, and implementing strategic modifications.
- Other teams involved in the advertising process, such as sales teams, also benefit from tracking these metrics. For example, in a back-to-school sales campaign, the sales team can gain valuable insights into the number of purchases attributed to social media advertising. This information allows them to assess the cost-effectiveness of Facebook advertising compared to other advertising mediums. Based on this analysis, they can recommend reallocating budgets or increasing investments in Facebook advertising to maximize its effectiveness in driving sales.
How do I get Facebook metrics?
- The metrics in Facebook ads can be accessed through the Meta Ads Manager. Although the Meta Ads Manager is a combined ad management and reporting platform for the entire Meta advertising network, only Facebook metrics should appear in your Ads Manager view if you are solely running ads on Facebook. Furthermore, access is limited to the Facebook account associated with the Ads Account where your campaigns are configured.
- Strike Social clients receive these metrics through regular reports from our media buying and client services teams. Alternatively, clients can access a regularly updated dashboard, eliminating the need for weekly or monthly reports.
- This customized dashboard is tailored to each client’s business model and connected via API integration to ensure that updates from different advertising platforms are reflected immediately.
- This allows for frequent checks and real-time insights into the performance of ongoing Facebook ad campaigns.
How are Facebook metrics calculated?
With Meta Ads Manager, you don’t have to make manual computations to calculate the Facebook ad metrics you need to monitor.
To ensure the accuracy of the results displayed in Meta Ads Manager, keep these points in mind:
- Verify its proper installation after adding your Meta Pixel to the brand’s website. Use your browser’s Meta Pixel Helper extension to check in real-time if the Meta Pixel is detected.
Once confirmed, go to the Events Manager to set up Custom Events. For example, when running a Leads campaign, ensure that events like contact form submissions, email clicks, and phone clicks are tracked. This lets Meta record all these actions as Leads in your Ads Manager view.
- If you run a Collection ad format for a sales campaign, you will be asked to create an Instant Experience ad where you will list your products, the link to its Amazon shopping page, for example, and the price for each product. To ensure accurate Purchase ROAS calculation in Meta Ads Manager, assign the correct value to each product in your collection ads so that Meta can calculate this for you.
Importance of Aligning Your Campaigns with the Right Facebook Ad Metrics
As media buyers, it is imperative to acknowledge the different perspectives to consider when learning about Facebook ads reporting and the relevant metrics. While we have detailed the fundamental Facebook ad metrics to track based on your campaign objectives, it is equally important for you to align your reports with the team to whom you are presenting them.
For example, sales teams may prioritize results and purchases, whereas advertising teams may focus on costs and efficiency. With a clear understanding of which Facebook ad metrics matter and how they are interrelated, this aspect of your reporting should become clearer.
Get expert campaign management and efficient reporting with Strike Social. With over a decade of successful paid social media advertising and our proprietary tool, Strike Social reaches your target audiences precisely and optimizes campaigns around the clock. As industry leaders in paid social media advertising, our seasoned media buying teams help brands achieve their objectives, enhancing performance while reducing costs.
Discover how our technology can deliver better results for your brand. Fill out the form below for a personalized walkthrough from one of our sales team members. Smarter media buying starts today.
Strike Overview
- Advertisers must diligently choose the Facebook ad formats that engage and attract the right audiences.
- Facebook is the largest advertising market in the US, with a projected $50.57 billion ad spend in 2024. It commands a 66% share of the total social media advertising spend forecasted for the year. Therefore, ensuring an ROI for your ad budget is imperative.
- Should you use image ads for awareness, or will Facebook Reels ads provide a less intrusive and more integrated user experience? Explore the different Facebook advertising formats and know which ones to use for various campaign objectives.
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This post was updated in May 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Display Your Ads Suitably with the Right Facebook Advertising Formats
With so many different Facebook ad formats, deciding which is right for your brand can be tough. You might be tempted to try them all, but each Facebook ad campaign objective has specific formats best suited for it. With this guide, you won’t have to second-guess your choices. Below are the different types of Facebook ad formats you should know to help you explore and utilize them effectively for your campaign objectives:
Selecting the Optimal Facebook Ad Format for Your Campaigns
If you’re familiar with the Instagram advertising formats, you might assume Facebook’s are similar. However, Facebook offers a much wider range of ad formats you may not have noticed while browsing your news feed or Messenger. Let’s take a closer look:
Facebook Feed Ads
- These ads are prominently displayed within the user’s news feed, blending with organic content. They can be presented in various ad formats, including images, videos, carousels, or collection.
- Feed ads are one of the most common ad placements utilized on Facebook.
Facebook In-Stream Video Ads
- Like YouTube in-stream ads, these are 5-15-second video ads that can be played before, during, or after a video is played within the user’s feed.
- These ads can also be showcased during live streams of selected Facebook partner creators.
Facebook Video Feed Ads
- The Video Feed is a distinct section within the Facebook app on mobile that allows users to explore an array of video content (separate from the Reels feed). Akin to the Facebook home feed, ads featured within the Video Feed are integrated alongside organic video posts presented to users.
Facebook Marketplace Ads
- To distinguish them from promoted Marketplace listings, Facebook Marketplace ads are an alternative placement for ads displayed in the Feed when the Marketplace search is pertinent to the product, and the user is a target audience.
- When a user searches for a product in the Facebook Marketplace, a paid ad placement in the Marketplace will resemble a listing but will include a “Sponsored” tag.
Facebook Stories Ads
- While navigating through the Stories of your friends or followed pages, Facebook Stories advertisements will appear in between. These are specifically designed for all Facebook campaign objectives and are intended to direct engaged users to a designated landing page or shopping link provided by the advertiser.
Facebook Search Results Ads
- Similarly to Facebook Marketplace ads, these are displayed within Facebook Search Results and will appear when relevant to the search terms entered by the user.
- These ads are designed to integrate with the specific search results, assuming a similar tile format as other search results but featuring a distinct “Sponsored” label to differentiate them from other results.
Facebook Reels Ads
- While browsing the Facebook Reels feed, Reels ads will appear alongside Reels posted by your Facebook friends and other content creators. These ads can appear post-loop or immediately after an organic Reel is done playing.
- As with any Reels content on Facebook, audiences can comment on, like, view, share, and/or skip them.
Further Reading


How to Set Up Facebook Reels Ads
When advertising on Facebook Reels, it is important to adhere to the technical specifications to ensure that your ads comply with the platform’s requirements and are delivered efficiently to your target audience. Increase the chances of your Reels ads being approved and can deliver content that is visually appealing, engaging, and effective.
Facebook Reels Overlay Ads
- Ads can also appear in Facebook Reels as Overlay Ads. These ads show up during the playback of an organic Reel on a user’s device, presenting as clickable banners that, upon interaction, redirect users to a predetermined landing page or link associated with the advertiser.
Facebook Business Explore Ads
- Facebook Business Explore ads are displayed whenever a user engages with an organic post from a business entity and subsequently scrolls to view additional posts from businesses operating within the same category or industry.
- In this view, users are presented with various unsponsored posts and sponsored Facebook ads from businesses similar to the post initially clicked upon.
Facebook Right Column Ads (Desktop Only)
- When your audience scrolls through your Facebook feed on the desktop website, they will see an image ad on the right side of the screen, along with their contacts and, if applicable, any Facebook Pages they manage.
Facebook Groups Feed Ads
- Furthermore, ads can also be displayed within the news feed for Facebook Groups.
- This feature is compatible with video and carousel ads, allowing your Facebook ad campaigns to be presented to groups with relevant demographics, interests, and behaviors following the targeting specifications you selected for your advertising campaigns.
Messenger Stories Ads
- Apart from the Facebook platform itself, another ad placement opportunity exists for brands within Messenger. At present, Messenger Stories advertisements are exclusively accessible for the following campaign objectives:
- Conversions
- App installations
- Traffic
- Awareness
How Do These Ad Formats Appear on Facebook
To get a better idea of what these different Facebook ad types look like within the Meta advertising network, here are some visual examples:
Image Ads


Video Ads


Carousel Ads


Collection Ads


Choosing the Best Facebook Ad Format for Your Campaign Objectives
Not all Facebook ad formats may be compatible with and align with your target audience’s preferences when they seek your product or service on the platform. Consequently, we have demonstrated how these formats appear on Facebook’s desktop or mobile application.
Now that you are aware of the distinctions, the following are the ideal Facebook advertising formats based on the campaign objective and the intended outcome of your Facebook advertising campaigns:




Facebook Media Buyer FAQs
Should I create separate campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager when using different ad formats?
If you’re using a variety of ad formats for your Facebook ad campaign, the decision to create separate campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager depends on several factors:
When Separate Campaigns are Recommended:
- If you’re using different advertising formats for your Facebook advertising campaigns, it’s recommended that you have different campaigns to monitor the delivery of each advertising format better and know which one is performing better than the other.
- Moreover, if you are running a new campaign or campaign for a new brand and have no idea yet how many impressions you can receive daily or how much you should bid for each action, it’s also recommended that you have different campaigns to gauge the effectiveness better.
- Having separate campaigns for different formats gives the Facebook algorithm more clarity on your goals for each format, potentially leading to better ad delivery and optimization.
When It Might Not Be Necessary:
- Combining different Facebook ad formats into one campaign could be more efficient if you anticipate similar performance across different formats and prefer streamlined campaign management. This would mitigate the risk of campaigns cannibalizing one another and competing within the auction.
- Additionally, maintaining multiple campaigns with a limited budget can make it harder to gain clear insights into the performance of individual formats. In such cases, focusing on a selected range of Facebook ad formats allows for thorough testing, even with a smaller investment.
Do I choose Advantage+ placements to select all ad placements on Facebook?
- While Advantage+ integrates well with Strike Social’s AI and machine-learning capabilities, it’s not always necessary to utilize all available placements under Advantage+. As we’ve discussed in our guide to optimal Facebook ad formats and placements, certain ad formats and campaign objectives may align better with specific placements that directly support your brand’s goals.
- For example, image ads can be effective across various placements, making Advantage+ placements suitable for Awareness campaigns aimed at maximizing impressions.
- However, when aiming for lead generation or conversions, the focus shifts to engaging audiences likely to take specific actions, such as signing up or making purchases. In these cases, maximizing ad visibility may not be as effective as targeting placements where engagement and conversion rates align highly with your campaign’s objectives.
- Thus, careful selection of placements rather than blanket use of Advantage+ placements may be more beneficial for achieving desired outcomes in such Facebook ad campaigns.
Getting Acquainted with Facebook Advertising Formats
Now that you’ve gained insight into how various Facebook ad formats align with campaign objectives and platform placements, you can appreciate the diversity of advertising options on Facebook. Each placement caters well to selected ad types on Facebook, which can provide a better user experience to audiences, leading to better ad performances for your campaigns.
It’s time to move to the next part of our Facebook advertising guide: understanding the correct Facebook ad sizes and specs. This will ensure that your ads look their best when they appear on people’s screens.
Strike Overview
- Launched in 2017, Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO)—now known as Meta Advantage Campaign Budget—was designed to reduce the manual effort of managing ad costs by leveraging Meta’s AI for budget allocation.
- If your Facebook ads aren’t delivering the expected results, this tool can help optimize spending. But how can you maximize its benefits while maintaining control over your advertising budget?
- Learn how to strike the right balance between cost efficiency and performance by properly utilizing Meta Advantage Campaign Budget (Facebook CBO).
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This post was updated in February 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Optimize Your Facebook Ad Spend with Meta Advantage Campaign Budget (CBO)
Beyond your Facebook advertising metrics — the traffic to your website, the leads generated — another critical aspect to monitor closely is your Facebook ad spend. The challenge lies in allocating your campaign budget not just evenly across your ad groups and their respective ads, but more importantly, towards those showing superior performance. Traditionally, this has been a manual task for media buyers, requiring constant oversight.
The introduction of Meta Advantage campaign budget (formerly campaign budget optimization) feature aims to alleviate this task from the shoulders of advertisers and media buyers. This brings us to a crucial inquiry: Can we trust Meta’s AI to manage our budgets effectively? More importantly, how can media buyers maintain a level of involvement and control in this automated process?
Common Mistakes When Managing Facebook Campaign Budgets
Media buyers are responsible for overseeing ad costs to ensure that the ad spend is effectively channeled towards the most successful ad groups and ads. This strategy also prevents poorly performing ones from consuming the entire budget for Facebook ads.
Given that media buyers cannot monitor campaign budgets and ad spend 24/7, certain errors commonly occur when budgets are not adequately supervised:
Setting fixed budgets across all ad sets regardless of performance
- Initially allocating ad budgets evenly across all ad sets is a reasonable strategy at the start of your Facebook campaigns.
- However, once the campaigns begin to show results in terms of conversions or website traffic — typically around the two-week mark or the Learning phase — it becomes essential to redistribute the budgets for Facebook ads towards the better-performing ones.
Lack of data analysis for budget reallocations
- An important consideration in setting up a Facebook campaign is deciding which key metric to focus on, depending on your campaign’s goal. For objectives related to website reach and awareness, the CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) should be your primary metric.
- Budget adjustments made without considering the appropriate metrics, such as focusing on CPC (cost per click) instead, may not support the campaign’s objectives effectively.
Disregarding pacing and optimization features
- Advertising platforms, including Facebook, offer various features that allow for a more transparent view of how your budget is being spent. Facebook Ads Manager provides recommendations and alerts to help you enhance your budget and ad performance.
- These notifications should not be ignored; they are valuable resources that, when utilized effectively, can significantly improve the efficiency of your ad spend.
Further Reading


Effective Campaign Pacing in Paid Social Advertising
A well-paced paid social campaign ensures steady results, whether for short-term promotions or long-term growth. By managing campaign pacing effectively, you can maximize performance during peak periods while keeping costs under control.
How Meta Advantage Campaign Budget Works
With Meta Advantage Campaign Budget (Facebook campaign budget optimization), advertisers have the ability to establish a single, unified campaign budget. This budget is then dynamically allocated across various ad sets to prioritize those showing the best performance, all in real-time.
Through Meta’s advanced AI technology, the system continuously evaluates the performance of each ad set. It then dynamically redistributes the campaign budget, prioritizing ad sets that are delivering the best results. This process happens automatically, relieving media buyers from the task of manually adjusting Facebook ad budget allocations across different ad sets.
By ensuring that a larger portion of your budget is spent on ad sets that are performing well, Facebook CBO maximizes the ROI of your advertising efforts. This automated optimization process allows businesses to achieve better campaign outcomes, requiring minimal manual intervention.


Advantage Campaign Budget In Action
To offer a clearer understanding, let’s examine how Meta Advantage campaign budget allocates your ad spending and the importance of individual optimization for each ad set.
(Note: This example is purely illustrative. All numbers are fictional and do not reflect any real campaigns.)
For example, your brand will launch an Awareness campaign to introduce a new product and gauge market response. You decide to activate three ad sets for the campaign, organized by ad format:
- Image ad set
- Video ad set
- Carousel ad set
With an allocated budget for the campaign at $1,000 for 1 month, you set up a lifetime budget and turn on the Advantage campaign budget option.
With your ads under Facebook’s campaign budget optimization, the system initiates a learning phase for your ads. During this phase, it assesses each ad set’s performance and determines the optimal budget distribution.
For instance, should the Carousel ad sets outperform the others by the second week, Facebook CBO might adjust the budget distribution to:


This redistribution reflects CBO’s ability to allocate budgets dynamically based on ongoing performance analysis. However, if the Video ad sets initially underperform, it’s advisable not to deactivate them prematurely. CBO continues to monitor and analyze all ad sets throughout the campaign duration.
For example, if after four weeks, the Video ad sets start performing better, CBO might then adjust the budget to enhance their reach:


This example underscores the intelligence of Facebook CBO in managing ad spend. It dynamically reallocates budgets based on performance, ensuring no opportunity for optimization is missed, even with ad sets that may take longer to show their full potential.
Make Budget Allocation Effortless with Facebook CBO
Eliminate the worry of needing to constantly monitor your campaigns for fear that ad performance might dip in your absence. The essence of Facebook campaign budget optimization is to lift this burden from advertisers, allowing you to concentrate on broader strategic objectives such as data analysis and campaign performance decisions.
Rather than seeing it as giving up control, consider campaign budget optimization as a sophisticated tool working on your behalf. This approach doesn’t mean you’re stepping back entirely; instead, you remain an integral part of the decision-making process, guiding the AI rather than being sidelined by it.
A committed and expert advertising partner is crucial for the success of any digital campaign. Engage with Strike Social‘s Facebook advertising professionals and experience the difference that expert insight and strategic use of tools can make. Let us show you how Strike Social can be a valuable ally in your advertising strategy.
Client Objective
For a health and fitness club with 2,400+ locations, the brand needed a campaign that could flex its membership benefits and promotions at the local level. Each gym runs its own weekly offers, requiring messaging that feels personal and timely to its surrounding community.
To meet this challenge, the brand partnered with Strike Social to build a Facebook advertising strategy that could scale nationally while staying locally relevant. The campaign combined dynamic creative rotation, location-specific pixel tracking, and interest-based audience targeting, all tailored to each locale’s unique goals and budget.


Campaign Outcome
Strike Social’s Facebook strategy drove strong results by allocating budget across diverse locations, each with unique audience behaviors and demands. This localized approach not only accelerated membership growth but also showcased scalable, hyper-targeted media execution.
913K
Club memberships generated through the Facebook campaign
24%
Nearly 1 in 4 link clicks led to a successful registration
3.7M
Total link clicks, reinforcing strong engagement and reach


Turning Local Awareness into Nationwide Sign-Ups using Targeted Facebook Ads
- Enhanced Tracking and Retargeting with Facebook Pixels: Strike Social implemented localized Facebook Pixels to support individual club pages, ensuring accurate behavioral tracking and retargeting. This allowed each club to deliver relevant messaging to users most likely to convert.
- Strategic Creative Rotation and Budget Management: Creative assets were updated regularly to reflect the latest in-store offers across various locations. Combined with a tightly managed internal workflow, this enabled Strike Social to adjust budgets dynamically on a per-club basis.
- Targeted Audience Acquisition for Higher Sign-Up Rates: Interest-based targeting ensured that ads reached users who were already inclined to join. The campaign drove more qualified traffic and improved conversion rates across all locations by narrowing in on high-intent audiences (like those interested in health, fitness, or local deals).
See other Facebook ad case studies.
Download the Facebook Health and Fitness Campaign Case Study
Want to see how localized, data-driven Facebook ad strategies can improve your paid media performance?
Are you new to Facebook marketing and seeking a one-stop resource for the Facebook ad glossary? We’ve got you covered. Here’s an all-inclusive compilation of essential Facebook marketing terms, from the basics of ad creation to the intricacies of pixels and conversions. Find all your Facebook ad terms conveniently gathered in one accessible resource.
Mastering the Basics of Facebook Marketing with the Facebook Ad Glossary
Venturing into Facebook advertising can be intimidating without a grasp of the basics. That’s why we’ve crafted this Facebook ad glossary for advertisers eager to explore Facebook advertising but still determining where to begin. With ad experts anticipating a robust year in 2024, projecting up to $55.77 billion in revenue, aspiring brands should quickly secure their share of this lucrative market.
As you familiarize yourself with the ideas and concepts, you’ll better understand how Facebook advertising operates. Like other paid social media platforms, you’ll find it easier to piece together the puzzle as you delve into the process.
Understanding Facebook Marketing Terms
Advanced Facebook Ad Terms for Audience Targeting
Facebook Glossary for Ad Management
Facebook Ad Glossary for Additional Terms
Let’s start by unraveling the fundamental Facebook terminologies – the building blocks every media buyer should be well-versed in during the initial stages.
Account Concepts
Campaign Concepts
Goals and Objective
As you gain a more profound comprehension of the core Facebook terms, let’s enhance your understanding of the Facebook ad glossary by acquainting you with terms associated with audience targeting.
Facebook Ad Glossary for Fundamental Targeting Terms
Demographics
Interests and Behaviors
In this section, we present a comprehensive Facebook glossary focused on ad management. Explore the key Facebook marketing terms that aid in understanding the performance of your ads and the metrics you’re measuring.
Facebook Ads Setup
Budget and Bidding
Ad Delivery Optimization
Metrics and Reporting
There are additional Facebook marketing terms that we didn’t categorize but are still highly relevant to Facebook advertising. Explore these terms here:
See the Facebook marketing terms in alphabetical order below. You can also click from the sections above to jump on the Facebook glossary ad term you are looking for.
2-second continuous video plays: The count of instances where your video ad played continuously for at least 2 seconds, with at least 50% of the video pixels in view.
3-second video plays: The tally of instances where your video ad played for at least 3 seconds.
Account currency: The currency is utilized to settle costs within an ad account.
Account ID: A distinctive identifier assigned by Facebook to an ad account.
Account name: The designated name for an ad account.
Account spending limit: The maximum allowable spending for an ad account.
Accounts Center: A centralized tool designed for the oversight of ad accounts across various Facebook apps and services.
Ad account: An individual account established for the administration of advertising activities on Facebook.
Ad creative: The content of an ad, encompasses images, videos, and text.
Ad frequency capping: A control mechanism to manage the number of times you reach your audience. Useful when aiming to avoid excessive exposure to the same individuals.
Ad library: A searchable database containing all active and inactive ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Ad set budget: The overall amount of money allocated for a particular ad set, comprising a group of ads with a shared budget, schedule, and target audience.
Ad set delivery: The method employed to distribute ads within an ad set, including standard delivery or accelerated delivery.
Ad set name: The designated name for an ad set to facilitate easy identification within an ad account.
Ad set optimization: The process of defining specific objectives for an ad set, like link clicks, impressions, or daily unique reach, to assist Facebook in delivering ads to individuals most likely to take the desired action.
Ads API: A tool enabling the creation and management of ads programmatically.
Age: A demographic targeting option defines your ads’ audience within a specific age group.
Age and gender: Demographic targeting options specify the age and gender of the audience, as indicated in their Facebook profiles.
Attribution model: The rule or set of rules determining how credit for conversions is assigned to touchpoints in conversion paths.
Attribution setting: The method through which conversions are attributed to your ads.
Audience: The group of people you aim to reach with your ads.
Audience Network: A network of approved mobile app publishers displaying ads in their apps on behalf of Facebook.
Audience targeting: The act of fine-tuning the audience for an ad based on specific criteria, such as demographics, interests, or behaviors.
Auto-refresh impressions: The number of times an ad is displayed to the same individual due to automatic refreshing of a webpage or app.
Awareness objective: A campaign designed to enhance people’s awareness and recognition of your business.
A/B testing: A method of comparing two versions of an ad to determine which one performs better.
Backup payment method: A secondary payment method is used when the primary payment method fails.
Bid strategy: The approach is employed to determine the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for the desired results.
Billing summary: A report detailing the expenditure on an ad account during a specific period.
Billing threshold: The amount that must be spent on an ad account before payment is required.
Budget: Total budget allocated depending on the ad level (campaign, ad set, or ad level).
Campaign budget: The overall budget allocated for a specific ad campaign.
Campaign budget optimization (now Meta Advantage campaign budget): A feature that autonomously distributes your campaign budget among ad sets to attain optimal results.
Campaign ID: An exclusive identifier assigned by Facebook to a campaign.
Campaign lifetime budget: The overall sum allocated for spending on a campaign throughout its duration.
Campaign name: The designated name for a specific campaign.
Campaign objective: The intended goal for a campaign, whether it’s brand awareness, conversions, or another objective.
Campaign spending limit: The highest allowable amount of spending for a particular campaign.
Carousel ads: An ad format allowing multiple images or videos within a single ad unit.
Clicks: The total number of times users clicked on your ad.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of individuals who viewed your ad and executed a link click.
Content views: The total number of times users viewed your content, whether video or image.
Conversion lift studies: A tool measuring the impact of Facebook ads on offline sales.
Conversion tracking: The process of monitoring and measuring the actions users take after clicking on your ads.
Conversions: The count of instances where individuals completed a desired action after clicking on your ads, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Cost per acquisition (CPA): The average cost paid for each conversion.
Cost per click (CPC): The average cost incurred for each click on your ad links.
Cost per impression (CPM): The average cost for every 1,000 ad impressions.
Cost per lead (CPL): The average cost paid for each generated lead.
Cost per view (CPV): The average cost paid for each view of your video ad.
Custom audience: A target audience created from existing customer data, such as email addresses or phone numbers.
Daily Active People (DAP): The count of unique individuals taking an action on your ad or Page within a specific day.
Daily Active Users (DAU): The number of unique individuals taking an action on your ad or Page within a specific day.
Daily budget: The average amount earmarked for an ad set or campaign every day.
Dark posts: Unpublished Page posts utilized as ads.
Demographic targeting: Targeting ads to a particular audience based on demographic factors like age, gender, education, and employment.
Dynamic ads: Ads automatically displaying relevant products to individuals who have shown interest in your website, app, or elsewhere on the Internet.
Dynamic product ads: A type of ad automatically promoting products to people who have expressed interest on your website, in your app, or elsewhere on the Internet.
Engagement campaign: This campaign objective aims to stimulate interaction with your content, facilitating increased likes, comments, shares, and event responses to your posts.
Engagement rate: The percentage of individuals who viewed and engaged with your ad (clicked, liked, commented, shared, or expanded it).
Engagement targeting: Targeting individuals who have previously interacted with your content or Page.
Estimated audience size: An approximation of the number of people in your target audience.
Facebook algorithm: The set of rules and calculations employed by Facebook to determine the ads shown to specific users.
Facebook Feed: The main section of the Facebook app or website where people see posts and ads from friends, family, and Pages they follow.
Facebook pixel: A specialized Facebook tool was aiding in tracking conversions, optimizing ads, and constructing targeted audiences.
Impressions: The total count of times your ads were displayed on the screen.
Instant form: A type of Facebook ad allowing users to fill out a form without requiring them to leave the platform.
Interest targeting: Targeting ads to a specific audience based on their interests and hobbies.
Landing page: The webpage users are directed to after clicking on an ad.
Lead generation campaign: A campaign that aims to collect contact information from potential customers by prompting individuals to complete a form with their contact details.
Lifetime budget: The total amount designated for a campaign throughout its full duration.
Lookalike audience: A target audience is fashioned based on the characteristics of an existing audience.
Lookalike audience refinement: The process of refining a lookalike audience based on specific criteria, like location or interests.
Meta Ads Manager: The platform for creating and managing Facebook and Instagram ads.
Meta Advantage campaign budget (formerly campaign budget optimization): A feature automatically distributing your campaign budget across ad sets to achieve optimal results.
Meta Business Suite: A tool where businesses can manage their Facebook and Instagram presence across multiple platforms.
Meta Business Tools: A suite of tools designed to help businesses manage their Facebook and Instagram presence.
Meta Pixel standard events: A predefined set of actions tracked using the Facebook Pixel, like adding an item to a cart or making a purchase.
Monthly Active People (MAP): The count of unique individuals taking an action on your ad or Page in a given month.
Monthly Active Users (MAU): The number of unique individuals taking an action on your ad or Page in a given month.
Multi-product ads: An ad format where brands can showcase multiple products within a single ad unit.
News feed: The primary section of the Facebook app or website where users view posts and ads from friends, family, and followed Pages.
Placements: The locations where your ads appear, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Audience Network.
Post engagements: The total number of times people engaged with your post, including likes, comments, or shares.
Reach: The total count of individuals who saw your ads at least once.
Retargeting: Displaying ads to people who have previously engaged with your business.
Retargeting window: The timeframe within which you can show retargeting ads to individuals who have interacted with your business.
Sales objective: A campaign targeted for people to take valuable actions on your website or app, such as event registration, adding items to the cart, or making a purchase.
Saved audiences: Audiences saved for future use in your Facebook ad campaigns.
Traffic objective: This particular campaign objective directs people to your website or app, assisting in garnering more clicks by optimizing for link clicks or landing page views.
Video views: The total count of times your video ad was viewed for 3 seconds or more.
Website click conversion: The number of individuals who clicked on your ad and subsequently completed a desired action on your website, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
Your Handbook to Facebook Advertising: Access the Facebook Glossary of Ad Terms
Mastering the fundamentals of Facebook advertising is crucial for anyone looking to make the most of their marketing efforts on the platform. From understanding the various terms and concepts to delving into the intricacies of ad setup, targeting options, and metrics, a solid grasp of these elements can significantly impact the success of your campaigns.
While other paid social media advertising platforms may share similar terms, their applications can differ. We aim to construct this Facebook ad glossary to cater to new advertisers and experienced media buyers. Memorization is not mandatory, but keeping this guide accessible for your Facebook marketing terms can prove valuable.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:
- Father’s Day Advertising with Meta Advantage+: Tips for Smart Audience Targeting
- Smarter Paid Search with Google’s AI Max for Search Campaigns
- Google Marketing Live 2025 Recap: Key YouTube and Google Ads Updates for Advertisers
- Marketing to Gen Z: Social Media Strategies for Performance-Driven Brands
- TikTok News and Updates Q1 2025: What Advertisers Need to Know
- YouTube Shorts Views Are Changing: How You Can Adapt Your Paid Ads Strategy
Facebook ad rejection reasons can stem from something as innocent as including “CBD” in your ad. Your ad can be flagged and stopped even when it refers to “Central Business District” and not the drug. While you may have confidence in your ads, Facebook’s ad review process can result in unexpected rejections or account suspensions. Even if your ads initially gain approval, there can still be instances where ads get rejected mid-campaign.
In this guide, we’ll troubleshoot Facebook ad rejection reasons and equip you with the knowledge to tackle these hurdles confidently.
Crack the Code to Avoid These Common Reasons for Facebook Ad Disapproval
When you advertise on Facebook, there is more than just the regular review process you should be concerned about. Your ads might undergo random reviews to ensure they align with Facebook’s Advertising Standards. The catch? You won’t know about this review until you are notified that your ads stopped.
So, why let the uncertainty of potential Facebook ad rejection loom over your campaigns? Why fret about the ad rejection reasons when you can be absolutely certain that your ads comply with the guidelines? In this blog, we’ll show you how to ensure that ad disapproval becomes a thing of the past.
- What are the most common reasons for Facebook rejecting ads?
- How can I appeal a Facebook ad rejection?
What are the Most Common Facebook Ad Rejection Reasons?
Facebook’s ad platform provides an extensive range of options for reaching your target audience. However, it also comes with its guidelines that advertisers must strictly follow. There’s nothing more frustrating than receiving an email from Facebook support only to discover that your ad has been disapproved. Therefore, understanding the common reasons for Facebook ad disapproval can help streamline the often tedious ad appeal process.
Prohibited and restricted content
Facebook maintains a stringent stance on what it considers restricted and prohibited content within advertising. Restricted content may receive approval but with specific conditions, often influenced by regional regulations. Prohibited content, including hate speech, violence, and illegal products or services, is unequivocally off-limits.
Examples of prohibited content span a wide spectrum, including:
- Nudity or other sexually suggestive content
- Hate speech, credible threats or direct attacks on an individual or group
- Content that contains self-harm or excessive violence
- Fake or impostor profiles
- Spam
Personal attributes
Another example of Facebook ad rejection reasons are instances when ads directly assert or subtly imply personal attributes. These include but are not limited to race, ethnicity, religion, age, or sexual orientation. Be cautious not to target or discriminate against users based on these characteristics inadvertently.
Unrealistic claims
Facebook takes a strong stance against ads that make exaggerated or unattainable claims. If your ad promises something unrealistic or impossible, it’s likely to be rejected. For instance, claiming a whitening lotion can quickly lighten skin tone in two days would not meet Facebook’s standards.
Maintaining integrity in your advertising is essential to offering achievable and credible promises to your audience.
Special ad categories
These categories encompass credit, employment, and housing-related ads and come with specific guidelines that advertisers must be aware of.
One notable feature of Special ad categories is their more limited audience targeting options compared to standard ad categories. Age targeting, geographical targeting, exclusions, and lookalike audiences are all subject to stricter limitations under Facebook ad compliance guidelines. Advertisers can create specialized saved audiences designed to focus solely on their desired database or audience.
Ad rejections beyond ad content
It’s not just about the content and images within your ad; the destination of your links plays a critical role. Facebook assesses the legitimacy and security of the links you provide. Ads that direct users to non-secure or unsafe domains will likely fail the Facebook ad review process.
Facebook ad guidelines on external links
You may get your ad denied on Facebook if your links commit any of the following infractions:
- Misleading links that deceive users
- Landing pages lacking transparency and trustworthiness
- Distribution of fake news
- Inconsistent domains where the displayed URL doesn’t match the actual destination
- Broken links leading to frustrating user experiences
Media buyers must recognize that the adjustments needed for each ad can differ significantly. Dig deeper into Facebook’s terms and guidelines to determine the specific reasons why your ads were not approved. By closely examining these factors, you can identify precisely why your ads may be rejected on the platform.
How Can I Appeal a Facebook Ad Rejection?


When your ads get denied on Facebook, you must note the steps you must take. Here’s a breakdown of what happens and how to address it:
- You will receive an email alerting you that your ad has been stopped.
Pro tip: Remain vigilant against spam emails masquerading as Facebook notifications – these are common forms of identity theft. Only trust emails from legitimate Facebook domains.
- The email notification should contain vital information, including:
- The specific Facebook advertising policies or standards that your ad violated
- Detailed information about the rejected ad/s:
- Name of the ad
- A preview of the ad copy
- Identification of the specific policy or standard that the ad did not comply with
- A button directing you to the Ad Manager, allowing you to make necessary updates to your ads
How to Resubmit an Ad Denied on Facebook
Now that you have uncovered the Facebook ad rejection reasons, it’s time to address the issue and make the necessary corrections.
- Start by going to Ads Manager.
- Select the ads you wish to edit by checking the boxes.
- Select the Edit option. This opens a side panel where you can make the necessary adjustments to your ad. Your edits will vary depending on the specific reason for the rejection (related to a Facebook advertising policy or standard).
You can make changes to:- Ad names
- The Facebook Page associated with the ad
- Images or videos used in the ad
- If needed, you can also customize images or videos for specific ad placements within the ad set.
- If all required changes have been completed, click on Publish. This makes sure that the edits you made are active.
Your ad will again undergo the Facebook ad compliance check, and it will go live upon approval.
How to Resolve Ads Incorrectly Rejected by Facebook
If you believe your ads were wrongly rejected on Facebook, an ad appeal process is in place to address such issues.
- First, go to Business Support Home.
- Identify the account or catalog containing the ads that were rejected.
- Choose the specific ads, ad sets, or campaigns you believe were incorrectly rejected.
- Click on the information (i) icon to access a detailed explanation of why your ad was rejected.
- If you firmly believe your ad should not be rejected, click Request Review. This is your opportunity to provide additional context and information that supports your claim, explaining why your ad should go live.
After supplying the necessary details, click Submit to request a review officially.
You can keep tabs on the status of your review request within Business Support Home. If Facebook reevaluates and reverses its initial decision, your ad will align with the status of your campaign. If your campaign is active, your ad will automatically resume delivery.
However, you cannot request another review if you receive another Facebook ad disapproval. The ad will then remain in a rejected state.
Requesting a review for your rejected ad offers a unique advantage. Unlike the initial ad review, reevaluation requests undergo a more thorough assessment by teams of human reviewers. This process aims to rectify errors and ensure fairness in ad approvals.
It’s worth highlighting that seeking a review will not adversely affect your association with Meta. Instead, it signifies a standard practice promoting transparency and fairness within the Facebook ad review process.
Your Complete Guide to Resolving Facebook Ad Rejection Reasons
From the onset, we emphasized the importance of proactive compliance with Facebook’s strict standards. When advertising, in general, compliance with the platform’s exacting standards is non-negotiable. Random ad reviews require vigilance to prevent Facebook ad rejection reasons that can halt your campaigns unexpectedly.
Get yourself armed with a deep understanding of the rules, the ability to make crucial adjustments, and the knowledge to effectively maneuver Facebook’s ad review process.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:
- Father’s Day Advertising with Meta Advantage+: Tips for Smart Audience Targeting
- Smarter Paid Search with Google’s AI Max for Search Campaigns
- Google Marketing Live 2025 Recap: Key YouTube and Google Ads Updates for Advertisers
- Marketing to Gen Z: Social Media Strategies for Performance-Driven Brands
- TikTok News and Updates Q1 2025: What Advertisers Need to Know
- YouTube Shorts Views Are Changing: How You Can Adapt Your Paid Ads Strategy
MediaOcean’s 2023 Outlook Report highlights that 40% of marketers feel uneasy about the escalating prominence of brand safety issues. With an upsurge in awareness among social media advertisers about potential risks, they understand the necessity for vigilant monitoring and scrutiny of ad placements. However, the issue persists, and the imperative to safeguard your online reputation is as important as ever.
How Can Facebook Brand Safety Defend Your Digital Presence
Facebook stands as the go-to platform for advertisers, boasting an impressive global ad reach of 2.08 billion individuals. This positions it as a vital platform for marketers striving for substantial growth. However, the broad user base and far-reaching influence of Facebook provide both unparalleled opportunities and potential pitfalls for businesses and advertisers alike.
Therefore, it’s a top priority for brands to steer clear of associations with unsuitable content. From fraudulent accounts and harmful content to ad scams and ill-suited ad placements, advertisers need to be cognizant of these hazards and take preventative measures to counteract them.
- Why Is Brand Safety Important?
- How Far Do Facebook Brand Safety Tools Go?
- Exploring Facebook’s Brand Safety Tools And Features
- What Happens When My Facebook Ads Appear With Inappropriate Content?
- Strike Social: Your Ally in Safeguarding Your Ad on Facebook
- Building Trust: The Key Role of Brand Safety on Facebook
Why Is Brand Safety Important?
Regardless of the company’s size or the popularity of its Facebook account, there are a multitude of reasons why brand safety should be prioritized above all else.
- Preventing advertisers from the potential harm of having their ads displayed alongside unsuitable content;
- Helping maintain consistency and relevance, ensuring that ads are displayed in environments that align with the brand’s values, and resonate with the intended target audience;
- Avoiding ad placements on websites with a high likelihood of producing counterfeit or fraudulent clicks.
Given Facebook’s diverse spectrum of content being disseminated every feed’s refresh, it necessitates diligent attention towards digital brand safety. For businesses, securing a safe brand persona on Facebook is indispensable as it directly impacts customer perception and trustworthiness. Consequently, if ads are exhibited alongside objectionable content, it can lead to detrimental associations and diminish the brand’s credibility.
In a period where social media outrage can proliferate rapidly, a minor lapse in brand safety can escalate into a full-scale crisis, inflicting considerable financial and reputational damage.
How Far Do Facebook Brand Safety Tools Go?
Facebook’s brand safety tools work diligently to shield your ads from appearing adjacent to content that may not align with your company’s principles or desired image.
However, while this tool offers clear benefits to brands eager to avoid controversy, it doesn’t guarantee universal advantages. The decisions made by Facebook, particularly concerning political advertisers, have sparked controversy, especially amongst digital strategists and advertisers. Stringent adherence to Facebook’s content guidelines becomes vital for these businesses to circumvent account suspension.
Yet, it’s essential to remember that brand safety isn’t solely about advertisers. It is also intended to protect Meta users. By suppressing harmful content, Facebook strives to cultivate a safer, more engaging experience for all its users. Shielding viewers from encountering offensive material is a fundamental part of Facebook’s commitment to maintaining a positive user environment.
As a leading social advertising platform, Facebook understands the significance of balancing brand protection with individual responsibility. The platform recognizes the need to tactfully navigate these aspects to foster a harmonious and beneficial digital space for all its users.
Related article: Everything You Need to Know About TikTok Brand Safety and Suitability Tools
Free Gift: Grab your copy of the Facebook Brand Safety Tools Guide and be equipped with the essential knowledge to proactively manage your ads on this vast platform. Gain insights into the powerful brand safety and suitability tools offered by Facebook and learn how to avoid unsuitable ad placements that could undermine your campaign’s effectiveness.
Exploring Facebook’s Brand Safety Tools and Features
A range of tools is now available to advertisers, designed to fortify Facebook’s brand safety and suitability, ensuring advertisements are shown in appropriate contexts. Here are some key brand safety features offered by Facebook:
Please note: The availability of these features may be progressive; they may not be visible to all users immediately.
1. Manual Placements: This feature of Facebook’s brand safety suite lets advertisers select precise locations where they want their ads to appear across Meta Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. If there are particular environments on these platforms where you prefer not to display your ads, you can opt out of Meta Advantage+ placements by deselecting those options.


Source: Social Media Examiner
2. Content Exclusions: With the help of content exclusion controls, prevent your ads from being showcased next to specific types of content, such as Crime and Tragedy, News & Politics, and Social Issues.



3. Inventory Filter: The Inventory Filter on Facebook allows advertisers additional control over sensitive content for select ad placements, including Facebook in-stream video, Ads on Facebook Reels, and Audience Network. This feature empowers advertisers to dictate the nature of content their ads will be positioned alongside.


Please note: To qualify for these placements, publishers must adhere to Facebook’s policies.
4. Delivery Reports: Advertisers have access to delivery insights that deliver transparency on ad delivery locations. This granular data aids in monitoring ad placements, identifying potential brand safety threats, and making data-driven decisions for their campaigns.
5. Brand Safety Partners: Facebook has joined forces with reliable brand safety partners to consistently enhance brand safety controls and tools, addressing the ever-evolving needs of advertisers. These partnerships highlight Facebook’s commitment to transparency, control, and equipping advertisers with the necessary tools to optimize ad placements. Partners include:
- Zefr
- DoubleVerify
- Integral Ad Science
- OpenSlate
It’s important to remember that although these tools and controls aim to enhance Facebook’s brand safety, no system is foolproof, and occasional glitches may still occur. Therefore, advertisers should regularly review and update their brand safety settings to ensure their advertisements align with their preferred standards.
Related article: Guide To TikTok Inventory Filter: Safeguarding Brand’s Presence
What Happens When My Facebook Ads Appear With Inappropriate Content?
Facebook has encountered issues in guaranteeing brand safety, leading to detrimental consequences for advertisers. A significant instance of this took place in 2020 when numerous key advertisers, including renowned brands like Starbucks and Diageo, joined a boycott in response to concerns about Facebook’s handling of misinformation and hate speech. This collective action spotlighted the escalating concerns among marketers regarding Facebook’s effectiveness in ensuring brand safety.
Such instances underscore the challenges Facebook grapples with in preserving brand safety. They also accentuate the importance for advertisers to consistently supervise ad placements, leverage content exclusion tools, and collaborate with platforms to avoid associating their ads with unsuitable or harmful content.
Here are some potential consequences when your ads are shown next to inappropriate content:
- Brand Damage: Displaying ads next to offensive or inappropriate content can harm the associated brands’ reputation and image. Users may link the brand to the harmful content, forming negative perceptions, which could lead to a loss of trust and potential customers.
- Negative User Experience: Users who see ads adjacent to unsuitable content might find it offensive, distressing, or irrelevant. This can cause a poor user experience, frustration, and a negative perception of both the content and the advertiser.
- Loss of Ad Effectiveness: Users are less likely to interact with or click on ads displayed alongside objectionable content. This can lead to reduced click-through rates, conversions, and overall slowing down return on investment for advertisers.
These negative effects emphasize the importance of proactive ad monitoring and taking responsibility for brand safety. By strategically employing Facebook’s brand safety tools and ensuring you’re leveraging their full potential, you can protect your brand’s reputation and ensure your ads are shown in appropriate contexts.
Strike Social: Your Ally in Safeguarding Your Ad on Facebook
At Strike Social, we prioritize your brand’s safety on Facebook by offering comprehensive campaign management tailored to your advertising initiatives.
Our approach involves managing your account meticulously and consistently monitoring all activities. Our vigilant monitoring enables us to respond immediately to potential incidents and pause ads or campaigns when necessary. This swift action mitigates potential risks, thereby protecting your brand’s reputation.
Our devoted team of professionals strives to manage your account with the highest level of diligence. We aim to provide more than just optimization – we ensure every element of your campaigns runs seamlessly. Our stringent monitoring processes allow us to closely track your ads’ performance and address any issues as soon as possible.


Photo by Brian Jones from Unsplash
We consistently enhance our brand safety process to align with the ever-evolving advertising platforms’ rules and policies. Request a personalized walkthrough today and explore how our cutting-edge brand safety solutions can safeguard your digital business landscape.
Additionally, due to the high volume of campaigns we’ve managed on Facebook and other advertising platforms, we’ve been assigned a dedicated support team for each campaign. We aim to provide personalized support and expert guidance on your brand safety journey on Facebook.
Building Trust: The Key Role of Brand Safety on Facebook
Regardless of a company’s size or industry, Facebook’s brand suitability and safety tools are accessible to all advertisers. Even if you solely utilize Facebook to promote your business, investing in the platform’s tools and measures is always wise.
The importance of Facebook brand safety cannot be emphasized enough. By prioritizing digital brand safety, businesses can cultivate consumer trust, uphold a positive image, and foster enduring success on the world’s most comprehensive social media platform. As social media keeps evolving, maintaining a proactive and vigilant stance in safeguarding brand safety on Facebook is key to thriving in the digital world.



Since its inception in 2019, Facebook’s Inventory Filter has played a crucial role in fortifying the platform’s commitment to brand safety. Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, introduced this innovation as a strategic response to the rising concerns about hate speech, offensive content, and misinformation proliferating in News Feeds.
As part of a comprehensive approach, the Inventory Filter serves a vital purpose: to ensure that your advertisements are displayed solely within or adjacent to content deemed suitable and safe for advertising.
A Comprehensive Guide To Mastering The Facebook Inventory Filter
- What Is The Facebook Inventory Filter?
- Setting Up The Facebook Inventory Filter
- Best Practices for Facebook Brand Safety and Suitability
Designed to align with brand suitability, the Facebook Inventory Filter places your ads only in contexts that meet advertising standards. The Facebook Brand Safety Toolkit automatically weeds out content that may be overly contentious or offensive – whether it’s explicit nudity, excessive violence, terroristic activities, or misinformation flagged by third-party fact-checkers.
But the capabilities of this feature extend beyond these basic safeguards. The filter allows you to refine your ad placements further, ensuring they align with content that resonates with your brand values. This degree of control allows you to foster a brand-safe environment, enhancing both the integrity of your brand and the trust of your customers.
This comprehensive guide aims to explore the intricacies of the Facebook Inventory Filter. Learn its benefits, and provide valuable insights to help you master this brand safety tool.
What Is The Facebook Inventory Filter?
Regarded as an instrumental tool for brand safety, the Facebook Inventory Filter provides advertisers with a robust mechanism to control the sensitivity level of the content where ads are displayed. This brand suitability and safety tool ensures that ads are displayed only in suitable contexts, minimizing the chance of your ads being juxtaposed with controversial or inappropriate content.
To fully understand the functionality of this feature, it’s important to explore the two key ad formats where you can customize your Facebook inventory filter settings:
- Feed ads: These ads integrate seamlessly into users’ browsing journeys, enabling marketers to reach the target audience as they scroll through their social media feeds.


- In-content ads: These ads present an exciting opportunity for advertisers to engage audiences across a range of formats, such as in-stream videos, Facebook Reels, and the Audience Network.


Related Article: What Happens When My Facebook Ads Appear With Inappropriate Content?
How Does The Inventory Filter Work?
The Facebook Inventory Filter offers a considerable level of customization based on their desired level of sensitivity. With this brand safety feature, digital media buyers have the flexibility to choose from these three Facebook Inventory Filter settings:
Expanded Inventory (Full inventory): Ideal for advertisers seeking broad exposure. This setting maximizes ad reach, running the ads to a wider audience. It also allows the ads to be displayed on all content that complies with Facebook’s Content Monetization Policies.
Moderate Inventory (Standard inventory): This option strikes a balance between broad reach and brand safety. By choosing the Moderate setting, you can ensure that your Facebook ads are displayed in a context that aligns with your brand values while still maintaining a significant level of reach.
Limited Inventory: Provides the highest level of content sensitivity and brand safety. The limited setting is particularly suitable for advertisers who prioritize brand reputation and want their ads to be displayed only in the most strictly curated and controlled environments. While this option reduces the campaign reach and may incur higher costs, it offers a heightened level of control of suitability over the content with which your brand is associated.
By default, Facebook has pre-set inventory settings for different ad placements. For In-content placements, the default setting is Moderate, ads are displayed in a context that is appropriate for most audiences. For Feed placements, the default setting is Expanded, allowing maximum audience reach.
Related article: A Detailed Guide to TikTok Inventory Filter Tiers for Improved Content Suitability
Inventory Filter Guidelines: Content Exclusions and Inclusions
The functionality of the Facebook Inventory Filter varies depending on the ad placement type, be it in-content and Feed ads, or those within the Audience Network. Each type follows specific guidelines to ensure proper content alignment. Let’s explore the filtering mechanisms for each category.
For enhanced control over brand presence within Facebook Feed and Instagram mobile feeds, advertisers can adjust the Facebook Inventory Filter at the ad account level. Media buyers can fine-tune the content alongside which their ads appear. Aligned with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) framework, these filters assure a responsible and brand-safe advertising environment.
Here’s a breakdown of the guidelines for what each filter includes and excludes:


When it comes to ads placed within the Audience Network, Facebook employs a different approach. Apps within the Audience Network undergo a thorough review process and are labeled based on their primary use or function. This classification enables Facebook to ensure content adherence to the Audience Network Policy and Community Standards. By default, any content that violates these policies will be excluded from ad placements.
Let’s take a closer look into the specific content categories and the inclusion and exclusion associated with each setting of the Facebook Inventory Filter.


Setting Up The Facebook Inventory Filter
Facebook provides two main avenues for configuring your inventory filter settings:
- Brand Safety and Suitability Controls; and
- Ads Manager.
Let’s explore these options in detail to help you effectively configure the Facebook Inventory Filter for your advertising campaigns.
Brand Safety and Suitability Controls
1. Go to Ads Manager.
2. Click on All tools, and go to Brand Safety and Suitability.


3. Under Controls, you will see the default setup for the Facebook inventory filter. To update these settings, click on the Edit or the pen icon on the right side of the screen.


4. By clicking on Edit for Facebook in-stream videos, and Ads on Facebook Reels, you can update the settings to Full (Expanded) inventory or Limited inventory, or keep it to default [Standard (Moderate) inventory].


5. If you click on Edit for Audience Network, a checkbox will appear if you would prefer to have the same setting as you have on Facebook in-stream videos and Ads. You can uncheck this if you want to set up a different setting for your ads on the Audience Network.


Ad Manager
To access the Facebook Inventory Filter, navigate to the Ads Manager platform and create a campaign as you would regularly.
1. Click on Create to start a new campaign.


2. Proceed with the usual steps of the ad creation. Once you get to the Ad Set level, scroll to Placements. Then click on Show more options.


3. You will see your default Facebook Inventory Filter settings is currently applied (Standard Inventory). To update, click on Edit.


4. Select the inventory filter you wish to apply to your current Ad Set.


5. Continue with setting up your campaign as usual.
Best Practices for Facebook Brand Safety and Suitability
As a digital media buyer, taking advantage of the Facebook Inventory Filter is essential to maximize ad reach while maintaining brand safety. To help you navigate and optimize this feature, here are some best practices to consider:
- The Facebook Inventory Filter controls the type of content the ads are placed alongside. However, it doesn’t block specific publishers. If advertisers aim to block certain publishers for the in-content ads, consider using block lists and content exclusions for further customization.
- For ads within Facebook’s in-stream videos, be mindful of these options:
- Limited Inventory Setting: By default, all live videos are automatically excluded.
- Moderate or Expanded Inventory Setting: Media buyers can exclude all live videos or only those from publishers that did not opt for monetization.
- While Facebook implements brand suitability controls to maximize compliance, it’s worth noting that not all content and publishers may perfectly align with your brand’s suitability standards. Consider downloading a list of your ad placements to get a detailed overview.
- Facebook regularly updates its advertising policies and guidelines, including those related to brand safety and suitability. Staying informed about these updates and compliances allows media buyers to make necessary pre-campaign setup adjustments. Advertisers must regularly review Facebook guidelines about brand safety and suitability in managing the platform’s brand safety toolkit.
Take Control Of Your Ad Placements With Facebook Inventory Filter
Now that you have a comprehensive understanding of the Facebook Inventory Filter and its impact on your advertising campaigns, it’s time to put this knowledge into action. Implement the strategies outlined in this guide, monitor your results, and adapt your approach to your Facebook ad campaigns.
Stay updated with Facebook’s brand safety updates and continue testing and refining your campaigns for ongoing success. Embrace the power of the Facebook Inventory Filter and elevate your advertising endeavors to new levels of effectiveness and efficiency.
Since 2016, Meta’s commitment to providing utmost Facebook ads protection has steadily increased, with the progress being particularly notable in 2023. Acknowledging the pressing need for brand safety, Facebook has taken remarkable strides. Mediaocean 2022 Market Report and 2023 Outlook reveal that at the end of 2022, over half of the marketers surveyed indicated that their concerns about brand safety and suitability have improved compared to Q1.
Boost Ad Protection And Online Reputation On Facebook
Facebook’s transformation from a mere social media platform to a nearly $117 billion advertising company has been nothing short of innovative. To maintain its growth, responding proactively to the escalating concern for brand protection in the digital space keeps advertisers’ money on the platform. This continuous refining of its brand safety tools aims to provide a positive user experience and align with the transformation of content creation and user behavior.
Consequently, working towards transparency and trust within the advertising ecosystem, Facebook provides advertisers with the peace of mind they need. By prioritizing brand safety, Facebook has ensured advertisers continue building strong, positive, and meaningful connections with their audience.
This article will help gain insight into amplifying ad protection and enhancing the brand’s reputation on Facebook.
- Facebook Brand Safety and Suitability: Updates and Developments
- Exploring The Risks And Concerns In Facebook Advertising
- Steps to Protect Brand Reputation When Advertising on Facebook
- How Can Facebook Protect My Brand From Safety Issues?
- Facebook’s Commitment to Keeping Brands and Businesses Safe
Facebook Brand Safety and Suitability: Updates and Developments
Facebook’s unwavering dedication to developing and improving its ad protection tools epitomizes its focus on brand safety and suitability. Over the years, the platform has continuously evolved, tirelessly combating harmful and inappropriate content from appearing alongside ads and enhancing brand safety on Facebook.
But how exactly has Facebook’s approach to brand safety evolved? To better understand this journey, let’s travel chronologically through the key updates and developments that have shaped their ad protection policies. These milestones underscore Facebook’s unrelenting pursuit to refine ad placement controls, making the platform safer and more dependable for advertisers.


Exploring The Risks And Concerns In Facebook Advertising
Capitalizing on new advertising trends or less-explored ad formats opens a treasure chest of opportunities for brands. These new ad formats often deliver high engagement rates and can be quite appealing to advertisers. Take, for instance, Facebook Reels. As a significant focus of Facebook’s strategy, Reels offers access to an ad audience of 697.1 million people, signifying a promising avenue for exploration. With Facebook leaning hard into Reels, advertisers who establish a solid strategy can gain a competitive edge by leveraging this relatively new ad placement option.
Nevertheless, it is essential to approach these new ad formats with caution and prioritize brand safety. When launching ads across various formats on Facebook or any other platform, advertisers must be aware that not all content aligns with their brand values. Therefore, brands must proactively construct and implement strategies to protect their reputation. It’s essential for advertisers to maintain vigilance against potential reputational damage while exploring these enticing opportunities.
Steps to Protect Brand Reputation When Advertising on Facebook
Are you concerned about how to protect your brand on Facebook? Free yourself from worries. With Facebook’s in-app brand safety tools, advertisers have greater control to safeguard their brand. However, striking the balance between campaign efficiency and brand protection requires a strategic approach. Below, our team details important steps to attain campaign success without compromising safety and suitability.
- Implement Content Moderation: By filtering and reviewing comments before they go public on the Facebook page, marketers can prevent spam, offensive language, or harmful content from being displayed. This proactive step helps maintain a clean and positive brand image.
- Leverage Ad Placement Controls: Facebook allows media buyers more control over where ads should appear. Choose specific ad placements and exclude categories or types of content that may threaten brand image.
- Optimize Audience Targeting: Sharpen ad campaigns by refining audience targeting. Use demographics, interests, behaviors, and other parameters to reach the right audience, maximizing campaign effectiveness and avoiding wasted impressions.


Source: Facebook
- Monitor Ad Performance: Regular checks on Facebook ads’ performance are media buyers’ important role during campaign flight. If there are placements that might not align with advertisers’ brand value or underperforming ads, consider adjusting the targeting strategy or excluding certain parameters.
- Stay Informed on Facebook’s Advertising Policies: Get familiarized with policies and guidelines for Facebook advertising compliance. These policies cover aspects such as prohibited content, ad creative guidelines, targeting restrictions, and more. Adhering to these policies will help marketers avoid ad disapprovals or other penalties.
How Can Facebook Protect My Brand From Safety Issues?
Advertisers from businesses of all sizes often seek assurance on how Facebook can provide safety to their brands while advertising. Facebook offers several layers of protection, ranging from extended control through Facebook Inventory Filters to the implementation of community standards across all app users. These content safety guidelines work towards creating an appropriate environment for advertisers to enhance users’ ad experiences. Whether running ads across In-Stream Video or Instant Article placements, advertisers have the flexibility to tailor their efforts according to user needs and intentions.
Let’s explore some of the ways Facebook protects brands:
- Facebook’s Community Standards and Instagram Community Guidelines: These policies serve as the benchmark for ad content, aligning it with community expectations and maintaining Facebook’s core values.
- Community Standards Enforcement Report: Released quarterly by Facebook report shares metrics across various policy areas, such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda, and fake accounts, providing transparency about Facebook’s policy enforcement.
- Content Review Teams: With a global team of over 15,000 dedicated content reviewers, Facebook diligently reviews and removes harmful content from the platform. This proactive approach helps combat hate speech, ensuring a safer experience for users and businesses alike.
Related article: How Can Facebook Brand Safety Defend Your Digital Presence
Facebook’s Commitment to Keeping Brands and Businesses Safe
In order for Facebook to win advertisers, the platform prioritizes Facebook ads protection to prevent any safety issues. The giant advertising company has implemented a comprehensive range of measures to create a secure advertising environment. This commitment stems from the recognition that brand safety is crucial for businesses seeking to maintain their reputation and establish trust with their audiences. By prioritizing brand safety and suitability, Facebook aims to provide advertisers with the peace of mind and confidence they need to promote their products or services on the platform.
To fully utilize Facebook ads protection and ensure that your ads are refrained from being shown with malicious content, you can take advantage of the following strategies and tools:
Ad Placements
During the ad creation process, you can select specific placements or opt out of certain environments if you prefer not to have your ads displayed there. This allows you to customize your ad placements according to your preferences.


Publisher Lists
Facebook provides a comprehensive publisher list that details the URLs where your ads could potentially be placed on Audience Network, Facebook in-stream videos, Ads on Facebook Reels, and Ads on Instagram Reels. You can download and review this list to identify suitable publishers. By using this list, you can choose specific URLs to add to your block lists or publisher allow lists, giving you granular control over your ad placements.


Block Lists
If there are specific websites or URLs where you don’t want your ads to appear, this Facebook ads protection feature allows you to upload a list of those URLs. This prevents your ads from being delivered on those particular platforms.
Our dedicated team is actively implementing this brand safety feature, extending to all aspects of our ad ecosystem. To ensure seamless ad management, we take care of identifying the block list at the ad account level. By doing so, we guarantee that this setting is optimized for all upcoming campaigns.


Inventory Filter
By default, content that is excessively controversial or offensive, such as full nudity, excessive violence, terrorist acts, and misinformation flagged by third-party fact-checkers, is automatically excluded from ad placements. The Facebook Inventory Filter allows you to take brand safety a step further by giving you control over the specific types of content your ads appear with.


Content Type Exclusions
This Facebook ads protection tool allows you to customize where your ads appear on in-stream videos. For example, you can prevent your ads from appearing in live videos or videos from publishers that have not signed up for monetization.



Delivery Reports
Facebook’s delivery reports offer impression-level data at the publisher and content levels, allowing you to understand where your ads appeared. This level of transparency enables you to assess the performance of your ads and make informed decisions about future placements.


Related article: Addressing brand safety measures for Google advertising
Stay Informed To Protect Your Facebook Ads
Protecting your ads on Facebook goes beyond just relying on the platform’s built-in features. It calls for a proactive and comprehensive approach, involving the implementation of various strategies and best practices. It’s important to stay informed about brand safety updates and adapt your strategies accordingly. This way, you can stay ahead of potential risks and maintain the effectiveness of your Facebook ads protection and brand safety measures.
By upholding high standards of brand safety and aligning your ads with relevant content, you create a more engaging and enjoyable experience for users. This, in turn, maximizes the impact of your advertising efforts and drives meaningful results for your business.
Social media evolution has dramatically influenced the behavior of the modern marketplace. From product discovery to brand loyalty and seamless fulfillment, social media’s convenience has changed the e-commerce market. And now, Facebook is taking social commerce to new heights with the Facebook Product Catalog.
Young consumers are bidding goodbye to mundane shopping transactions and prefer to undergo a full brand advertising experience. A report made by Influencer Marketing Hub shows young online consumers ages 18-34 have purchased products on Facebook and Instagram. With the Facebook Product Catalog, marketers can elevate the end-to-end customers’ advertising experience.
Use this guide to transform your digital storefront to reach new audiences and position your brand ahead of the curve.
Transform Your Digital Storefront with Facebook’s Product Catalog
- How To Set Up Facebook Product Catalog
- Facebook Catalog Requirement Pre-requisite
- How To Add Items On Facebook Product Catalog
- Guide On Choosing Which Facebook Catalog Management Method Works For You
- Best Practices in Product Catalog Listing
- The Path to Achieving Social Commerce Goals with Facebook Product Catalog
How To Set Up Facebook Product Catalog
Say no to the tedious task of learning codes and scripts, and hello to an effortless product showcase with Facebook Product Catalog. This innovative tool is designed to simplify your digital advertising journey, making it easier to reach your target audience and boost your sales.
With just a few clicks, Facebook Product Catalog can select the best product for each Facebook viewer based on their interests and behavior, giving you the power to create a truly personalized shopping experience.
And that’s not all! After uploading your inventory files, you can take advantage of a range of proven-effective ad formats offered by Facebook. From increased clicks to conversions, Facebook ad units have a proven track record of success.
Now, let’s begin.
Facebook Catalog Requirement Pre-requisite
Here’s what you’ll need to get started on setting up your Product Catalog:
- Facebook Business Page.
- Create a Facebook Business Manager account and make sure you’re an administrator.
- Business Commerce Manager to organize your catalog.
Facebook recommends using only one catalog for all your items.
Step #1: Creating Product Catalog using Facebook Commerce Manager
a. Log in to your Facebook Commerce Manager account
b. Choose to Create a Catalog:
b.1 If this is your first catalog: Create a Catalog > Get Started
b.2 If you have at least one catalog: +Add Catalog to create a new one
c. Select the inventory you want to use > Next
d. Select the Business Manager Account you want your catalog to be associated with
e. Name your catalog > Next
How To Add Items On Facebook Product Catalog
The foundation is set, the building blocks are in place, and it’s time to light the fuse and ignite your sales with Facebook Shop and Product Catalog. You’ve taken the essential first steps in creating a robust digital storefront. Now it’s time to maximize the potential of this dynamic duo.
Choose Which Method In Adding Items
With your shop and product catalog in place, you’re ready to reach new audiences, engage with potential customers, and turn your brand vision into a reality. Whether you’re an e-commerce veteran or new to the platform, Facebook Shop and Product Catalog give you the tools you need to succeed.
Here’s a quick guide to the 5 different methods to upload and maintain your inventory in Commerce Manager:
- Manual Upload: Add items one by one using a form provided by Meta.
- Product Data feed: You can create a data feed in a spreadsheet format that contains all the details of your products. This feed can be uploaded to the Facebook product catalog through Business Manager. Download the product feed template here.
- Partner Platform: Integrate your online store to Facebook Shop and automatically upload your products to the Facebook product catalog. This integration makes it easier to manage products and orders on both Facebook and your e-commerce platform.
- Facebook Pixel: You can use the Facebook Pixel and Catalog Manager to track events on your website, such as product views and purchases, and use that data to create ads that automatically update based on customer behavior.
- Batch API: If you have a technical background, you can programmatically use Facebook’s Graph API to add products to your Facebook product catalog. This method is ideal for businesses with many products to upload and want to automate the process.
Related article: Unlock The Power Of Facebook Reels: A Marketer’s Must-Read Guide
Guide On Choosing Which Facebook Catalog Management Method Works For You
Facebook has published a guide to help you choose which catalog management method is best for your collection. The guide considers how often you add new items, the size of your collection, and the number of people who work on it.
Manual | Product Data Feed | Facebook Pixel | Batch API | Partner Platform | |
Inventory size | Small | Medium to large or changes often | Medium to large or changes often | Large and changes often | Any size |
Inventory type | Products, flights, hotels, destinations, vehicles | Products, flights, hotels, destinations, vehicles, home listings | Products only | Products, flights, hotels, destinations, vehicles, home listings | Products only |
What you need | Item details and images | Data feed file with correct specifications File hosting site (optional) | Pixel installed, Microdata tags on product pages, Recent website activity | A developer with experience in API | Inventory hosted on a partner platform |
Technical effort required for setup | Low | Medium | High | High | Medium |
Effort require to maintain | High: Update items manually | Medium: Update file as needed | Low: Updates automatically | Medium: Update as needed | Low: Updates automatically |
Adding Items Using Product Data Feed
A data feed can upload items to your catalog using a spreadsheet file. You can upload a file once or set up a schedule to update your catalog automatically regularly.
Download this Facebook product feed template to get started.
a. Log in Commerce Manager > Catalog > Items or Data Sources
b. Click Add Items
c. Choose Data Feed > Next
d. If you have a file already created, click Yes. If not, follow these steps:
- Choose No. I need a template file.
- Choose the method you want to upload the file (Computer, URL, Spreadsheets)
- Using this template, choose Google Sheets > Paste the link (make sure it’s not restricted) > Next
- Choose how often you want to update your catalog (Hourly, Weekly, Daily)
- Review your settings > Click Save Feed and Upload
To update your items in the future, edit the spreadsheet on your Google account, and Facebook will update your catalog at your scheduled time.
Best Practices in Product Catalog Listing
Facebook offers brands a huge opportunity to showcase their products, but with so many options, it’s important to stand out. These proven best practices will help ensure your product catalog is optimized for visibility and engagement with potential customers.
- Accurate and complete product information: Ensure that your product catalog contains all necessary information, including product name, description, images, pricing, and availability.
- Consistent product categorization: Organize products into categories that make sense for your business and are consistent with how you categorize them on your website.
- High-quality images: Use clear and high-quality images of your products to help them stand out in the Facebook Marketplace.
- Utilize Facebook’s meta product catalog ads: Utilize Facebook’s meta advantage+ ads to retarget potential customers with products they have shown interest in.
- Ensure your product links are correct: Make sure your links work and lead customers to the correct item on your website.
- Monitor your products: Rejected items don’t appear in your ads or shop. Check your items regularly and request a second review if you think one was rejected incorrectly.
The Path to Achieving Social Commerce Goals with Facebook Product Catalog
Facebook has established itself as a crucial player in social commerce by offering businesses two essential tools: Facebook Shops and Product Catalogs. These tools leverage Facebook’s extensive network and targeted advertising capabilities to drive a reach for brands, making it easy for businesses to set up and manage their catalogs.
Product tagging on Facebook and customizable catalogs can help companies direct traffic to their site, boost sales, and reach their desired customer demographic. By tapping into Facebook’s massive user base, brands can successfully promote their products.
To maximize the benefits of social commerce, advertisers are encouraged to stay informed by subscribing to relevant industry newsletters or seeking advice from industry experts.
For those interested in taking advantage of Facebook, Strike Social is ready to assist with maximizing advertising efforts. Our team of experts is available to help you get the most out of your advertising strategy.
Welcome to the world of Facebook Shops! In today’s tech-driven world, businesses must establish an online presence to expand their reach and drive profits. Keeping up with technological advancements has become a necessity rather than just a preference. And what better way to do so than with a Facebook Shop?
Social commerce has revolutionized how brands sell products, and Facebook Shops has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses looking to expand their discoverability and reach new customers. This guide will explore setting up a Facebook Shop, from creating your account to knowing the best practices. Whether new to social commerce or simply looking to maximize your results, this guide is the perfect resource for anyone looking to sell on Facebook.
Guide to Build Your Social Shop and Start Selling on Facebook
- Facebook Shops: An Overview of Brands
- Facebook Shops vs. Facebook Marketplace: Comparison
- How to Set Up Facebook Shops
- Best Practices to Maximize Facebook Shops Potential
- Conclusion
Facebook Shops: An Overview for Brands
Facebook Shops provides a solution for brands to keep cadence with social commerce’s evolution, giving them the tools they need to sell their products through these platforms efficiently.
Another exciting aspect of Facebook Shops is the ability to tag products during live streams on Facebook and Instagram. This can drive traffic to your page and encourage customers to make purchases. Overall, Facebook Shops gives businesses a powerful and effective way to reach their audience and increase sales.
Facebook Shops vs. Facebook Marketplace: Comparison
With a massive US user base of 266 million monthly, Facebook provides businesses with a dynamic platform to promote and sell their products engagingly and interactively.
When it comes to setting up your online presence with Facebook, you have the option of using either Facebook Shops or Marketplace. This guide is designed to help you make informed decisions and determine the best choice for your business needs.
Facebook Shops | Facebook Marketplace | |
User Interface | An eCommerce-like platform for brands to streamline the buying process without leaving the app | A visual garage-like selling within local communities where an individual can do product listing |
Account | Business Page admins can manage the Facebook Shops account | Can sell using Personal Account |
Store reach | Products are globally available | Products are locally available for others can browse and purchase items |
Boosting | Brands can boost particular products or the entire store using Facebook advertising capabilities. | Same with Facebook Shops, sellers can boost their marketplace listing |
Inquiries | Business Page admins can respond to user inquiries as they come in | Inquiries about the product will appear on the seller’s profile |
Products Variety | Products are limited to the content of the Page and brands. | Can have a variety and mix of products based on the seller’s preference |
Inventory | Brands can either manage their inventory themselves or use third-party technology to track and manage their inventory across multiple platforms. | Sellers can track their product listings without having to keep any inventory. |
How to Set Up Facebook Shops
Facebook Shops Pre-requisite
Here’s what you’ll need to start setting up your Facebook shops.
- Have a Facebook Business page. You can create one while setting up your shop.
- Make sure you are an admin of the Facebook page.
- Have a business account on Instagram (if you also want to set up a shop on Instagram)
- Comply with Facebook’s commerce policies.
- Make sure your business complies with all local laws and regulations
Please note that this is a general checklist, and there may be additional requirements or steps depending on your specific business and location
Step #1: Setting up your Facebook Commerce Manager
1. Log in to your Facebook Commerce Manager account
2. Choose between Shop and Catalog:
- Create Shop: physical products.
- Create a catalog: sell or advertise goods such as travel, rentals, vehicles, and media
3. Choose your preferred checkout method:
Several checkout options are available for businesses to use when setting up their store. These include:
- Checkout on Website: This allows customers to be redirected to the business’s website to complete their purchases.
- Checkout on Facebook or Instagram: This allows customers to purchase products directly from a business’s Facebook/Instagram page using their account information
- Shop Pay by Shopify: Once toggled on, businesses can integrate their Facebook Shop with their Shopify store, allowing customers to complete their purchases on the Shopify platform.
- Checkout on messaging: This allows customers to purchase products directly from a business’s WhatsApp or Messenger profile using them as purchase channels.
4. Select the Business Page you want to showcase your products to > Next
5. Create or connect with your Business Account > Add Products (if your Business Account already has a product catalog > Next
Take note: If you haven’t previously created a catalog, don’t worry! A catalog will be automatically generated for you within Commerce Manager, with the title “Items for (Name and ID of your Page).” You’ll be able to add your products to this catalog later once your shop is fully set up.
6. Fill out the necessary fields on Shipping destinations. You can still change this setting as you move forward)
7. Preview and check all your shop details > Review and agree on Seller Agreement > Finish set up
Now you’re done creating your shop. You can manage and market your catalog.
Step #2: Adding Products to your Product Catalog
Facebook Product catalogs easily manage product information and inventory using Commerce Manager tools. You can add products to your catalog in several ways depending on their type, size, and frequency of change.
Related article: Facebook Reels Ads 101: A Complete Setup Guide With Ads Specs
Step #3: How to Advertise your Facebook Shop
With your Facebook Shop now live, it’s time to showcase your products to a vast audience. Utilize a product catalog to advertise your offerings on the platform effectively. And to truly take your business to the next level, consider leveraging Facebook’s paid advertising opportunities to promote items in your catalog.
Related article: Unlock The Power Of Facebook Reels: A Marketer’s Must-Read Guide
Best Practices to Maximize Facebook Shops Potential
As Meta return to its orbit as the king of social platforms, brands need to make the most out of their presence. According to a report by Insider intelligence, Facebook’s Daily Active Users hit 2.0 billion during the last quarter of 2022. Facebook Shops can be a gateway for businesses to ramp up their promotion and drive more sales.
To help you optimize your Facebook Shops potential, we outline the following best practices:
- Maintain an Up-to-Date Product Catalog: Ensure that your inventory is consistently updated and in sync with your website by regularly adding new products.
- Leverage Paid Advertising: Utilize Facebook Shops’ advertising capabilities to drive traffic to your shop and increase sales.
- Present Clear and Concise Product Information: Display product titles, descriptions, categories, and shipping information straightforwardly and comprehensively.
- Utilize Product Tagging Features: Use product tags in your Facebook and Instagram posts, stories, and live videos to empower your organic content.
- Provide a seamless checkout experience: Make it smooth and easy for your customers to purchase your products.
Following these best practices can effectively position your products and increase your sales on Facebook Shops.
Conclusion
Facebook Shops is an effective way to increase brand awareness, boost customer engagement and reach the right audiences through Facebook’s targeting capabilities. It is easy to set up and manage, cost-effective and can give brands a competitive advantage in the social commerce market.
Shops offer a seamless experience for both businesses and customers. Not only does it provide a new way to connect with potential customers, but it also allows companies to expand their reach and increase their sales potential. If you’re an advertiser looking to take advantage of this powerful tool, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at Strike Social to learn more about how to maximize your advertising efforts, our team of experts is here to help.
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Strike Overview
- Facebook Reels Ads are gaining momentum, reaching an advertising audience of 697.1 million users. While this might seem modest, Reels accounted for 3.3% of all ad impressions on the platform.
- To make sure your Reels ad on Facebook resonates with viewers, you must start by optimizing your creative to fit seamlessly within the app, avoiding any overlap with on-screen elements.
- Before launching your ad, get acquainted with the technical specifications of Facebook Reels. Understanding these key details will help maximize your brand’s visibility and drive higher engagement from your target audience.
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Imagine connecting with your target audience in a way that feels intimate, authentic, and engaging. Imagine turning the power of video to your advantage and placing your brand in front of consumers already spending their time-consuming organic and paid content. Stop fantasizing and make it real with Facebook Reels Ads!
Getting Started With Facebook Reels Ads
When advertising on Facebook Reels, it’s essential to follow technical specifications to ensure that your ads meet the platform’s requirements and are delivered effectively to the target audience. These specs include the duration of your video length, format, video resolution, audio, file size, and aspect ratio.
Understanding and adhering to Facebook Reels Ad Specs will increase the chances of your ads being approved and help deliver visually appealing, engaging, and effective Reels content.
Facebook Reels Ads Specs
- Duration: Your video can be up to 60 seconds long. It should be in a fullscreen, vertical format.
- Format: It should be in .mp4 or MOV format
- Video Resolution: Uploaded Reels will be capped at 720p after upload, but it is recommended that you upload at least 1080P or 4k if available
- Sounds: We recommend that your video ad creative uses music or sound to fit the Reels placement better. Use royalty-free music from Facebook Sound Collection or original audio/ voiceovers instead.
- File size: max of 4GB
- Dimension size: 9:16 aspect ratio
It’s also important to note that these specifications are subject to change over time. Maximize your ad’s performance by understanding and adhering to Facebook Reels Ad Specs. Increase approval chances and deliver visually appealing, engaging, and effective Reels content.
Step-by-step Guide To Setup Facebook Reels Ads
Boosting Facebook Reels content is a great way to increase awareness and engagement with your target audience. However, creating and scaling success in Reels Ads can be complex, especially if you are unfamiliar with the technical specifications and Ads Manager navigation.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to provide knowledge and guidance on utilizing Facebook Reels ads.
Running Ads On Facebook Reels
While it’s currently not possible to boost Reels directly, here’s the setup process to supercharge your organic Facebook Reels ads and watch the magic happens.
1. Go to Facebook Ads Manager and select Create.
2. Choose one of the following campaign ad objectives:
- Awareness
- Traffic
- Engagement
- Leads
- App promotion
- Sales
3. Create your ad. Fill in the details for your campaign, budget, schedule, target audience, optimization, and delivery.
4. The default setting for placements is Advantage+. To customize your ads to appear solely in Reels or other vertical video formats, switch to Manual Placements.
5. Under Placements, select the dropdown next to Stories and check the box next to Facebook Reels.
6. Choose your Call to Action and Publish your Ad.


Note: Your ads will be reviewed. Once approved, they’ll appear in viewers’ Instagram Reels. Aside from boosting, advertisers can leverage two ad types: overlay ads and post-loop ads.
Further Reading



Avoid These Common Reasons for Facebook Ad Disapproval
Facebook offers diverse tools to connect with your target audience, but it’s essential to adhere to its advertising rules. Knowing the frequent causes of ad rejections can help you avoid setbacks and simplify the appeal process when needed.
Facebook Reels Vs. Stories: A Closer Look
Regarding video content on Facebook, brands have multiple placement options, including Reels and Stories. Both options have unique features and benefits. Understanding their differences is essential to make an informed decision on which best suits your campaign needs.
Reels and Stories allow brands to create short-form video content, but there are a few key differences to consider. Reels are a full-screen, vertical video format designed to mimic the look and feel of TikTok. On the other hand, Stories are a full-screen, vertical video format designed to mimic the look and feel of Snapchat.
Here are some other unique features of the two short-form content placements:
Features | Facebook Reels | Facebook Stories |
---|---|---|
Format | Video only | It can be a mix of photos, videos, or post from your feed |
Length | Max. length of 90 seconds | The video should be no more than 15 secondsPhotos no more than 7 seconds |
Placement | Has more Facebook space, increasing views | Limited space; rarely get featured on explore page |
Lifespan | Until you delete | Will disappear after 24 hours |
Reach | Even people outside your network can see your reels | Followers of the account |
Sharing | It can be shared by anyone and does not disappear | It can be shared via messenger and/or as a story, disappears in 24 hrs |
Engagement | Through comments | Through Direct Messages (DMs) |
Caption & Hashtag | Full captions, hashtag limit up to 30 | No captions, hashtag limit up to 10 |
Audio Options | Soundtracks recorded audio, and other sounds from creators | Soundtracks |
Editing | Audio edit, align clips, AR effects, countdown, and timer | Edit filters, layouts, and camera effects |
Saves | Can be saved by users | Cannot be saved by users |
Drafts | Can save a draft | Doesn’t allow saving as draft |
Further Reading



Setting Up Instagram Campaigns with Reels Ads
This is a prime moment to explore how Instagram Reels can boost your campaign’s success through a more cost-effective strategy. With lower CPMs and high video completion rates, Instagram efficiently identifies users’ engagement and interest in vertical video ads.
Key Takeaways
Understanding the technical specifications of Facebook Reel Ads will help brands realize the full potential of their short-form video ads. While Stories ad placement has shown efficacies in expanding reach, Reels will offer new dynamics with its longer-form creative. In addition, Facebook Reels ads can capture a wider group of audiences as non-page followers can discover brands’ video promotions on their feeds.
Adopting new features like Facebook Reels Ads can diversify and enhance an advertising strategy. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, advertisers can expect to see an improvement in the performance of their Facebook Reels Ads campaigns.
Interested To Know More About Facebook Reels Ads?
Meta Reels has seen a 50% rise in daily video plays from six months ago, with 140 billion across Facebook. With such a large audience and the daily time spent by its users, it’s the perfect place to advertise your brand.
Strike Social will deliver you results! We’ll drive traffic and boost your brand awareness with short-form video advertising on Facebook- helping you reach your target audience at the right time. Our experts can optimize your ad campaign to get the most ROI for every advertising dollar spent.
Strike Overview
- With its extensive audience, Facebook Reels ad placement is a prime spot for advertisers to run their video ad campaigns.
- The latest HubSpot report shows that 90% of marketers are increasing their investment in short-form videos this year.
- Let’s be Reel: Facebook’s short-form video format is the new black. According to Oberlo, it is expected to reach 242.86 million US Facebook users by 2023.
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This post was updated in September 2024 to provide you with the latest information.
Facebook Reels let you create short videos that people can watch with sound to capture viewers’ attention. They’re fun, engaging, and easy to scan—so they’re ideal for brands to show their authentic side and make it more receptive to consumers.
This article will show you how to create Facebook reels that attract viewers and tap new audiences.
Getting Started With Facebook Reels
Let us zoom in and look at the features of Facebook Reels and harness its power to supercharge your campaigns. Like TikTok, Reel’s powerful tools allow marketers to edit and enhance short-form videos to capture viewers’ attention. Based on ad results of numerous Facebook campaigns using vertical videos, bite-sized clips have performed well in connecting with viewers through their visually engaging and entertaining content.
To access Facebook Reels using your mobile phones, you may find the option via your Feed, Groups, and Menu bar.


Further Reading



Setting Up Paid Campaigns with Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels Ads offer a great opportunity to boost brand visibility, extend your audience reach, and drive engagement when paired with well-crafted creative content and strategic campaign optimization.
How to Upload Facebook Reels
Add video to your Facebook posts and updates with one tap. Shoot new clips while you create a reel and show off pictures from your existing photo library. Creating a Facebook Reel can be easy:
- Log into your Facebook account and make sure you have the latest version. Then tap Create or click the Camera icon on the top right part when viewing reels.


- Add video to your Reel: record a video on your phone or choose from the video clips from your phone gallery.


- Add the following to make your Reel stand out:
- Audio– add audio from the music library or record your own
- Text– add text overlays
- Effects– choose video effects or filters
- Stickers– you have the option to add stickers, GIFs, or emojis available
- Greenscreen– choose a video background if you want to record on the go. Note: you cannot use video effects and greenscreen at the same time


- Tap Next when you’re finished. Write a description that will catch people’s attention. Add relevant hashtags to expand your reach.
- Set the Facebook reels audience. Reels are public by default, but reels from business or creator pages can only post publicly. You have the option to Share your Facebook Reel on Instagram. To catch new viewers and increase engagement rates, toggle Enable Remix to let other viewers stitch with your Facebook video reels.


- To publish, tap Share now.
Clear the Confusion: Understanding the Differences between Facebook and Instagram Reels
Many marketers are also confused about the differences between Instagram and Facebook Reels. Both platforms operate under the same umbrella of Meta and share many similarities. However, there are also key differences, which we’ll answer with the basic Facebook Reels FAQ to find out.
Can you create a reel on one platform and cross-post it to another?
- Yes, it is possible to cross-post content — unless you don’t want to. By default, posting Facebook Reels doesn’t automatically cross-post on Instagram. And the user needs to toggle the option to share on the other platform.
- Similarly, when sharing reels on Instagram, you can automatically post them to Facebook. You can keep this feature on for seamless sharing or turn it off to keep your Instagram Reels exclusive to that platform.
Will the views count double if I post my Instagram reel on Facebook?
- Not quite. Sharing your Reels on both Facebook and Instagram can boost overall visibility, leading to more views than posting on just one platform.
- However, views on each platform are tracked separately, so while you’ll gain legitimate views on both, they won’t be counted as double for the same content.
Are there any differences between the comments viewers see on Facebook Reels and those on Instagram?
- Yes, each platform has its own separate comment section.
- For example, if an Instagram Reel is shared on Facebook, you’ll only be able to view the comments on Facebook, but to engage and leave your own, you’ll need to log in to the Instagram app. While you can see comments from both platforms, interaction is limited to where the Reel was originally posted.
Can the viewers identify which platforms the reels originated from?
- Yes, if a Facebook Reel features a small Instagram icon in the corner, it indicates the Reel was originally posted on Instagram.
- For Reels created on Facebook, viewers on the platform can fully interact and engage with the content directly.
Is it possible to add auto-generated closed captioning on Facebook Reels?
- Yes, both Instagram and Facebook Reels support auto-generated captions, but users must enable this feature to view them. Captions can also be adjusted for individual posts after publishing by selecting the Edit option.
Can I add a cover photo on my Facebook Reels?
- Yes, you can customize the cover image for your Facebook Reels. You can choose a frame from your video or upload a custom image directly from your device’s gallery.
Is it possible to tag a location on my Facebook Reels?
- Yes, you can tag a location on your Facebook Reels. You can either use your current location when posting in real-time or set the location to where the video was actually filmed if posting at a later time.
The two platforms are almost the same, except for one big difference that can benefit marketers. Content on Facebook Reels appears on users’ Feeds whether or not they follow you, extending the reach of your video ads to new eyeballs—and letting you reach potential customers who might not have come across your brand page otherwise.
Further Reading





Short-Form Showdown: TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts vs. Meta Reels
While TikTok pioneered the short-form video trend, both Meta and YouTube swiftly introduced their own offerings to compete. Each platform brings distinct features to the table, including diverse audiences and enhanced opportunities for broader reach.
Facebook Reels Tips and Best Practices
There is no magic recipe for making a video that gets noticed on Facebook. However, you can increase your chances of success by following simple tips and best practices.
- Make it engaging: Entertain your audience with captivating content that compels them to take action.
- Keep up or start a trend: Inspire a trend that others can quickly join. Keep an eye on current trends in your industry, then create similar content.
- Use Facebook creative tools: Add text, filters, and camera effects to make your reels stand out.
- Use video transitions: Start your video with a hook, and then use transitions to show viewers the before-and-after transformation of your product or service.
- Use vertical videos. Keep your phone upright when creating your Facebook Reel. Like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels which are vertical video platforms, Facebook Reels are set up for vertical video.
- Incorporate music: Use original or licensed music from Facebook’s library to make your Reel entertaining and easy to remember. You can even join in on trending sounds.
- Experiment with new ways of creating reels—it could lead you to discover an unexpected style that will help you connect with your audience.
- Show off your skills with good lighting and video techniques as this can make or break your social media videos. Without good lighting, your content can look dull and unappealing.
- Don’t forget to put captions and hashtags: Captions aren’t just subtitles. They can highlight a video’s key takeaways and make viewers more likely to remember the most important points.
- Lead with your brand: Get your brand identity in front of your audience immediately. If you use an existing video, edit it so that your product or brand features early within the first 15 seconds.
Key Takeaways
Awareness campaigns can reach new audiences with visually rich content. Short-form content works best in scrollable and vertical mobile presentation spaces, while long-form campaigns drive deeper insight and more complex concepts. Facebook Reels present an opportunity to showcase your brand in a fun, visual way. They make up more than 20% of video viewers, and it’s forecasted to grow this year.
Take Your Facebook Advertising Efforts To New Heights With Reels Ads
With 2.9 billion active users, Facebook is currently the world’s largest social media network, offering your brand a huge potential to reach new audiences. Boost your reach, engagement, and conversions by leveraging the power of Facebook Reels ads.
We, the team at StrikeSocial, are experts in Facebook advertising, and we’ll help you succeed. Optimizing your campaigns to maximize performance, helping you succeed in your advertising goals, and making the most of your advertising budget.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to unlock the great potential of Facebook Reels. Contact us today to learn more about how this powerful advertising platform can help you achieve your campaign targets.
Gen Z and Millennials can’t get enough in swiping millions of TikTok content, and advertisers are beginning to follow the trail. TikTok ads are becoming advertisers’ solutions in reaching new markets, considering Facebook ads getting deterred with third-party data.
Last Q3 of 2021, TikTok had 138 million Monthly Active Users in the United States, with 87% of the population being 18 years old and above. The short-form video sharing platform has 631+ Billion Monthly video views and an average of 88 minutes daily time spent on the app.
TikTok’s mission is “Inspire creative and bring joy,” this can be the secret formula in winning the mainstream audience. This new kid on the block is constantly evolving into a platform that attracts young viewers and marketers with diverse and relevant content. TikTok ad units are displayed similar to organic posts, allowing advertisers to provide the same experience but look less traditional video ad.
Tiktok may be the hottest topic on paid social platforms, but how does it compare to the social giant Facebook now known as Meta?
Here’s the real deal about TikTok ads vs. Facebook Ads
Switching some advertising budgets from Facebook ads to TikTok ads comes to mind at agency pitches, client meetings, and marketing strategy sessions. Before pushing the button, here are some things that advertisers should look into.
How much do TikTok ads cost?
TikTok ad costs depend on numerous factors: target audience, bidding method, campaign objective, advertising budget, etc. To understand further, our team gathered actual data of TikTok Ad Campaigns optimized for impression and compared them with Facebook Ads using the same advertising objective.
Based on Campaign Lab, Strike Social proprietary tool, TikTok performed well compared to Facebook. Over the last two quarters, CPM for TikTok ads edged Facebook ad campaigns by 17%.
Another notable observation, during Q4 2021, where bidding is hard-won, TikTok ad campaigns optimized for reach are 22% more cost-effective than Facebook. More than just a new, more expansive set of audiences for reach campaigns, TikToks ads have shown at least 70% higher CTR% than Facebook ads. Users on the platform aren’t hesitant to engage with ads.
Looking into TikTok ad cost, CPM, the platform, has a more manageable price swing than Facebook. TikTok has a gradual cost movement, a 157% increase, from the lowest to the most expensive CPM result. While Facebook might have the lowest CPM output, it has a steep ascend, 1,575% upsurge, to the most costly Facebook ad campaign.
A winning strategy begins with understanding the TikTok Ads Manager
TikTok Ads Manager bidding process looks similar to other paid social platforms. What makes it stand out from the competition is the native organic content that app users produce.
TikTok ads stand out for two things: TikTok offers unique and engaging ad units such as TikTok Hashtag Challenge and creator-focus TikTok Spark ad. At the same time, Tiktok native content sparks curiosity, inspiration and fun, thus creating a more receptive response when seeing an ad. Based on our team’s observation, optimized TikTok ad campaigns perform well on views and clicks.
Related: Marketers’ guide to TikTok ad specs
Take a look at the current bidding methods that advertisers’ can see on TikTok Ads Manager:
- CPM / Thousand Impressions (CPM) – Marketers bid for the most ad exposure and possible reach. Having the right target audience and sets of interests helps attain the most cost-effective ad results. TikTok’s recommended advertising objective for CPM campaigns is Reach.
- Optimized CPM / Thousand Impressions (oCPM) Marketers bid for a thousand impressions for audiences with a high possibility of completing a conversion, becoming a lead, or installing an app. TikTok’s recommended advertising objectives for oCPM campaigns are Conversions, App Install, Lead Generation. Currently, TikTok Ads Manager set oCPM as their default bidding method for campaigns setup for Conversions and App Installs.
- Cost per Thousand Views (CPV) Marketers are bidding for one thousand 2-second or 6-second video views. TikTok will deliver as many video ads to the target audience as possible within specified ad allocation. TikTok’s recommended advertising objective for CPV campaigns is Video Views.
- Cost per Click (CPC) Marketers are bidding for audiences with a high probability of clicking or engaging in an ad. TikTok Ads Manager will attempt to attain target bid cost. TikTok’s recommended advertising objectives for CPC campaigns are Traffic, App Installs, and Conversions.
Comparing the TikTok Ads bidding process with Facebook Ads, Facebook Ads Manager has multiple Key Performance indicators that marketers can align their advertising objectives. Find out all the Facebook Ads metrics here.
TikTok Advertising: Great growth opportunity
TikTok’s unique way to capture the interest is its bite-size, fun, inspirational, and relevant content. Native TikTok content creates a more ad-friendly environment for platform users. TikTok ad’s units are closely similar to the organic content, translating engagement into advertising objectives.
What’s unique with TikTok ads? The example above showed that reach-targeted campaigns had significantly higher CTR than similar campaigns on other paid social platforms. Another reason why TikTok has been capturing advertisers’ eyes and ad money is because of its competitive ad costs.
Contact our team to find out how brands can maximize the potential of TikTok ads.
As the share of paid social increases, clients look where to move their ad budget, Facebook ads vs. YouTube ads. Hootsuite Social Trends 2022 Report indicated a 20.1% boost in social media video ad spending, amounting to $24.35 billion. As advertising technology advances, new social platforms and advertising solutions arise.
Advertisers are taking full advantage of the benefits brought by the competition: Facebook ads vs. YouTube ads. Which of the big social media favorites performed well last year, and where should most ad money go?
Drawing the line between Facebook Ads and YouTube Ads
Video content creation has been steadily rising for both organic and paid social. Based on Marketingcharts.com, the average view time on B2B content consumption surged to 63% last year. In fact, 35% of marketers choose to produce more video content to keep up with the demand.
With abundant high-quality inventory available on social platforms, Facebook and YouTube Ads can reach more engaged audiences making social advertising more effective.
2022 Expectation on Facebook Ads
Apple iOS 14.5 security update might have altered ad targeting capability but businesses of all sizes will continue to count on Facebook advertising. Until now, Meta, the rebranded Facebook, still holds the most users. Based on Statista.com, there are 262 million monthly active users on the platform. Outside having more eyes on Facebook content, here are some things marketers should expect on Facebook ads this year.
Adapting to Facebook ad targeting changes
Meta had rolled out the changes in their Facebook Ad Manager last January 19. It includes eliminating some detailed targeting options under race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs, and health causes.
Graham Mudd, Meta’s VP of Product Marketing, stated, “We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups.”
Mr. Mudd shared top tips for brands in keeping up with Meta’s ad targeting update.
- Media buyers can maximize “Engagement Custom Audiences” on the Facebook ad manager in reaching out to Facebook users who have shown interest in their content or page.
- Creating Lookalike Audiences from the existing Engagement Custom Audiences will help broaden ad reach.
- For businesses targeting local consumers, Location Targeting can be an option to increase product discovery through Facebook advertising.
How’s Facebook Advertising after iOS 14.5 update?
Quick answer, cost-effective. The App Tracking Transparency (ATT) has caused advertisers to scramble to adjust Facebook ad campaigns due to the data restriction. Emarketer’s Behind The Numbers podcast cited only one out of five are opting-in to ATT.
With Apple hampering third-party data, media buyers lean on Facebook Ad Manager’s ability to target precise audiences through native engagements. Using Strike Social data, Facebook ad campaigns optimized for Views, Engagement, and Followship have been more cost-efficient.


In aggregate, 2/3 of ad spend on Android devices resulted in underperforming Facebook Ad Impressions, Link Clicks, Page Engagements, and Reach. Improved Facebook Ad Costs are more evident for clients retargeting platform users than tracking activities outside Facebook.
2022 expectations on YouTube ads
In this new age of viewership, popularity, and relevancy rely on the video viewers’ behavior. According to the 2022 Nielsen Advertiser Playbook, 142 million American adults consume media on CTVs or TV devices connected to the Internet. Eyeballs on streaming video have seen a 51% growth over the recent years. Making AVOD and SVOD the primary choice of household viewers.
YouTube Ads on Bigger Screen
Related: YouTube vs. Instagram vs. Meta Statistics: Who Wears the Social Media Crown
Brands put a tremendous amount of money into producing video advertising. So how much did the 2022 Super Bowl ad cost? An average cost to air a 30-second TV commercial during the championship event is $6.5 million. Companies are expanding their video advertising through digital platforms through an always-on campaign.
A week before the Big Game, major brands have released their Super Bowl Ads on the top three social media platforms: YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. YouTube Ads have the most captured viewership among the three mentioned.


Related: Download the YouTube 2021 YouTube Insight Report
Video advertising on mobile might still have a significant market share, but YouTube on desktop, tablets, and most especially CTV have been gaining traction lately. Using CTV as a comparison baseline, tablet CPMs are relatively similar, and YouTube desktop and YouTube on Tablet video completion rates show a slight difference, regardless of the share of advertising spend. YouTube Ad on Connected TV is the runaway winner: 12% lower than mobile device ad cost, and 5% lower CPM than the handheld gadget.
Which is more effective: Facebook Ads or YouTube Ads?
There’s no easy answer, but both paid social channels are effective in their own way. Brand’s marketing agility in understanding how and where to reach their audience is the key to unlocking the full potential of Facebook and YouTube ads.
Based on the data, digital ad campaigns looking to leverage reach and impressions perform well on YouTube, thanks to the cable cutters and screen switchers. While Facebook ads gather more post interactions and help produce low CPCs for campaigns optimized for clicks and engagements
Many advertisers view these two platforms as competing paid social channels, but in reality, both are media buyers’ tools in leveraging digital campaigns. Through granular targeting, ad relevancy, and optimization, companies can find new customers, widen brand visibility, and build product loyalty through social advertising.
Win the next campaign and go from “Facebook Ads VS YouTube Ads” to “Facebook Ads AND YouTube Ads.”



iOS 14.5 is shaping how Facebook campaigns are behaving more than marketers might be aware. Starting in April 2021, iPhone users could opt out and stay anonymous to their apps, websites, or mobile activities. As a result, Facebook campaign performance is erratic due to less data visibility from iOS devices:
Let’s review five major impacts of Facebook media & measurement on iOS Devices:
- It’s taking longer to leave the learning phase. Everything leading to a website has to be click-based. Facebook and Instagram can only see website sessions that start w a click. There is almost zero View Through conversions for iOS devices.
- Almost all conversions will be in the same session. If a user opts out, there is not an attribution window for iOS.
- Retargeting off website visitors has largely been eliminated for iOS users.
- Every step on the user journey on the website counts as an ‘Event.’ However, Facebook can only report on one event for iOS users. It’s why event prioritization is necessary.
- As a result of Facebook seeing fewer website events from iOS, some direct response campaigns optimize to Android and Desktop.
iOS vs Android in Direct Response Campaigns
The above chart compares iOS and Android FB spend for direct response efforts reliant on the Facebook Pixel for optimizations. The July numbers show that Android spend was 3x that of iOS.
Skewing Facebook spend is very likely to be the reaction of seeing more website data from Android users than the anonymity of iPhone mobile browsers.
Knowing this, Strike Social Team started down an optimization path to manage efficiency and volume using the same pixel-based solution until better options could be developed.
Comparison of Regional Facebook Direct Response Campaigns
Regional Campaign A uses a broader mix of video and statics to drive to their landing pages. As a result, video Cost Per Click has been more cost-effective and drives more engagements.
Regional Campaign B uses static media but collects all leads within the Facebook environment, allowing the platform to optimize the campaign.
Regional Campaign C is primarily based on statics and drives to a lead form on a landing page.
What We Now Know
Focus On Facebook Integration
After the Apple iOS 14.5 updates, one of the best ways to track, optimize, and achieve a high ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) is to make your campaign native to the platform. For instance, looking at options outside the website pixel will provide more consistency in conversions and spending. At the same time, creating retargeting opportunities native to Facebook compared to the website events will help improve CPL and conversion campaigns.
iOS vs Android – Optimizing Campaign Leads within Facebook
Another approach to bring down acquisition costs within Facebook is greater integration with the platform. Aiming to keep leads and even sales within Facebook as a native activity will be faster to optimize.
Campaigns optimizing to engagements are often seeing more iOS spend. As an illustration, Strike Social data shows around 70-80% iOS spending on the average day when optimizing lead campaigns on Facebook.
Decreasing Audience Pool and Retargeting Leads
The current setup often over-emphasizes success via the Facebook pixel, including delayed Facebook reporting. Therefore, due to miscalculations, marketers need to verify website transactions via other platforms, affecting the campaign performance and advertisers’ real-time decisions.
On top of this, it also hinders optimization and retrieves few data points. It now creates a chain of reaction that cause to shrink the Facebook retargeting pool to iOS users.
Keeping up with Facebook’s New Rules
Despite shaking the advertising industry with these privacy updates, based on a mediapost.com article, as of early September 2020, only 59% of user acquisition managers have reacted and decided to overhaul their 2021 target KPI’s, while others chose to weather the storm.
Adding a few steps to the process will be a good option rather than stepping away from one of the biggest social media platforms. The Apple iOS 14.5 privacy is just beginning a more pro-consumer direction for these tech companies that significantly impact the digital advertising industry.
Strike Overview
- Facebook carousel ads are one of the most engaging formats available to advertisers, driving impressive results across industries.
- In fact, carousel ads generate 30% more clicks than single video ads and 34% more clicks than single image ads. They also deliver 10-12% higher conversion rates than other creative formats, making them a powerful tool for boosting sales.
- With about 200 million daily US users lurking around Facebook pages and content—representing 71% of all U.S. internet users—actively engaging with Facebook content, the question becomes: How can advertisers maximize the potential of carousel ads in Facebook campaigns?
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What are the benefits of carousel ads for Facebook advertisers?
Facebook carousel ads offer an interactive format where advertisers can include up to 10 swipeable cards, each featuring a unique image or video. Each card can have its own headline and link, allowing you to showcase multiple products or services in a single ad. This format not only introduces your brand to your audience but also provides an engaging way to highlight your offerings in a dynamic, visually appealing manner.
Facebook carousel ads can be effective for just about any business or industry. But some businesses and industries have qualities that make them especially well suited for using carousel ads.
Facebook carousel ads may be an especially good fit for you if:
- You want to showcase the visuals of your brand or products. Industries like fashion and travel can especially benefit from the visual storytelling capabilities of carousel ads.
- You have multiple products to highlight. E-commerce stores with diverse product lines can use carousel ads to display various categories in one cohesive ad.
- You’re new to Facebook advertising. Carousel ads are flexible and easy to set up, allowing you to experiment with images, videos, or a combination of both to see what resonates most with your target audience.


Facebook carousel ads best practices when setting up campaigns
Due to their dynamic and interactive format, Facebook has established specific ad sizes and limitations to ensure carousel ads are displayed well across devices, particularly on the Facebook app. Before launching a carousel ad campaign, familiarize yourself with Facebook’s ad specifications.
Facebook ad specs for carousel ads
The Facebook carousel ad specs can vary based on the placements you choose. If you’re using Meta Advantage+ placements, Facebook will automatically select the best placements for your ads, including Facebook, Instagram, and other sites or apps within the Meta advertising network.
If you prefer manual placement selection, you can choose from the following options:
- Facebook Feed
- Facebook In-stream Video
- Facebook Video Feed
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Stories
- Facebook Search Results
- Facebook Reels
- Ads on Facebook Reels (Overlay)
- Facebook Business Explore
To ensure creative compliance, review the table below for the technical specifications and size requirements for Facebook carousel ads across each placement:




Further Reading


Exploring Facebook Reels Ads? Here’s Your Guide to Getting Started
Facebook Reels provide an interactive way for brands to express their authenticity and connect with audiences. With an easy-to-digest format, Reels are reminiscent of TikTok and YouTube Shorts, offering advertisers a versatile platform to create and refine short videos that effectively grab viewers’ attention.
How to create Facebook carousel ads
There are two distinct ways to start creating carousel ads on Facebook: from your Facebook page or from the Facebook Ads Manager (now Meta Ads Manager).
From your Facebook page
- Go to your Facebook page and click Create Ads in the left-side menu.
- In the following window, start by selecting your creatives. To ensure your ads display in carousel format, make sure to upload multiple images or videos.
- To capture the audience’s attention, include a headline for each carousel card.
- Choose a call-to-action (CTA) such as “Learn More” or “Book Now.” If you want users directed to your website upon clicking the button, select Website as the Button Destination and enter the specific URL.
- Depending on the chosen CTA, you can also include a contact form so users can easily submit their information without leaving the Facebook app.
- Proceed with the remaining ad campaign setup, including budget, duration, and audience targeting.
- Before clicking Publish, preview your Facebook carousel ad in the upper right corner of the screen to ensure everything appears as intended. Click See All Previews to view potential placements within the Meta advertising network.
- If everything looks good, click on Publish.
From Ads Manager
- Go to the Meta Ads Manager. You can add a carousel ad at the campaign, ad set, or ad level. For this example, we’ll add a carousel ad at the ad level for an existing awareness campaign.
- Click on your active campaign, then choose the ad set where you want to add the carousel ad. Click on Create.
- Under Ad Setup, select Carousel as the ad format.
- Scroll to Ad Creative and click on Add Cards. Similar to the previous method, you can combine images and videos.
- Enter a headline and description for each carousel card. For the website URL, input it on one card and click Apply on All Cards to automatically copy it to all other cards in the carousel.
- Finish the rest of your ad and campaign setup.
- You can see a real-time ad preview on the right side of the screen as you update your creatives. Before hitting Publish, check how your Facebook carousel ads appear in different Meta network placements.
Further Reading



Reach the Right Audience Using Facebook Audience Insights
The Audience Insights tool is tailored to assist brands and advertisers in understanding their target audience better. It offers valuable information, including page likes, geographic locations, household demographics, and purchasing behaviors, allowing Facebook advertisers to connect more effectively with potential customers.
Additional best practices and tips for carousel ads in Facebook
While there are established strategies for using Facebook carousel ads effectively, there is ample room for innovation and creativity. Here are some key practices to consider:
- Put your strongest image first.
- The first image in your carousel ad is the one that your audience will always see, whether they swipe through the rest of the pictures or not. So it’s really important that this image stops the viewer’s thumb and encourages them to check out the rest of the ad.
- Use high-quality creatives and visuals.
- All images or videos must be of high quality and maintain a consistent theme throughout the carousel. Some advertisers opt for a continuous storytelling approach, prompting audiences to swipe to see the complete narrative, while others choose striking visuals to capture immediate clicks.
- Be entertaining and helpful.
- Even if the purpose of your Facebook carousel ad is to drive conversions, it’s best to avoid being a salesman in people’s Facebook feeds. Focus on entertaining, educating, and getting your viewer’s interest and your carousel ads will get a much better response.
Yet another engaging way to advertise on Facebook
As brands increasingly compete for ad space, particularly during peak advertising seasons, it’s essential to captivate audiences with diverse ad formats—especially the swipeable Facebook carousel ads. These ads offer a unique opportunity to keep your audience engaged.
Curious about how Facebook advertising can boost your engagement and conversions? Click here to explore our Facebook ROAS case study and discover how Strike Social can enhance the performance of your Facebook campaigns.
Strike Overview
- Facebook Ads Manager provides tools to create ads, track performance, and manage budgets, driving effective campaign results.
- As more users access Ads Manager on mobile and desktop, its importance in managing and scaling Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns continues to grow.
- With Meta leading the 2024 ad spend projections among other social media advertising platforms, advertisers are now more compelled to have a deeper understanding of how the fundamentals of Facebook ad management work.
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This post was updated in September 2024 to provide you with the latest information.
An Overview of Facebook Ads Manager
The Facebook Ads Manager is a free tool available to assist you in your advertising efforts. It’s your all-in-one tool for creating ads, managing when and where they’ll be placed and tracking how well your Meta ad campaigns are performing.
You can use it to create, run and tweak the specifications of your ads. Using the Ads Manager allows you to target your ads to the right audiences, set your budget, see which of your ads are working, and view your billing information, payment summary and payment method information—all within the Meta Business Suite. This should not be confused with Facebook Business Manager, which provides a broader view of both organic content and paid advertising.
Are you ready to learn the essential steps to manage your campaigns through Facebook Ads Manager? Let’s jump in.
How to Access the Facebook Ads Manager
You have a few ways of accessing the Ads Manager and they will vary according to the platform you are using.
Desktop
- On your Facebook homepage (facebook.com), navigate to the left-hand side menu and click See More to expand the list of options.


- Once the additional options appear, scroll down until you find Ads Manager. Click on it, and you will be redirected to the Facebook Ads Manager interface.


- If you navigate directly to the Ads Manager site, you’ll be taken to your personal account by default. Switching to a different account is simple:
- Click on your profile image on the left side of the screen to switch to the correct Business portfolio, or
- Click on the dropdown menu next to Campaigns, then select See More Ad Accounts to choose the business or ad account you want to manage.


Mobile
- Download the Meta Ads Manager app from the Play Store (for Android devices) or the App Store (for Apple devices).
- If you already have Facebook installed on your device, the app will recognize your account and prompt you to click Continue to link your account to the Ads Manager app.
- If you want to use a different account, simply click on Not you? to log in with another Facebook account.


- Once logged in, you’ll be prompted to select the ad account you want to manage.


- And that’s it! Your screen will now display an overview of your campaigns, and you can start exploring and managing your ads through the Meta Ads Manager mobile application.


Exploring Meta Ads Manager: Managing Your Facebook and Instagram Campaigns
Your Meta Ads Manager interface is organized into three main tabs—Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Ads. Here’s a closer look at what each tab offers:
Campaigns
This tab allows you to view and manage all your campaigns. You can create, duplicate, and edit campaigns, update campaign names, or change end dates.
It also provides insights into each campaign’s performance, allowing you to export or share results in .csv or .xlsx formats. You can customize the columns and use breakdown options to analyze your campaign data more effectively.


Ad sets
Viewing the Ad Sets tab gives you much of the same options as the Campaigns tab, but focuses on one specific ad set within a campaign. Along with everything mentioned above, it gives you the opportunity to edit your ad set and update not only the name, but also the placement, budget, scheduling and targeting.


Ads
The Ads tab allows you to focus on one single ad within an ad set in a Facebook campaign. In addition to editing the budget and viewing performance, you can use this tab to preview your ad and see how it appears across your selected Facebook ad placements within the Meta advertising network.


Further Reading



Learn More About Your Audience with Facebook Audience Insights
The Facebook Audience Insights tool offers valuable data to help marketers understand their target audience. It provides information on page likes, geographic location, household demographics, and purchasing behavior.
Best Practices on Facebook Advertising
- Always use high-quality photos. Whether for business or personal use, only upload high-quality images to social media platforms to ensure your content looks professional and engaging. Make sure your ads fit by learning the Facebook ad sizes.
- Avoid ad fatigue. To prevent your audience from seeing the same ads repeatedly, regularly update your ad creatives. Introduce new ads instead of just modifying existing ones to keep your content fresh and engaging. Keep your ads fresh with the latest Facebook ad formats.
Managing Your Facebook Ads From Inside the Office and Beyond
Now that you know all the benefits of using Facebook Ads Manager, go ahead and use the tool to improve the way you manage your Facebook campaigns.
Remember you can also download the Facebook Ads Manager app to manage your ads from home, the airport or rooftop lounge whenever you feel like it. Take advantage of the inspiration as soon as it strikes, since it doesn’t always happen in the office.
Strike Overview
- Facebook Audience Insights, now located within Meta Business Suite Insights, equips you to create and deliver relevant messages to your audience.
- With 75.3% of U.S. adults accessing Facebook monthly, it remains the country’s most widely used social media platform.
- Instead of reaching out to the entire U.S. Facebook audience, use this tool to precisely identify and engage with the specific demographic that aligns best with your ad goals.
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This post was updated in August 2024 to provide you with the latest information.
Improve your Targeting with Facebook Audience Insights
Designed to help marketers learn more about the audience they want to reach, the Audience Insights tool provides relevant data for Facebook advertisers, such as page likes, location, what your target audience’s household looks like, and buyer behavior.
Audience Insights differs from Facebook’s Page Insights because it looks at trends about your current or potential customers across Facebook, whereas Page Insights looks at interactions with your page (e.g., likes, comments, and shares).
As with many Facebook tools, Audience Insights is free and user-friendly. Follow the steps below to improve your Facebook strategy and hone tactics for creating winning social media advertising campaigns time and time again.
How to Use Facebook Audience Insights
Step 1: Access Audience Insights
- Go to the Facebook Business Manager page.
- From the left-hand menu, select Insights to open the full overview.
- To view your Audience Insights data, click on Audience.
- On the Audience Insights screen, you will find three key tabs:
Trends: View metrics like follower count (based on the selected timeframe), post views, and follower engagement.
Demographics: Analyze the age, gender, and location breakdown of your followers.
Potential Audience: Based on your follower and engagement data, Facebook suggests an audience size and demographic, helping you refine your content and advertising strategy.
Step 2: Create an audience
To fully utilize the Audience Insights you have gathered from this tool, start by creating a custom audience.
- Hover your mouse over the left-side menu and click on All tools.
- Search for “audience”, then click on Audience under Advertise.


- A new window will open, leading you to the Audiences section in Meta Ads Manager.


- Click on Create audience, then select Custom audience.
- Select your source to begin customizing your audience list.


Once your audience is labeled as Ready, you can start using it for Facebook advertising, targeting based on the data from Facebook Audience Insights.
- When setting up your Facebook ad campaign, go to the Ad Set level.
- First, go to Audience controls and select your target location.
To change the location, hover the mouse over the current location settings and click on the “X” that will appear on the right side of the box. Depending on your suggested potential audience from the Facebook Audience Insights tool, you can target by country or city.


- Scroll to Advantage+ audience. From here, you can segment your audience by age, gender, interests, people connected to your page, and more advanced data such as behavior, language, education, work, etc.
Quick tip: Add your custom audience created in the previous step and create a Lookalike audience to target similar audience profiles from your target country.


After setting up your audience, continue with the rest of your Facebook ad campaign setup.
Further Reading


Discover Advantage+ Audiences Insights from a Strike Expert
In our annual training, our Meta specialist from Strike Social provided an overview of Meta Advantage. The Meta Advantage+ Audience feature complements Strike Social’s AI capabilities by helping broaden the audience while remaining within the brand’s target demographics.
Step 3: Play with the data
For example, we’ve created an audience in Chicago with both men and women between the ages of 25 and 54. Our audience likes the winning combination of entertainment and TV shows. Let’s follow this audience, as suggested by the Facebook Audience Insights tool.


Quick tip: To refine your target audience, continue adding segments by updating the Detailed targeting section. Notice how the audience size changes as you add or remove parameters.


Step 4: Get granular
It’s time to explore the new Facebook Audience Insights tool by examining the three main tabs that reveal what our audience looks like. Unlike the old Facebook Audience Insights tool with six tabs, the updated tool has streamlined its insights into:
- Trends,
- Demographics, and
- Potential audience.
Tab 1: Trends
The “Trends” tab provides a snapshot of your audience’s behavior on Facebook. It shows the average number of followers and returning viewers, along with engagement metrics like comments, likes, shares, and ad clicks within the last 30 days (or your selected timeframe).
For instance, if you’re tracking follower count as a secondary Facebook metric in addition to your primary goal (e.g., Awareness), this is an excellent way to monitor your progress at a glance.


This tab also highlights the most active times for your Facebook page’s audience. By analyzing the frequency of activity graphs, you can see when your audience is most engaged. For instance, our Facebook Audience Insights suggest that our followers are most active between 12 AM to 3 AM and 3 PM to 9 PM.
Tab 2: Demographics
The “Demographics” tab breaks down your audience by age, gender, and key locations.


For example, our current Facebook audience, primarily based in Chicago, consists of 58.4% men and 41.6% women. Interestingly, the age demographic skews towards 45-54 years old, with a decline in older age segments.
At the top left of this screen, you can view your total lifetime followers and switch between your Facebook or Instagram pages (if applicable) on the right-hand side.
Further Reading


Can Non-sports Brands Succeed in Targeting Sports Audiences?
Exploring how brands and advertisers use sports-focused content can reveal new ways to boost campaign engagement, build emotional connections with audiences, and foster brand loyalty.
Tab 3: Potential audience
The “Potential Audience” tab reveals how to expand your reach based on your audience’s current behavior. For instance, the data might suggest targeting more women, as they represent a significant portion of your most engaged audience. Additionally, you might discover that your content has a strong reach among the 55+ age group.


Use this data to fine-tune your audience segmentation, boost engagement, and achieve better results for your Facebook advertising campaigns by targeting the right audience.
Step 5: Put your Audience Insights to work
Are you satisfied with your audience? Can you use it to improve messaging and engage with Facebook users? If yes, remember to name and save your audience so you can use it to refine your targeting when advertising on Facebook.
If you plan to create many audience segments, you can do so by returning to the Audience tab in Facebook Ads Manager. There, you can select which audiences to use depending on the ad campaign you are looking to launch.
Conclusion
The Facebook Audience Insights tool can help you improve your ad campaigns and messaging. It ensures that your Facebook ad campaigns reach the right people and get the right engagement and clicks. Experiment with different parameters to truly understand the power of this valuable tool.
Strike Overview
- Before uploading your creative for a Meta campaign, it’s essential to review the different Facebook ad sizes and formats to make sure your ads are visually engaging and display correctly on all screens.
- Facebook advertising continues to dominate as a top choice for advertisers, with projected ad spend reaching $121.80 billion this year. Its global reach and user engagement make it the most popular social media platform, with 3 billion monthly active users worldwide, including 193 million from the United States alone.
- To achieve success in Facebook advertising, marketers and media buyers must thoroughly understand how the platform works. This includes following the specific Facebook ad sizes to ensure your ads appear appealing to the audience and avoid rejection.
Jump to Section
This post was updated in February 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Familiarize yourself with the complete list of Facebook ad formats and their respective specifications and dimensions to ensure your ads adhere to the platform’s guidelines and optimize their effectiveness.
2025 Facebook Ad Types and Sizes
As we introduce the diverse array of Facebook advertising options, we will highlight the various Facebook ad sizes and how you can properly showcase your brand to achieve your campaign goals:
Image Size for Facebook Ads
The average attention span on social media is between 1.7 and 2.5 seconds per piece of content. Thus, top Facebook advertisers capitalize on image ads to capture immediate attention, ensuring audiences quickly grasp the brand’s message. Remarkably, a well-crafted image can be as impactful as a full-length video, delivering the desired results for brands.
To optimize the Facebook ad sizes for your campaigns, here are the recommended image sizes for Facebook ads based on the ad format and placement:
Facebook Feed


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 80 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook In-Stream Video


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Note: Because this Facebook ad type has a limited image size, it’s best to avoid placing text on images.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Video Feed Ads


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 80 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Marketplace


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
Facebook Stories


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Safe zone tip: Clear roughly 14% of the top and 20% of the bottom of your image of text, logos, or other essential creative elements to make way for other UI elements, such as the CTA.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 500 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 1%
Facebook Search Results


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Reels Ads


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 40 characters
- Headline: 55 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Further Reading




Safe Zone Guide for Facebook Reels and other Short-form Video Ads
A safe zone guide can help you post ads on any social media platform without worrying about your profile picture, ad copy, or even the like and share buttons covering it up. Explore the safe zone guides for popular short-form video ad platforms like TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.
Ads on Facebook Reels


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Note: Placing text on the images is not recommended due to the small image size.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 72 characters
- Headline: 10 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Business Explore


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Right Column


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Headline: 40 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Minimum Width: 254 pixels
- Minimum Height: 133 pixels
Specs for Facebook Video Ads
Whether long-form or short-form, video ads are an excellent way to connect with your target audience by telling a compelling story, as evidenced by Facebook video ad impressions growing by 31% year-on-year. Moreover, conforming to the correct Facebook video ad sizes can result in 78% greater engagement.
To help you achieve this elevated level of engagement, here are the Facebook video ad specs you should adhere to:
Facebook Feed
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Avoid including edit lists or special boxes in video file containers.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
- For those using 360 videos, this allows the user to interact with the video by swiping through it. It is only available for Facebook Feed and Video Feed placements.
Facebook In-Stream Video
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Avoid including edit lists or special boxes in video file containers.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
- For those using 360 videos, this allows the user to interact with the video by swiping through it. It is only available for Facebook Feed and Video Feed placements.
Facebook Video Feed Ads
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 4:5
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Videos must be free of edit lists and special boxes in their file containers.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 80 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Description: 25 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
Facebook Marketplace
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Headline: 25 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
Facebook Stories
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- 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 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Ensure videos do not include edit lists or special boxes in their containers.
- Safe zone guide: Leave about 250 pixels at the top and 340 pixels at the bottom of your video free of text and logos to prevent them from being obscured by UI elements like the call-to-action text.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 2 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 500 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 1%
Facebook Search Results
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Videos should be formatted without edit lists or special boxes in the file containers.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
Facebook Reels
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Recommended 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 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Do not use edit lists or special boxes within video file containers.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 40 characters
- Headline: 55 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: No maximum limit
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
Ads on Facebook Reels


- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Recommended 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 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 40 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Min Video Duration: 4 seconds
- Max Video Duration: 15 seconds
Facebook Business Explore
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Exclude edit lists and special boxes from video file containers.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
Facebook Right Column (Desktop)
- Design Specs:
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Note: Keep video file containers clear of edit lists and special boxes.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
Carousel Ad Specs on Facebook
Carousel ads are a type of Facebook advertising format that allows audiences to engage audiences with swipeable or movable creatives. This format enables businesses to showcase multiple products or services within a single ad space in their Facebook ad feed. Each carousel ad can include up to 10 cards, providing ample opportunity to highlight different product or service aspects.
For instance, a clothing line brand could create a carousel ad with one card for men’s wear, one for women’s, and one for children’s wear. Better yet, use a single carousel ad dedicated to the whole family’s summer wear!
Further Reading



How to Prepare for A Sizzling Summer Campaign
Audiences have started planning their festivities and gatherings, so brands must act quickly to capture their attention. Select the best summer marketing strategies to connect with your audience and create a lasting impression.
Continue reading to learn more about the specific Facebook carousel ad specifications for each ad placement available on the platform:
Facebook Feed


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 or 4:5
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 80 characters
- Headline: 45 characters
- Description: 18 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: 2 to 10
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Video Duration: 1 second to 240 minutes
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook In-Stream Video


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: 10
- Image Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Image Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Image Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Video Maximum File Size: 4 GB
- Video Duration: Up to 15 seconds
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Video Feeds Ads


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 or 4:5
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 80 characters
- Headline: 45 characters
- Description: 18 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: 2 to 10
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Video Duration: 1 second to 240 minutes
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Marketplace


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 20 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: 2 to 10
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Video Duration: 1 second to 240 minutes
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Stories


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1920 pixels (there is no maximum resolution)
- Note: Video is not supported for carousel ads in Facebook Stories placement.
- Know the safe zones: Ensure the top 14% and bottom 20% of your Facebook ad creatives are free from text and logos to prevent UI elements from covering them.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Number of carousel cards: 3 to 10
- Image minimum width: 500 pixels
- Image maximum file size: 30 MB
Facebook Search Results


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Description: 20 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: 2 to 10
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Video Duration: 1 second to 240 minutes
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Reels
- Design Specs:
- Image file type: JPG or PNG
- Recommended ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Know your safe zone: Leave a buffer of 14% at the top, 35% at the bottom, and 6% on each side of your image or video to keep text and logos visible and not covered by UI elements such as your profile picture, ad text, or your call-to-action button.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary text: 40 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Number of carousel cards: 2 to 10
- Maximum file size: 30MB
- Minimum width: 600 pixels
- Minimum height: 600 pixels
- Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%
Ads on Facebook Reels


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Note: We do not recommend including text on your images because of the relatively small image size when shown on this Facebook advertising placement.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 50 characters
- Headline: 10 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: maximum of 10
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Business Explore


- Design Specs:
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 32 characters
- Description: 18 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Number of Carousel Cards: 2 to 10
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Video Duration: 1 second to 240 minutes
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
Facebook Collection Ad Specs
The Collection ad format on Facebook allows you to highlight a cover image or video supported by 3 or more product images. Media buying teams are recommended to use the Instant Experience feature, where users can click on the ad and immediately enter a “shopping experience” without leaving Facebook. Further, collection ads on the Facebook advertising platform can be created using Storefront, Lookbook, or Customer Acquisition templates.
Here are the Facebook ad sizes and dimensions to prepare your ad creatives for this placement:
Facebook Feed


- Design Specs:
- Image Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Instant Experience: Required
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
Facebook Video Feed Ads


- Design Specs:
- Image Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Instant Experience: Required
- Image maximum file size: 30MB
- Video maximum file size: 4GB
Facebook Reels (Post-loop)


- Design Specs:
- Image Type: JPG or PNG
- Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 9:16 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- What is the safe zone template: To avoid having text and logos covered by UI, such as the call-to-action, keep the top 14%, bottom 35%, and 6% of each side of your image or video free of text or other elements.
- Text Limitations:
- Primary Text: 72 characters
- Headline: 10 characters
- Landing Page URL: Required
- Technical Specs:
- Instant Experience: Required
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
Facebook Marketplace


- Design Specs:
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Text Limitations:
- Headline: 25 characters
- Technical Specs:
- Instant Experience: Required
- Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
Venture into Facebook Advertising with Ease by Mastering Facebook Ad Specifications
Before worrying about the Facebook metrics and advertising costs, your first order of business is to ensure your ads are visible to audiences. This means eliminating any blockages in your ad creatives and adhering to the prescribed Facebook ad sizes and dimensions.
With this guide at your fingertips, you’ll always have a reliable reference to craft effective Facebook ad creatives. By understanding Facebook’s safe zones and those of other social media platforms like Instagram, getting your ads approved and live should now be effortless.
Explore our Facebook blogs and case studies here for further guidance on Facebook advertising.
In the world of social media advertising, Facebook is definitely the overall reigning champ.
Almost every type of customer is on Facebook. But, there’s a part of Facebook that has an even higher concentration of users than the platform itself: Facebook Messenger.
Overall, messaging apps now have more users than social networks. Facebook Messenger alone has 1.3 billion monthly users. So it makes sense that Facebook designed ads specifically for its messaging app.
Given the massive potential for reaching customers and starting conversations, you should be using Facebook Messenger Ads.
But watch out. Messenger ads have a few gotchas that standard Facebook ads don’t.
We created this guide to walk you through some of the do’s and don’ts of Facebook Messenger ads and cover some of the basics of setting them up.
But first, some Facebook Messenger Ad basics.
What are Facebook Messenger Ads?
Facebook Messenger Ads have two possible placements:
Click-To-Messenger Ads. These are ads that appear on the user’s timeline and look the same as standard Facebook image, video or carousel ads. However, the call to action button takes users to a conversation with your company in their messenger app.
Image credit: AdEspresso by Hootsuite
Messenger Ads. These are ads that appear in the messenger app itself. They can either start a conversation or take users to a landing page.
Image credit: AdEspresso by Hootsuite
The ads have two primary formats:
Sponsored Messages. These are ads that look exactly like a normal message. The company name on your Facebook page will be displayed as the sender. These ads are designed to start a messenger conversation.
Home Screen Ads. These ads appear between messages on a user’s messenger home screen. Home Screen Ads are essentially standard Facebook ads that display in the messenger app. These ads take users to a landing page.
Each ad type works for accomplishing certain objectives. Here’s what you need to know to get the most from your Facebook Messenger Ads.
How to use Click-To-Messenger Ads
Click-To-Messenger Ads are a great way to build your base of Facebook Messenger subscribers. In Messenger, subscribers are simply people who have messaged you in the past and haven’t deleted the conversation.
Having a conversation with a customer in Messenger gives you an additional channel to communicate with them and offers an opportunity for hyperpersonal interaction.
Additionally, you can broadcast messages to your entire subscriber base with Messenger marketing software. So Messenger can act as a pseudo email list.
Here are the key attributes of Click-To-Messenger ads:
- Click-To-Messenger Ads work in both Facebook and Instagram, and on desktop and mobile.
- You can use the same targeting as any other Facebook ads. Target behaviors, interests, custom audiences or anything else you can target in the Facebook Ads Manager.
- Click-To-Messenger Ads are only available for Facebook campaigns with traffic, messages or conversion objectives. You can’t create Click-To-Messenger Ads in campaigns with other objectives, so you won’t see them in the drop-down menu.
Those are the basics. Now that you’ve got your feet wet, here are some best practices for running Click-To-Messenger Ads.
Related: How to use Facebook Messenger ads to scale your Facebook advertising
Click-To-Messenger Ad best practices
- Make sure users understand what they’re clicking. Since Click-To-Messenger Ads look like standard Facebook ads, it’s easy for a user to click on the ad expecting a landing page to come up.
When a person clicks expecting one thing and gets another, that’s a bad user experience and could hurt conversions.
So use a call to action like, “Start a Conversation” or “Ask Us Anything,” and clarify in the ad copy that they’re clicking through to Facebook Messenger. That way customers know what to expect when they click on your ads.
- Use Click-To-Messenger Ads for remarketing. If a prospect has visited your page or messaged you, but hasn’t made a purchase, there’s a reason.
Often this barrier to buying is a lack of information or understanding. So use Click-To-Messenger Ads as an opportunity to find out what questions or concerns a potential customer has about buying and clarify things for them.
Also, if you use Click-To-Messenger Ads for remarketing, you’ll get better results if you use other marketing channels to build your subscriber list. Include a link to start a Facebook Messenger conversation in your marketing emails and customer service emails to encourage people to message you.
- Ask a question people can answer. This works best if you’re targeting people who haven’t interacted with your brand before. However, it’s totally viable for renewing a conversation with prospects who haven’t contacted you in a while.
The big thing here is to ensure that you ask a question that leads to a sales conversation. Unlike an Instagram poll, which can be solely entertaining, questions in your Click-to-Messenger Ads should help customers express their needs and pain points to you so you can present a solution (your product).
Here at Strike Social, we might ask something like, “What’s your biggest challenge in social media marketing?”
- Use Click-To-Messenger Ads for traffic and messages objectives. Yes, conversions are the end goal of all advertising.
However, until you have a significant number of conversions, Facebook doesn’t have enough data to optimize your ads. This usually means they won’t get shown to enough people to be effective.
Those are the ins and outs of Click-To-Messenger Ads. Remember that many of the fundamentals of standard Facebook ads apply to Click-To-Messenger Ads, since they look and function very similarly.
How to use Messenger Ads
We’ll start with the simpler of the two types of Messenger Ads: Home Screen Ads.
Home Screen Ads are more of a new placement than a new type of ad. Basically, Home Screen Ads are just standard Facebook ads that show in a user’s messenger app.
The same best practices of Facebook ads apply to Home Screen Ads. However, there are a couple of additional considerations.
- Let people stay in Messenger. Unlike the Facebook timeline, people don’t idly cruise their messages. People open messenger to send messages. So they’ll be irritated if your ad takes them to their browser.
Stick with ads that show content in Messenger when a user clicks on them.
- Use static, understated ads. It’s best to create ads specifically for showing in messenger, rather than just importing your timeline ads.
Keep your ads simple and subtle. Avoid flashy ads that feel like they try too hard to get attention. Messenger is a very different environment than the timeline. It’s very easy for users to tell Facebook that your ads are not useful to them, which could reduce your ad showing.
That’s it for Home Screen Ads. Simple, right?
Let’s talk about Promoted Messages.
Promoted Messages have the same look as messages from friends. But they’re from your brand.
Here’s what you need to know about Promoted Messages:
- Promoted Messages are only available for campaigns with the messages objective. If you select a different objective for a campaign, Promoted Messages won’t appear in the “Ad Type” menu.
- You can send Promoted Messages any time. Ordinarily, you can only send messages within 24 hours of the last message they sent you.
- You can only send messages to people who have messaged you in the past. This is pretty self-explanatory. People who have unsubscribed or deleted your conversation cannot be contacted with Promoted Messages.
- Promoted Messages aren’t delivered immediately. Facebook says that your messages will be delivered 3-5 days after your campaign starts. Facebook automatically sends messages when people are most likely to see them based on how they use their messenger app.
Facebook recommends that you run a Promoted Messages campaign for at least seven days to ensure that all your messages get delivered.
- You can only send one message to each person. If you’d like to send more than one message per customer, you’ll have to create multiple ad sets.
Keep in mind that it’s easy to irritate customers with too many messages. Keep the message volume reasonable.
- Facebook charges for impressions. You’re going to get charged whether the user opens the message or not. Keep this in mind as you plan your budget.
Right now, the average cost of Promoted Messages is $30 per 1000 impressions.
There’s quite a bit there. Fortunately, the Facebook Ads Manager takes care of most of the important stuff.
The list of best practices for Promoted Ads is much shorter.
Since you can only send Promoted Messages to people who’ve already contacted you, these ads are exclusively remarketing ads.
- Use Promoted Messages for promoting events, sales or offering discounts. Since these customers have already messaged you, it’s pretty likely that they already have all the information they need to make a buying decision. They likely just need a little nudge.
Price reductions go a long way here.
- Target specific segments of your subscriber list. Just like email marketing, Promoted Messages work better when they’re more relevant. Facebook lets you get very granular with your segmentation and targeting, so take advantage of it.
That’s all there is to it. Easier than it looked at first, right?
We’ve got one last thing to cover.
Creating Facebook Messenger Ads
Facebook Messenger Ads can be created in the Facebook Ads Manager, using any campaign with traffic, messages or conversion objectives.
Creating Facebook Messenger Ads is similar to creating other ad types, so we’ll cover this quickly.
- Go to Ad Creation and select “Traffic,” “Messages,” or “Conversions” as your objective.
If you want to create Promoted Messages, select the “Messages” objective.
- Select the ad type you want to create.
- Select where you want people to go when they click your ads. For Click-To-Messenger ads, select “Messenger.” For Promoted Messages and Home Screen Ads you can select either “Messenger” or “URL.”
- Specify your audience. By default, ads will be shown to everyone. You can choose audiences you’ve already built or select a new audience based on Facebook’s segmentation factors.
- Select the placement.
For Click-To-Messenger Ads, select the “Home” placement.
For Home Screen Ads, select the “Messenger” placement.
For promoted messages, you can only choose “Sponsored Messages.”
Specify your budget and schedule.
- Build your ads. You can specify your text and images for all messenger ads. You can also customize customer actions like providing suggested quick replies.
- Run your ads!
And one last thing: consider using a Facebook chatbot to help you out. Message volume can get unmanageable fast. A chatbot can do a lot of work in dealing with common questions and issues.
That’s it for our 10-minute rundown of Facebook Messenger Ads.
So have a go at using Facebook Messenger Ads in your business. As always, measure, test and iterate. Then send us a message and let us know how these ads work for you!
In an update from Facebook last month, the social media giant announced it would be bringing down the hammer on low-quality ads in an effort to improve user experience and transparency.
In the announcement, Facebook said:
“Low-quality ads on Facebook, such as ones that include clickbait or direct people to unexpected content, create bad experiences for people and don’t align with our goal of creating meaningful connections between people and businesses. We are now going further in our efforts to limit low-quality ads on our platforms by disapproving more of them and reducing distribution for more ads in our auction.”
Facebook’s new low-quality ad restrictions come at a time when more and more social channels are pushing for transparency to ensure users have quality experiences on their platforms.
So what does all this mean? And how strict are the restrictions? In this article, we’ll outline everything you need to know about Facebook’s new restrictions on low-quality ads and what this means for advertisers.
What is considered a low-quality ad on Facebook?
Facebook outlines a few examples of typical low-quality ads to avoid:
Engagement bait
Ads asking users for likes, comments or shares are considered spammy content. Facebook also has specific rules about likes and comments in contest promotions.
Remember that these types of ads that hack Facebook’s engagement algorithm are not only poor in nature, but they can also skew your data.
Withholding information
Ads that clearly withhold information in the copy to entice people to click or understand the full context are restricted.
This type of ad is a key problem when it comes to transparency and user experience — they often lead to spam or landing pages that a user has no interest in.
Sensationalized language
Facebook restricts ads that exaggerate headlines or command a reaction from people but don’t deliver what’s expected on the landing page.
While this type of ad can be effective, Facebook is moving to restrict them to avoid poor user experience. The problem is, some brands draw attention using dramatized or outrageous headlines that overstate the ad’s true purpose, which leads to unnecessary and false information. An ad like this could be using words like “amazing” or “mind-blowing” in the ad copy as you see in this example below.
In addition to these main restrictions, Facebook deems an ad low-quality or disruptive if the ad contains or does any of the following:
- Uses images that are excessively cropped or require people to click the ad to view the full image.
- Includes deceptive ad copy that incentivizes people to click on the ad.
- Features suggestive or shocking content on the landing page.
- Displays malicious or deceptive ads on the landing page.
- Has a high ratio of ads relative to content on the landing page.
- Uses popup ads, interstitial ads or other other ad formats on the landing page that disrupt the user experience.
- Provides an experience in which the content doesn’t match what the user expected to see.
What do these new restrictions mean for advertisers?
It seems simple, right? Avoid low-quality ads in your ad groups and it’s smooth sailing.
But Facebook isn’t only pushing for improved ad quality — it’s incentivizing advertisers to avoid it at all costs. Even one or a few ads that slip through the cracks could impact the performance of all your Facebook ads.
To enforce these low-quality characteristics, Facebook has put a couple of penalties in place to motivate advertisers to only create truthful and transparent ad experiences.
These penalties for low-ad quality ads on Facebook include:
- Any ad with low-quality attributes will see reduced distribution in Facebook’s ad auction or will be disapproved. This applies to all advertisers, but media, entertainment, politics or issues of national importance may be impacted more as low-quality characteristics often pertain to them the most.
- Multiple ads flagged with low-quality attributes can impact the performance of all your ads on Facebook.
As an advertiser, this means you should follow these restrictions carefully.
Even a couple ads considered low-quality could restrict all of your ads on Facebook, which leads to less audience reach and higher costs.
We recommend that if you’re running a Facebook campaign, be transparent and honest about your product and service offerings. Don’t sensationalize or tempt users to click on ads with inflated headlines or copy.
Facebook’s low-quality ad restrictions are just another step in the direction toward transparency on the platform and it’s best that brands fall in line to ensure the best possible user experience.
Facebook advertising is a staple in almost every social media strategy. Creating the right strategy, however, can be a bit of a challenge as there are a lot of working pieces.
For one fashion e-tailer, sharpening the human connection in their ads was the path to their success.
This international subscription e-tailer has dominated in digital sales through social media advertising most notably through personalized Facebook ads.
What follows is an investigation of the brand’s strategic application of tailored Facebook ads to boost online subscriptions.
Sizing up with personalized targeting
The e-tailer has utilized Facebook’s Tailored Targeting features since their inception, focusing most on relevancy to generate clicks.
What most advertisers fail to realize is that targeting is more than putting ads in front of an audience. It’s a way to personalize an experience or touchpoint, and that’s exactly what this brand has accomplished.
The fashion e-tailer delivers its ads to the right audience at the right time using the right personalization tactics. Ultimately, this leads to more clicks and purchases.
Not only does the company focus on seasonal factors as a way to reach their audience, but they personalize targeting based on life events.
Beyond delivering ads to females between the ages of 18 and 34, they dig deep into understanding their customers’ needs by leveraging customer data and Facebook’s custom audiences. Then, they create targeted segments with a wealth of customer details — location, profession, fashion tastes, where they are in life, etc.
Is the user going backpacking across Europe and need the perfect walking shoe? Are they starting school in the snow-capped region of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and need a warm boot? Perhaps a user has been searching for wedding rings, so they deliver an ad tailored to wedding accessories.
While this kind of targeting often gets a bad rep for seeming too forward, brands who deliver relevant content are the ones who reap the benefits. They have a better understanding of their audience and serve ads that users can relate to.
Ads that address customer intent
Ad creatives are just as important as the science behind reaching the best audience.
This brand delivers ads that serve a purpose, going beyond traditional Facebook ads. By utilizing GIFs or interactive content that addresses a problem, the brand sees increased engagement across their Facebook content.
As a fashion brand, helping customers express individuality and character is a piece of the overarching goal.
The brand gives their products a sense of purpose, tying them into real-life applications. Nowhere do they say “buy this,” but rather the ads align with customer needs and desires.
Consider this ad: the brand asks the user to screenshot a GIF of several shoes interchanging quickly. The end result is a user with a screenshot of her “perfect shoe.”
An ad like this does a few things:
- The user is immediately stopped in the feed using a quick-moving image
- The ad addresses the user’s need to find a new style in a fun, quirky way
- It gets users engaging and clicking on the ad, boosting the relevancy score
Ads that feature more products, like Facebook carousel ads, also see increased engagement across the board for this brand.
If the ad fits
What you can take away from this is the brand’s ability to meet its customers’ needs through the use of data-driven advertising and personalized content.
Merging creatives and ad targeting on Facebook will get you the most efficient results as this directly influences the platform’s relevance score for your ads.
So take a page out of this fashion e-tailer’s book and start leveraging your customer data to deliver Facebook ads that address your customer’s needs.
Common misconceptions and myths about Facebook advertising often seem to discourage business owners, CMOs and marketing specialists from promoting their companies on the social media giant. But we have news for you: they’re called myths for a reason because they’re simply not true!
Sure, user growth on Facebook has slowed in recent months, but it’s still one of the most beneficial advertising platforms for all types of businesses. It continues to capture the most time and attention than any other platform.
For that reason, we broke down several common myths about Facebook advertising to help you understand the power behind Facebook ads.
Myth #1: It’s not beneficial for my B2B company
You might think this because Facebook has become a hot spot for e-commerce companies lately to promote their latest product lines. The truth to the matter is: Facebook is extremely lucrative for B2B businesses, too. And here’s why:
- There are well over two billion users on Facebook. There are plenty of industry experts and business owners looking for what you offer.
- Targeting options on Facebook are plentiful, and you can focus on Lead generation campaigns.
- B2B content offering free downloads or trials do well on Facebook.
If these points aren’t convincing enough, then consider this statistic: 89 percent of B2B businesses use Facebook over LinkedIn (81 percent) now. It’s clearly working.
You might be thinking to yourself: I’ve tried B2B advertising on Facebook, but no luck.
B2B ads on Facebook will often fail because they’re not relevant, calls to action are missing the mark or they’re simply not the right ad type for B2B. While there are many options for B2C companies on Facebook, there are just as many for B2B.
Myth #2: Boosting a post is the same as running a Facebook campaign
There is a common misconception that boosting a post can get you the same results as running a Facebook ad, but that’s actually not the case—at all.
They are two very different things.
Boosted posts have one purpose: to increase post engagement and impressions. Boosting a post won’t give you the same detailed targeting criteria as Facebook ads. Facebook campaigns run with the specific intent behind them, for example, a conversion campaign targets those most likely to convert.
With that said, if you’ve been boosting posts with the goal of driving traffic the same as a Facebook campaign would, you won’t see the same results.
Myth #3: I need a large Facebook following for ads to work
Don’t let a small following discourage you. You don’t need thousands of Page likes for your Facebook campaigns to thrive.
Facebook is home to more than two billion monthly active users. Your message is bound to get in front of a fraction of that number. You can create custom audiences and let Facebook put your product or service in front of those people—whether or not they like your page.
You can even create specific audiences based on email lists you might already have or target based on demographics.
Myth #4: It’s too competitive, so CPC is too high
Facebook has become entrenched with advertisers squabbling for ad space, so businesses feel that competition is too high. Therefore, companies shy away from even the idea of promoting their business on the platform.
Despite the competitiveness on Facebook, CPC rates have remained steady for a few years (except Mobile App Installs and Post Engagement ads). With that in mind, CPC could always see an increase in the future, so it’s worth investing in Facebook advertising now.
Myth #5: Facebook advertising is only for lower-funnel marketing strategies
Marketers often focus much of their Facebook ads on retargeting efforts, but as you consider all parts of the marketing funnel, campaigns on Facebook work well for upper-funnel strategies, too.
In this case, retargeting isn’t your only option for Facebook. Campaigns on Facebook can also serve the purpose of brand awareness, as long as you focus your content on promoting the brand and treat the ad more as an organic post.
Myth #6: People don’t like Facebook ads, so it’s not worth it
If you’ve ever been discouraged from Facebook advertising simply because people may not like it, you’re missing out on valuable leads!
Of course, people don’t want to see ads that don’t pertain to them (or ads that seem unnatural or pushy). Facebook has a smart algorithm for this reason – it targets users based on relevant content. The more clicks the ad receives, the more relevant Facebook views it. The more relevant the ad, the more people see it and appreciate it because it’s an ad specific to them.
So there you have it – six myths about Facebook advertising debunked. These myths only skim the surface of the common misbeliefs out there. That’s why proper research is necessary to come to the conclusion yourself that Facebook advertising is so powerful for businesses.
If you think you know Facebook inside and out, we’re about to put your knowledge of the social media giant to the test. Using Facebook is arguably one of the most effective ways to grow your business, both from a brand awareness and engagement perspective.
With over 2.2 billion active monthly users, it’s simply a platform that you cannot afford to be leaving to one side. However, there may well be some Facebook features for business that you’re unaware of – some of which could give you an advantage against competitors who are also using Facebook.
Here are a few tips and features that you might not have heard of, or maybe you know about but you just aren’t using to their full capacity.
Facebook features for business that your business should start using
1. Watch other pages and compare their activity to yours
Call this a little R&D, if you like – with the “watch” feature, you’re able to follow up to 100 different brand pages. You’ll be able to quickly compare and contrast page activity with your own, including some basic performance figures, e.g., estimated views, engagement and audience growth.
This is a priceless way to gain valuable insight into your competitors and the way they’re using Facebook. Of course, they can also follow you as well.
2. Messenger chatbots make your life easier
Hey, we’re all human and we all have lives outside of our businesses. That’s when chatbots can be so helpful. If you’re on vacation, sleeping or just busy with other things, your chatbot can answer the basic questions that anyone who visits your business page might have.
There’s also an added benefit that is overlooked – it promotes a policy of proactive customer support, rather than reactive or passive. What does that mean? Well, with your Messenger chatbot you’ll be able to start a conversation with each customer at any time of the day.
In turn, you can expect higher engagement rates as you’re virtually saying “hello” to every user who lands on your page.
Oh, and we nearly forgot about the obvious financial benefit of using chatbots. By implementing a fully functioning chatbot, it’s cheaper and faster than creating a cross-platform app or hiring another employee.
3. Make use of the powerful audience insights
This slightly ties into the paid advertising side of things, but we couldn’t write this article without mentioning Facebook’s audience insights. They’re a fantastic way to gain valuable insight on your users (like the Google Analytics of Facebook).
The access to such detailed and relevant information about your users will ensure you’re in the best position possible to create content that resonates with those people the most.
4. Hashtags aren’t just for Twitter
The hashtag has risen from the dead to become one of the most used symbols on your keyboard. But it’s not just Twitter where they can be an effective tool – particularly for businesses. Yes, hashtags are most definitely a thing on Facebook… using them to start a conversation with a specific group or comment on a trending topic are the most common approaches.
While we’re talking about Twitter – pinning posts to the top of your feed is also a feature on Facebook. This is a great way to keep important or popular content at the top of your Facebook business page. For example, that might be a company announcement or a product launch.
5. Take your photos and imagery to the next dimension… literally
This is a bit of a bonus point, but it could help you set your business page apart from your competitors. 3D photos are now available – they’ll live in your news feed just like any other photos.
The exception occurs when you scroll across them, touch or click them, or tilt your phone. According to TechCrunch, “They’ll respond as if the photo is actually a window into a tiny diorama, with corresponding changes in perspective.”
In summary, help your company stand out from the crowd with these Facebook features for business:
- Watch other pages and learn from your competitors
- Make the most of chatbots in Messenger
- Dig through the audience insights to learn more about your users
- Start introducing hashtags where you can
- Add a little flare with 3D photos
Over the past year, Facebook has seen a lot of changes to its platform. In Q1 and Q2, we’ve already seen significant updates trickle into the network, including a News Feed update and several policy alterations. The social media giant has been aiming to improve transparency across all aspects of the platform.
”Our focus in 2018 is to keep people safe, and to keep building the experiences people expect from us.” – Mark Zuckerberg
Keeping up with all these changes and understanding how it affects you can be challenging. We’ve compiled an easy-to-digest list of Facebook updates in the last year that marketers need to know.
RELATED: Facebook advertising tips for success
More friends and family in your News Feed
Facebook updated its News Feed algorithm in January 2018 in order to promote more meaningful interactions between people. These changes include:
- Less organic content from businesses, brands and media
- More content from family, friends and groups that promote conversation
- More content from trustworthy local news publishers
What does the change mean for brands? With Facebook scaling back public content, users are seeing more organic content from people they know and less from brands. Organic reach will be more difficult to achieve, which means that brands have been shifting their Facebook strategies to focus more on paid efforts.
Facebook will prioritize organic posts that receive more engagement, so Pages that see little reaction or engagement may see the biggest impact from the algorithm update. Users may still prioritize who they see in their News Feed in their settings.
How brands and media can make the algorithm work them:
- Focus on engaging content, like video
- Post content that is valuable to your specific audience
- Post trustworthy content
- Make organic and paid media work together
- Localize your content
Transparency for political ads
Facebook recently announced a change to their political ad policies making it so advertisers will need to be authorized in order to publish electoral or issue ads. Additionally, Facebook will mark all political ads in the top left corner with the label “Political Ad.”
Image credit: Whyy.org
The update aims to increase accountability and transparency for these types of advertisements, meaning Facebook wants you to know where these ads come from.
For an advertiser to be authorized, they will need to verify their identity and location.
RELATED: How to avoid having your ads associated with fake news
An increase in authenticity for Pages
Facebook has also cracked down on fake Pages, which has always been against their policy. Pages with large follower counts are now required to be verified on Facebook. Those that do not pass the verification step will be prohibited from posting.
Want to verify your Facebook Page? Learn how to here.
The decline of engagement bait
Facebook is beginning to frown upon engagement bait tactics. For example, if a post asks users to “like” or “comment” with the incentive to win something, Facebook will begin to limit the reach of that post.
Exceptions include posts promoting local issues like a missing person or important causes.
A change to advertising tools
We can also expect a change to many of Facebook’s advertising tools throughout 2018. Brands should adapt as these changes roll out.
These updates include:
- Removal of some audience size data
- No more custom audience sizes
- Removal of partner data
- Apps using API now require approval
- Removal of call and SMS data targeting
How marketers can adapt: Some of these changes have not taken full effect yet, but will roll into the platform soon enough. Remain flexible as Facebook shifts some of its policies and tools and adjust strategies as needed. Advertising on Facebook is still just as lucrative, with many ad features remaining the same.
New features you need to know about
In addition to Facebook’s policy and ad updates, there are also many new features they have introduced for advertisers. In short, while it takes time to adjust, Facebook’s new features are a good thing for advertisers.
Here are the top features that have the most impact on results and cost:
Dynamic Creative: Facebook introduced a new way to A/B test your ads this year. Dynamic Creative lets you create a Facebook ad with multiple assets and Facebook’s algorithm will find the best performing creative combination.
Dynamic language optimization: No more ads with single languages. You can now deliver multilingual ads to your audiences by including up to six different language options for one ad.
Domain verification: Prior to this feature, Facebook didn’t allow you to edit your link previews. Thankfully, with the new domain verification, you can now edit your link previews as long as you’ve verified your domain ownership.
Multicity and multicountry features: You no longer are limited to selecting one city or country to target per ad. For example, if a single ad pertains to multiple cities, you can target all cities based on size.
Messenger Broadcast: Facebook has been testing a new self-serve tool for businesses to mass-message marketing messages to users.
Staying flexible in the Facebook universe
It’s expected that Facebook will always be changing. Whether it’s developing improvements for the platform or making big shifts in the algorithm, as a marketer, the best advice is to adapt to these changes and learn how new features will work for you. Slowly adjust your marketing tactics to stay on top of changes so that you’re set up for success on Facebook.
Whether you have some experience or are completely new to Facebook advertising, you may not realize the full benefits of incorporating Facebook Messenger ads into your marketing strategy.
The idea behind Facebook Messenger ads is to promote conversation with a brand, typically with goals to increase engagement, customer satisfaction and most importantly, increase conversions. More than 1.3 billion people use Facebook Messenger to connect with friends, family and their favorite companies every month. Facebook began rolling out Messenger ads in 2016, with the usage of mobile messaging apps having already surpassed standard network apps in 2015.
Facebook Messenger ads operate very similar to ads on Facebook, but the goal here is for brands to start conversations and keep them going. There are three advertising options available:
- Destination ads on the Newsfeed
- Messenger homepage ads
- Sponsored messages
The key differences
All brands have different business goals. Some ad types will serve goals better than others. Facebook designed each ad type to do the following:
Start a conversation
Messenger homepage ads and messenger destination ads fall in the same category. They’re both designed to prompt new conversation. Messenger destination ads, or rather click-to-messenger ads, are exactly as they sound. This ad type is similar to Newsfeed ads but with a “Message Now” call to action rather than “Shop Now” that would take you to a predetermined URL. In this case, when a user clicks the ad, they receive a message from the brand prompting conversation.
There are many avenues to take with destination ads. For example, you might explore the option of offering a coupon, but when someone clicks on the ad, they’re taken to Messenger with a chat bot or a pre-written message with more information about the discount.
Facebook Messenger ads also offer the capability to place display ads on the homepage of the mobile app, a similar display to the Newsfeed.
Image credit: AdEspresso by Hootsuite
Re-engage customers
Facebook Messenger ads also allow sponsored messages. Unexpectedly, brands can send messages to users to encourage engagement. The catch? There are a couple. You can only send messages to customers who have sent you messages in the past, which is why this feature brings so much value to re-engagement. Lastly, the cost associated with these messages are based on impressions, not clicks.
Facebook Messenger ads offer a special kind of experience for your customers. Here’s why you should be using them in your social ad strategy:
Brand awareness: Like Newsfeed ads, you can expose your brand to a wider audience. More people are using the mobile Facebook Messenger app than Facebook on mobile.
Personalization: A major component of Messenger is to add a personal touch to the company. It’s a place where your potential and returning customers can ask questions, share feedback or even place orders. With ads directing users to Messenger, it encourages a sense of personalization to their experience, especially if the user is looking for something particular from your services.
Retargeting efforts: Whether you want to run a social retargeting campaign using messenger destination ads or send sponsored messages to users who may have communicated with you before, Facebook Messenger ads cater to getting in front of those who may just need that final push.
Related: Facebook advertising tips for success
What started out at as a simple social networking site has become the world’s largest marketing tool for advertisers. With more than 1 billion active daily users on Facebook and a fairly even gender split, it’s no secret that Facebook advertising is lucrative for brands.
Advertising on Facebook has the power to expand your business, but there’s no perfect formula. There are best practices, however, and we’ve compiled a list of some of the best Facebook advertising tips to help lead a successful campaign.
Target the right people
In order to be successful at advertising on Facebook, you want to make sure you’re getting in front of the right audience. Hone in on the audience that makes the most sense to go after for your brand. Be sure to consider:
- What devices are your audiences most likely to use?
- Where are they located?
- What languages do they speak?
- What content do they engage with most?
Facebook allows you to formulate an audience based on demographics, behavior, location, interests and more. You may find after testing and segmenting your target audience, that there are more audience opportunities out there than you had originally envisioned.
Embrace A/B testing
Why A/B test? A/B testing (also known as split testing) allows you to run multiple variations of your Facebook campaigns to determine what resonates best with your audience. A/B testing will help you understand what will perform best while also keeping ad costs down.
Don’t guess what will work with your audience just to make a mistake and lose valuable ad spend on a campaign that doesn’t perform. A/B testing let’s data do the decision making for you.
Focus on retargeting efforts
One thing all marketers face: a conversion doesn’t always happen on the first go-around. That’s where retargeting your audience comes in handy. For example, a user may visit your website or interact with your brand, but then never convert. By setting up Facebook ad retargeting, you can win your audience over by staying in their feeds and on their minds.
Connect a landing page
Link your Facebook ads to landing pages rather than straight to your website or product page. You’re likely asking for a high bounce rate by sending visitors to the homepage of your site without any clear direction. In rare instances, you might connect an ad to your website, but directing visitors to a landing page first is worth your ad spend to ensure each click counts.
Related: A glimpse into the Facebook Ads Manager
Use original designs
Let’s talk creatives. Your images must be eye-catching and stand out from the other millions of images circling Facebook daily. For best performance, use high-quality images, bright colors and white backgrounds.
Additionally, you don’t want to display the same ad image again and again. Target a wider audience by incorporating new creatives into the mix. This is where A/B testing can help you decide what creatives perform well with your audience.
Optimize for organic and paid social
Out of all the facebook advertising tips we’ve covered, one thing is certain: when it comes to organic and paid social efforts on Facebook, one does not work without the other. Make sure to analyze how your past organic posts have performed and formulate your advertising strategy around that. Use the Facebook Insights tool to understand overarching performance. Some of your organic posts may perform well with your audience or they may underperform. Understand why that is and focus your organic and paid efforts appropriately based on your findings.
Are you curious about Facebook ad costs? Observations from digital marketing managers and forecasts indicate a consistent trend of increasing advertising investment in paid social media platforms year after year. Despite the considerable slowdown, social media ad spend in the US is projected to grow by 5.67% in 2024, reaching $76.4 billion. As advertising spending increases, social media usage, particularly on Facebook, remains strong across all age groups of American users. Recognizing the significance of these trends, a thorough understanding of Facebook ad costs can give media buyers and digital marketing managers a distinct advantage.


Many digital agencies typically focus on key metrics such as Cost per Impression (CPM) for Facebook awareness campaigns, Cost per View (CPV) for Facebook video ad campaigns in feed or Reel placements, and Cost per Click (CPC) for Facebook traffic campaigns. Strike Social aligns with this understanding.
In this blog, we’ll break down the cost of advertising on Facebook, beginning with critical metrics, and offer expert tips on leveraging data for strategic campaign planning and optimizing ad spend. Whether managing multiple clients or aiming to boost your campaigns, this overview will equip you with the insights needed to maximize your Facebook advertising efforts.
Breaking Down Facebook Ad Costs and Campaign Strategies
Understanding client expectations in the context of fluctuating ad costs can be a challenging task for digital agencies. By examining Facebook ad costs based on specific objectives, agencies can gain insights into budget allocation and better justify spending. Leveraging Strike Social’s ad cost benchmark can enable agencies to optimize their advertising strategy and deliver increased value to their clients.
How much is the Cost Per Impression (CPM) on Facebook?
CPM represents the cost for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives, and it’s a key indicator of how much you’re spending to get your ad seen by a large audience. CPM, or cost per thousand impressions, is employed when the primary goal is to maximize ad visibility. Knowing when to consider choosing CPM as a key indicator can significantly help understand campaign performance.
Based on our analysis using Strike Social’s in-house tool, the CPM ranges from $2.78 to $9.60 across various industry verticals for US-based campaigns aimed at generating more impressions. Meanwhile, the engagement rate for these campaigns varies from 2.90% to 14.40%. Our data suggests that with precise targeting and compelling ad content, personalized ads on Facebook can effectively capture the attention of the platform’s users and impact ad engagement.
Facebook Ad Strategies for Cost Per Impression (CPM) Metric


Objective: Launching a new product line
Sample Scenario: A client in the consumer electronics industry is launching a new line of smart home devices. Utilizing CPM, the marketing manager can execute a sequence of visually impactful Facebook ads highlighting the advanced functionalities of the products. This approach will enable them to reach a broad demographic on Meta, generating enthusiasm and anticipation for the upcoming launch.
Why use the Cost Per Impression (CPM) Metric: A marketing manager can rapidly utilize CPM (cost per thousand) to reach a wide audience with the new product line. Marketers can effectively generate substantial visibility and interest around the latest products by paying for impressions rather than clicks or views, establishing a solid initial impact. This Facebook advertising strategy proves especially efficacious during the launch phase, aiming to foster brand recognition and interest.
How much is the Cost Per View (CPV) on Facebook?
As media buyers, we are all familiar with Cost Per View (CPV), which denotes the cost associated with each video ad view. This metric is essential for analyzing Facebook video ad campaigns. In addition to CPV, there are other variations of ad cost metrics for standard video ads, including Cost per 2-second continuous video play, Cost per 3-second video play, and Cost per Thru play. However, in this section, our primary focus will be CPV, which drives viewership engagement.
Looking at the data of our US campaigns leveraging views, our Cost Per View (CPV) ranges from $.0045-.01536 with a view rate between 44.81% and 88.92%. Campaign outcome varies due to various factors affecting ad performance. Now that more eyes are being captured by Reels, video ads on Reels will have a higher chance of bringing efficiency to the campaign.
Sample Facebook Ad Strategy for Cost Per View (CPV) Metric


Objective: Increase awareness for a new movie
Sample Scenario: For an entertainment industry client promoting an upcoming blockbuster movie, utilizing a video awareness strategy involves running ads that feature trailers and behind-the-scenes footage. The goal is to generate excitement and anticipation among the target audience. This strategy ensures that video ads are delivered to viewers who are likely to engage with and watch the movie actively.
Why use Cost-Per-View (CPV) Metric: Media buyers can utilize CPV (cost per view) to measure the effectiveness of promotional efforts for the upcoming movie, mainly if a sizable audience sees the ads. By emphasizing views, the team can assess the initial interest and engagement of ad viewers, indicating the level of anticipation and impact of the movie trailer on Facebook users.
How much is the Cost Per Click (CPC) on Facebook?
Cost Per Click (CPC) is the cost incurred by an advertiser each time a user clicks on a Facebook ad. This cost metric is necessary for campaigns focused on driving traffic to websites, landing pages, or specific products. CPC is mainly used for campaigns targeting users in the middle and bottom stages of the sales funnel. Additionally, campaigns that prioritize engagement aim to generate interactions, website visits, or direct responses, utilizing this Facebook ad cost metric.
Our data research of US-based Facebook ad campaigns targeting campaign clicks shows that the Cost-per-click (CPC) typically falls within the range of $0.14 to $0.72, with an average Click-Through Rate (CTR) ranging from 1.07% to 3.29%. We observed that ads viewed on Reels strongly influence ad engagement due to their unique and attention-grabbing short-form videos. However, advertisers need help to hold viewers’ attention despite the benefit of the short-form content.
Sample Facebook Ad Strategy for Cost Per Click (CPC) Metric


Objective: Promoting time-sensitive offers
Sample Scenario: A travel industry client has initiated a flash sale for holiday packages. The marketing manager has opted to utilize the CPC ad cost metric to evaluate the performance of campaigns by emphasizing time-limited discounts and exclusive offers. This strategy can effectively generate immediate user clicks from individuals interested in capitalizing on the promotion, leading to increased interaction and conversions throughout the sale.
Why Use CPC: Time-sensitive offers require quick action from the target audience. By utilizing the CPC ad metric, media buyers can directly measure and maximize the number of users who click on the ad to take advantage of the offer, focusing on suitable pacing and ad optimization.
How Much is the Cost Per Link Click (CPLC) on Facebook?
The Cost Per Link Click (CPLC) is the cost incurred each time a user clicks on a link within a Facebook ad that leads to an external website, landing page, or specific product page. This cost metric is well-suited for campaigns to drive traffic and generate direct engagement with a specified landing page or website. Campaigns prioritizing link clicks strategically focus on converting views into concrete actions, such as website visits, sign-ups, or purchases. These targeted campaigns are typically utilized for consideration or conversion strategies.
Based on our most recent analysis of US campaign data focused on link clicks, the campaign performance is projected to range between $0.28 and $1.03, accompanied by a link click rate of 0.75%—1.85%. Targeting specific demographics and interests, along with ad placements, are crucial factors influencing the success of a Link Click-centric campaign. Additionally, significant events like elections and holiday campaigns may increase the competition in the ad auction, leading to higher advertising costs due to increased bidding activity.
Sample Facebook Ad Strategy for Cost Per Link Click (CPLC) Metric


Objective: Drive attendance to an upcoming live stream or online event
Sample Scenario: A prominent client in the technology sector is organizing an annual webinar focusing on the latest developments in design tools. To gauge the effectiveness of ads promoting the event and directing users to the live stream, the digital manager has opted to employ the CPLC cost metric. This strategy aims to optimize live viewer numbers and ensure that ad spend targets users with a high probability of watching the live stream.
Why Use CPLC: CPLC (Cost Per Link Click) is well-suited for this scenario as it emphasizes driving clicks that directly lead to a designated page, such as a livestream page. By paying for each link click, media buyers can effectively allocate ad spend to enhance the outcome of the live event.
How Much is the Cost Per Event Response (CPER) on Facebook?
Cost Per Event Response (CPER) is the cost associated with each user interaction with your event ad, indicating their interest or intention to attend. The CPER cost metric is suitable for campaigns to boost event participation, as it directly measures the advertising’s efficacy in generating RSVPs. CPER is particularly significant when the primary objective is to enhance event turnout and engagement.
According to our data scientists’ analysis, the recent US campaigns aimed at increasing event response rates indicate a potential Cost Per Event Response (CPER) ranging from $0.35 to $1.53. This corresponds to an Event Response Rate of 0.64% to 0.83%. Additionally, media buyers can avail themselves of Facebook’s AI-powered solutions and Advantage+ placements, which have been specifically developed to facilitate the efficient management and launch of Facebook ad campaigns.
Sample Facebook Ad Strategy for Cost Per Event Response (CPER) Metric


Objective: Maximize attendance at a live product launch event to create buzz and excitement.
Sample Scenario: A client in the fashion industry is introducing a new collection of high-end bags and watches. They are utilizing the CPER cost metric in their digital advertising effort to gauge the effectiveness of ads, encouraging users to attend a live event and providing them with a hands-on experience of the products. This strategy is designed to generate excitement, guarantee strong event attendance, and maximize the impact of the product launch.
Why Use CPER: The CPER model is perfect for this specific situation due to its emphasis on generating responses to the event invitation. By paying only for each successful interaction with the event invitation ads, marketers can be confident that the budget will be utilized efficiently to draw in attendees who have a genuine interest in the upcoming product launch.
Managing Client Expectations with Facebook Ad Costs
When managing Facebook ad campaigns, especially ad costs, effective communication with clients should be at the top of your list. Transparency about ad costs and their alignment with campaign goals is key to setting and managing realistic expectations, building trust, and ensuring clients see the value of their investment.
This blog has extensively covered essential Facebook ad cost metrics such as CPC, CPM, CPV, CPLC, and CPER. Each metric is specific to the client’s objectives, whether driving traffic, increasing engagement or boosting event participation. Implementing these strategies can significantly enhance campaign outcomes. Strategic use of suitable cost metrics, ad spend optimization, and performance data refinement can pivot an ordinary Facebook ad campaign to an exceptional and deliver high-ROI advertising effort.
If you have inquiries about other metrics or require more advanced Facebook ad strategies, please feel free to email us. Our media experts are ready to assist you in navigating the ever-evolving realm of digital advertising.
Expand your Facebook expertise. Browse Strike Social’s blogs here:
Gathering info that can help determine things like the best time of day or day of the week to post content is one of the most compelling reasons to use Facebook’s Insights tool. If you’re running various social media campaigns, especially ones involving Facebook, it can also be a cost-effective way to plan your strategy.
As the name suggests, the Facebook Insights tool provides useful “insights” into your active users and how your pages are performing. And, if you’ve been struggling with ad targeting, you’ll definitely want to have a better understanding of the insights tool.
Are you ready to get better insights to inspire your future campaigns? Learn more about the features available on the Facebook Insights tool and how to use them to your next campaign’s benefit.
Accessing your page’s stats with Facebook Insights
Digital ad expenditure on Facebook is expected to be nearly $16.33 billion for 2017. If you’re trying to reach the right consumers for your products and services via this platform or boost conversions with your ads, you’ll get a better return on ad spend (ROAS) with instant access to useful stats.
To access your fan page stats on Facebook, go to your fan page and, from the horizontal menu at the top of the page, click on “Insights.”
Here is an example of the insights you can access on this page, with explanations below:
Page summary — Displays stats that can be analyzed and compiled according to “today,” “yesterday,” the “last 7 days” or “last 28 days.”
Actions on page — Did someone click on your website or on your phone number? Actions also include clicking on any CTA’s present on your page or accessing the directions link.
Page views — How many people viewed your fan page.
Page likes — Shows whether or not your followers have increased or decreased, plus details where and when your likes occurred. You can use this insight to help determine the best time to post content.
Page reach — The “reach” tab on the Insights tool will let you know if your intended audience is actually seeing your content. This section will show your page views, including the number of unique views you’re getting. Unique views are visitors who actually searched for you rather than clicking on a Facebook ad.
Page engagement —Shows you when your fans are online and the success of different types of posts based on reach and engagement. You can even compare your page’s results with a page similar to yours to glean what is working on a global basis.
Videos —If you’ve uploaded a video, you can analyze video metrics according to the number of views, number of 10-second views and your top videos for the week.
Your 5 most recent posts stats
Below the page summary, you’ll see information about the virality of your posts. This is a breakdown of your posts based on type. You can look at data for all posts or get specific to see how much engagement you’re getting from posts with videos, photos, posts and even the questions you’re presenting to your audience. Such info can be used to determine what type of social content is likely to encourage further engagement with your brand beyond the traffic your ads generate.
Pages to watch
Whether it’s a competitor or a source of inspiration, you can add five or more pages for comparative purposes. With this feature, you will see several metrics relating to your competition’s Facebook activity, including the number of posts by page admins, number of fan interactions and top performing posts across all watched pages.
Image credit: Facebook Insights
Exporting your data into Excel format
If it’s easier for you to view your data in Excel format, click the top right button on the Insights page to view your stats this way. Get results by date by selecting “Page Level Data” and selecting your preferred date range. This is useful if you want to track content performance over select periods of time.
Conclusion
More than 70% of male internet users and 80% of women internet users regularly visit Facebook. Marketing to such a large audience via Facebook is only effective if you narrow your focus. Facebook’s page Insights tool allows you to learn more about your content’s performance and your Facebook audience’s habits, yielding a macro understanding of page results.
Interested in learning more about Facebook? Read: Know your options: all the types of Facebook ads
You’ve checked and rechecked your punctuation and your grammar. You’ve read it backward and forward. It’s perfect. Time to make your masterpiece public.
But wait! Before you hit publish, have you considered how to boost your blog’s performance on Facebook? The quickest way to reach out to your internet audience is through social media. You can do this either organically or through paid advertising. Both have their merits, but if you are trying to accrue a following, it’s to your benefit to at least look into some of Facebook’s paid advertising offers.
Paid advertising allows you to directly target your intended audience, get your updates seen and drive traffic to your blog site.
Increase Blog Traffic with Facebook Ads and Boosted Posts
There are two paths from which to choose: Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads.
Boosted posts
Boosted Posts are an effective way to reach people who have already liked your page and to acquire new followers. A boosted post appears in the user’s newsfeed and can take several forms — status updates, blog posts, videos and events.
You can boost a post when you create it or anytime after it’s been published. Many people choose to boost a post after it has gained traction organically and outperforms other posts made by you. With a Boosted Post, you pay for the engagement on the post (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
Boosted posts are given priority over other posts, appearing higher on the feed for increased user discovery. Posts are boosted directly from your Facebook page. First, find the post you want to promote and then select the “boost post” button (directly below and to the right of the post.)
Next, determine who should see your post. You have several targeting options when boosting a post: people who like your page, people who like your page and their friends or people you select through targeting.
Let’s break down each option:
- People who like your page: many businesses did a poor job of initially attracting high-quality page likes. We tag our friends, many of whom have no idea what the page is about, and ask them to “like” our page. Our friends like the page because they ‘like’ us, not our product. Save your money for people who are really interested in your content.
- People who like your page and their friends: As with option No. 1, this choice is also best skipped as friends of your friends probably find your content irrelevant too.
- People you select through targeting: The targeting option lets you select the type of people you want to reach based on their location, age, gender and up to 10 interests. Your custom audience can be saved for future use or you can redefine your parameters next time you boost. This option is the best value for your money.
Facebook offers several options for both payment and boost run. As shown by the below screenshot, Facebook recommends spending an average of $30 but the amount paid can be as little as $10. However, a lower budget means fewer people are likely to see it. You also have the option to define your own budget. To learn more about your budget options, visit Facebook’s business page to know more about setting a budget and your payment options.
Once you have chosen your budget, you will need to choose a run time for your campaign. Boosted posts can run anywhere from one to fourteen days, or you can set a custom end date for your campaign. Facebook sums up your budget and duration decisions for you, plus an estimate of the post’s estimated reach. Take the time to experiment with different payment levels and run time to learn how each choice affects post reach. Then, select the terms which make the most sense for your budget and campaign goals.
Facebook ads
Facebook Ads are considerably different from a boosted post. First, where Boosted Posts take the form of Facebook content and live in the user’s newsfeed, Facebook Ads offer several placement options, such as Desktop and Mobile Feed, Right Column, Instant Articles, In-Stream Video, Instagram and Audience Networks. With Facebook Ads, you choose whether to run your ads across all of the eligible placements or to manually select ad placement during your ad set-up.
Additionally, Facebook Ads allow for specific targeting on a granular level and offers several marketing tools to help you meet your business objectives.
For blog promotion, we recommend Facebook’s Link ads format to direct interested users to your chosen content. The entire ad is clickable, so it doesn’t matter whether the user clicks on the text or the image; they will be taken to your web page.
Once you have selected “link ads,” you are directed to the first of three set-up pages, the Campaign. On this page, you can choose from several marketing objectives, such as awareness, consideration or conversion. For blog clicks, select “send people to a destination on or off Facebook.”
When someone clicks on your ad, they will be taken to the destination of your choice, which for this objective should be the content of your blog post.
Once you have selected your marketing objective, you will be taken to “ad set” to define your audience, set your budget and determine ad delivery schedule.
Want to know more? View the types of Facebook ads.
Define audience
For this step, you need to either create a new audience or use a previously saved one. To create a new audience, first complete the basic demographics, age, gender, language and location.
The next step is to define your ad placement.
Facebook recommends automatic placement, as they believe this allows them to get you the best results at the lowest price. You can choose to remove placements, but it depends on your blog content–choose the placement that best fits your topic.
Finally, you need to set your budget and schedule. Facebook sets a minimum budget according to whether you’re using automatic or manual bidding. According to Facebook’s Ads Manager, the minimum for ads set in U.S. dollars is:
- For impression ad sets, the daily budget must be at least $1 a day
- For click ad sets, the daily budget must be at least $5 a day
- For event ad sets like offer claims or app installs, the daily budget must be at least $40 a day
Advanced options reveal the following choices: optimization for ad delivery (link clicks or impressions), automatic or manual bidding, when you get charged (CPC or per impression), to run ads all the time or on a schedule, and either a standard or accelerated delivery schedule.
Finally, you can choose your ad format and select your links and related Facebook page. To learn more about Facebook ad options, read the article Know your options: all the types of Facebook ads and Facebook Ads Manager.
Putting it all together
As you can see, Facebook Ads Manager offers more opportunities to customize and optimize your ad set over Boosted Posts. Choose your advertising format based on your budget, objectives and level of expertise. If this is your first time advertising on Facebook, you can always decide to ease into the platform to see how it all flows together. Whatever you decide, don’t be afraid to put yourself and your blog post out there; it’s the only way to grow both yourself and your following.
Ready to get started? View the options for Facebook ad sizes.
Representing 66 percent of all social media advertising spend, Facebook is undeniably important. And for brands that get it right, the return on investment can be substantial.
Like most advertisers, you’re probably sold on Facebook advertising as well. You know your goals. You’ve set your strategy. In short, you’ve completed all the groundwork for a successful ad campaign. Now it’s time to go shopping.
So which media format is best to convey your brand’s message, and where should your creative be placed? This primer on all the different types of Facebook ads will walk you through everything you need to know to strike the perfect match.
Dive deeper into the types of Facebook ads: The complete list of Facebook ad sizes
Placement options for Facebook ads
When it comes to placing your advertising on Facebook, you have three main options: the desktop right column, the desktop news feed and the mobile news feed. These types of Facebook ads are pretty easy to understand based on name, but it’s important to realize that some adjustments will need to be made to optimize your creative from format to format.
Desktop right column
The desktop right column is really just that: the column on the right-hand side of Facebook’s news feed (no tricks, we promise). Just be mindful that the smaller format requires some tweaks to what you might also be running in the main feed on desktop. Also, know that the right-hand column does not appear on mobile.
Desktop news feed
Facebook’s desktop news feed is what people see when they log into the site on — you guessed it — a desktop or laptop computer. This larger format allows for greater flexibility with your advertising.
Mobile news feed
The mobile news feed is what people see when they fire up Facebook on a smartphone. As is the case with most websites, Facebook optimizes its news feed for this tighter space. So take note when you assemble your ad: Make sure your creative is still readable and impactful. Also, consider how people might interact differently with video when they’re on the go.
Types of Facebook ads
Now that you know where your ad campaign might appear on Facebook, consider your options for media format. Do you want to advertise with images, video or one of the other unique types of Facebook ads? Here are the many formats available for your creative.
Advertising with images on Facebook
The most familiar of all the types of Facebook ads, display has been an internet staple long before social was even a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.
Why images?
A picture is worth a thousand words. Give people a snapshot of your brand, product or service — something that will make a lasting impact. Images serve as an emotional pathway, connecting conscious thoughts with unconscious desire.
Available for
- Desktop right column
- Desktop news feed
- Mobile news feed
How to create a Facebook image ad
- Go to Facebook’s Ads Manager.
- Choose your campaign objective.
- Define your audience, budget and schedule.
- Advance to step 3; select media, text and links to create one or multiple ads.
- Select “single image.”
- Select a stock photo, or upload your own.
- Use the cropping tool to shape your ad to your specifications.
- Review ad.
- Place order.
Advertising with video on Facebook
If a picture is worth a thousand words, consider the exponential effect you can have frame by frame. That’s why video is quickly eclipsing display as the ad format de jour.
Image credit: Facebook
Why video?
Video has exploded, with 90 percent of people saying that watching a product video aided in their decision-making process. Videos afford advertisers the opportunity to explain, entertain or gain loyal brand followers. When expertly executed, video also breaks down difficult concepts. Of course, you can’t go wrong with making your ad entertaining — in fact, comedy comprises 39 percent of online video consumption.
Available for
- Desktop right column
- Desktop news feed
- Mobile news feed
How to create a Facebook video ad
- Go to Facebook’s Ads Manager.
- Choose your campaign objective.
- Define your audience, budget and schedule.
- Advance to step 3; select media, text and links to create one or multiple ads.
- Select “single video.”
- Upload your video.
- Review order.
- Place order.
Tip: Facebook only supports certain types of video files. Make sure your video complies with Facebook’s ad guidelines.
Advertising with Canvas on Facebook
Introduced by Facebook in 2016 (and coming soon to Instagram), Canvas is a mobile-optimized media option that offers a full-screen experience with images, videos, links and text. Because these totally immersive ads live exclusively on Facebook, you can worry less about bounce rate. The only caveat is that the content must also be original to Facebook.
Image credit: Facebook
Why Canvas?
Canvas ads are popular with retail advertisers, because the format allows for rich, glossy layouts akin to a magazine. The full-screen aspect can bring brands to life through compelling storytelling.
Available for
- Mobile news feed
How to create a Facebook Canvas ad
- Go to Facebook’s Ads Manager.
- Click “create ad.”
- Choose the “clicks to website” objective.
- Define your audience, budget and schedule.
- Advance to step 3; select media, text and links to create one or multiple ads.
- At the ad set level, select “edit placements” and then “mobile only.”
- Choose “Canvas” for your ad level destination.
- Add a previous Canvas doc or select the + button, next to the text field, to open Canvas Builder.
- When in Canvas Builder, select a theme, header, photo and button.
- Choose how you want your Canvas photo to fit on a mobile screen.
- Choose a font, color and a destination URL for your button.
- Click “add component” to add text blocks, buttons and photos.
- Use the right side of Canvas Builder to preview your creation and ensure Canvas quality.
- Arrange the order of your Canvas components.
- Click “save” at the top.
- Close Canvas Builder.
- Choose your headline and text. This will appear with your ad on mobile.
- Review ad.
- To complete ad, click the green “place order” button.
For more on the Canvas ad creation process, visit Facebook’s help center.
Advertising with Carousel on Facebook
With Facebook’s Carousel format, you can add up to 10 pictures/videos, headlines/links or calls to action in a single ad placement. People can view all these assets by swiping left to right on mobile or clicking through on desktop.
Image credit: Facebook
Why Carousel?
Carousel ads are great for showcasing different items in a product line or specific product details. Carousel ads can also tell a more complete brand story as people swipe through each card. Other creative uses include mobile app tours and telling a customer’s story.
Available for
- Desktop right column
- Desktop news feed
- Mobile news feed
How to create a Facebook Carousel ad
- Go to Facebook’s Ads Manager.
- Click “create ad.”
- Choose from one of the following campaign objectives: “send people to your website,” “increase conversions on your website,” “get video views” or “get installs of your app.”
- From the ad format section, select “multiple images from one ad,” located at the top of the page.
- Go to images and links. Uncheck the box labeled “automatically show the best performing images and links first” if you like the order of your images. Leave the box checked if you want Facebook to automatically sort your images (note: you may have to select “show advanced options” to see this box).
- Go to “images and links.”
- Select the “1” box, upload your first image and complete the details of the first card. Specific URLs and descriptions can be added in this step.
- Repeat the above step with additional images, descriptions and specific URLs.
- Click “remove” to delete an uploaded image.
- Satisfied with your Carousel ad? Click “place order.”
Advertising with Collection on Facebook
Launched in March 2017, Facebook designed Collection to get people shopping! A mobile news feed format, Collection helps people find and buy products shown in a marketer’s video, slideshow or image. The ad format displays a row of 4 product images that expand into a full-screen catalog of up to 50 product images.
Tapping on a product image takes a user to the mobile site or apps product page.
To get started you will need an image or video and you will need to create a product catalog.
Available for
- Mobile news feed
How to create a Facebook Collection ad
- Go to Facebook’s Ads Manager.
- Click “create ad.”
- Select “traffic” or “conversions” from the ad objective menu and click “continue.”
- Select “website,” “messenger” or “app.” If you’re using an app, Facebook recommends that you link people directly to your products within your app.
- Choose your audience, budget and schedule.
- Click “continue.”
- Select the Collection format.
- Select an image, video, or slideshow. For video, 1:1 or 16:9 aspect ratios are recommended. For images, an image size of 1,200 x 628 pixels is recommended.
- Choose your Facebook Page, a headline (25 characters recommended) and text (90 characters recommended).
- Select your product catalog from the drop-down menu.
- Select your product set, or click + to create a new product set. Facebook recommends that your product set contains all products relevant to your main image, slideshow or video. The more products there are in your product set, the better the ad is likely to perform. The minimum number of products is 8.
- Select “mobile news feed” under ad preview to see your collection format ad.
- Note: Because this feature is mobile only, you may see a pop-up window asking you to remove all non-mobile placements. Click “remove placements.”
- The products featured in the news feed section let you control the 4 product images below your video, slideshow or image. By default, the 4 images will be ranked by the likelihood of purchase.
- Click “change” to select 1 – 4 specific images from your product set. The product images you select won’t be ranked by likelihood of purchase.
- Select “preview” below “post click experience” to see what the ad would look like after people tap on it.
- Select “send notification to Facebook” to send your collection format ad to your mobile using the Facebook app.
- Click “place order” to finish.
You know the types of Facebook ads. Now find the perfect fit.
Now that you know all the types of Facebook ads, you have a lot of flexibility. Consider which placement and media option makes the most sense for your brand while testing the waters to take your creative in new directions. From simple images to custom Canvases, you will be cornering the Facebook market in no time.
Strike Overview
- Father’s Day 2025 lands between Mother’s Day and July 4th, yet U.S. consumer spending is projected to exceed $24 billion, making it a high-value event that deserves strategic attention.
- Meta’s Advantage+ Audience targeting uses real-time data and automation to expand your reach to Father’s Day gift shoppers more efficiently than static manual targeting.
- This blog offers a step-by-step framework to build a Father’s Day campaign on Meta that balances automation with performance oversight, helping ensure your budget delivers measurable impact.
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Drive More Conversions This Father’s Day with Meta Advantage+ Audience Targeting
Father’s Day follows closely on the heels of Mother’s Day, giving brands another high-impact opportunity to connect with shoppers honoring the dads and father figures in their lives. For marketers, Father’s Day advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram comes with both potential and pressure, as holiday periods often bring increased competition and fluctuating ad costs.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to unlock better performance and cost efficiency using Meta’s Advantage+ audience targeting. Learn how your Father’s Day campaign can reach high-intent target audiences across Facebook and Instagram ads when it matters most.
Why Father’s Day Is a Key Moment for Meta Advertisers
Advertising for Father’s Day presents a valuable opportunity for brands, with 63% of U.S. consumers planning to celebrate. While that’s relatively steady compared to other holidays, 36% of those shoppers will be searching for Father’s Day gifts online, making it a critical moment for Meta advertisers to capture demand.
And while 40–42% of shoppers still plan to visit physical stores, Meta’s extensive platform reach allows your Father’s Day ad to shape purchase decisions long before shoppers step into a store or complete their online checkout.
Father’s Day shopping window | % of U.S. shoppers |
---|---|
>3 months in advance | 10% |
1-2 months in advance | 29% |
1-2 weeks in advance | 47% |
1-2 days in advance | 14% |
Meta Ad Cost and Performance Trends Around Father’s Day Advertising Periods
As seen above, the bulk of the purchases occur just before or within June. Do you need to launch early or just in time for shoppers’ searches for Father’s Day gifts? Our Meta ads data tells us the trends for different funnel stages when planning your Father’s Day campaigns.
Planning Your Awareness Campaigns


Running awareness-focused Meta campaigns in April through early May helps build momentum while CPMs remain relatively stable. Facebook typically sees rising awareness costs about a month out from the holiday, while Instagram maintains stronger traction even closer to the date.
Expect the highest CPM spikes in the week leading up to Father’s Day, especially as more brands compete for the same target audiences. After the holiday, CPMs drop, opening up cost-efficient opportunities for re-engagement and early back-to-school promotions.
Immersive Engagement Campaigns


Consideration campaigns also see an early ramp-up, with CPE (cost per engagement) peaking in April and gradually normalizing by Father’s Day week. On Facebook, engagement becomes much more cost-effective during the holiday itself, showing a 65.2% decrease in CPE, suggesting it’s the best time to run interaction-based Father’s Day ad campaigns.
While slightly more volatile in April and May, Instagram maintains consistent engagement costs throughout the shopping window, making it a strong choice for Father’s Day engagement campaigns.
Lead to Conversion with Clicks Campaigns


For click-based objectives, Facebook and Instagram ads tend to become more competitive immediately after Father’s Day. This surge often reflects a mix of advertisers aiming to re-engage audiences, offload leftover inventory, or kickstart early summer promotions. Those who activated summer and 4th of July campaigns earlier tend to benefit from more efficient clicks before the spike hits.
CPCs (cost per click) remain predictable but are higher during this window. If you’re planning your Father’s Day promotion ideas, it’s best to launch conversion-focused ads earlier to beat the spike. Facebook ad costs are more stable here, while Instagram may need tighter pacing and creative testing to maintain efficiency.
Download the 2024 Facebook Benchmark Report
Looking to improve your Facebook ad results? This report uncovers key trends and patterns that shaped the most successful campaigns. Use these insights to guide your planning and optimize your strategy moving forward.



Recommended Strategy for Father’s Day Meta Ads
What’s the suggested strategy, considering these Meta ad performance trends during the months before and well within the Father’s Day weekend?
Father’s Day advertising window | Awareness Campaigns | Engagement Campaigns | Clicks Campaigns |
---|---|---|---|
2-3 weeks before Father’s Day | Launch now: CPMs are still moderate. Instagram CPMs begin to rise but remain below peak. Facebook CPMs remain stable. | Focus on awareness: Facebook and Instagram both show spikes in CPE around this time. Engagement is more expensive. | Optimal time: CPC trends show higher costs around this period; launch now to optimize budget before CPC spikes. |
Father’s Day week | Shift to mid-lower funnel: Instagram CPM up 30.9%, Facebook CPM up 6.5%. Avoid heavy awareness spend. | Best time: Engagement costs dip, suggesting better return for interaction-based campaigns. | Moderate: CPC typically follows engagement trends but may still show inefficiency due to increased competition. |
Post-Father’s Day | Resume: CPMs decrease across both platforms. Good time to re-engage users at lower costs. | Sustained: Engagement costs normalize or remain low after the spike. | Cost-efficient: Post-event CPC typically declines. Ideal for retargeting campaigns. |
How Advantage+ Audience Supports Your Father’s Day Advertising Strategy
Now that your Father’s Day advertising funnel is in place, how does Meta Advantage+ Audience fit in the equation?
Built with advanced machine learning, Advantage+ Audience analyzes patterns in user behavior across Facebook and Instagram, identifying people most likely to engage, click, or convert, even if they fall outside your original target audiences. This allows your Father’s Day ad campaign to go beyond your set parameters and reach high-value prospects you may have overlooked.
Further Reading


Breaking Down the Meta Advantage+ Suite
Meta’s Advantage+ suite represents a full-scale leap into AI-powered advertising, designed to simplify campaign setup and boost performance. From automation to optimization, learn how each component works and how you can strategically combine them to boost your Meta ads strategy.
Setting your audience targeting helps ensure that your Father’s Day ads are delivered to people who match your intended demographics and interests. While this can create precision, it can also unintentionally limit your reach by excluding audience segments that may still be strong prospects or potential buyers. What you initially believe isn’t your ideal audience could end up driving valuable results.
That’s where Meta Advantage+ Audience becomes a powerful tool in your Father’s Day advertising toolkit. It analyzes behavioral signals across Meta platforms, such as who’s clicking, engaging, or converting, and uses those patterns to expand your reach beyond the audience you originally set. Your defined targeting will still be prioritized, but Advantage+ dynamically extends delivery to users who mirror high-performing behaviors.
Here’s how this enhances your Father’s Day 2025 campaigns:
- The system automatically shifts budget and impressions toward audiences that perform better, ensuring your ads are always optimized for the highest likelihood of clicks and conversions.
- Advantage+ can adapt rapidly: if a particular creative or audience segment underperforms, the AI reallocates resources to what’s working best, often in real time.
- Meta’s data proves the Advantage+ Audience system can drive measurable efficiencies at every stage of the funnel, especially for time-sensitive, event-based strategies such as holiday campaigns:
- Awareness campaigns: Achieve up to 14.8% lower cost per result
- Traffic, engagement, and lead campaigns: Up to 9.7% lower cost per result
- Sales and app promotion campaigns: Up to 7.2% lower cost per result
Still, Advantage+ should be implemented with strategic oversight to maintain cost control and targeting accuracy. Here are two approaches to ensure balance between automation and granular targeting:
- Start with Advantage+ turned off. This gives you greater control over your audience targeting, especially when using proven segments from past campaigns. If you see signs of ad fatigue or diminishing efficiency, that’s your signal to activate Advantage+.
This allows Meta’s AI to widen distribution and reach lookalike audiences based on real-time engagement signals. - Split your budget between an Advantage+ campaign and one with manual targeting. If you’re working within a tight timeline, set up one campaign with Advantage+ Audience targeting and another with manual audience targeting. Running both simultaneously allows you to compare real-time performance and quickly identify which approach is driving stronger results.
Monitor both campaigns closely: audience overlap can lead to ad fatigue or inflated frequency if the same users are targeted across ad sets.
Meta Advantage+ Audience targeting proves to be a powerful ally for Father’s Day advertising campaigns looking to drive more awareness, clicks, and conversions under a tight timeline. Its AI-driven approach is perfectly suited for high-velocity, event-based campaigns that demand both speed and precision in reaching the best possible audience.
How to Set Up Meta Advantage+ Audience Targeting for Father’s Day Campaigns
You’ve defined your strategy—now it’s time to put it into action. Setting up your Father’s Day campaign using Meta Advantage+ Audience requires a balance: giving Meta’s AI the freedom to optimize while still keeping the right level of control over your brand’s audience and objectives.
Follow this step-by-step guide to set up a Meta campaign that blends automation with smart targeting:
- Go to adsmanager.facebook.com and click +Create to begin your campaign setup.
- Select the most relevant campaign objective for your Father’s Day campaign.
* For Sales, Leads, or App Promotion, Meta will automatically enable all Advantage+ features. - Continue with your campaign level set up. At this stage, you can turn on Advantage+ campaign budget or turn it off for manual budget control.
- Configure the ad set level.
- Proceed with the usual setup (Ad set name, Budget & schedule, etc.).
- For the audience targeting, take a closer look at the following steps:
- Audience controls: Define your target Location, Age range, and add any Custom Audiences you want to exclude.
- Advantage+ audience: This feature is automatically enabled. To maintain some level of targeting control:
- Click on Audience Suggestion.
- Add additional parameters (age, interests, behaviors, demographics) to help guide Meta’s expansion.
- This allows Meta to prioritize your preferred segments while still finding high-converting lookalike audiences.
- Tip: Watch the “Estimated Daily Results” on the right side of your screen as you build your audience. This helps ensure you’re not over-narrowing or over-broadening the reach.
- If you want specific Meta ad placements, click Edit under Advantage+ Placements and choose Manual Placements. Otherwise, leave the default setting to allow Meta to optimize across all available placements automatically.
- At the ad level, complete your setup. Name your ad, link your Facebook Page, and upload your ad creative and format.
- Double-check the full setup of your Father’s Day advertising campaign, then hit Publish.
Ready to Build a Smarter Meta Campaign?
Learn how to achieve high-performing campaigns that blend automation with expert strategy. With real-time optimizations and 24/7 monitoring, your campaign can stay on track for both performance and efficiency, especially during peak shopping windows.






















Simplify Your Father’s Day Campaign Strategy With Advantage+
Every peak season demands a fresh approach, and Father’s Day is no exception. With Meta’s evolving AI capabilities, setting up a campaign has become more streamlined, but success still depends on maintaining the right level of control over performance and costs.
While Advantage+ automation can drive efficient results, it’s crucial to stay proactive. Monitoring changes, making timely adjustments, and applying human insight remain key to maximizing ad costs and performance. To see how Strike Social can help you find the right balance between automation and control, contact us for a personalized walkthrough.
Article by
Cameron Wallin, Strike Social’s VP of Sales
Cameron combines over six years of startup sales expertise with a deep understanding of video advertising on YouTube, TikTok, and social platforms. He leads Strike Social’s COOP and government partnerships, driving value through compliant, high-performance strategies built for public sector campaigns.
Strike Overview
- Marketing to Gen Z is more accessible than ever with their heavy use of social media. 81% spend at least an hour a day on platforms, and nearly half exceed three hours daily.
- The Gen Z age range spans from 13 to 28, which introduces challenges for advertisers, especially when targeting younger users who are subject to stricter ad and privacy regulations.
- Still, understanding how Gen Z engages on social media is a key opportunity. Know the effective strategies for reaching them through compliant targeting, creator partnerships, and platform-specific approaches.
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How Can Brands Effectively Market to Gen Z on Social Media?
Generation Z has set the tone for online culture, brand engagement, and the future of marketing itself. As true ‘digital natives’, Gen Z is the first age group to grow up entirely in the era of smartphones, social platforms, and constant connectivity.
With Gen Z now making up 27% of the global workforce, and even more already influencing household purchase decisions, marketing to Gen Z is no longer optional for brands that want to stay relevant. Performance-driven brands must understand the behaviors, values, and media habits that define the Gen Z demographic to drive long-term growth across social platforms.
Understanding the Generation Z Market
To build effective Gen Z marketing strategies, brands must first recognize how different this generation is from others. What resonates with Millennials may fall flat with Gen Z. Marketing to Gen Z requires more than recycled tactics; it demands a deep understanding of their digital behaviors.
What Is the Gen Z Age Range?
Generation Z typically includes individuals born between 1997 and 2012, placing the Gen Z age range between 13 and 28 as of 2025.
This wide age range introduces a unique challenge for advertisers: targeting an audience that includes minors as well as working professionals.


While some Gen Zers have full-time jobs and growing families, others are still in school and have limited purchasing power. Yet even students and younger teens wield influence, especially in digital spaces, making them a key part of the Gen Z demographic that brands should not ignore.
Advertising to Gen Z can be both nuanced and rewarding for brands willing to tailor their approach based on the generation’s diverse stages of life and digital expectations.
Marketing to Gen Z vs Millennials
When marketing to Gen Z vs Millennials, it’s important to recognize where these two generations overlap and differ. While they’re often grouped together in digital strategies, each age group has distinct preferences, behaviors, and expectations that affect how they engage with brands.
Purchase Behavior
Gen Zers are becoming increasingly aware of personal finance, with interest in this topic rising four points from 2018 to 2024. However, despite this growing financial literacy, 41% of Generation Z still identify as impulse buyers, suggesting they respond well to bottom-funnel strategies like limited-time offers and high-impact direct response ads.
On the other hand, millennials follow closely behind in impulse purchases at 34% but require more nurturing through the funnel. Research shows that 60% of millennials only purchase when convinced of the product’s value, making top and mid-funnel messaging essential for conversion.
Social Media Usage
While data for users under 18 is often restricted due to privacy policies, we can compare Gen Z and Millennials’ platform usage among those 18 and older:


Snapchat stands out for its strong hold on younger audiences, reaching 90% of the Gen Z demographic, including users aged 13–17. Despite the high percentage of minors on the platform, Snapchat estimates the buying power of Gen Zers on its platform to be $44 billion. Its interactive and creator-first design makes it highly effective for Gen Z advertising.
In contrast, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube see heavier millennial usage. TikTok remains competitive across both groups but edges out slightly among millennials in volume, likely due to wider age inclusivity in reported data. Still, TikTok’s short-form, creator-driven model aligns closely with Gen Z marketing strategies.
Content Consumption
Both generations rely on social media to stay informed: 77% of Gen Z and 67% of millennials use social platforms to keep up with current events.
What sets Gen Z apart is how they consume brand content through creators and influencers. Influencer marketing holds strong across both demographics: 70% of millennials in the U.S. follow at least one influencer. As for Gen Z, influencer-led discovery often drives purchase intent and brand recall more directly.
By getting to know the Generation Z demographic better, brands can fine-tune campaigns that speak more directly to each generation’s mindset and behavior.
Further Reading


Developing an Influencer Marketing Strategy
Incorporating influencer content into your paid social ads helps build a community of audiences who already trust the faces representing your brand. By partnering with creators whose followers align with your target market, you expand your reach authentically and effectively. Learn how to launch an influencer strategy that not only starts strong but lasts.
Marketing to Gen Z on Social Media
Generation Z is the most digitally connected generation, and social media is where they discover, engage, and reach brands. If you want to succeed in marketing to Gen Z, you need to meet them on their platforms, and on their terms. That means understanding not only where they spend their time, but also how they use each platform differently.
How Do Gen Z Use Social Media?
To effectively market to Gen Z, brands must start with platform selection. Knowing where your Gen Z audience is most active helps you prioritize your media buying and content strategy. And for this generation, short-form, visual-first content is king.
According to Sprout Social, here’s how many Gen Z users say they use at least one account on each major platform:


Why Is Social Media Marketing the Most Effective Channel for Gen Z?
It’s no secret that social media is at the frontline when it comes to marketing to Gen Z. This generation isn’t passively scrolling; they’re engaging and buying directly on their favorite platforms. Here’s why social media remains the most powerful channel for Generation Z marketing strategies:
Social-First Shopping Behavior
Gen Z uses social media platforms as primary discovery engines for new products and brands. But discovery is just the beginning. Gen Zers are highly intentional with their purchase behavior:
After discovering a brand or product, they take several additional steps before deciding: 75% read the comments, 74% visit the brand’s website, and 72% check reviews.
Influence of Content Creators
When it comes to advertising to Gen Z, influencer marketing plays a pivotal role, with macro-influencers (100K to 1M followers), who have proven to drive high engagement within this demographic.
More importantly, co-created content (brand and influencer collaborations) outperforms standalone influencer ads. Platforms like Instagram make this seamless through Partnership Ads, which feel more authentic and aligned with Gen Z preferences. These collaborations give your brand credibility and increase the chances of recall and conversion.
Social Platforms as Search and News Engines
Forget traditional search. Today’s Gen Z age group is turning to social platforms first for news discovery and staying informed.
In fact, Google has dropped to third place as the go-to search tool for Gen Z. Brands that position themselves as informative, relevant, and trend-savvy can surely win Gen Z’s loyalty on these platforms.


To market to Gen Z effectively, brands must go beyond ads and adopt a social-first strategy that blends creator partnerships, trend-driven content, and community-driven discovery. Social media is not just a channel for Gen Z: it’s where they discover, evaluate, and buy, making it the most powerful touchpoint for this generation.
Advertising to Gen Z in Paid Social
Now that you know where and how Gen Z engages on social media, the next step is crafting a paid advertising strategy tailored to their age group and platform behavior. However, marketing to Gen Z, especially younger teens, comes with unique limitations that you must account for in your campaign planning.
Limitations with Advertising to Gen Z Audiences
All major platforms heavily regulate advertising to users under 18 due to global privacy laws and platform-specific policies. These restrictions impact how you can target and what content you can show to Gen Z, especially those between the ages of 13 and 17.
For example, in regions like the EU, EEA, and Switzerland, ads typically cannot be shown to users under 18 at all. In other markets, ad targeting for this group is often limited to broad demographic categories, with no access to personalized targeting.
Gen Z users aged 18–24, however, are fully eligible for personalized ad targeting, making them a key segment for performance-driven campaigns.
Gen Z Audience Targeting Restrictions in Meta (Facebook and Instagram) |
---|
Unavailable Targeting Options |
Gender |
ZIP code or custom location radius |
Detailed targeting (interests, behaviors, and demographics) |
Language |
Custom audiences |
Lookalike audiences |
Advantage+ app campaign objective |
Available Targeting Options |
App install campaign objective |
Reach/impressions campaign objective |
Link clicks campaign objective |
Offsite conversions campaign objective |
More profile visits goal (Instagram only) |
Conversion Lift tests |
Detailed targeting (interests, behaviors, and demographics) |
Source: Meta Business Help Center |
Restricted Google & YouTube Ad Categories for Users Under 18 |
---|
Adult & sexually suggestive content |
Adult media |
Alcohol, tobacco, & recreational drugs |
Body modification and weight loss products |
Contests, sweepstakes, & lotteries |
Dangerous or harmful content |
Dating & relationship services |
Gambling, betting & casino games |
Pharmaceuticals and supplements |
Shocking content |
Speculative financial products |
Surveillance tools and arrest record services |
Virtual worlds & adult-oriented chatrooms |
Source: Google Advertising Policies |
Because of stricter restrictions on Facebook and Google, TikTok and Snapchat have become go-to platforms for reaching Gen Z teens aged 13–17. They still have limitations, but offer more advertising flexibility for younger age groups.
Gen Z Audience Targeting Restrictions in TikTok |
---|
Unavailable Targeting Options |
Gender |
Spending power |
Household income |
Audience |
Interests & behaviors |
Available Targeting Options |
Age |
Language |
Location (except zipcode) |
Device |
Search keywords (only for USA) |
Lead Generation campaign objective |
Sales campaign objective (TikTok Shop) |
Source: TikTok Business Help Center |
Snapchat actively promotes its platform as suitable for ages 13 and up. The app offers more flexibility in targeting younger Gen Z audiences, though it is still highly dependent on country-specific regulations and content categories.
Here’s how Snapchat manages age-based restrictions across different regions:
Ad Minimum Age Requirements and Restrictions By Country | ||||||
Country | Alcohol | Gambling & Lotteries | Financial Products & Services | Contraceptives | Over-the-counter Medicine | Online Dating Services |
Australia | 18+ | 18+ | Dependent on the products or services promoted | 18+ | No minimum age required | 18+ |
Brazil | 18+ | 18+ | Dependent on the products or services promoted | No minimum age required | No minimum age required | 18+ |
Canada | 19+ | 19+ | Dependent on the products or services promoted | No minimum age required | No minimum age required | 18+ |
Saudi Arabia | Not permitted | Not permitted | 18+ | No minimum age required | No minimum age required | Not permitted |
United Arab Emirates | Not permitted | Not permitted | 18+ | No minimum age required | No minimum age required | Not permitted |
United Kingdom | 18+ | 18+ | Dependent on the products or services promoted | No minimum age required | 18+ | 18+ |
United States | 21+ | 18+ | Dependent on the products or services promoted | No minimum age required | No minimum age required | 18+ |
Workarounds & Strategy
Despite strict limitations on targeting Gen Zs, effective strategies still exist to reach this influential audience. Gen Z represents a major share of social media activity, and while direct targeting is restricted, there are smart workarounds to get your brand noticed and drive meaningful engagement.
Broad Targeting
TikTok’s user base includes a large share of teens, with approximately 25% of all users 20. Thus, even with restrictions, brands can still reach younger Gen Z users using broad targeting. This includes options like location, language, device type, and search keywords (U.S. only).
Snapchat offers even more flexibility. Although general ad targeting is often set to 18+, platforms like Snapchat allow you to refine by:
- Placement
- Age
- Language
- Location
- Device details (OS, carrier, phone model)
Creator and Influencer Collaborations
Influencer marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways to reach Gen Z. Partnering with creators for branded content, sponsored posts, or hashtag challenges allows you to circumvent ad targeting limitations while still resonating with Gen Z’s values. These collaborations feel more authentic and peer-led and are more likely to earn Gen Z’s trust and attention.
Case Study:
To reach Gen Z shoppers, a skincare brand partnered with Strike Social to run a TikTok traffic campaign. Despite audience targeting challenges, our team leveraged detailed targeting strategies and placements to connect with the brand’s ideal Gen Z audience.
Using creator-led content, the campaign achieved up to 96% video completion rates. Strategic ad placement ensured the content appeared in formats and spaces where Gen Z is most active. Through continuous testing and optimization, the campaign proved that smart planning and authentic content are key to Gen Z success.


Using Effective Ad Formats on Meta and YouTube
Even though Facebook and YouTube advertising restrict targeting for users under 18, Gen Z adults (18–24) remain fully targetable. These platforms still offer effective ways to reach Gen Z through high-performing ad placements.
Here’s a quick look at top-performing Meta placements for click-focused campaigns:
Ad Placement | CTR |
---|---|
Facebook Feed | 2.07% |
Facebook Stories | 1.80% |
Facebook Instream Video | 1.67% |
Instagram Stories | 0.74% |
Overlay ads on Facebook Reels | 0.43% |
On YouTube, Shorts are especially effective with Gen Z, offering up to 15.9% engagement rates when paired with influencer content. These short-form videos align with Gen Z’s media habits and offer a prime format for brand engagement.
Successfully advertising to Gen Z requires more than just checking the right targeting boxes: it demands an adaptive strategy, constant optimization, and content that speaks their language. For in-house teams, this can be a resource-heavy lift.
Partnering with an expert ad agency can help you gain an advantage over competitors in effectively marketing to Generation Z. Request a personalized walkthrough from our team and learn how marketing to Gen Z audiences can be made easier.
Turning Gen Z Attention into Brand Loyalty
You may think marketing to Gen Z simply means following the latest trends, but it’s also about understanding a generation that values authenticity, creativity, and community. While they may be digital natives, Gen Z is also highly selective about the brands they engage with, making trust and genuine connection more important than ever.
Their behavior online is shaped by a deep awareness of digital culture and a clear expectation for transparency. Brands that embrace this mindset by delivering real value, relatable content, and inclusive messaging are more likely to earn recognition and recall from Gen Z audiences.
As social platforms evolve, so will Gen Z’s expectations. Capturing their attention is just the beginning: building trust and growing with them is how you turn that attention into lasting brand loyalty.
Article by
Lee Baler, Strike Social’s VP of Sales & Strategy
Lee leads global strategy, helping clients and agencies maximize YouTube and paid social performance. Constantly tracking industry trends, he translates insights into strategies that help brands stay competitive and achieve sustained profitability.
Strike Overview
- An important step for success in YouTube advertising is to craft an ad with the correct YouTube ad specifications.
- Among the social media titans on the market today, YouTube is the vanguard platform. It’s been around since 2005, long before Facebook gained serious momentum, and it is still an essential part of any social media advertising mix.
- By using the correct YouTube ad specs this 2025, you will deliver a much clearer message to your audience. A well-composed video could go viral and launch your brand’s recognition into the stratosphere.
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This post was updated in May 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Optimizing your YouTube ads means tailoring content to align with viewer preferences—whether they’re watching on desktop or mobile. Understanding the right YouTube ad specs, sizes, and dimensions ensures your creatives are displayed correctly and viewed exactly as intended.
Successful YouTube advertising isn’t just about performance metrics; it’s about how your audience perceives and interacts with your video ads on the platform.
We’ve outlined the YouTube ad specifications below to help you with your 2025 YouTube advertising.
Types of YouTube Ads, Sizes, and Specifications
Overlay ads
As of April 6, 2023, Overlay ads have been discontinued in YouTube. Active overlay ads will only appear on desktop view as YouTube Creators shift to newer ad formats for YouTube advertising.
Overlay image: required
- Unit: 480 pixels by 70 pixels
- File type: static GIF, PNG, JPG
- File size: 150KB
Companion banner: optional
- Unit: 300 pixels by 250 pixels
- File type: GIF, PNG, JPG
- File size: 150KB




Think of discovery ads as an online billboards of sorts. These are generally static images or have very minimal movement and animation to them. According to the YouTube ad specifications, they appear either to the side of the video or as an overlay on the bottom of the video. They’re good to include in your YouTube advertising mix because they’re less expensive than other ad forms like those that appear before or during videos.
Since they don’t directly interfere with user activity on the site, users might also respond better to their presence. A potential drawback could be that some users have a tendency to tune out these kinds of ads, but a truly great ad can break through the clutter. Whatever size or format you choose is up to you, just make sure that the content is optimized for the ad format and that there is a clear call-to-action for your YouTube audiences to respond to.
Further Reading


Understanding YouTube Advertising Costs for Maximum Efficiency
For YouTube advertisers, balancing cost management with expanding reach is critical to success. As video consumption trends evolve, media buyers face challenges in identifying the most efficient ways to maximize ad visibility without exceeding budgets.
Sponsored cards
YouTube Sponsored cards have also been discontinued, as part of an ongoing effort to streamline the viewing experience and shift towards different video advertising formats.
Sponsored card worked as a brief “teaser”, which will be replaced by a card icon after a few seconds. Appearing in the upper right-hand corner of the video they are currently watching, the icon gives users the choice of clicking through to access further information about the sponsored content.
- Platform: Desktop and mobile devices
- Media: image
- Format: JPG, PNG, GIF
- Aspect Ratio: 1:1
- Length: 15 or 20 seconds
- File Size: 2MB max


In that sense, a sponsored card ad is similar to display ads except where it’s located and how it functions differs slightly. The commonality among them is the ever critical call-to-action.
Bumper ads
Ad placements
- YouTube videos, video partner sites, and apps within the Google Display Network
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded and hosted on YouTube
- Final URL: Destination landing page users reach after clicking the ad
- Note: Must directly reflect the product or offer promoted
- Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
- Helps users understand what to expect (e.g., if your final URL is www.yourwebsite.com/autumnbreeze/add-to-cart, your display URL can be www.yourwebsite.com/newcollection)
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
- Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
- Maximum file size: 150KB
Video ad settings
- File format: AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP4 or MPEG
- Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
- Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
- Resolution: 640 pixels by 360 pixels or 480 pixels by 360 pixels recommended
- Frame rate: 30 FPS
- Aspect ratio: native aspect ratio without letter-boxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
- Maximum file size: 1GB
- Length: ≤6 seconds




A bumper ad is a non-skippable video ad format created to extend the reach of a campaign. It appears before the video the user has chosen to view. Sold on a CPM basis, Bumper ads perform well on both Connected TV and mobile devices. In alignment with the 2025 YouTube ad specs, the maximum video length for bumper ads is 6 seconds.
Further Reading


Expand Your Audience with YouTube Video Reach Campaigns
By leveraging multiple advertising formats, YouTube advertisers can effectively broaden their reach, engage a wider audience, and maximize the impact of their campaigns beyond the YouTube app and YouTube TV.
Standard display ads
Ad placements
- Google Display Networks, Gmail, YouTube Home Feed and YouTube In-Feed
Assets overview
- Images: Up to 15 images
- Logos: Up to 5 variations
- Videos: Up to 5 videos
- Final URL: Landing page users reach after clicking the ad
- Business name: ≤25 characters
- Headlines: ≤30 characters; can add up to 5
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
Technical YouTube ad specifications
- Dimensions:
- 300 pixels by 250 pixels
- 300 pixels by 60 pixels (YouTube Reserve companions)
- 300 pixels by 600 pixels (Zagat only)
- Formats: GIF, JPG, PNG
- Maximum file size: 150KB
- Maximum animation time: 30 seconds (all animations, including loops, must stop at 30 seconds)
- Audio: no sound
- Border: creatives with partially black or white backgrounds must have a visible border of a contrasting color




Demand Gen (formerly Video Action Campaigns)
YouTube advertising goes beyond awareness, helping brands move audiences down the funnel to drive engagement and conversions through video ads and product shopping ads. Video Action Campaigns (VAC) have been pivotal in achieving these goals.
VAC has now transitioned to Demand Gen, enhancing its capabilities to expand its reach while maintaining the performance and results that brands rely on. This evolution offers advertisers an opportunity to tap into broader audience segments without compromising on the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Ad placements
- YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and the Google Display Network (GDN)
Assets overview
- Final URL: Destination landing page
- Logos: Up to 5 variations
- Video URL: Must be uploaded and hosted on YouTube
- Image: Choose from 4 autogenerated thumbnails
- Headline: (1) ≤30 characters – in-stream inventory; (1) ≤90 characters – in-feed inventory
- Description: ≤90 characters
- CTA: ≤10 characters


Image ad settings
- Images: Up to 15 images
- File format: JPG, PNG, or static GIF
- Business name: ≤25 characters
- Headlines: ≤40 characters; can add up to 5
- Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
- Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
- Maximum file size: ≤ 5MB
Video ad settings
- Videos: Up to 5 videos
- Business name: ≤25 characters
- Headlines: ≤40 characters; can add up to 5
- Long headline: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
- Description: ≤90 characters; can add up to 5
- File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4)
- .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
- Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
- Frame rate: 30 FPS
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
- Maximum file size: ≤ 256GB
Carousel ad settings
- Images: Up to 10 image cards
- Business name: ≤25 characters
- Headlines: ≤40 characters; 1 per card; 1 headline for the full carousel
- Description: ≤90 characters
In-stream non-skippable ads
These YouTube ad formats play while viewing the video content and last up to 15 seconds or shorter. Non-skippable video ads appear before the selected video and much be watched in its entirety before the video can be viewed.
Ad placements
- Where they appear: Appear before, during, or after YouTube videos
- Also served across video partner sites and apps within the Google Display Network (GDN) (unless excluded in campaign settings)
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded and hosted on YouTube
- Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
- Display URL: Up to 255 characters
- Headline: ≤15 characters
- Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
- Maximum file size: 150KB
Video ad settings
- File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4)
- .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (h265)
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
- Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
- Frame rate: 30 FPS
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
- Maximum file size: ≤ 256GB
- Length: 15 or 20 seconds for non-skippable; ≤ 20 seconds for long non-skippable


In-stream skippable ads
Skippable video ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds and move on to their viewing selection.
Ad placements
- Where they appear: Ads are served before, during, or after YouTube videos
- Across video partner sites and apps within the Google Display Network (GDN) (unless excluded in campaign settings)
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
- Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
- Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters
- Companion (desktop only): 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
- Maximum file size: 150KB
Video ad settings
- File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4)
- .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal); 1080 x 1920px (vertical); 1080 x 1080px (square)
- Minimum px for Standard HD: 1280 x 720px (horizontal); 720 x 1280px (vertical); 480 x 480px (square)
- Frame rate: 30 FPS
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
- Maximum file size: ≤256 GB
- Best practices for Awareness and Action campaigns: 15 to 20 seconds; for Consideration campaigns: 60 seconds to 3 minutes
- Length: 15 seconds to 3 minutes


Video View Campaign Skippable in-stream
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
- Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
- Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters
Video ad settings
- Resolution:
- 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal)
- 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 1280 x 720px (horizontal)
- SD: 640 x 480px (horizontal)
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Aspect Ratio: HD: 16:9 for horizontal; SD: 4:3 (SD) for horizontal
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- File Size: ≤256 GB
- Format composition for In-stream placement: ≥:05 seconds horizontal


Further Reading


YouTube Video View Campaign vs. Video Action Campaign
With the variety of YouTube advertising options, choosing the right one for your brand can be challenging. To guide your decision, we break down the differences between YouTube Video View Campaigns and Video Action Campaigns. Discover their unique objectives, benefits, and the ideal scenarios for leveraging each campaign type.
Video View Campaign In-feed
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
- Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
- Display URL: Up to 2 customizable paths (15 characters each)
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters
Video ad settings
- Resolution:
- 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal)
- 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 1280 x 720px (horizontal)
- SD: 640 x 480px (horizontal)
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Aspect Ratio: HD: 16:9 for horizontal; SD: 4:3 (SD) for horizontal
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- File Size: ≤256 GB
- Format composition for YouTube in-feed placement: ≥:05 seconds horizontal


Video View Campaign in YouTube Shorts placement
As YouTube Shorts emerges as a standalone vertical video feed, Video View Campaigns capitalize on this placement to drive more engaged views. At Strike Social, YouTube Shorts has proven highly effective, with one of our standout campaigns attributing 43% of its total ad views to Shorts placements alone.
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
- Final URL: Landing page users are directed to after clicking the ad
- Display URL: Up to 2 path segments (15 characters each)
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters
Video ad specifications
- Resolution:
- 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1080 x 1920px (vertical)
- 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 720 x 1280px (vertical)
- SD: 480 x 640px (vertical)
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Aspect Ratio: HD: 9:16 for vertical; SD: 2:3 (SD) for horizontal
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- File Size: ≤256 GB
- Format composition for YouTube Shorts placement: ≥:05 seconds vertical


Video Reach Campaign
To expand your reach across both YouTube and YouTube TV platforms, Video Reach Campaign (VRC) allows your video ads to appear on both small and large screens. Below are the recommended YouTube ad specifications for VRC:


Ad placements
- Where they appear: Appear before, during, or after YouTube videos (desktop, mobile, tablet, and Connected TV)
- Also served across video partner sites and apps within the Google Display Network (GDN) (unless excluded in campaign settings)
Assets overview
- Video URL: Must be uploaded to YouTube
- Final URL: Destination landing page users reach after clicking the ad
- Display URL: Up to 2 path segments (15 characters each)
- Long headline: ≤90 characters
- Description: ≤90 characters
YouTube VRC specifications
- Resolution:
- 1080p (Full HD): Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1080 x 1920px (vertical)
- 720p (Standard HD): Minimum px: 720 x 1280px (vertical)
- SD: 480 x 640px (vertical)
- For optimal quality, we don’t recommend using SD.
- Aspect Ratio: HD: 16:9 for horizontal; 9:16 for vertical; 1:1 for square
- Format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- File Size: ≤256 GB
- Format composition: Any length; Recommended:
- (1) horizontal :15 and (1) horizontal :06
- (1) vertical :06-:60
Set Your YouTube Ad Creatives for Success
Your YouTube ad is the first point of contact with your audience, making it essential to ensure it’s both visually appealing and conveys your message effectively. To ensure your ad is displayed as intended and captures your audience’s attention, it’s crucial to follow the right specifications.
This YouTube ad specs guide will prepare you for success in 2025. Looking for more tailored insights? Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates on YouTube paid advertising and more.
Strike Overview
- Around 86% of U.S. businesses have already implemented an influencer marketing strategy—are you optimizing an existing approach or still in the planning stage?
- Influencer marketing helps expand reach by partnering with content creators who are trusted voices in their niche and can connect your brand to audiences you may be missing.
- In this guide, we walk you through building an influencer marketing strategy that can scale alongside your paid social campaigns across major platforms.
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This post was updated in April 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Building an Influencer Marketing Strategy That Scales with Paid Media
Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective ways for brands to build trust, boost engagement, and connect with social-first audiences. With 72% of Gen Z and Millennials following influencers, and over half making a purchase based on an influencer’s post, it’s clear that creators hold real sway in the buyer journey.
However, not all influencer marketing strategies can drive equal results. Thus, to maximize impact, your influencer campaign must be designed with paid social in mind. In this guide, we’ll show you how to build an influencer marketing strategy that seamlessly scales with platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing involves partnering with individuals who have built authority, credibility, and a dedicated following in specific niches. These influencers can shape opinions and drive purchasing decisions, especially when they share relatable, personal content across social media platforms.
By showcasing your product or service through someone their audience already trusts, you create a more human, attainable connection between your brand and potential customers.
Furthermore, influencer marketing thrives on long-term collaboration. When an influencer genuinely connects with a brand, their content becomes a cycle of trust: they use the product, recommend it authentically, and inspire action from their followers. This is the foundation of a successful social media influencer marketing campaign.
Organic Influencer Marketing vs. Influencer Advertising
Understanding the difference between organic influencer marketing and influencer advertising through paid social is key to crafting a strategy that performs.
- Organic Influencer Marketing: This approach is typically more casual and relationship-driven. Brands may send products or offer services in exchange for a review or mention, without a formal contract.
If the influencer enjoys the experience, they may share a spontaneous Instagram Story, a TikTok mention, or a YouTube vlog. While organic posts feel authentic, they rely solely on the influencer’s reach and discretion. - Influencer Advertising through Paid Social: This involves formal agreements where influencers are compensated for creating sponsored content. The content is then repurposed into influencer ads, extending its reach to more audiences.
By using paid social ads, brands gain control over placement, targeting, and scalability, making this approach ideal for reaching broader, performance-driven objectives.
Effective influencer marketing strategies aren’t just about big budgets — it’s about building genuine relationships. That said, influencer advertising can still boost engagement by as much as 61% through paid social media.
Combining both approaches is the best way to maximize impact across social media advertising platforms. The authenticity of organic influencer relationships blended with the reach and precision of paid social advertising is a powerful engine to drive results towards your brand’s objectives.
Is Influencer Marketing Right for Your Brand?
If your brand already has an in-house creative team, you’re likely producing content that reflects your identity and voice. However, integrating an influencer marketing strategy can take that a step further, offering a native, authentic presence in social feeds that often outperforms traditional display or video ads.
It’s natural to feel hesitant about diving into influencer marketing, especially when it adds a new layer to your campaign strategy. But the benefits often outweigh the uncertainty. Here’s how to tell if it’s the right move for your brand.
Key Signs Your Brand Could Benefit from Influencer Marketing
- You want to build authenticity and trust: Influencers create content that feels personal and relatable—something polished ad creatives sometimes can’t replicate. In fact, 48% of consumers say they’re more likely to purchase a product recommended by an influencer they follow.
This trust carries over to your brand, especially when the influencer’s values and voice align with yours. - You want to reach niche or hard-to-target audiences: Many influencers and microinfluencers build communities around specific interests, demographics, or lifestyles.
While platform tools like Meta’s Advantage+ Audience offer strong targeting tools, influencers offer something algorithmic targeting can’t: personal relationships with highly engaged followers. That makes influencer ads an effective way to expand your reach into niche segments. - You’re ready to scale through paid social: Organic posts only go as far as an influencer’s follower count. But by integrating influencer content into your paid social strategy, you can unlock scalable growth across platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Influencer creative is often platform-native and performs well as sponsored content, giving your campaigns more flexibility and higher engagement rates.
In modern digital marketing, influencer ads enhance the entire media strategy by combining creative storytelling with high-performing ad formats. Adding an influencer marketing strategy to your campaign mix can pay off in both trust and performance.
Further Reading


Which Social Media Platform Works Best for Influencer Marketing?
The success of your influencer campaign doesn’t just depend on the creator — it also hinges on the platform they use. Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, each channel offers different advantages when it comes to reach, engagement, and ROI.
How to Create an Influencer Marketing Strategy
Now that you’re ready to launch your influencer marketing campaign, it’s time to build your strategy. This quick-start guide outlines the core steps to help you kickstart expanding your audience across different platforms.
Step 1: Find the Right Influencers for Your Business
Start by analyzing whether the influencer’s audience aligns with your target demographics, such as their followers’ age, location, interests, and content themes. For example, a skincare brand targeting Gen Z should collaborate with influencers whose audience reflects that age group and a lifestyle that complements your brand identity.
Don’t just rely on follower counts. Examine engagement rates, content tone, and authenticity. With view counts now including replays and auto-plays, especially for YouTube Shorts views, it’s better to ask for engaged views to align better with your YouTube ad metrics.
Step 2: Build Relationships with Influencers
Initial campaigns are a chance to test content fit and audience reception before entering longer-term agreements. Look for how creatively aligned the influencer is with your brand, and how well their followers respond to branded content.
The goal should be to move from one-off posts to sustained partnerships. Long-term collaborations foster trust, turning influencers into brand advocates who drive deeper loyalty among their audiences.
Be clear on expectations early: align on objectives, content formats, timelines, and creative direction to build a productive and transparent relationship.
Step 3: Negotiate an Influencer Marketing Package
Your influencer marketing package should include:
- Defined deliverables (e.g. 1 video/week, 2 Instagram Stories, etc.)
- Usage rights (e.g. 1 product review post, 1 exclusive asset for paid ads)
- Exclusivity clauses (e.g. no partnerships with direct competitors during the campaign)
Rates will vary depending on the influencer’s tier (nano, micro, macro, or celebrity), platform, and content complexity. Negotiate based on both their reach and engagement, as well as the type of content you need them to produce.
Step 4: Optimize Content for Paid Social
Turn top-performing influencer content into influencer ads by adapting formats, hooks, and CTAs for each platform. Boosting organic posts can significantly expand your reach, especially when the content already resonates with followers.
- Use Spark Ads on TikTok when promoting influencer ads. Request an authorization code from the influencer to repurpose their post in your ad campaign.
- On Instagram, use Partnership Ads (formerly branded content ads). Similarly, the influencer shares an ad code, which you upload in Ads Manager for use in your campaigns.
Test variations in creative, captions, and CTAs to find what clicks with your audience, and continue refining as results come in.


Step 5: Measure Results and Scale
Using ad management tools, track KPIs such as reach, engagement, conversions, and video views. Make sure to distinguish between autoplays and engaged views, especially for short-form formats like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok.
Accurate measurement helps you identify top-performing creators and content styles worth reinvesting in. Use these insights to confidently and efficiently scale your influencer marketing strategy across multiple channels.
Making Influencer Strategy Work for Your Paid Media
Influencer advertising is no longer an optional add-on for brands; it has now become a core driver of digital marketing performance. As audience behavior shifts, authentic influencer content is what truly resonates and drives action.
By partnering with creators who authentically fit your brand, you can further amplify your reach by boosting it on paid social media. The combined credibility and relatability of influencers alongside the precision targeting and scalability of paid media can help you achieve your marketing goals.
Ready to develop and execute an influencer marketing strategy that drives results? Talk to our team of experts and start building your next high-impact campaign.
Article by
Lee Baler, Strike Social’s VP of Sales & Strategy
Lee leads global strategy, helping clients and agencies maximize YouTube and paid social performance. Constantly tracking industry trends, he translates insights into strategies that help brands stay competitive and achieve sustained profitability.
Social media has emerged as a highly lucrative digital marketing channel. If you’re ever wondering how big this industry is, consider these social media advertising trends.
The global social media ad spend was more than $23 billion in 2024. Unsurprisingly, the US was the top country, with over $72 billion spent on social ads.
When a large portion of your marketing budget is dedicated to social media, you need to build campaigns that deliver high ROI.
Being aware of social media advertising trends and anticipating how they would disrupt the landscape can help you take your marketing efforts to a different level.
In this article, I will discuss the seven most notable social media advertising trends that I feel will shape this industry’s future. Be prepared to embrace them to maintain a competitive advantage.
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- Top Social Media Advertising Trends to Incorporate in Your Strategy
- 1. AI-Powered Advertising Will Continue to Rise
- 2. Micro-Influencers Will Keep Dominating
- 3. Social SEO to Reshape Discoverability
- 4. Brands Will Keep Making Short-Form Videos
- 5. Authentic Content Will Generate More Engagement
- 6. Social Commerce Will Become a Revenue Machine
- 7. Privacy and Data Protection Will Become More Relevant
Top Social Media Advertising Trends to Incorporate in Your Strategy
Several trends create ripples in the social media marketing industry every year. I have handpicked seven of the most notable social media advertising trends you should be aware of.
Let’s take a look.
1. AI-Powered Advertising Will Continue to Rise
Artificial intelligence is creating big waves in the marketing and advertising industry. The value of AI in marketing is estimated to cross $108 billion by the end of 2028.
One of the most promising social media advertising trends is AI-powered advertising. AI tools can analyze a wealth of customer data to help you understand customer preferences and pain points. As a result, this helps you create more targeted ads.
As shown below, AI contributes significantly to research, efficacy, and creativity in advertising.


Going forward, marketers will utilize generative AI tools to ideate campaigns, create banners and videos, and even help with campaign pacing. AI will also be predominantly involved in monitoring and deriving real-time insights to optimize campaigns.
2. Micro-Influencers Will Keep Dominating
One of the noticeable social media advertising trends is that brands are choosing micro and nano-influencers to create Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube influencer ads over big names. In a survey conducted by Hubspot, over 40% of marketers agreed that working with small and niche-specific influencers resulted in better ROI, as shown below.


Now that the focus is more on creating customer-centric campaigns and ads, influencers with a smaller but tight-knit community are preferred for higher engagement. The key lies in choosing content creators who are highly influential in your niche and are already engaging with your target audience.
According to Social Cat, micro-influencers can boost 3 times in comparison to macro influencers, so connecting with micro-influencers can provide good results at the lowest cost.
In addition to micro-influencers, industry experts are also tagging the rise of AI influencers as one of the important social media advertising trends. In the years to come, we can expect to see more brands collaborating with AI avatars to run influencer campaigns.
3. Social SEO to Reshape Discoverability
Consumers are increasingly relying on social channels like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube to research new products and gather information about brands. That’s why optimizing your social media content, LinkedIn outreach campaign, and ads for SEO is one of the major social media advertising trends this year.
You can optimize ad captions by including the right keywords and hashtags. Similarly, increase the discoverability of your video ads by writing SEO-friendly scripts. Testing different versions will help you figure out the best kind of social media ads that will generate maximum engagement.
4. Brands Will Keep Making Short-Form Videos
Video content outperforms static ads, especially short-form ones. This is emerging as one of the major social media advertising trends in 2025.
Given the popularity of short-form content on social media like TikTok and Instagram Reels or YouTube Stories, marketers are continuing to lean toward creating short-form video ads.
Consider this YouTube ad by GoDaddy. Within 30 seconds, the brand created a compelling ad with engaging storytelling.


There are many advantages of short-form social media ads. It’s quick to consume, quick-hitting, engaging immediately, and more importantly, users like it. Moreover, social platforms prioritize this content type in algorithms.
That said, creating captivating ads that instantly grab the attention of the viewers can be challenging.
To create compelling headlines for your social media ads to boost engagement, you need to master storytelling, appeal to your audience’s emotions, and have a solid hook.
5. Authentic Content Will Generate More Engagement
Social media ads are moving away from branded promotional content towards authentic content. This is one of the important social media advertising trends to be incorporated into your ecommerce growth strategy.
What qualifies as authentic content? Anything credible and trustworthy. Social proof and user-generated content are the most effective types of content to be used in social media advertising.
Include reviews and user and employee testimonies to humanize your brand and drive immediate action. If you want your ads to be more effective, work on making them culturally and contextually relevant. That’s when your target audience will better resonate with your brand and your products.
6. Social Commerce Will Become a Revenue Machine
Another notable social media advertising trend is the growth of social commerce. Shopping directly from a brand’s social media account offers a unique and seamless experience for customers. This will mean more revenue for brands in the coming years.
Over the past couple of years, marketers have explored the possibility of creating shoppable ads that would lead potential buyers directly to product catalogs on a brand’s social profile.
You can create stand-alone ads, Stories or Reels ads, collection ads, or video ads to engage your target audience on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
By adding product tags, catalog links, or stickers with product pricing and descriptions, you can drive traffic with a single click.
You can also conduct A/B testing to compare different ad formats, placements, and messaging, helping you identify which combinations drive the highest engagement and conversions.
7. Privacy and Data Protection Will Become More Relevant
Privacy and data protection in the social media advertising space will become more crucial than ever before. With customers becoming more concerned about how and where their data is being used, brands will have to make conscious decisions to win their trust.
You can begin by being transparent about the usage in your social media policy. Adopting strict ethical practices in data collection, AI access, and ad targeting will become industry standards.
The sooner you make this decision, the better you’ll be positioned in a privacy-conscious marketplace.
Conclusion
The social media advertising trends we have discussed hint at huge technological leaps in the social media landscape. Trends like AI adoption, a shift in micro and AI influencer marketing, social SEO, contextual authentic ad content, shoppable ads, and a privacy-first approach are reshaping social media marketing as we speak.
Analyze these social media advertising trends at length and how they would impact your business. By adapting these insights into your strategy, you can be future-ready and gain a competitive edge.




This article is written by Reena Aggarwal, Director of Operations and Sales at Attrock, a result-driven digital marketing company. With 10+ years of sales and operations experience in the field of e-commerce and digital marketing, she is quite an industry expert. She is a people person and considers the human resources as the most valuable asset of a company. In her free time, you would find her spending quality time with her brilliant, almost teenage daughter and watching her grow in this digital, fast-paced era.
Have some great content up your sleeve? We invite you to reach out to us. We are excited to collaborate with talented writers and feature high-quality content on our blogs.
Check Out Articles from Our Content Collaboration Partners
Strike Overview
- 32% increase in ROAS, 26% improvement in CPA — these are just few of Meta’s data on how the tools in the Meta Advantage Suite can improve your Facebook and Instagram campaigns.
- Meta Advantage+ entails a full set of features you can utilize to automate your ad campaigns—but do you fully know how it works?
- In this guide, learn how to set up Advantage+ campaigns with the right tools, understand their potential limitations, and uncover strategies to optimize results.
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How to Use Meta Advantage Suite: A Complete Guide for Advertisers
Meta is doubling down on AI-driven automation with the full rollout of the Meta Advantage Suite, a powerful set of tools designed to streamline ad creation and optimize performance. Businesses using Advantage+ campaigns have already seen up to a 12% reduction in CPA and a 15% increase in ROAS, proving that automation is driving better results.
As Meta continues evolving its ad system, advertisers who use these tools can save time, simplify campaign management, and scale effectively. But how do you balance automation with maintaining control over your campaign performance?
In this guide, we’ll break down the Meta Advantage Suite, explore its key features, and show you how to use these AI-powered tools to maximize your campaign results.
What is the Meta Advantage Suite?
The Meta Advantage Suite is a comprehensive set of tools designed to simplify and automate advertising across Facebook and Instagram. First introduced in 2022, it addresses key advertiser pain points—eliminating the need to manually upload and test hundreds of ad creatives or constantly monitor performance to determine what works best.
Meta Advantage+ helps advertisers reduce manual effort while improving campaign efficiency by automating time-consuming tasks like audience selection and budget allocation. While Advantage+ tools focus on streamlining entire workflows, other Advantage features enhance automation throughout the ad creation and management process.
Let’s take a closer look at how each Meta Advantage+ tool contributes to smarter, more efficient advertising:
Advantage+ Audience
Advantage+ Audience works with Meta’s AI to automatically identify and target users who are most likely to view, click, or purchase based on your business or product. When this feature is enabled, Meta dynamically adjusts your audience, ensuring your ads reach users who can improve cost efficiency and performance.
To maximize the benefits of Advantage+ Audience, you can utilize the following tools:
- Advantage Detailed Targeting: Expands interest-based targeting for broader reach. For example, if you’re running a traffic campaign for a real estate listing and have defined “Business & Finance” as an interest, Meta may also target users interested in “Banking”, even if it wasn’t in your original settings, to increase potential clicks.


- Advantage Custom Audience: Enhances custom audiences by refining targeting based on past interactions, such as engagement with your Facebook Page or Instagram account. This helps guide users toward lower-funnel actions like clicks or purchases.


- Advantage Lookalike: Uses an existing audience source—such as a customer list or newsletter database—to find users with similar profiles who are likely to engage or convert. You can define the similarity level, up to 10%, to optimize reach and improve match quality.


Advantage+ Catalog Ads
Designed for eCommerce advertisers, Advantage+ Catalog Ads streamlines the process of running sales campaigns by eliminating the need to add products for each new campaign manually. Beyond sales, Advantage+ Catalog Ads can also be used for app promotion, engagement, lead generation, and traffic objectives.
This tool personalizes product ads for each user by using tracking data from Meta Pixel or app software, ensuring that ads are dynamically tailored based on user behavior and preferences.
- Advantage+ Creative for Catalog: Automates creative variations to optimize engagement by testing multiple formats and identifying high-performing assets. For instance, if Meta’s AI determines that a user engages more with swipeable carousel cards, the ad will be displayed in carousel format.
Alternatively, if the AI predicts a higher likelihood of direct purchase, the ad will appear in Collection format, showcasing the most relevant product based on the user’s behavior.


- Advantage+ Creative: A broader feature within the Meta Advantage Suite, this tool enhances ad creatives without requiring new uploads or separate ad variations. Enhancements include:
- Text and headline improvements (during campaign creation and post-launch adjustments)
- Dynamic overlays (text, branding, and logos)
- Music additions for engaging ad experiences
- Optimized CTAs for Stories placements
- Site links dynamically added based on the provided URL
- Adaptive image and video enhancements (cropping or expansion based on the user’s perspective)


Advantage+ Placements
This Meta Advantage Suite feature automates ad delivery across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network, selecting the most effective placements from over 20 options. Advantage+ Placements ensures your ads appear where they are most likely to drive engagement and maximize efficiency, reducing the need for manual placement selection.
Recent data from our latest Facebook benchmark report shows that awareness campaigns in 2024 experienced a 51% efficiency improvement, with lower CPMs throughout the year. This performance boost is largely attributed to Advantage+ Placements, which expands ad reach across Meta’s full advertising network–serving ads where they can generate the best results.
Further Reading


Choosing Between Manual vs. Advantage+ Placements
Meta’s AI can optimize ad placements for impressions and clicks, but is automation always the best choice? Understanding when to use manual placements versus Meta Advantage+ can help you make smarter advertising decisions. Find out which approach works best for your campaigns.
Advantage+ Campaign Budget
By turning on Advantage campaign budget, you allow Meta’s AI to automatically allocate budget across ad sets based on real-time performance and ad delivery.
For example, if you set a $15,500 budget for a two-month campaign, a manual budget setup would require constant monitoring and adjustments to ensure funds are allocated to the best-performing ad sets. With Advantage+ Campaign Budget, Meta’s AI optimizes budget distribution, focusing on ad sets that generate higher engagement and conversions.
Codeway Studios, a mobile app development company, utilized Advantage+ Campaign Budget along with other Advantage+ features for audience targeting and app campaigns. This resulted in a 46% increase in app subscriptions, demonstrating how AI-driven budget optimization can significantly improve campaign performance.


Meta Advantage Campaign Solutions
With Advantage+ App Campaigns and Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, advertisers can streamline the entire ad workflow with Meta’s end-to-end campaign solutions:
Advantage+ App Campaigns
Previously known as Automated App Ads, Advantage+ App Campaigns are designed to drive maximum app installs by automating key campaign elements—including budget allocation, audience targeting, and placement selection.
With Meta’s latest update, all Advantage+ features will now be automatically enabled when selecting the app promotion objective:




Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns
To help your shopping and sales-focused ads reach more relevant audiences, you can use Advantage+ shopping campaigns to make your products more discoverable.
By combining Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns with tools like Advantage+ Creative and Advantage+ Creative for Catalog, advertisers can create highly personalized shopping experiences, ensuring your products are shown to audiences most likely to convert.
The tools within the Meta Advantage Suite allow advertisers to scale campaigns effectively while maintaining strong personalization and optimization. Aimed at saving time, cutting costs, and driving improved results, these tools mark a major advancement in automating digital advertising processes.
How to Use Meta Advantage Suite
To guide you in using the Meta Advantage Suite tools and features, here are the steps to help you maximize these AI-powered tools:
1. Selecting the Campaign Objective
Start by selecting the most relevant campaign objective based on your business goals. For the following objectives, Advantage+ features will be automatically activated:
- Leads
- App promotion
- Sales
2. Campaign Level Set-up*
* The following steps apply to Meta campaign objectives that do not have Advantage+ automatically activated.
For automatic campaign budget optimization, turn on the Advantage campaign budget at the campaign level. Then, proceed with the rest of the campaign set-up process, such as choosing the campaign name and/or updating your campaign objective.
3. Ad Set Level Set-up
At the ad set level, you can turn on Dynamic Creative to allow Meta’s AI to automatically generate different creative combinations and templates based on your initial assets.
You can also modify Advantage+ Audience settings here. To further refine your audience, click on Audience Suggestions and specify your preferences for age, gender, and interests under Detailed Targeting.
If you prefer to select placements manually, hover over the Placements section at the bottom of the screen and click Edit to customize placements.


4. Ad Level Set-up
Upload your image or video and proceed with Advantage+ creative suggestions for your primary text and headlines. With Dynamic Creative turned on, Meta’s AI will also suggest templates to further improve your ad creative.




Complete the rest of the ad setup, including URL, CTA, and ad description.
Finally, review your campaign setup and click Publish when you’re ready.
Once your campaign is live, Meta’s AI will take over to optimize the budget and ad performance. While Advantage+ Suite handles much of the heavy lifting, it’s still important to monitor campaign performance to ensure continuous optimization and refinement.
Potential Drawbacks of Using Meta Advantage Suite
While Meta Advantage+ offers many benefits, it’s important to acknowledge that it’s not without its limitations. Here are some potential drawbacks to consider when using Meta Advantage Suite:
Less Visibility on Ad Creative Performance and Effective Variations
One limitation of Advantage+ creatives is the reduced visibility into specific performance metrics. For example, you may not be able to identify which ad variations are performing the best or which creative enhancements are driving the most effective clicks.
Additionally, since Meta’s AI determines when and how to apply creative optimizations, you have limited control over how your ads are presented to audiences.
Reduced Manual Control Over Targeting and Placements
While automation simplifies campaign management, it limits advertisers’ ability to make granular adjustments. This can be a concern for brands with specific targeting needs or creative preferences.
For example, if you prefer your ads to only appear on Instagram placements, manual placements might be a better option, as Advantage+ will automatically distribute your ads across various platforms, including Facebook and Messenger.
AI-Based Optimizations May Not Always Align with Brand Strategies
Machine learning algorithms prioritize cost efficiency, which may not always equate to ad performance.
Based on our Facebook benchmark data, we observed that while cost efficiency was excellent, ad performance sometimes suffered due to increased ad exposure without targeting the right engaged audiences.
Using Meta Advantage Suite offers several valuable benefits and is indeed a valuable addition to making advertisers’ work easier. However, it’s still crucial to monitor campaigns regularly and make strategic adjustments when necessary to ensure the direction of ad performance aligns with your goals.
The Right Balance of Automation and Control over Meta Campaigns
When combined, the key components of the Meta Advantage Suite work together to help brands save time, save costs, and improve performance. Meta’s AI capabilities have certainly exceeded expectations, helping many businesses more effectively reach their cost and campaign goals.
However, it’s essential to maintain strategic oversight even as automation takes the lead. While Advantage+ can automate many decisions, it’s not foolproof and may require adjustments to stay aligned with your objectives. That’s where the expertise of Meta-certified professionals comes in—ensuring that your campaigns are managed effectively and optimized at every step.
Partnering with a Meta-certified company gives you the advantage of expert knowledge to manage campaigns from activation to fruition. To learn more about our Meta advertising expertise, request a demo of our AdTech services and how we optimize your campaigns for efficiency and growth.



Article by
Syd Olivarez, Strike Social’s SEO Content Specialist
Syd crafts content on paid digital advertising strategies, blending 5+ years of writing expertise with 3 years in digital marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends to deliver valuable insights that keep brands informed and competitive.
Strike Overview
- Brands utilizing influencer-driven campaigns can achieve up to 18x ROI for every dollar spent, but this doesn’t happen just by launching a campaign or boosting a sponsored post. Knowing the preferred social media platform for brands and agencies is one of the first steps.
- On Instagram alone, there are already about 10 million influencers you can connect with. But will your brand effectively reach its audience there, or would working with a YouTube or TikTok influencer be a better option?
- Influencer marketing thrives on platforms that offer high engagement and authenticity, but choosing the right one depends on audience reach, creative formats, and cost efficiency.
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The Go-To Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing Agencies
Collaborating with a top-tier social media influencer not only reduces the workload on your creative team but also enhances brand authenticity. Utilizing user-generated content (UGC) creates a more natural and relatable ad experience, making your campaigns more engaging to your audiences.
Currently, there are over 12 million U.S. influencers across all social media platforms. Yet the real question is: Which influencer marketing platform delivers the best results when integrated into paid ads, and where do they perform best? From audience reach to ROI, several factors determine whether TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube is the ideal choice for your influencer marketing campaigns.
Top Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing
The competition between TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram is fierce when it comes to video advertising and audience reach. YouTube leads with over 250 million users, followed by Instagram at 138.5 million.
However, TikTok is not to be overlooked. The app saw a surge of 88.3% user growth in 2019 and continues to grow by 2.2%–2.4% annually through 2029.


But does a platform’s user base directly translate to its effectiveness for influencer marketing? Let’s take a closer look at the different platforms and how influencer marketing agencies maximize them:
TikTok
While many assume the platform caters only to younger users, our campaign data tells a different story. Despite the majority of U.S. TikTok users being under 30, our data reveals up to 37% CPM efficiency even among audiences aged 55 and up—demonstrating TikTok’s versatility in reaching diverse audiences.
So, how does this well-rounded strategy position TikTok as an influencer marketing platform worth considering?
Promoting your Brand with TikTok Influencers
Influencer marketing agencies choose TikTok for its ability to drive high engagement through viral, short-form videos. Its algorithm naturally amplifies content, enabling brands to reach wider audiences without relying solely on paid media.
Spark Ads further enhances this by boosting organic influencer content, allowing brands to connect authentically with target audiences through established influencer communities.
- Authentic and Relatable Content: TikTok thrives on raw, unfiltered content that feels genuine, bringing authenticity to each video. This “in-the-moment” vibe resonates with users across age groups, making influencer recommendations feel more like advice from a friend than a corporate pitch.
- Cross-Generational Appeal: Though TikTok’s user base skews younger, influencer marketing remains highly effective across all age groups. Audiences aged 55+ have an average engagement rate of 7.3%, surpassing the 5.3% average for younger users. This indicates that while they may be fewer in number, older users demonstrate higher intent and engagement on the platform.
From Gen Z creators to senior influencers, TikTok offers brands a wide range of niche communities to tap into.
- Innovative Content Formats: TikTok offers unique content formats that amplify influencer campaigns:
- Branded Hashtag Challenges: Brands partner with influencers to create viral trends, increasing user participation.
HP’s #HPRadicalReuse campaign, featuring creators like @dreaknowsbest and @alisonsadventures, achieved an 18% engagement rate, with over 4 million video views from Spark Ads alone. - Interactive Add-Ons: In addition to promoting video ads, you can make them more engaging by adding interactive features such as gestures, gift code stickers, and pop-out showcases.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges: Brands partner with influencers to create viral trends, increasing user participation.
Further Reading



Activating Authorization Code for TikTok Spark Ads
TikTok’s Spark Ads simplify collaboration with influencers, making it easier to boost their content. With just a few quick steps, you and your chosen content creator can activate a sponsored post and seamlessly launch a successful influencer marketing campaign.
Keep in mind that TikTok is just the first social media advertising platform in this discussion. While we see how it excels in both video advertising and influencer marketing, how do Instagram and YouTube compare?
As Meta continues evolving Instagram into a video-first platform, it has become a top alternative to TikTok—especially during discussions of a potential TikTok ban. When advertisers explored shifting TikTok campaigns to Instagram Reels, it reinforced Instagram’s position as one of the top choices for influencer marketing agencies.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Instagram Influencer Advertising
Instagram is home to over 10 million influencers in the U.S., accounting for 9.8% of its users. With such a vast creator ecosystem, brands have plenty of opportunities to collaborate with influencers across various niches.
Understanding Influencer Tiers
Instagram offers a broad spectrum of influencers, from small, niche-focused creators to mega influencers with massive reach.
More followers don’t always mean better results—nano-influencers often have the highest engagement rates due to their highly engaged, niche communities, making them a strong choice for influencer-driven ads.
Influencer Tier | Reach | Pricing |
---|---|---|
Nano | 1,000-10,000 followers | $10 – $100 per post |
Micro | 10,000-50,000 followers | $110 – $500 per post |
Mid | 50,000-500,000 followers | $500 – $5,000 per post |
Macro | 500,000-1,000,000 followers | $5,000 – $10,000 per post |
Mega | 1,000,000+ followers | $10,000+ per post |
Visual Storytelling
Instagram is inherently a visual-first platform, making it ideal for brands that rely on aesthetics and storytelling to connect with audiences. Its various ad formats cater to different marketing objectives:
- Reels: Short-form videos optimized for discoverability and engagement. Influencer-driven Reels see engagement rates of up to 2.08%, outperforming the 1.8% average for regular Reels and other content types.
- Stories: Ephemeral content perfect for real-time updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or limited-time offers. Stories ads can boost reach by 35%, particularly for small brands looking to expand their audience.
- Carousel: Multi-image posts designed to encourage user interaction by swiping through content, making them ideal for detailed storytelling or showcasing multiple products. As a prominent ad format on both Facebook and Instagram, Carousel ads have proven effective—helping a luxury watch brand drive up to 56% of landing page views in a traffic campaign.
Meta’s Stability and Instagram’s Longevity
As part of Meta’s advertising network, Instagram remains a dominant force in social media advertising–and it’s here to stay.
Meta’s resilience in the stock market reinforces its position as a leading platform, and with 47% of brands using Instagram for influencer marketing, its relevance will persist—especially as uncertainty around a potential U.S. TikTok ban continues to impact advertiser decisions.


Is Instagram more effective for influencer advertising than TikTok? The answer depends on campaign goals, target demographics, and engagement strategy. But before drawing conclusions, let’s analyze yet another major influencer marketing platform—YouTube.
YouTube
While YouTube might appear last on this list, its engagement, effectiveness, and video advertising impact are anything but last place. Known for brand awareness campaigns, YouTube is also a high-performing platform for action and conversion-driven marketing.
Why YouTube Influencer Marketing Works
YouTube’s advantages for influencer marketing agencies are strongly tied to its ability to deliver detailed, engaging, and authentic content—whether in short form or long form. Discover why you should consider YouTube for your social media influencer campaigns:
Long-Form Content for In-Depth Storytelling
YouTube stands out in influencer marketing for its ability to host extended video content, making it ideal for detailed product showcases and tutorials:
- Detailed Product Reviews: YouTube influencers spend 10–15 minutes (or longer) discussing a product’s features, benefits, and real-world applications, making it the top choice among U.S. consumers for product reviews and information.
- Step-by-Step Tutorials: 64% of viewers have reported making a purchase after watching an explainer video. And because there’s (basically) no length limit to the videos a YouTube content creator can create, they can go into detail on product tutorials, allowing viewers to understand better what they are recommending.
Full-Funnel Marketing Capabilities
YouTube also plays a crucial role in performance-driven marketing, helping brands achieve action-based results such as lead generation, website traffic, and direct sales.
- Action Campaigns: YouTube influencers excel in driving video views and audience engagement, with the help of Video Views Campaigns. The U.S. leads in YouTube influencer engagement with 28.4 billion interactions, and click-through rates peak during high-traffic ad seasons like Q4.
- Driving Conversions: From Strike Social’s data, a family entertainment brand achieved a 7.8x ROAS by using YouTube ads to drive in-store visits. Additionally, influencer-driven YouTube campaigns have been shown to generate up to 10 times higher conversion rates than organic traffic alone.
Trusted by Audiences
98% of online users trust recommendations from YouTube influencers—more than any other social media platform.
A strong example is MAC Cosmetics, which partnered with beauty content creators Ankita Chaturvedi and Naina Bhan for their YouTube Video Reach Campaigns. With the help of YouTube Shorts, their campaign achieved:
- 66% lower cost per view (CPV)
- 2.5x higher view-through rates than their standard YouTube ads


Further Reading


Driving Conversions with YouTube Influencer Advertising
Don’t let assumptions about high costs and large ad budgets deter you from considering YouTube influencers for your campaigns. Collaborating with YouTube creators could be the key to fully integrating your ad funnel into this video-centric platform.
Now that you have a clear understanding of how these social media influencer platforms work and how you can collaborate with content creators for brand campaigns, it’s time to assess your options. While these major platforms are the top choices for influencer marketing agencies, the right fit depends on various criteria that require careful evaluation.
Why Influencer Marketing Agencies Choose These Social Media Platforms
Influencer marketing agencies select TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube based on their unique strengths in audience engagement, creative content, placement strategies, and cost efficiency. Below is a condensed overview of each platform’s advantages:
Platform | Audience | Creative Strengths | Placement Options | Cost Efficiency |
---|---|---|---|---|
TikTok | Heavily dominated by Gen Z and younger Millennials. Ideal for trend-driven campaigns. | Short-form, viral content, influencer trends | Spark Ads on For You Feed, Profile Feed, TopView | Lower CPMs, cost-effective engagement |
Maintains a balanced demographic reach, with strong engagement across all age groups. | Thrives on high-quality visuals and immersive storytelling via Reels and Stories | Partnership Ads on Reels, Stories, in-feed posts, carousel ads | Higher CPM than TikTok, strong engagement & conversions | |
YouTube | Relatively even audience distribution across all age groups. Effective platform for reaching a wide demographic, from younger audiences to Baby Boomers. | Long-form storytelling, product reviews, in-depth influencer content | In-stream via Video Reach, Video View Campaigns; Shorts; Demand Gen | Higher CPM, but strong ROAS & conversions |
Each social media platform has unique strengths that can enhance your influencer marketing campaigns. By aligning your campaign goals with the criteria outlined here, you can determine the best platform for your strategy.
Beyond platform selection, the influencer’s existing community is another critical factor. For example, if your brand performs well on TikTok but the influencer you’re targeting has stronger reach and engagement on YouTube, shifting your ad spend may be more effective. Likewise, if a YouTube influencer’s rates are too high, exploring Instagram influencers could deliver better results at a lower cost.
While each platform has its pros and cons, Strike Social’s data shows that a multi-platform influencer campaign can drive strong results while maintaining cost efficiency.
Case Study:
A leading CPG brand partnered with Strike Social to drive high-quality traffic and engagement through influencer marketing across TikTok and Instagram while maintaining cost efficiency.
By aligning influencer-driven content with key audiences—homemakers, food enthusiasts, and younger consumers—the campaign achieved 43.2% cost efficiency, with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) contributing to 70% lower CPLC on Meta placements.
Further, capitalizing on the platform’s strength in interactive, trend-based engagement, 61% total engagements were driven by TikTok influencer ads.


Connecting with More Engaged Audiences with Influencer Marketing
Choosing the right social media platform for your influencer marketing campaign is a crucial step in effectively promoting your brand. Each platform offers distinct advantages based on your goals, target audience, and budget—and when combined strategically, they can deliver even stronger performance and cost efficiency.
However, these platforms are just the mediums. Success in influencer marketing depends on aligning with the right audience, budget strategy, and content approach. Whether partnering with Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok influencers, integrating influencer marketing into your paid social strategy is now essential.
Ready to launch your influencer campaign? Contact our team for a personalized walkthrough on how we can activate and manage your influencer ads.
Article by
Lee Baler, Strike Social’s VP of Sales & Strategy
Lee leads global strategy, helping clients and agencies maximize YouTube and paid social performance. Constantly tracking industry trends, he translates insights into strategies that help brands stay competitive and achieve sustained profitability.
Client Objective
A leading CPG brand partnered with Strike Social to launch a multi-platform influencer campaign aimed at driving high-quality traffic while minimizing costs.
By strategically delivering influencer-driven content to key audiences—homemakers, food enthusiasts, and younger consumers—across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, the campaign achieved significant cost efficiencies and engagement.


Campaign Outcome
With real-time optimizations and influencer-driven content, Strike Social helped this CPG brand drive efficient traffic at scale.
Our strategic execution ensured the right messaging reached the right audience for the best possible performance.
43.2%
Actual CPLC (cost-per-link-click)
efficiency achieved
61%
Total engagements driven by
TikTok influencer ads
70%
Lower CPLC on Meta platforms (Facebook & Instagram)


Seamless Performance
Across Platforms with
Strategic Execution
- Real-Time Campaign Adjustments: Strike Social’s real-time monitoring tools enabled dynamic bid, pacing, and audience optimizations, resulting in 48,000+ link clicks while maintaining cost efficiency.
- Consistent Multi-Platform Targeting: The team strategically aligned messaging across platforms, ensuring that younger audiences on TikTok and established consumer segments on Facebook and Instagram received relevant, engaging content.
- Platform-Specific Creative Optimization: Influencer content was adapted to fit platform-specific best practices, enhancing engagement rates and increasing campaign effectiveness.
See other Facebook case studies.
Download the Multi-Platform Influencer Case Study
Improve your multi-platform ad strategy with expert insights. Fill out the form to receive a customized strategy guide tailored to your campaign goals.
Client Objective
A pharmaceutical brand promoting an over-the-counter product for new and expecting moms partnered with Strike Social to expand its reach on Meta.
By integrating influencer storytelling with strategic audience targeting, the campaign ensured that brand messaging resonated authentically with parents actively seeking trusted recommendations. This Meta case study reveals how our multi-layered approach boosted visibility, built consumer trust, and maintained cost efficiency.


Campaign Outcome
Strike Social’s data-driven approach and influencer-powered strategy successfully optimized ad delivery while increasing audience engagement. By refining audience targeting and campaign execution, we aim for maximum efficiency and impact for Meta-influencer campaigns.
21M+
Total impressions delivered in 31 days
43%
Actual CPM efficiency vs.
guaranteed cost
6%
Higher views-to-spend ratio,
maximizing budget effectiveness


Enhancing Campaign Efficiency with Adaptive Targeting and Budgeting
- Supplemental Campaign Expansion: Strike Social implemented a secondary campaign layer designed to drive additional visibility and interaction.
- Strategic Audience Segmentation: The team combined first-party and third-party data with Meta’s native targeting layers to enhance engagement to effectively connected with engaged users.
- Real-Time Campaign Adjustments: Deployed continuous bid pacing adjustments and dynamic budget reallocations. By monitoring underperforming audience segments and optimizing ad delivery, the team allocated the budget, which was consistently directed toward the most responsive users.
See other Facebook case studies.
Download the Meta Influencer Ads Case Study
Enhance your Meta ad performance with expert insights. Fill out the form to receive a personalized strategy guide tailored to your campaign goals.
Strike Overview
- Demand Gen campaigns simplify the process of managing separate strategies for YouTube and Google Display ads by combining them into one streamlined solution.
- For a leading global clothing and retail brand, Demand Gen delivered outstanding results, achieving a 1.86x ROAS and reducing CPA by 66%—a testament to the potential of this campaign format.
- If you’re aiming for similar success, you’re in the right place. This guide will cover everything you need to know, from the basics like Demand Gen campaign specs and ad formats to expert tips on creating Demand Gen campaigns that deliver results for your brand.
Jump to Section
How to Set Up Demand Gen Campaigns for YouTube & Google Ads
For advertisers looking to simplify cross-platform advertising on YouTube and Google networks, Demand Gen campaigns are becoming the go-to solution. It’s a full transition from YouTube TrueView for Action to Video Action Campaigns (VAC) — and now, Demand Gen campaigns.
By combining the reach of Google’s ecosystem with the creative impact of YouTube video ads and image ads, Demand Gen campaigns provide a powerful way to drive action and conversions by targeting users in key moments of intent.
What Are Demand Gen Campaigns?
Powered by Google AI, Demand Gen campaigns allow advertisers to engage users across multiple touchpoints within YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Discover, and Gmail.
With the introduction of multi-format ads that can be created within a single Demand Gen campaign, advertisers can now reach and engage the 63% of customers who use Google feeds to discover or research new brands and products.
Benefits of using Google’s Demand Gen campaigns
Apart from reaching a vast audience network that you can previously reach using separate YouTube and Google ad campaigns, here are other key benefits that make Demand Gen an attractive choice for advertisers:
1. Customizable Ad Experiences:
- Demand Gen supports multiple ad formats, including single image, video, and carousel image ads, allowing you to engage audiences with diverse creative options.
- Google Demand Gen campaigns use audience-first creatives so that the most riveting ad creatives that capture audiences are served the most to customers likely to click and convert.
2. Improved Performance Metrics:
- The early adoption of Google Demand Gen ads has brought impressive results, which has led Google to be confident in making this a more prominent campaign type:
- 7.64% CTR with 43% better CPC efficiency on ads served in YouTube placements (Strike Social Campaign Lab data, U.S. Demand Gen campaign for entertainment brand)
- 58% higher ROAS than Video Action Campaigns (Nielsen MMM meta-analysis on Demand Gen vs. 2024 Google AI-powered YouTube ads)
- 3x higher CTR and 61% lower CPA (Demand Gen beta test by Search Engine Land)
3. Enhanced AI Capabilities:
- Demand Gen makes use of Google’s AI for its bidding strategy, helping advertisers secure more clicks and conversions with automated optimizations.
- AI-powered image editing allows advertisers to enhance creatives by automatically selecting and refining images from the Google Merchant Center for better ad performance.
Demand Gen Campaign Specs and Requirements
Ready to set up your Demand Gen campaigns? Here’s a detailed guide on the available ad formats and their specifications to help you create high-performing ads with this campaign type.
Available Ad Formats
Image Ads
Image ads are ideal for quick, visually appealing ads that contain all your information in a single image. If you’re looking to capture audiences who want your product or service information in one look, image ads are the way to go.


Ad specs for Demand Gen image ads
- Resolution and Aspect Ratio:
- 1.91:1 (Landscape) – Recommended: 1200 × 628
- 1:1 (Square) – Recommended: 1200 × 1200
- 4:5 (Portrait) – Recommended: 960 × 1200
- 9:16 (Vertical) – Recommended: 1080 × 1920 (Only available on YouTube Shorts)
- File Size: Max 5MB
- Headline: Up to 5 headlines (Max 40 characters each)
- Description: Up to 5 descriptions (Max 90 characters each)
- Business Name: Max 25 characters
- URL: Required; supports different URLs for mobile placements
- Logo: Up to 5 (1:1 ratio; Recommended: 1200 × 1200)
- Logos are displayed as circular images; 5.36% of each corner may be cropped
- CTA: Automated or manual selection (choose from the following):
** Note: If uploading a GIF file for an image ad, the ad displayed will be a static version only.
Carousel Ads
Showcase multiple images in a single ad, giving your audience a more engaging experience with your Demand Gen placements. This format encourages viewers to explore and interact with your offers by swiping through the carousel.


Ad specs for Demand Gen carousel ads
- Carousel cards: Up to 10
- Resolution and Aspect Ratio:
- 1.91:1 (Landscape) – Recommended: 1200 × 628
- 1:1 (Square) – Recommended: 1200 × 1200 (Square images not supported in Discover placements)
- 4:5 (Portrait) – Recommended: 960 × 1200 (Optional)
- All carousel cards must be the same dimension. For example, if you’re choosing square resolutions for one carousel image card, then all must be square.
- It’s recommended to have both landscape and square carousel images for better compatibility with different Demand Gen placements.
- File Size: Max 5MB
- Headline: Up to 5 headlines (Max 40 characters each)
- Description: Up to 5 descriptions (Max 90 characters each)
- Business Name: Max 25 characters
- URL: Required; different URLs can be set for each carousel card
- Logo: Up to 5 (1:1 ratio; Recommended: 1200 × 1200)
- Logos are displayed as circular images; 5.36% of each corner may be cropped
- CTA: Automated or manual selection; can set different CTAs for each carousel card:
Video Ads
An effective way to engage users, especially on YouTube and YouTube Shorts. Reach over 250 million users in the U.S. with video ads placed across various Demand Gen placements, making it a format you can’t afford to overlook.


Ad specs for Video ads on Demand Gen campaigns
- Video Uploads: Up to 5 videos
- Length:
- Minimum: 5 seconds
- Maximum for YouTube Shorts ad placements: 60 seconds
- No prescribed max length for landscape and square ads;
Recommended: Up to 3 minutes or based on industry best practices.
- Resolution and Aspect Ratio:
- 16:9 (Landscape) – Recommended: 1920 × 1080 (HD)
- 1:1 (Square) – Recommended: 1080 × 1080 (HD)
- 9:16 (Vertical) – Recommended: 1080 × 1920 (HD)
- File Size: Max 256GB
- Headline: Up to 5 (Max 40 characters each)
- Long Headline: Up to 5 (Max 90 characters each)
- Description: Up to 5 (Max 90 characters each)
- Business Name: Max 25 characters
- Logo: Up to 5 (1:1 ratio; Recommended: 1200 × 1200)
- Logos are displayed as circular images; 5.36% of each corner may be cropped
- Sitelinks: Up to 4 (shown in skippable in-stream ads on mobile placements only)
- CTA Options:
** Note: Your video must be uploaded to YouTube as either public or unlisted. You can also create a generative video ad directly in Campaign Manager.
** Demand Gen video ads on Gmail will only be served on mobile.
Further Reading


YouTube Advertising Ad Specs and Set Up Guide
Setting up a successful YouTube ad starts with understanding the right specifications. Knowing the correct ad sizes, formats, and technical details ensures your video creative is displayed properly, helping you deliver a clear message to your audience.
Targeting Capabilities and Limitations
Google Demand Gen campaigns offer advanced audience targeting options designed to maximize reach and relevance. Consider the following capabilities you can maximize when planning your campaigns.
1. Lookalike segment
Demand Gen campaigns allow you to create lookalike audiences based on first-party data, such as customer lists or newsletter sign-ups. This helps expand reach by targeting users who share similar traits with your existing customers.
For example, using lookalike audiences can help you target similar profiles of those who made past purchases from your website, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
Lookalike audiences are particularly effective for mid-funnel strategies, which Demand Gen focuses on. They help you find new, high-intent users by relying on your existing customer data. You can choose between Narrow (2%), Balanced (5%), or Broad (10%) to target people with similar profiles.


2. Custom segments
Custom segments help you target potential customers based on their search behavior, interests, and online activity. To improve targeting accuracy, you can create segments using specific search terms, competitor websites, or app activity.
For instance, if you want a headstart on your Mother’s Day promotions for your flower arrangement business, you can use a custom segment for search terms such as “ideas for Mother’s Day gifts,” “top 10 Mother’s Day gift ideas,” etc. to get audiences intently looking for Mother’s Day gifts and likely to make a purchase.
3. Optimized targeting
Google’s AI-driven optimized targeting expands reach beyond your specified audience signals to users likely to convert. While the priority remains on your defined audience, optimized targeting helps increase clicks and conversions by identifying new high-performing prospects.


If optimized targeting improves performance, you may notice a shift in your initial targeting selections. However, this is expected and indicates that the campaign is effectively driving the desired results.
Understanding how audience targeting works in Demand Gen campaigns allows you to align your strategy with your campaign goals better.
Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Demand Gen Campaigns in Google Ads
Now that you have the basics of Demand Gen campaign specs and audience targeting, it’s time to set up the campaign.
1. Choose a campaign objective that aligns with your business goals. Demand Gen supports the following objectives:
- Sales
- Leads
- Website traffic
- Awareness and consideration
- Create a campaign without guidance
2. Choose Demand Gen as the campaign type, then click Continue.
3. Set Up Campaign-Level Details:
Define the core settings for your campaign such as the campaign name, target cost-per-action (CPA), campaign budget, and campaign dates. You can also set up your location and language targeting if they will be the same for all your ad groups within this campaign.
In addition, you can select whether to distribute your ads to Google video partners (this feature is currently still in Beta testing).


4. Set Up Ad Group-Level Targeting:
Refine your targeting by setting up audience specifications at the ad group level within your Google Demand Gen campaign. Here, you can define audience segments, lookalikes, and custom audiences to ensure your ads reach the right people.
You can also decide whether to target only YouTube or expand your reach to Discover, Gmail, and the Google Display Network (currently in beta and available to a limited group of advertisers).
5. Create Your Ads:
Select from three main ad formats in Demand Gen campaigns: image, video, and carousel.
Upload your ad creatives, and Google’s AI will automatically test and optimize different combinations, prioritizing the highest-performing variations.
Set a clear ad name for easy identification within the campaign, then configure the ad URL, headlines, descriptions, and sitelinks (for video ads only).


6. In the Review campaign section, review your campaign settings and targeting, and confirm that ad creatives are correctly configured. Once you’re ready, click Publish campaign.
The campaign will typically have a 2-week to 6-week learning period during which Google can collect data and optimize bids effectively. From here, monitoring your Demand Gen campaign is essential and requires a constant eye to ensure it is running on pace.
Must-Knows for Your Demand Gen Campaigns
Launching a Demand Gen campaign is only the beginning — the real work starts after going live. Complexities may arise, so understanding what to expect and how to maintain control over your campaigns is essential.
Here’s what you need to know to run effective Demand Gen ads on YouTube and Google:
Brand Safety and Suitability
Demand Gen ads serve across YouTube, Gmail, and Discover feeds, which can expose your brand to unsuitable content. Protect your brand with these strategies:
- Use Exclusions: Exclude low-quality websites, apps, and sensitive content categories (e.g., violence, mature themes). Adjust these settings under Tools > Content Suitability in Google Ad Manager.
- Add Negative Keywords: Unlike keyword targeting, adding negative keywords prevents your ads from appearing in specific searches. For example, if you want to avoid your brand showing up alongside political content, especially during election season, using negative keywords ensures your brand stays clear of any political association.
Further Reading


The Importance of Ad Suitability on YouTube
Ensuring your ads reach the right audience is important—but so is pairing them with the right content. Understanding ad suitability helps you protect your brand’s image, strengthen messaging, and avoid misalignment with inappropriate or off-brand content.
Goal Clarity
Is Demand Gen suitable for all stages of your paid social ad campaign — from awareness to traffic and conversions? While Demand Gen supports multiple campaign objectives, you must clearly define your target outcome to ensure it aligns with your campaign goals.
- Mid-to-Lower Funnel Focus: Demand Gen campaigns are designed to drive clicks and actions, such as website visits, leads, and sales.
While Demand Generation can be chosen from the awareness objective, a great choice for the top of the funnel (ToFu) is Video Reach Campaigns. By utilizing different YouTube ad formats such as in-stream (bumper, skippable), in-feed, and Shorts ads, you can better increase brand awareness through video engagement within related content.
What Sets Demand Gen Apart
Demand Gen campaigns combine creative flexibility and automated targeting in ways other Google Ads formats cannot:
- Flexibility over Audience Targeting: Unlike PMax, which automates most targeting, Demand Gen gives you more granular control over audience segmentation.
- Hybrid Ad Formats: With support for images, videos, and carousel ad formats, you have more flexibility in testing creative variations and adjusting placements based on performance.
Know the Best YouTube Ads Agency to Partner With
While Demand Gen automates many processes, working with a specialized YouTube Ads agency can take your performance to the next level. Here’s what to look for when choosing the right agency to manage your Demand Gen campaigns:
- YouTube Ads Expertise: Since Demand Gen is rooted in YouTube Video Action Campaigns, your agency should have deep experience in managing YouTube campaigns. A strong portfolio of YouTube case studies will give you insight into their track record and effectiveness.
- Google-Recognized: Being a Google Partner signals an agency’s expertise in running and optimizing YouTube and Google campaigns. Further, a Google Premier Partner status reflects consistent excellence and proven performance in managing high-spend campaigns.
Strike Social has proudly held Google Premier Partner status for six years — a testament to our expertise and success in running high-performing campaigns. With the trust of many top-tier clients, we continue to deliver results and maintain this prestigious recognition.
Join Strike Social’s growing network of successful clients.
Get a personalized walkthrough of our ad activation and management tools from our expert team.






















It’s More Than Just YouTube Advertising Now
The shift from Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen signals Google’s push toward a more integrated and expansive advertising ecosystem. Demand Gen’s expansion beyond YouTube to Google’s broader network gives you more opportunities to increase ad performance across multiple channels and placements.
However, even with increased automation, you can still maintain control through strategic campaign monitoring and pacing. As your campaigns evolve, you can position your brand ahead of innovation by learning how Demand Gen fully works and how you can improve your performance.
Article by
Lee Baler, Strike Social’s VP of Sales & Strategy
Lee leads global strategy, helping clients and agencies maximize YouTube and paid social performance. Constantly tracking industry trends, he translates insights into strategies that help brands stay competitive and achieve sustained profitability.
Strike Overview
- Advantage+ Audience is Meta’s AI-driven solution to audience targeting for Facebook and Instagram ads—but does it truly enhance cost efficiency and performance?
- We analyzed 2024 U.S. Facebook campaign data to see if Advantage+ Audience delivers on Meta’s claims or if manual targeting remains the smarter choice.
- With AI-powered tools such as Advantage+ becoming increasingly the core of Meta’s campaigns, what is the best move for advertisers going forward?
Jump to Section
Is Advantage+ Audience Good for Your Meta Ad Strategy?
Meta claims that Advantage+ Audience improves ad performance, citing their own test results—up to 28% lower cost per click (CPC) and 7% lower cost per website conversion. They position it as an AI-driven solution that “typically” enhances efficiency across all campaign objectives.
More importantly, Meta is steadily pushing advertisers toward full automation—Advantage+ Audience is now automatically enabled for new campaigns in Ads Manager. But does it truly optimize performance across the board, or are there trade-offs? Let’s break down its impact and whether it’s the right fit for your Facebook and Instagram ads.
But does Advantage+ Audience truly work for all campaigns, or are there trade-offs? Let’s break down its impact and whether it’s the right fit for your Facebook and Instagram ads.
What Is Advantage+ Audience?
As part of Meta’s AI-powered ad tools, Advantage+ Audience is designed to enhance audience targeting by identifying users who are most likely to engage, click, or convert. It expands upon your selected interests and demographics, optimizing reach based on past engagement and additional behavioral signals.
How Meta Advantage+ Audience Targeting Works
According to Meta, here’s how Advantage+ Audience determines who sees your ads:
- Ads are automatically delivered to users most likely to interact, based on engagement, clicks, and conversions.
- If you provide preferences in Audience Suggestions, Meta’s AI will use them alongside its own analysis.
- Advantage+ Audience refines targeting using factors such as:
- Meta Pixel data
- Previous conversion history
- User engagement with past ads and content, etc.
The goal of Advantage+ Audience is to simplify Meta ad campaign setup by replacing manual audience targeting with AI-driven automation. Instead of selecting every targeting parameter yourself, Meta’s AI determines the best audience for your ads based on your past campaigns.
Let’s have a look at the table below to see the difference between Advantage+ audience vs. manual targeting:


While Advantage+ Audience improves efficiency and lowers costs, manual targeting still holds value for niche campaigns requiring precise audience selection. For brands running multiple campaigns, Advantage+ Audience offers a balance of scalability and automation.
However, advertisers who need strict audience control and want full transparency on who sees their ads may still prefer manual targeting for highly specialized goals.
Where Advertisers Struggle with Advantage+ Audience
First introduced in mid-2023, Advantage+ Audience is no longer new to advertisers. Many brands have tested it—some achieving cost-efficient results, while others faced challenges in ad performance.
Despite Meta’s promise of simplified campaign management, advertisers still encounter key struggles when using Advantage+ Audience.
Broad Targeting ≠ Quality Engagement
The core idea behind Advantage+ Audience is its ability to expand reach beyond manual audience targeting. While this can lead to increased exposure, it often prioritizes quantity over relevance, which can result in:
- Lower CTRs: Ads may be shown to users outside core demographics, leading to minimal engagement despite high impressions.
- Misaligned leads: Automated targeting can include users likely to engage but not convert.
For example, if an advertiser wants to target primarily female audiences, Meta’s AI might still expand the ad frequency to male audiences if it predicts better performance. While this increases ad reach, it doesn’t always translate to meaningful engagement or conversions.
A real-world example comes from WordStream, which tested Advantage+ Audience under Meta’s recommended settings. While the campaign achieved a 61% lower cost per lead (CPL) than the $21.98 industry benchmark, all 130 leads generated were unqualified—proving that low CPL does not always mean high-quality results.
Downsides of Over-Automation
Since Advantage+ Audience relies on AI-driven decisions, advertisers often face blind spots that are difficult to adjust mid-campaign:
- Audience burnout: Campaigns may initially perform well with low CPMs and high engagement, but AI quickly exhausts high-quality audiences, leading to performance declines.
- Skewed budgets: When used alongside Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO), Advantage+ ad sets often absorb a disproportionate budget share compared to manual targeting.
For instance, Search Engine Land tested Advantage+ Audience vs. interest-based targeting. While Advantage+ delivered more leads at a lower CPL, the quality of leads was twice as poor compared to interest-based targeting. Additionally, 40% of the campaign budget was allocated to Advantage+ audiences, reducing control over ad spend.
Without active campaign pacing and adjustments, advertisers risk higher-than-expected costs per action (CPA) despite Advantage+’s initial cost-saving promise.
Further Reading


How Meta Advantage Campaign Budget (CBO) Works
Meta Advantage Campaign Budget (formerly known as Facebook CBO) allows advertisers to set one central campaign budget. From there, Meta’s AI will distribute the budget across your ads, focusing on those that perform the best. But how can you make the most of this feature?
Advantage+ Audience Results: What Meta Advertising Trends Reveal
Our 2024 Facebook Ads Benchmark Report analyzed key ad cost and performance metrics to uncover the impact of Advantage+ Audience on Facebook campaigns. Let’s hear the data talk:
Impression Campaigns
Cost Efficiency: CPM improved by 51% compared to 2023, largely due to Advantage+ placements expanding reach across Meta’s ad network. This allowed ads to be shown to more audiences, effectively lowering CPM.
Challenges in Performance: While impressions increased, CTR dropped by 61%, highlighting a major drawback—ads were served to a broader but less engaged audience. The challenge? Lower costs, but weaker audience engagement.
Video Views Campaigns
Cost Trends: With 21% of Facebook users spending time on Reels (second only to the main feed at 36%), CPV improved by 20% YoY.
View Rate Decline: Despite increased exposure, view rates fell by 13%, indicating that while Advantage+ audiences were served the ads, many quickly swiped past without engaging. The AI-led targeting likely matched behavioral patterns (e.g., watching similar videos) but did not necessarily identify high-intent viewers.
Traffic Campaigns
Cost Improvements: CPC saw a 42% improvement vs. 2023, reinforcing Advantage+ Audience’s cost efficiency across all campaign types. By widening audience reach, Advantage+ was better able to identify users likely to click, aligning well with click-driven campaign objectives.
Higher Engagement: Unlike impression and video views campaigns, traffic campaigns benefited most from Advantage+ automation.
- Clicks campaigns: CTR increased by 52%
- Link click campaigns: CTR rose by 10%
Download the 2024 Facebook Benchmark Report
Explore a detailed month-over-month and year-over-year analysis of Facebook ad costs and performance trends across various campaign objectives. As Advantage+ adoption rises, is trusting Meta’s AI-driven campaigns the right strategy?



Advantage+ Audience clearly drives down costs and optimizes ad spend, but only traffic campaigns—a lower-funnel objective—saw improvements in both cost and audience engagement.
While Meta’s automation expands reach and reduces costs, manual oversight remains crucial to ensure these expanded audiences actually convert.
Meta Advertising Strategies to Maximize Performance
While Advantage+ Audience targeting has both strengths and limitations, it remains a powerful tool for Facebook advertisers. The key is knowing when to use it and how to stay in control of your campaign performance.
When to Use Advantage+ vs. Manual Targeting
Advantage+ Audience works best for lower-funnel campaigns like clicks and conversion campaigns. Because it prioritizes users most likely to convert—using your Meta Pixel data and engagement history—it is well-suited for direct-response objectives.
For awareness campaigns, Advantage+ can still be effective in maximizing reach and lowering CPMs, making it a viable option when the goal is broad visibility rather than immediate conversions.
When Manual Targeting Outperforms AI
- For highly niche audiences: If your audience must meet very specific demographics, interests, or behavioral criteria, manual targeting gives you greater control over audience selection.
- For remarketing and retargeting: These campaigns rely on high-quality past data—such as Lookalike Audiences based on past conversions or B2B leads. Advantage+ may not prioritize high-intent users, as it focuses more on engagement likelihood rather than conversion potential.
Optimizing Advantage+ for Better Results
While Advantage+ simplifies campaign management, it still requires oversight to prevent audience fatigue and ensure continued performance.
To maintain control over Advantage+ campaigns, here’s what you can do:
- Add Custom Audiences: Advantage+ treats additional targeting inputs as “Audience Suggestions.” Provide as many variables as possible to help Meta’s AI refine its targeting and focus on relevant users.
- Control Ad Frequency: If applicable, set frequency caps to prevent ad fatigue. The more times Meta recycles your ads to an exhausted audience, the more engagement and performance may decline.
Enhance Your Facebook Campaigns with Strike Social’s AdTech Solutions
Keeping an eye on your ad campaigns 24/7 is no simple matter—you’d need people monitoring them constantly to ensure nothing is overlooked.
With Strike Social, you can leave the heavy lifting to us. Our mission is to help you lower ad costs while keeping your campaign performance on track. Through our Software-with-a-Service (SWAS) model, you gain access to a team of expert Facebook media buyers while maintaining full transparency with dedicated access to your campaign insights.
In combination with Meta’s Advantage+, our adtech optimizes auction bids and ensures your ads reach the right audiences. This strategic alignment helps maximize ad performance and keeps your campaigns running efficiently.
Want a full walkthrough of our adtech solutions? Request a demo from our team today.
Fill out the form to request a personalized demo and discover how our expert team can help you achieve your social media advertising goals.
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Leverage our commitment to reduce your previous CPMs, CPVs, or CPCs, ensuring fees are charged only when we generate savings.
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Achieve cost savings for surpassing campaign goals, with efficiencies that can be applied across any paid social ad channel.


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28x ROAS Delivered for a Financial Services Brand
From setup to management, Strike Social maximized ad spending by optimizing top-performing campaigns and ensuring accurate data tracking via Meta Pixel.


59% Better Than Guaranteed Rate for HVAC Holiday Campaign
By utilizing YouTube’s Video View Campaign and Non-Skippable ads, we enhanced brand engagement for an HVAC company across various formats during the Thanksgiving season.


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Strike Overview
- Are you considering shifting from TikTok to YouTube Shorts for your advertising strategy? With growing uncertainties surrounding TikTok’s future in the U.S., YouTube Shorts has emerged as a top alternative.
- YouTube Shorts now supports videos up to 3 minutes long, providing brands and creators with more time to connect with audiences—three times the duration of TikTok’s 60-second cap.
- Understanding the key differences in ad performance between TikTok and YouTube Shorts is essential for determining which platform is the best fit for your short-form video campaigns.
- If the U.S. eventually bans TikTok, YouTube Shorts ads could become the leading platform for advertisers seeking continuity in their campaigns. Is this the right move for you?
Jump to Section
Complete Guide to Moving TikTok Ads to YouTube Shorts Ads
If it’s a short-form domination battle between TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts, the former is the clear winner. According to Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile report, TikTok captures 55% of short-form video watch time in the U.S., while Instagram Reels holds 36% and YouTube Shorts at 26%.
However, TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains highly uncertain. After the app’s brief ban in January, concerns continue to grow among both creators and advertisers.
While U.S. content creators have started shifting to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, advertisers see YouTube as the strongest TikTok alternative—offering a stable platform and a massive audience base.


If you’re considering moving from TikTok to YouTube Shorts ads, you’re in the right place. This guide will walk you through the transition, helping you navigate the platform differences, optimize your YouTube Shorts ads, and effectively tap into YouTube’s 200-million+ user base.
Why YouTube Shorts Is the Smart TikTok Alternative for Advertising
While YouTube Shorts may be YouTube’s response to the short-form vertical video trend, the platform as a whole offers far greater opportunities for advertisers. Backed by Google’s ad ecosystem, YouTube had just become the world’s second-largest search engine where audiences look for new products or research new brands.
If you’re only thinking about YouTube Shorts as a TikTok alternative, you might be overlooking the full potential of advertising on YouTube and its broad network. Here’s what you’re missing:
TikTok’s Uncertain Future
TikTok may be back in the app stores for new users to download, but for advertisers, there’s still some turmoil.
As concerns about a potential TikTok ban continue to rise, many brands have considered cross-platform strategies to safeguard their advertising investments. In fact, ad spend forecasts show a significant shift, with 10.7% moving to YouTube and 12.9% shifting to Connected TV (CTV) channels in the near future.
Realistically speaking, YouTube offers a more stable and secure option for U.S. advertisers, both technically and operationally:
- YouTube is owned by Google (Alphabet Inc.) and operates under U.S. jurisdiction, which mitigates concerns about foreign adversary risks—something TikTok can’t fully avoid.
- Unlike TikTok, YouTube faces no immediate legislative threats, making it a much more reliable long-term platform for ad spend.
- In response to TikTok’s uncertainties, YouTube has been proactively courting creators, encouraging them to shift to YouTube Shorts and “find your community” on the platform. This is part of YouTube’s strategy to acquire as many creators and advertisers as possible before the looming April 2025 deadline that could impact TikTok’s availability in the U.S.
- As some U.S. advertisers have explored, VPNs were briefly considered as a workaround to access TikTok during the ban. However, this approach is risky, as VPN usage can expose devices to malware, thus is not advisable.
- YouTube, in turn, has only since expanded its reach, from the original website YouTube.com to the mobile app. Now, it has Connected TV reach as well, with Google TV and YouTube TV placements that advertisers can utilize to increase brand awareness.
Further Reading



Here’s Why Google TV Ads Expand Your Reach Even Further
Many advertisers wonder, “Should I opt into Google TV?” If you’re running reach-focused campaigns, the answer is yes. Adding Google TV as a placement in your YouTube strategy enhances audience reach, giving your ads greater visibility across connected TV screens.
YouTube Shorts’ Growth By the Numbers
YouTube Shorts has seen massive growth in the U.S., with monthly active users (MAUs) rising from 118.1 million in 2020 to 164.5 million in 2024. With YouTube’s expansion into Connected TV (CTV), this reach has extended further, adding 8 million users from YouTube TV screens.
As an official ad placement, YouTube Shorts has positioned itself as a strong competitor to TikTok in the short-form video advertising space.
Still mulling over whether YouTube Shorts ads are the way to go? Here’s what the numbers say:
- 5.91% Engagement rate – the highest among short-form platforms (TikTok 5.75%; Instagram Reels 5.53%
- 106.28% More likes than regular video content on YouTube
- 3x Increased ad RPM (revenue for creators)
- 43% U.S. advertisers already leveraging YouTube Shorts ads for promotions
Advantages of Advertising on YouTube Shorts
Transitioning your TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts unlocks a range of benefits, thanks to YouTube’s established presence in video advertising. With years of dominance in the space, YouTube provides a more stable and scalable platform—especially if TikTok is no longer a viable option for your brand.
Strong Creator Ecosystem
If influencer marketing is central to your TikTok ad campaigns, YouTube Shorts offers a powerful alternative. YouTube has its own thriving creator community, and studies show that 59% of content is shared across multiple social platforms—primarily TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Before making the switch, check if your TikTok influencers have a YouTube presence—you may already have an existing audience to tap into.


To make partnerships easier, YouTube offers BrandConnect, a platform designed to connect brands and creators seamlessly. Announced during the Google Marketing Live Update, BrandConnect allows advertisers to:
- Find creators who have already tagged or reviewed your brand
- Propose collaborations for sponsored content
- Promote creator content directly in YouTube Shorts ads
Broader Audience Reach
TikTok’s user base skews younger, with 25% of its audience aged 18-24 and over 30% aged 25-34. While this is great for brands targeting Gen Z and Millennials, YouTube offers a more diverse audience, including older age groups with higher purchasing power.
Here’s a breakdown of YouTube’s U.S. demographic reach:
- Gen Z (25.1%) and Millennials (25.5%) make up the majority of users
- Gen X (19.9%) and Baby Boomers (15%) represent a significant portion of viewers
- YouTube Shorts’ audience mirrors this diversity, with:
- 18-24 (15.7%)
- 45-54 (12.9%)
This means that YouTube Shorts ads can reach not only younger audiences but also consumers with greater purchasing intent and spending capacity—a crucial factor for high-value brands and premium products.
By shifting your TikTok ad campaigns to YouTube Shorts, you’re expanding your reach to a wider audience with stronger conversion potential.
Expanding Reach with YouTube (and Google’s) Ecosystem
As part of Google’s extensive ecosystem, YouTube can be integrated with other Google platforms to maximize your campaign reach.
This allows advertisers to expand to multiple touchpoints within a single network, significantly expanding audience reach.
Thus, for advertisers transitioning from TikTok to YouTube Shorts ads, this can be challenging and overwhelming. Google offers a wide variety of campaign types, ad formats, and placements, making it easy to feel lost in the options.
While you might be tempted to explore display ads or Performance Max campaigns, YouTube is your best option if your focus is on video advertising.


Let’s break down how your TikTok ad campaign focused on reach can be expanded when shifting to YouTube Shorts or YouTube ads overall:
TikTok | YouTube Shorts (YouTube) | |
---|---|---|
Campaign objective | Reach | Reach (Awareness) |
Possible ad placements | For You Feed Following Feed Profile Feed | Shorts In-stream (bumper, skippable*, non-skippable**) Connected TV networks (Google TV, YouTube TV) Can also appear in home feed, search results; Google Display Network |
* For Efficient reach & Target frequency campaign sub-objective (includes bumper)
* For Non-skippable reach & Target frequency campaign sub-objective
TikTok ads are primarily limited to the app, appearing in the For You Feed, Following Feed, and Profile Feed. However, if you’re looking to expand your reach, you can also advertise through Pangle, TikTok’s ad network, which allows you to connect with audiences across 100,000+ global apps.
With YouTube Shorts, you can expand your audience reach and strengthen lower-funnel campaigns, allowing for precise targeting at different stages of the customer journey. Additionally, brand safety remains a top priority on YouTube, to make sure your ads appear alongside safe and suitable content.
To avoid last-minute scrambling as TikTok’s future remains in flux, future-proofing your ads by transitioning to YouTube Shorts makes sense. While the shift from TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts ads may involve several steps, it will undoubtedly offer greater stability and benefits in the long term.
YouTube Shorts vs. TikTok Ads: What You Need to Know
Before making the shift from TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts video ads, you must consider key elements such as ad creatives, cost structures, and campaign setup. While both platforms focus on short-form video content, YouTube offers a wider range of placements compared to TikTok.
This means that your video advertising strategy will need to be adjusted to ensure optimal performance on YouTube Shorts.
Format Considerations
Short-form video content is best viewed in the 9:16 vertical format, but both TikTok and YouTube Shorts offer flexibility in aspect ratios, allowing for a variety of creative approaches. For instance, if you want your audience to focus on a smaller creative, you can easily adjust. However, maximizing screen space with vertical videos remains the optimal choice for capturing attention.
Here’s a quick guide on ad creative specs, safe zones, and how TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts compare:


As shown above, YouTube Shorts supports a broader range of file types. This allows brands and influencer partners to repurpose existing video content more easily and tailor ads to different viewing experiences. Moreover, YouTube Shorts’ structure for headlines and text enables clearer messaging and calls to action (CTA), regardless of where your ad appears.
Ultimately, scaling your advertising from TikTok to YouTube Shorts can enhance your creative flexibility, allowing you to produce more engaging content for your audience.
Cost Comparison
Budget considerations will naturally be a key factor when shifting your advertising strategy from TikTok to YouTube Shorts. While YouTube claims a 6% higher share in ad spend compared to TikTok, you might assume this means higher advertising costs—but that’s not always the case.
We analyzed Strike Social’s U.S. YouTube and TikTok campaigns, focusing on clicks and actions to determine how campaigns would perform if transferred. The reason behind this is simple: YouTube’s diverse campaign formats and objective options allow for greater precision in targeting your goals.
Instead of being limited to just one video view format, such as YouTube Shorts, you can also take advantage of other placements where your ads could perform even better.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the costs for TikTok ads vs. YouTube ads, helping you make a more informed decision:


YouTube’s CPC and CTR, while fluctuating, tend to be more stable and predictable than TikTok’s. This makes budgeting and campaign planning easier, giving advertisers more confidence in their decisions.
While YouTube CPC levels are not immune to the holiday seasons, TikTok also shows a rise, especially during Q4. As seen above, even with YouTube ad costs rising, driving clicks is managed well, as long as brands are partnered with the right YouTube advertising agency.
Differences in Campaign Setup and Management
If you’ve worked with other ad management platforms like Facebook or Snapchat Ads Manager, you’ll notice some similarities in system navigation.
However, if your experience is primarily with TikTok ads, transitioning to Google Ad Manager for YouTube Shorts may require additional guidance. Here are the key differences to keep in mind:
Campaign Goals
In TikTok Ads Manager, campaign objectives are straightforward and tied to specific goals, with a simple setup process and consistent feed placements.
As for Google Ad Manager, you’ll need to select the appropriate campaign objective and format tailored specifically for YouTube Shorts ads. Here are some of the relevant formats for YouTube Shorts:
- Awareness & Consideration
- Demand Gen
- Video (Video views, Efficient reach)
- Conversion Goals
- Demand Gen
- Video (selecting Video as a sub-objective would also direct to Demand Gen due to the transition from Video Action Campaigns)
Targeting Options
Apart from the usual audience targeting features such as location, age, and interests, you can create Custom Audiences or Audience Segments. While this feature is also available in TikTok through Saved Audience, you’d have to prepare your audience list in the TikTok Business Center as there’s currently no option to do it within the campaign setup page.
- For YouTube, you can use a previously saved audience list or create a new one immediately without leaving the setup page.
- YouTube advertising now allows users to target Nielsen DMA regions. TikTok launched this feature in 2021, and Google followed suit in 2023.
Ad Placements
Did you know that with CTV views growing 130%, YouTube has been thriving on both short-form and now bigger screens? Thus, there’s no harm in being flexible with where your ads can appear.
Although there isn’t a specific option to exclusively place ads on YouTube Shorts, with proper optimization, you can focus your efforts on this placement. Achieving this is made easier with the right software and a skilled team to help maximize your performance while staying within budget.
For example, during the Q4 season, we helped an HVAC brand leverage the power of YouTube Shorts ads, achieving 59% cost efficiency and generating up to 5.3 million total video views during the campaign flight.
Shifting Gears From TikTok Ads to YouTube Shorts
Transitioning from TikTok ads to YouTube Shorts is a significant shift, especially if TikTok has been a primary source of leads or sales, delivering strong results for your brand. However, the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future in the U.S. raises questions about its long-term viability. Marketers and brands must adapt quickly, rather than waiting until it’s too late.
The good news is that your current TikTok ad campaigns can be successfully transitioned to YouTube Shorts, opening up copious opportunities. Ready to take the leap and thrive on a new platform? Send us a message below, and let us help you elevate your ad performance as you move from TikTok to YouTube Shorts ads.
Contact Us To Receive A Personalized Strategy
Connect with us to receive a personalized information pack from one of our sales representatives.
Strike Overview
- After running awareness campaigns on YouTube, the next question is: Are YouTube ads effective for traffic and action campaigns? Many advertisers aim to maximize one platform before expanding elsewhere—so can YouTube deliver results beyond awareness?
- The quick answer is yes. YouTube ads can successfully drive website traffic, inquiries, and purchases—and we have the data to prove it. Backed by insights from U.S. and global brands, we’ll show how YouTube excels in traffic and action campaigns.
- Know how your YouTube ads’ ROI can improve significantly by learning how to launch effective traffic and action campaigns through YouTube advertising.
Jump to Section
YouTube Ads for Traffic and Action Campaigns: Do They Work?
YouTube is well known for brand awareness, and the numbers speak for themselves. Take Pringles’ Super Bowl bumper ad campaign—it generated 120 million impressions, proving the platform’s strength in reach-focused advertising. This is just one of many success stories demonstrating why YouTube ads are effective for awareness campaigns.
But what about lower-funnel objectives? Are YouTube ads effective for traffic and action campaigns? Can they compete with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok when it comes to driving conversions? The answer is yes.
Even though the Pringles campaign was optimized for impressions, it still led to a 3% increase in sales. Hershey’s took YouTube advertising a step further by combining awareness and action-based ads, achieving a 551% surge in searches and a 22% lift in purchase intent.
And it’s not just major brands that can maximize YouTube ads’ effectiveness. With the right strategy, businesses of all sizes can drive both brand awareness and bottom-funnel actions by using YouTube ads for website clicks, lead generation, and sales.
YouTube Video Campaigns For Every Stage of the Funnel
Indeed, YouTube is widely known for its strength in brand awareness campaigns, but its advertising capabilities go beyond just reach.
Whether your goal is to drive website traffic, generate leads, or increase conversions, running ads on YouTube can be effective at every stage of the marketing funnel. Let’s break down how YouTube ads work across different campaign objectives.
Awareness – Top of the Funnel
Did you know that over 90% of users worldwide discover new brands or products through YouTube? That’s how effective YouTube ads are in maximizing visibility and brand recall.
YouTube’s Video Reach Campaigns (VRC) deliver ads to the most relevant audiences at scale, generating up to 41% lower CPM than traditional TrueView non-skippable ads. This cost-efficiency ensures that brands get the most out of their paid social media ROI while reaching high-intent users.
Additionally, Connected TV (CTV) has been an effective driver for brand awareness. In one of Strike Social’s YouTube ad campaigns, expanding placements to Google TV and YouTube TV resulted in 12% higher impressions and a 14% reduction in CPM.
Recommended YouTube Campaign for Awareness
- Video Reach Campaigns
Recommended YouTube Ad Formats
- Bumper Ads
- Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads
- Masthead Ads (Reservation only)
Results from Strike Social’s YouTube Awareness Campaigns
- 13% cost-efficiency boost with CTV placements for an industrial service brand
- 96% video completion rate (VCR) on CTV for a QSR campaign


Consideration – Middle of the Funnel
Is YouTube advertising effective for traffic campaigns? Absolutely.
YouTube video campaigns excel at keeping users engaged longer than other platforms, making them a powerful tool for nurturing interest and driving brand consideration. By running ads on YouTube that target mid-funnel audiences, brands can stay top of mind when potential customers are ready to make a purchase or choose a service.
Consideration campaigns are strategically placed where targeted audiences have either previously seen your ad or interacted with your brand. This makes engaged views (view-throughs) a critical YouTube advertising metric. Strike Social’s YouTube Video View Campaigns have achieved up to 27% cost-efficiency in CPV on mobile placements—even during peak holiday periods.
Despite increasing competition during high-demand seasons, Video View Campaigns prove to be a strong investment for keeping audiences engaged and moving them closer to conversion.
Recommended YouTube Campaign for Consideration
- Video View Campaigns
Recommended Ad Formats and Placements
- Skippable In-Stream Ads
- In-Feed Video Ads
- YouTube Shorts
Results from Strike Social’s YouTube Consideration Campaigns
- 59% cost-per-view (CPV) efficiency during Q4 peak advertising season for a US HVAC campaign
- 81% video view completion rate, indicating strong viewer engagement for a Canada HVAC campaign


Conversion – Bottom of the Funnel
Are YouTube ads effective for action campaigns? It’s a resounding yes.
When using intent-driven ad formats, YouTube conversion ads can effectively drive direct sales, leads, and store traffic. With the right strategy, you can transform engaged viewers into paying customers.
Formerly known as YouTube Video Action Campaigns, Demand Gen campaigns on YouTube are designed to turn views into high-value actions. These campaigns go beyond YouTube, expanding to Google’s action-driven placements like:
- Gmail
- Discover Feed
- Google Display Network (GDN)
A key feature coming to Demand Gen campaigns is integrated product feeds, allowing users to shop directly within the YouTube app. Similar to Shopping Ads, this feature removes diversion by eliminating the need to leave the platform to purchase or express interest in a product.
Further, advertisers will soon be able to choose preferred placements for better control, brand suitability, and audience alignment, solidifying the way your customers interact with your business and integrating your identity.
Recommended YouTube Campaign for Conversions
- Demand Gen (formerly Video Action Campaigns)
Recommended Ad Formats in YouTube
- Skippable In-Stream Ads
- YouTube Shorts
- Shopping Ads
Results from Strike Social’s YouTube Conversion Campaigns
- 7.8x ROAS through geo-targeted YouTube ads driving in-store foot traffic for a family entertainment brand


With the right YouTube ads strategy, you can create a clear path for customers—from discovering your brand to making a purchase or using your service.
A well-executed full-funnel approach on YouTube allows you to effectively guide prospects through the journey, from awareness to consideration and, ultimately, conversion.
Further Reading


Know the Difference: Demand Gen vs. PMax vs. Display Ads
Video Action Campaigns (VAC) were built to drive key actions like initiating clicks and driving website traffic with YouTube ads. Now transitioning to Demand Gen, how does this new format stack up against Performance Max and Display Ads within Google’s advertising ecosystem?
Why YouTube Ads Are Effective for Lower-Funnel Campaigns
YouTube stands out in lower-funnel advertising by combining intent-driven user behavior with AI-powered ad delivery, making it a highly effective conversion tool. This unique combination proves YouTube ads’ effectiveness by serving ads to the right audience at the right time, strengthening engagement, and driving conversions.
Here’s how YouTube ads drive results for your traffic and action campaigns:
Leveraging User Intent and Behavior
One of the biggest advantages of YouTube ads for traffic and conversion campaigns is the platform’s ability to align with user intent. Unlike passive social feeds, YouTube users actively search and engage with video content, making them more likely to take action when presented with relevant ads.
For example, if you’re preparing YouTube traffic ads for Amazon Prime Day, positioning your watch brand alongside videos featuring “Best Amazon Prime Day Deals” or “Top Influencer Gift Ideas” makes sure your ad reaches high-intent shoppers at the right moment.


Beyond standard targeting options like location, device, and language, Custom Audiences allow advertisers to build highly specific audience segments that can be used and refined across multiple campaigns. This is particularly valuable for seasonal and holiday-focused YouTube campaigns, where granular audience segmentation can improve ad relevance and engagement.
By building Custom Audiences, you can tap into users’ existing intent to watch and engage with video content, with the ability to link your products or services to relevant user behavior. Even more, Demand Gen campaigns extend this reach beyond YouTube, providing broader brand visibility and higher conversion potential.


Integration with Google and Its Vast Ad Network
Another key factor making YouTube ads effective for traffic and conversion campaigns is its integration with Google’s advertising network. This allows precise targeting through in-market audiences and remarketing, allowing you to expand your reach to individuals who are already familiar with your brand or have profiles similar to your current customer base.
For lower-funnel campaign types like Demand Gen or YouTube video conversions, you can maximize your reach across a broad range of placements, including:
- YouTube (In-stream, In-feed, Shorts)
- Google Discover
- Gmail
- Google Display Network (GDN)


Even for awareness campaigns, YouTube’s reach extends beyond the app itself. For instance, Connected TV (CTV) placements on Google TV and YouTube TV provide even greater exposure with larger screen placements.
By opting into Google’s Display Network video partners, your ads can reach a broader audience, bringing your brand to users in various contexts and increasing the potential for both awareness and conversions.



Designed for Engaged Views Gearing Toward Conversions
YouTube campaigns like Demand Gen and Video View Campaigns are specifically designed to drive conversions, not just views. As highlighted in the full-funnel strategy earlier, YouTube’s closed-loop attribution creates a seamless synergy between each stage of the funnel—from awareness to conversion.
To help illustrate how this works, let’s walk through an example of a full-funnel YouTube ad campaign for a fast-food restaurant (QSR). This will show how initial awareness views can be nurtured into website traffic and ultimately drive purchases.
Full-Funnel YouTube Ad Campaign Strategy: Fast-Food Restaurant (QSR)
Funnel Stage | Goal | Target Audience | Creative Assets & Messaging | Ad Format & Optimization | Targeting Strategy | Bidding Strategy |
Awareness | Maximize reach and brand awareness | Sports fans (NFL, NBA, Olympics) Foodies, late-night eaters | 6s Bumper Ad: Quick visuals of specialty burgers with brand tagline. 15s Skippable In-Stream: Showcasing seasonal burgers, CTA for brand recall. | Video Reach Campaigns (to optimize reach and frequency efficiently) | YouTube Audiences (sports fans, fast-food lovers) Affinity and Custom Audiences Broad reach with frequency capping (2-3x per week) | CPM-based bidding for maximum reach at lowest cost |
Consideration | Drive engagement and educate audiences | Sports fans Foodies, late-night eaters Remarketing Segments: Users who viewed Awareness campaign ads | Skippable In-Stream & In-Feed Ads: Showcasing seasonal specialty burgers, linking to landing page. Shorts Ads: Optimized vertical format with fast visuals. | Video View Campaigns (to optimize for high engagement and ad recall) | Custom Audiences (users engaging with food delivery apps, sports content) Remarketing (users who watched Awareness ads) YouTube channel engagement audiences | Maximize Views (to drive high intent audience engagement) |
Conversion | Drive online orders | Sports fans Foodies, late-night eaters Remarketing Segments: Users from Awareness & Consideration campaigns, website visitors, engaged users | Skippable In-Stream & In-Feed Ads: 1:Kitchen staff preparing specialty burger, linking to delivery page. 2:Family receiving delivery while watching sports. Shorts Ads:Optimized vertical versions. | Video Action Campaigns / Demand Gen (to drive direct conversions) | Website visitors & cart abandoners Users who engaged with Consideration campaign ads Lookalike audiences based on past purchasers | Maximize Conversions (to optimize for online orders) |
The expected outcomes of this full-funnel YouTube ad strategy include increased brand awareness and ad recall among sports audiences and food lovers during key seasonal events, ensuring a strong top-of-mind presence. Engagement rates will rise through interactive ad formats and remarketing efforts, driving users from awareness to consideration.
From here, using optimized bidding strategies and audience targeting, the campaign will maximize online orders, particularly during peak periods like the holidays and the Super Bowl. Ultimately, the strategy ensures cost efficiency while maintaining high performance across all funnel stages, creating a continuous loop of audience engagement, re-engagement, and conversion.
Achieving Your Target ROI with Strategic YouTube Advertising
By now, we hope we’ve shown you just how effective YouTube ads can be—not only for brand awareness but also for traffic and action campaigns. Driving website clicks, online orders, and in-store traffic through YouTube ads is entirely achievable. Many brands have done it successfully, and with the right strategy, you can do it, too.
Partnering with an experienced YouTube ads agency can help you build a full-funnel campaign tailored to your goals and maximize your YouTube ads ROI.
Ready to take your YouTube campaigns to the launching stages? Get in touch with us below, and our team will be happy to reach out and guide you through your YouTube advertising journey.
Contact Us To Receive A Personalized Strategy
Connect with us to receive a personalized information pack from one of our sales representatives.
Strike Overview
- It’s a huge decision to switch from TikTok to Instagram Reels, but it’s an avenue that should be considered. With the uncertainty surrounding the hugely popular app, now is the time to explore alternative platforms.
- As of mid-January, TikTok faced a ban and reinstatement within 24 hours, with U.S. President Donald Trump signing an executive order granting TikTok an additional 75 days to find a U.S. buyer.
- Even with ongoing discussions about the potential TikTok ban, advertisers are left weighing their options. Should you begin to transition and shift advertising on TikTok to Instagram Reels?
Jump to Section
Guide to Transitioning Your TikTok Ads to Instagram Reels
If the TikTok ban proceeds without a resolution, advertisers will need a new platform to reallocate their ad spend. With 170 million U.S. TikTok users, now “TikTok refugees”, seeking a new home for short-form content, Instagram Reels is emerging as the top alternative.
Instagram Reels offers an experience that closely mirrors TikTok’s feed, making it a natural transition for audiences and advertisers. Plus, with Instagram’s foundation in photo and video content, brands gain expanded opportunities beyond short-form video.
For advertisers looking to move TikTok ads to Instagram Reels, the transition may seem straightforward. And with the right tools and strategy, it can be. This guide will walk you through everything you need to run ads on Instagram Reels and successfully make the switch.
Why Choose Instagram Reels
Did you know that Reels now make up 38.5% of the content on users’ Instagram feeds? That’s nearly on par with the platform’s original focus—photos, which account for 39.8% of shared content. Despite launching later in August 2020, the growth of this content format is surely not going unnoticed.
Rising Popularity and Engagement
In the plight of the news of TikTok restrictions from 2024, Reels was already the first choice of U.S. users. Based on MGH, Inc.’s survey, about 60% say they will jump to this platform if it totally closes down.
Instagram Reels can easily be seen as TikTok’s competitor, with its significant share of the short-form video audience. While TikTok leads with a 5.53% engagement rate, Instagram Reels is closely behind at 4.36%. The platform is also seeing consistent growth, with a 3.7% YoY increase in user count, further boosting its appeal.
For brands leveraging influencer marketing, Instagram has introduced new updates. One of which is Trial Reels, which allow content creators to A/B test their videos before releasing them to the public.
Additionally, Instagram Reels now allows videos up to 3 minutes long, providing more time for creators and advertisers alike to connect with audiences.
Further Reading






Partner Up with Brilliant Instagram Creators with Partnership Ads
As you continue to utilize influencer content for your brand’s marketing, Instagram continues to innovate to ease up the process. Know how you can connect with more communities and audiences on Instagram using Partnership Ads.
Meta’s Robust Ad Ecosystem
While TikTok captures about a third of the U.S. population, Meta’s dominance in social media advertising is unmatched. With Facebook and Instagram holding 77% and 56% of the U.S. social media market, respectively, TikTok trails behind in fourth place at 45%.
Meta also leads in digital ad spending with a 21.3% share in the U.S. and commands an even larger 74.5% of social media ad spend. This makes advertising on Instagram Reels a strategic move, allowing brands to tap into Meta’s extensive ecosystem.
Beyond Instagram Reels, advertisers gain access to Facebook video placements, Feeds, and Meta Audience Network, which extends its reach across over 10 million publishers.


* Estimated audience size for placements exclusively within the Meta Audience Network in the U.S.
Stability Amid Regulatory Challenges
With TikTok facing ongoing scrutiny in the U.S., advertisers need a reliable and stable platform to continue reaching their audiences. As part of Meta, Instagram offers a more secure advertising environment, backed by an established U.S. presence and strong financial performance—Meta stocks saw a nearly two-thirds increase by the end of Q4 2024.
Even before the January 19 TikTok ban, creators were already directing their audiences to Instagram as their new content hub. This shift underscores Instagram’s role as the primary beneficiary of ad spend reallocation and the trust and long-term stability the platform provides for brands and advertisers.
Is Instagram Reels the Right Choice?
TikTok has built a unique space in short-form video, but does Instagram Reels truly compare? If you’re considering shifting from TikTok ads to Instagram Reels advertising, it’s important to understand the similarities and differences.
Let’s break down how these platforms align for advertisers and what you need to consider when making the switch.
Audience Demographics
Instagram Reels ads reach users starting at age 18, and Instagram’s audience closely mirrors TikTok’s, especially among younger demographics. In fact, 78% of U.S. adults aged 18-29 use Instagram, compared to 62% on TikTok. Here’s how the two platforms stack up across different age groups:
Age Group | TikTok | |
---|---|---|
18-29 | 78% | 62% |
30-49 | 60% | 38% |
50-64 | 35% | 25% |
65+ | 15% | 10% |
While younger users are active on both platforms, Instagram has a notable advantage in reaching older demographics—particularly users 30 and above, such as parents, families, and professionals. This makes Instagram Reels a strong alternative for targeting a wider age range beyond Gen Z.
Diversifying Ad Spend
According to eMarketer data, Instagram is set to capture up to 22% of ad spend reallocation. This puts Instagram ahead of its partner app, Facebook (17%), and YouTube (10%), making it the top alternative for advertisers shifting budgets from TikTok.
But what about ad costs? Does transitioning from TikTok ads to Instagram Reels mean a higher cost with the incoming competition? Jump to our costs and budget discussion for an in-depth look at Strike Social’s ad cost data for TikTok and Instagram.
Instagram Reels vs. TikTok Ads: Key Differences to Consider Before the Move
You’ve noticed the similarities—where TikTok and Instagram overlap, the shared features, and the advantages you can leverage. Now, let’s examine how the actual campaign preparation and setup differ. We’ll explore the creative process, ad campaign setup, and optimization as you transition from TikTok to Instagram Reels advertising.
Creative Adjustments
While both TikTok ads and Instagram Reels use a 9:16 vertical format, their safe zones, ad specs, and text placements differ. Optimize your video ad creatives for Instagram Reels’ layout to ensure a smooth transition. For a clearer view, let’s visualize this:





A side-by-side comparison reveals that moving your ad from TikTok to Instagram Reels offers a larger safe zone. TikTok’s ad layout accommodates up to four lines of text, requiring additional space at the bottom—an area that should be kept free of calls to action (CTAs).
Additionally, primary text on Instagram Reels appears in a smaller font size compared to TikTok, providing more space when transferring your video ad.





Refer to the table below to make sure your TikTok ads are compatible with Instagram Reels’ specifications. It outlines the minimum requirements to guarantee that when you switch from TikTok to Instagram Reels advertising, you’ll maintain (or even improve) the visual resolution for your audience’s view.


With the data above in mind, you can now tweak your image or video ad creatives to be more compatible before you launch your paid ads on Instagram. Keep in mind that you are entering a more aesthetically coordinated type of content platform, and it’s important to make the right impression with your Instagram Reels ads.
Costs and Budget
As you finalize your transition from TikTok to Instagram Reels ads, ad spend and campaign budget will definitely be important factors to consider. Without understanding how competitive Instagram advertising can be, you might be concerned about the potential increase in costs when making the switch.
To help you make an informed decision, let’s take a look at Strike Social’s campaign data:


CPM and CTR Trends
Many brands are vying for brand awareness on TikTok, leading to historically higher CPMs on the platform. Although TikTok’s CPM for Q1 2025 is projected to drop to $4.20 due to the impending ban, you can also expect lower engagement, especially if your primary audience targeting is largely or exclusively U.S.-based.
This trend has already been observed at the end of Q4, when TikTok’s CPM began to narrow the gap with Instagram CPM. Strike Social’s data further shows that while TikTok’s click-through rates (CTR) have been higher, there is a noticeable drop as the January ban approaches. During the same period, Instagram’s CTR continued to rise, highlighting the growing effectiveness of Instagram Reels advertising and demonstrating that it can now compete on equal footing with TikTok.
As indicated in the data, if impressions and brand awareness are your primary goals, based on our data (and with the steady user growth on IG), Instagram offers lower CPM trends compared to TikTok. While Q4 does show an uptick in rates—likely due to the holiday season—these higher CPMs are still relatively close to the previous month’s levels, rather than a drastic peak.
TikTok vs. Instagram Cost Benchmarks
To give you a better sense of the cost differences, here’s a quick comparison of cost benchmarks for various campaign types on TikTok and Instagram:
Cost Metrics | Instagram Benchmarks | TikTok Benchmarks |
---|---|---|
CPM | $1.28 to $4.63 | $8.62 to $12.00 |
CPC | $0.38 to $2.94 | $0.89 to $2.00 |
CPV | $0.0060 to $0.0208 | $0.10 to $0.30 |
It’s clear that Instagram can now match TikTok’s cost levels, particularly in terms of CPM and CPV. While you’ll need to adjust your campaign budget for Instagram advertising, the data suggests it will ultimately be a more efficient investment.
However, competition is likely to increase as more brands consider making the switch, which could raise these costs over time. With the right agency partner, you can optimize your costs while ensuring campaign performance stays strong. Learn more about how we can help you make the switch by scheduling a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech services.
Ad Setup, Targeting, and Campaign Management
While ad management software is generally easy to understand once you’re familiar with how it works, there will be some unfamiliar terms and tools that differ from what you’re used to.
One basic thing, though, is that both TikTok and Meta Ads Manager funnel down starting from Campaign to Ad Groups or Ad Sets and Ads level. However, for instance, TikTok classifies views as 2-second views, 6-second views, and video view-through. For Instagram (Meta), the classification for video views goes from 2-second video plays to 3-second video plays and ThruPlay.
To help simplify your process, we’re going to give you some of the things you can adapt to while shifting your ads over from TikTok to Instagram Reels:
Ad Placements
- TikTok: Available ad placements include TopView (the first ad shown upon opening the app) and In-Feed (For You, Search, Profile). In TikTok Ads Manager, you cannot specifically choose which placement you want your ad to appear in. However, you can deselect the tick box if you do not want your ads to appear in the Search Feed or search results.
- Instagram: Available ad placements include Reels, Explore, and In-Stream (post-loop). In Meta Ads Manager, you can choose to promote exclusively on Instagram Reels or expand to other placements. If you select Advantage+, Meta will automatically determine the placements where your video ad will perform best within the Meta Audience Network.
Audience Targeting
- TikTok and Instagram Reels offer similar audience targeting options. Meta recently added DMA targeting (introduced in 2023), which was already available on TikTok since 2021.
- A key distinction lies in Custom Audiences:
- TikTok requires a minimum of 1,000 users in a Custom Audience to begin targeting matched users.
- Meta only requires a minimum of 100 users, making it easier to refine your ad audience with smaller lists.
Ad Monitoring and Management
- Both TikTok Ads Manager and Meta Ads Manager provide comprehensive ad monitoring tools designed for their respective platforms. For a quick comparison, here’s a side-by-side view of TikTok Ads Manager and Meta Ads Manager:




- Getting familiar with a completely new platform may take some time and require adjustment. Browse through our Meta Ads Manager guide to begin your learning.
Make the Switch to Instagram Ads Without Sacrificing Performance
TikTok is still very much active to this point, that much is true. But for U.S. advertisers, your local audiences can still be reached through other mediums that don’t compromise your costs and keep traffic and sales coming through. Your priority now is to never let your ad campaigns go dark, and moving TikTok ads to Instagram Reels may just be the best decision you make.
Simplify this transition by partnering with the right experts and using the right tools. Strike Social specializes in ad activation and management, easing the burden on your in-house advertising team and taking care of the heavy lifting for you.
Ready to make the move to Instagram Reels? Contact Strike Social today to get your Instagram ads up and running.
Contact Us To Receive A Personalized Strategy
Connect with us to receive a personalized information pack from one of our sales representatives.
The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving. Each year brings exciting new technologies, strategies, and shifting consumer behaviors that compel marketers to adapt and innovate. As we enter 2025, this dynamic field presents even more opportunities and hurdles you need to embrace and overcome to stay competitive.
From artificial intelligence (AI) advancements and social media marketing evolution to the rise of short-form videos, staying ahead of these trends will help you connect with your audience in creative and meaningful ways.
In this article, I’ll discuss seven transformative digital marketing trends set to shape the industry and how you can leverage them to thrive in a competitive landscape.
What’s Next in Digital Marketing: 2025 Trends to Watch
1. Voice and Visual Search
How consumers search for information online is one of the digital marketing trends set to revolutionize the industry. Tools like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant have made voice search an integral part of our lives, while visual search options like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens are unlocking new ways to discover products and services.
You’ll need to create visually rich and voice-friendly content to adapt to this shift. Here are some tips to optimize for voice and visual search and improve your SEO strategy:
- Use descriptive image tagging and alt text to ensure visuals are discoverable
- Include long-tail conversational keywords that mimic natural speech for voice SEO
- List your products on visual-heavy platforms like Pinterest and Google Shopping
2. Short-Form Video Content
Attention spans are growing thinner, and platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are thriving. These platforms prioritize quick, captivating, and value-packed videos. This explains why 39% of marketers find short-form videos lasting 30-60 seconds as the most effective, as shown below.


Short-form videos grab attention quickly, delivering your message concisely. The best part? Modern video-making tools empower you to create professional-quality content without advanced technical skills or costly equipment. Get started with a comprehensive guide to streamline your video creation process.
Here are some short-form video ideas you can incorporate:
- Focus on storytelling. Create compelling narratives that evoke emotions, humor, or thought-provoking messages within a brief moment
- Invest in skippable ads and sponsored reels to increase visibility without annoying users
- Leverage trends like challenges, memes, and popular audio tracks to stay relevant
3. Generative AI in Marketing
The rise of AI is among the digital marketing trends revolutionizing every aspect of modern business operations. In fact, 56% of organizations look forward to improving productivity and efficiency with AI, while 35% anticipate reducing operation costs, as shown below.


Generative AI, in particular, allows you to create content and designs, use text to create images, and even strategize in a fraction of the time you usually take.
For instance, you can use ChatGPT Plus to draft high-quality content for your startup pitch deck slides, Midjourney to design stunning visuals, and Synthesis to produce high-quality voiceovers.
Other ways you can use generative AI to scale your marketing efforts include:
- Use AI-powered analytics tools to predict customer behaviors, measure campaign performance, and optimize ad targeting
- Utilize DALL·E to create custom images, infographics, or ad visuals
- Leverage AI tools to create personalized email campaigns, ad copy, and blog content tailored to your audience segments
4. Social Media Advertising
Digital marketing trends are stretching as far as disrupting generic social media ads. Thanks to AI and machine learning, social media advertising is becoming more personalized, engaging, and data-driven.
You can now create hyper-personalized ads that resonate deeply with your target audience while using data-driven insights from AI-powered analytics tools to refine your campaigns and maximize ROI.
For instance, you can enhance your LinkedIn lead generation strategy by targeting specific job titles, industries, and company sizes to reach decision-makers and influencers.
What’s more, platforms like Instagram and TikTok now feature shoppable ads, where users can buy directly from their feeds.
To get the most out of your ad campaigns in 2025:
- Emphasize personalization while respecting user privacy. Tailor your ads using anonymized data to balance relevance with trust.
- Explore new ad formats, like augmented reality experiences or product demos in reels
- Test, analyze, and refine your ads constantly to keep up with algorithm changes
5. Community Building
Instead of chasing every potential lead, brands are now cultivating loyal, engaged communities where meaningful interactions flourish. Platforms like Discord and private Facebook groups offer intimate spaces for organic interactions and engagement.
A thriving community can amplify your reach organically by sharing your content, offering testimonials, and defending your brand in these public forums.
To build a vibrant community:
- Engage in genuine interactions and respond to feedback and concerns
- Offer exclusive perks, such as loyalty points or early access to products or special events
- Focus on niche interests to attract the right people, not just more people
6. Interactive and Immersive Content
Consumers now want to be part of a brand’s experience. That’s why interactive and immersive content will be one of the biggest digital marketing trends this coming year.
Interactive experiences like polls, quizzes, and live webinars or Q&A sessions can captivate your audience, keep them engaged longer, and leave lasting impressions. In fact, about 35% of marketers globally reported polls and quizzes as one of the most effective types of interactive content, as shown below.


You can also take it up a notch with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These tools allow potential customers to try products and experience virtual showrooms virtually. And you don’t have to do it alone—leveraging a well-trained virtual assistant can help you manage and moderate these interactive experiences seamlessly.
7. Sustainability and Ethical Marketing
Today’s consumers don’t just care about what you sell. They support brands that care about the environment, practice ethical business, and value transparency. According to a Nielsen report, 17% of consumers purchased from sustainable brands, while 14% chose transparent brands.
Brands like Patagonia are already leading with eco-friendly initiatives, as illustrated below.


With the help of a sustainability business mentor, you can follow suit. Here are some tips to help you get started:
- Infuse your marketing with messages of transparency, ethical practices, and environmental consciousness
- Publish sustainability reports and share progress on eco-friendly initiatives authentically
- Showcase eco-friendly sourcing and manufacturing practices, such as carbon-neutral shipping or sustainable packaging
- Collaborate with organizations or causes that align with your brand values
Conclusion
The future of digital marketing is packed with possibilities, but success depends on your ability to stay agile. Whether it’s harnessing the power of AI, embracing short-form video, or committing to sustainability efforts, each digital marketing trend offers a chance to connect more deeply with your audience.
So, which of these digital marketing trends will you embrace first? Start experimenting today, and let 2025 be the year your brand takes the lead in digital transformation.




This article is written by Reena Aggarwal, Director of Operations and Sales at Attrock, a result-driven digital marketing company. With 10+ years of sales and operations experience in the field of e-commerce and digital marketing, she is quite an industry expert. She is a people person and considers the human resources as the most valuable asset of a company. In her free time, you would find her spending quality time with her brilliant, almost teenage daughter and watching her grow in this digital, fast-paced era.
Have some great content up your sleeve? We invite you to reach out to us. We are excited to collaborate with talented writers and feature high-quality content on our blogs.
Check Out Articles from Our Content Collaboration Partners
Strike Overview
- As soon as your Christmas and New Year campaigns wrap up, you’ll likely start hunting for trends and insights to guide your 2025 Valentine’s Day ad campaigns.
- The National Retail Federation (NRF) has forecasted Valentine’s Day spending for 2024 to reach $25.8 billion, with spending increasing on average by 5.87% YoY from 2021 to 2024. This suggests that 2025 could see up to $27.3 billion in spending despite a slight dip last year.
- However, several significant changes in 2025 could influence trends and advertising strategies for this Valentine’s Day. These include the uncertain TikTok ban, the potential impact of Trump’s 2024 U.S. Presidential election win, and Super Bowl LIX taking place during the same week as Valentine’s Day.
- Let’s break down the 2025 social media advertising trends and insights to help craft the perfect strategy and capture your audience’s hearts this Valentine’s Day season.
Jump to Section
Feel the Love With Our 2025 Valentine’s Day Advertising Guidebook
As the first major holiday following the Q4 rush, Valentine’s Day offers the perfect opportunity to kick off your 2025 advertising efforts with fresh ideas and dynamic campaigns. Known as a season of love and thoughtful gifting, it’s a time for brands to connect with audiences on an emotional level and celebrate relationships.
This year, we’re bringing you the latest trends and actionable strategies to lock in your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns capture hearts—and deliver results.
Top Valentine’s Day Trends for 2025
Before we discuss specific advertising insights, let’s first explore what consumers are thinking about this Valentine’s Day. Understanding what shoppers are searching for, where they’re shopping, and how they plan to celebrate provides guidance for shaping your paid social strategies.
Ideas for Valentine’s Day Gifts
When it comes to Valentine’s Day gift ideas, sweet treats like chocolates and candy continue to reign supreme, with 52% of consumers listing them as their go-to choice. Flowers and gift cards take second and third spots, hinting at celebrations that range from intimate dinners at home to outings at restaurants or bars.
Shopping Destinations
Online retailers remain the top choice for Valentine’s Day shoppers, with 36.55% favoring Amazon for gift purchases. However, physical stores are not far behind, as 36.37% of consumers still prefer shopping in-store.
Interestingly, even with a projected rise in overall spending, about 3 in 10 U.S. consumers prioritize affordability, opting for lower-cost gifts. This trend makes discount stores, alongside department stores and local businesses, a key destination for Valentine’s Day shoppers.
Choice of Celebrations
Will your audience be staying in or heading out this Valentine’s Day? According to Statista, more than 20% of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate with a home-cooked meal. Interestingly, many celebrations are expected to occur before or after February 14, as consumers aim to avoid crowded restaurants and high costs associated with peak Valentine’s Day activities.
Valentine’s Day isn’t just for couples. In 2024, 29% of Valentine’s Day spending was dedicated to celebrating with friends, coworkers, and classmates. This growing trend of “Galentine’s Day” or group celebrations highlights that love comes in many forms—romantic, platonic, or professional.
Love is indeed everywhere, and this just proves that advertising during Valentine’s Day is not just for flowers and chocolate brands, right?
Valentine’s Day Advertising Insights on Paid Social Media
Even if your brand doesn’t offer traditional Valentine’s Day gifts or experiences, there’s still ample opportunity in social media advertising. Whether you’re a sports brand or an industrial service company, your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns can be tailored to resonate with a wide audience.
As mentioned earlier, Valentine’s Day is not only about romantic love. People celebrate various forms of love, making Valentine’s Day ad campaigns highly versatile. Check out these insights and trends to guide your advertising strategy this year:
YouTube Ad Trends for Valentine’s Campaigns
As with other major holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day sees a significant spike in activity, particularly during the week of the event. But how much of a spike can you expect? Let’s take a look at our YouTube data for Awareness campaigns:


If you’re mainly advertising on YouTube for your Valentine’s Day 2025 ads, expect higher CPM (cost per thousand impressions) during the event week. CPM starts to rise during the last two weeks of January, stabilizes for a short period, and then spikes back up on Valentine’s Day week.
For YouTube bumper ads, the optimal period for awareness campaigns is two weeks before Valentine’s Day, continuing through the first week of March.
Views-focused campaigns follow a similar pattern during the week of Valentine’s Day. The cost-per-view (CPV) trend favors Video View Campaigns more, showing steady movement during Q1.
Early spikes are also seen by the last week of January. As February progresses and into March, YouTube VVC shows more stable results.


Facebook Advertising Insights for Valentine’s Week
With online shopping dominating this Valentine’s Day, Facebook, the largest social media platform in the U.S., should definitely be part of your advertising strategy. If you’re considering launching your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns on Facebook, our data indicates you’re in good hands.
During Valentine’s Day Week, Facebook campaigns tend to show relatively stable performance in both top and mid-funnel efforts. Let’s take a closer look at the data:


Last year’s Valentine’s Day campaigns proved successful, with both awareness and click-focused campaigns performing well during the event week. Our Facebook advertising cost benchmarks for CPM ranged from $2.78 to $9.60, and our Q1 data shows an average of $3.51 to $5.91. For the Valentine’s Day week specifically, our Campaign Lab insights show CPM levels between $3.95 and $5.82.
Click-focused campaigns also showed positive trends, with Q1 CPC ranging from $0.14 to $0.72 (vs. $0.14 to $0.72 benchmarks). We expect Valentine’s Day 2025 trends to exhibit an identical pattern, especially with the 8.5% increase in ad spending as 2024 closed.
As we previously indicated from our Valentine’s Day 2024 trends, being specific in the target audience interest may raise costs. However, Valentine’s Day ad campaigns on Facebook show that February sees a lower cost level right after the mid-January peak. Costs stabilize as we approach March Madness and the end of Q1, creating an optimistic outlook for Valentine’s Day campaigns on Facebook.
Case Study:
Our Valentine’s Day advertising insights show a typical uptick in ad costs a week or two before the holiday. However, our recent campaign for a CPG brand promoting specifically for Valentine’s Day revealed a different trend.
The goal of this Valentine’s Day campaign was to acquire 88 million impressions over a one-month period on Facebook. While we did observe the usual CPM spike in late January, the weeks leading up to and including Valentine’s Day showed more controlled and optimized CPM levels.
With the help of Strike Social’s team in continuous campaign optimization, we achieved a 31% improvement in CPM efficiency. Additionally, by optimizing campaign pacing during the key weeks of Valentine’s Day, we reduced costs by up to 36%. This approach helped the brand meet its target number of impressions within the campaign’s timeframe while keeping ad costs under control.


While it’s common to see high peaks in ad activity during the event itself—just like any other holiday—this shouldn’t deter you from focusing on your campaign goals and driving more traffic or sales during Valentine’s Day.
Stay ahead of every holiday event by knowing the best times to ramp up or scale back your campaigns. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest advertising news, trends, and updates on paid social media.
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Leap Into Success with Your Valentine’s Day 2025 Advertising
It’s a given that paid social media advertising is not for the faint of heart. Thus, your Valentine’s Day ad campaigns should also be resilient and adaptable to make sure you get the best results at the best costs.
Strike Social offers a data-driven approach to maximize the effectiveness of your paid social campaigns. With over 10 years of machine learning combined with our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, and the expertise of our media buyers, we’re here to help you surpass your Valentine’s Day 2025 campaign goals.
Schedule a demo with our team to discuss your campaign targets and how we can help you succeed.
Strike Overview
- Is your 2025 Super Bowl ads strategy ready to hit the ground running as soon as the championship game kicks off?
- According to Fox, inventory for Super Bowl TV ads sold out as early as November 2024. Each 30-second TV ad spot sold for around $7 million—an ad budget that’s definitely over the charts.
- This December, Netflix’s airing of the NFL Christmas Gameday became the most-streamed game to date. The game featured Super Bowl LVIII winner and now 2025 odds favorite Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans.
- With sports events getting 24% more engagement than any other programming, advertisers must be well ahead of the game for a good headstart in the ad auction seats.
Jump to Section
Your Ultimate 2025 Super Bowl Ads Strategy From Kickoff to Touchdown
The 2025 Super Bowl is just around the corner, with the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs emerging as fan favorites for this season’s championship showdown. But while the NFL playoffs heat up, the real competition for advertisers happens off the field—fighting for coveted Super Bowl commercials and top social media ad placements.
With over two-thirds of Americans tuning in as NFL fans, the Super Bowl’s cultural impact is undeniable. From Taylor Swift’s appearances at Chiefs games to Jason Kelce’s post-retirement ESPN broadcasts, and Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated halftime performance at Super Bowl LIX in the Caesars Superdome, the event is as much a pop culture phenomenon as it is a sports event.
For brands, this presents an extraordinary opportunity to connect with sports audiences and more. However, with intense competition in TV and social media ad spaces, creating a winning campaign requires a strong 2025 Super Bowl ads strategy.
How Are Social Media and the Super Bowl Connected?
Short-form video content has transformed the way sports fans engage with events like the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram have become go-to destinations for fans to consume bite-sized highlights, real-time updates, and behind-the-scenes moments.
While NFL games are traditionally TV-driven spectacles, social media amplifies the experience, keeping fans engaged between games and hyping up major events like the Super Bowl. The buzz intensifies online as the big game approaches, connecting brands with highly engaged audiences eager to interact with Super Bowl-related content.
Early Super Bowl Buzz Since Q4
The Super Bowl conversation starts long before game day. Brand24 data reveals that by December 2024, mentions of the Super Bowl had already reached a social media reach of 94 million. Additionally, spending on 2025 Super Bowl ads reached an estimated $31.55 million, highlighting how brands have embraced the hype to secure their place in the conversation.


Super Bowl Social Media Reach by Platform
Each social media platform has its moment to shine during the Super Bowl. Here’s a breakdown of the engagement stats from the 2024 Super Bowl, showcasing how each network plays a unique role in connecting with audiences:


How Will Brands Use Social Media in Super Bowl Advertising This Year?
Social media advertising’s versatility is vast now—from the usual video ads to AR filters, interactive add-ons and stickers, and more. Brands can take advantage of many features in social media advertising platforms when preparing for their 2025 Super Bowl ads strategy.
Here are just a few of the ways that brands can engage NFL fans in Super Bowl advertising campaigns:
Break into Cross-Device Experiences
Mobile devices dominate YouTube viewership, with an estimated 47.9% share for 2024. However, Connected TV (CTV) is proving to be a formidable contender. According to Strike Social’s Q3 2024 report, CTV campaigns boasted a 76% view rate, edging out mobile’s 73%.
The takeaway? A successful Super Bowl ads strategy for 2025 should target both mobile devices and CTV screens to maximize reach across large and small-screen audiences.
Further, Brian Wieser of Madison and Wall projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% for sports programming spending through 2026, encompassing major events like the NBA, Olympics, NASCAR, and the NFL. This surge in spending signals the rising demand for sports content across all platforms.
Advertisers should also consider YouTube TV’s growing share of game-day viewership. During the 2024 Super Bowl, YouTube TV accounted for 14% of viewership, translating to over 17.3 million viewers out of the total 123.7 million audience. These figures highlight the value of targeting mobile users and CTV viewers to capture diverse audiences on game day.
Tapping Into the eSports and Gaming Community
Super Bowl ad audiences extend far beyond stadium-goers and social media followers—they also include eSports enthusiasts and the gaming community. These groups share a natural connection to competitive sports and team dynamics, making them an untapped audience for Super Bowl ads.
The U.S. eSports market is thriving, valued at approximately $1.07 billion in 2024. Moreover, the video game industry in the U.S. includes around 190.6 million players, 76% of whom are aged 18 and above—making them prime targets for Super Bowl advertising.
Another layer to consider is the sports betting community, which adds even more opportunities for brands to connect. NFL fans placing bets on Super Bowl odds represent a highly engaged audience subset. Localized campaigns can be particularly impactful in states where sports betting is legal, aligning your ads with state-specific opportunities outlined by the American Gaming Association.
The “Taylor Swift Effect” Still Going Strong
Taylor Swift has proven to be an ultimate force capable of boosting brands to unprecedented recognition—a phenomenon famously dubbed the “Taylor Swift effect.” Her influence spans diverse industries, from small businesses to established brands. Her recent appearances for boyfriend, Travis Kelce’s, NFL games have expanded football’s reach to the dedicated “Swiftie” demographic, bridging the gap between sports and pop culture.
Swift’s endorsements are often subtle yet highly effective, showcasing products regularly found across platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop. Here are a few examples of her influential picks over the past year:






Even during the 2024 Super Bowl, brands have seen success by tapping into narratives that resonate with Swift’s audience. For instance, Cetaphil’s 30-second TV ad spot featured a father and daughter reconnecting, which received acclaim partly due to its emotional relevance to NFL fans and Swifties alike.
Similarly, by capitalizing on influencer collaborations, you can use the same playbook for your 2025 Super Bowl ads strategy. Partnering with influencers can help expand your reach and engage audiences more effectively. Start by identifying accounts with strong followings and high engagement in sports and lifestyle spaces.
Here’s a short list of top influencers to consider for your campaigns during Super Bowl 59:
Further Reading






Connect with Sports Audiences using Instagram Partnership Ads
Previously known as Branded Content Ads, Partnership Ads allow seamless integration of sponsored content when collaborating with Instagram influencers. Learn how to generate ad codes and connect them with your 2025 Super Bowl advertising campaigns.
Short-Form for the Long Run
While the 30-second NFL commercials during the Super Bowl undoubtedly capture millions of viewers, social media platforms allow brands to extend their reach with even shorter ads. Just 5 to 6 seconds can spark interest and engage your audience from the kickoff.
Short-form video not only builds initial awareness but also serves as a gateway to deeper engagement. By following up with longer ads, you can drive your viewers toward conversion and ultimately turn them into loyal consumers.
To illustrate the effectiveness of short-form content, here’s a snapshot from our Q1 2024 YouTube report. Shorter YouTube ads (15 seconds or less) had a strong 60% view rate, while slightly longer ads (16-30 seconds) held a 55% view rate. This data confirms that while shorter videos capture attention quickly, longer ads also provide a valuable opportunity to tell your brand’s story and drive conversions.


Super Bowl Marketing Strategies for Paid Social Ads
Now that you know how paid social can help you reach NFL fans, here are 2025 Super Bowl ads strategies to help you connect with engaged audiences this season:
Promoted Super Bowl Ads on X (Twitter)
Align Promoted Ads with the Game Moments
- Stay ahead of the game by sharing relevant Promoted Tweets that engage your audience in real-time. There’s no need to wait for the Super Bowl champion—capitalize on the excitement as the NFL playoffs kick off on January 12. With predictions circulating about which teams will make it to the big game, this is the perfect moment to join the conversation.
- With X Promoted Ads, you can position your brand at the top of search results when users look up “Super Bowl” or related content. Your ads can also appear within sports-centered feeds, reaching users whose interactions are focused on NFL-related tweets.
Super Bowl Advertising on Instagram
Partner Up with Nano Influencers
- Instagram is the top platform for influencer collaborations, with 72% of marketers choosing it for their campaigns. To add, influencer partnerships on Instagram yield the highest ROI at 30%, surpassing Facebook’s 20%.
- Focus on influencers whose content revolves around the NFL playoffs, Super Bowl ad predictions, or sports content in general. This allows you to tap into their engaged audience through Partnership Ads, extending your reach.
- On average, influencer partnership campaigns on Instagram see a 2.2% engagement rate. Partnering with nano influencers can increase this to 5%. With 65% of influencer accounts being nano influencers, there’s a large pool of potential collaborators for your Super Bowl ads.
Hook Audiences with Views-Focused Campaigns
- Just as Super Bowl commercials capture attention through 30-second TV ads, focusing on viewership in Instagram campaigns can lead to strong results. Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data reveals that optimizing for pre- and post-game hype during Q1 is key to driving higher view rates with your 2025 Super Bowl advertising campaigns.
- Instagram view rate trends reveal a surge starting two weeks before the Super Bowl. During game week, view rates may dip as audiences focus on game highlights and related content. However, ad viewership bounces back the following week and remains strong through March.
- Capitalize on this momentum by extending your campaigns to target sports audiences beyond the Super Bowl, sustaining the view rates as March Madness approaches.


Using Super Bowl in TikTok Advertising
Drive UGC with Branded Hashtag Challenges
- For their 2023 NFL Super Bowl marketing, Doritos launched the #DoritosTriangleTryout challenge. To join, users must create a “triangle-inspired dance” for a chance to be featured during the big game. TikTok influencers like Josh Killacky and Lizzie Lu quickly joined the trend, resulting in the branded hashtag amassing over 12 billion views.
- Get creative with your own branded hashtag to promote your 2025 Super Bowl ads. For example, Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) are popular on game day, with 1 in 7 Americans ordering takeout during the game.
- Encourage customers to share their favorite game-day snacks with a hashtag like #[YourRestaurantName]SnackChallenge. UGC will help spark buzz and expand your reach, as your patrons’ communities share their videos, spreading your brand’s presence.
Super Bowl Ads on YouTube and its Networks
Big Screens for the Big Game
- YouTube is now a major player in Connected TV, alongside platforms like Roku, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. By 2026, YouTube’s revenue from CTV is projected to quadruple. When compared to other U.S. streaming services, YouTube holds the top share in both ad time (4.6%) and time spent (9.9%).
- Advertising on YouTube allows brands to tap into ad inventory across various networks, including YouTube TV and Google TV. With YouTube TV’s 8 million users and Google TV’s 20 million, brands can make a significant impact without the high cost of advertising during the Super Bowl.
Further Reading



Utilize Google TV’s Growing Network for Your YouTube Ads
Increase brand awareness by telling a compelling story that captures viewers’ attention. Begin with the big screens and discover how to tap into Google TV’s growing network for your YouTube ad campaigns.
YouTube Shorts for Fast, Shareable Content
- Let’s not forget that YouTube is a mobile app first, and thus, mobile users should never be ignored. Our data from Q1 encompassing the 2024 Super Bowl, showing the share of impressions and views, highlights how mobile and CTV placements level the playing field:


- Along with CTV placements, focusing on short-form content on YouTube Shorts can help you reach more sports-engaged audiences, boosting your Super Bowl ads’ performance even further. If you’re focusing on a Views-centric approach, a good 2025 Super Bowl ads strategy would include a YouTube Video Views Campaign, where you can take advantage of YouTube Shorts, skippable in-stream, and in-feed placements.
- Based on our 2024 Campaign Lab data, here’s a snapshot of view rates for different industries during January to March:


- As we can see, industries like gambling (which ties into sports betting), adult beverages, and food are big draws for NFL fans watching the Super Bowl. However, even if you’re a non-sports brand like automotive or finance, our YouTube data shows you can still effectively reach Super Bowl fans and sports audiences.
- By utilizing precise audience targeting and segmentation, paired with continuous optimization, you can ensure your 2025 Super Bowl ads strategy succeeds.
Is Your Paid Social Ads Strategy Now Super Bowl-Ready?
The 2025 Super Bowl will be a highly competitive arena, with both sports and non-sports brands vying for ad space. Let’s be honest—while the $7 million price tag for a Super Bowl ad is out of reach for many, paid social media advertising offers a more cost-effective way to reach the same audience, at a fraction of the price.
Working with an experienced ad agency can significantly enhance the performance of your Super Bowl campaign. Share your 2025 goals with us, and let’s discuss how our SwaS (software with a service) solutions can help optimize your Super Bowl campaigns.
Strike Overview
- As the most popular social media platform in the U.S., with 83% of users nationwide, if you haven’t started YouTube advertising yet, you should already have your campaigns ready before 2024 closes off.
- Both advertisers and consumers increasingly love YouTube ads more than other traditional TV ad formats, as confirmed by 59% of TV viewers and 43% of brands leaning toward YouTube Shorts advertising.
- With Strike Social’s YouTube ads guide, know how you can prepare for advertising on YouTube and its different ad placements to fully maximize its reach and engagement capabilities.
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The Beginner’s Guide to YouTube Ads
Aside from the usual video content, one thing that’s probably more common is the amount of YouTube ads you see. While they may seem interruptive to some viewers, these ads actually introduce audiences to your brand and can even encourage them to visit your website or watch your ads in full. With an average of 48 minutes spent daily by users on the YouTube app, there are multiple ways to reach them across various formats and ad types.
Learn the basics of YouTube advertising, from targeting strategies to optimization techniques, to see how this platform can help you get your brand out there.
YouTube Ads Explained
As part of the Google ecosystem, YouTube has more reach than ever, with ads appearing not only on the YouTube app but also on YouTube TV and across the Google Display Network (GDN).
If you’re familiar with YouTube ads at a surface level, we’ll guide you through every aspect of utilizing YouTube as an advertising platform for your business.
What Are YouTube Ads?
YouTube ads are video or animated ads that promote a brand through engaging content on YouTube and across Google’s Display Network. They can introduce audiences to your products, highlight services, or feature current promotions in a way that captures attention and drives action.
When done right, a well-crafted YouTube ad strategy can reach up to 11 million views, achieve 2,000 conversions, and deliver as much as 7x ROAS.
YouTube Advertising Formats, Specs, and Safe Zones
YouTube offers a variety of ad formats that help you reach audiences across different screens and contexts. Whether you want to make a quick impact or engage viewers with a longer story, here’s a breakdown of the main YouTube ad formats:
- In-stream ads
- YouTube in-stream ads play before, during, or after a YouTube video, often aligning with the viewer’s current video content or viewing habits.
- Types of in-stream ads on YouTube:
- Skippable In-Stream Ads
- Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads
- Bumper Ads
- In-feed ads
- When browsing through the app or related videos of the current video you are watching, YouTube in-feed ads are inserted as you scroll through. These may auto-play without sound as viewers scroll, encouraging them to stop and engage.
- Types of YouTube in-feed ads:
- YouTube app in-feed
- YouTube watch feed
- Masthead ads (by reservation only)
- YouTube Shorts ads
- Ads on YouTube Shorts appear in between videos as you scroll through the Shorts feed. For example, while enjoying a quick video on a new dance trend, an ad might pop up as you swipe to the next clip, offering a brief interlude before you continue browsing more Shorts content.
- Outstream ads
- Your ads can reach audiences beyond YouTube through “outstream” placements on Google Video Partners (GVP) and the Google Display Network (GDN). These ads are shown on both mobile devices and desktops, allowing you to engage viewers who may not be actively browsing the YouTube app.
- Other formats
- Mid-roll ads: Shown within videos longer than 8 minutes.
- Back-to-back ads/ad pods: Two consecutive ads shown before or during a video.
The YouTube ad specs vary based on your campaign objectives and chosen formats. Whether targeting placements within the YouTube app or looking to advertise on YouTube TV and Google TV, ads can appear in either 16:9 or 9:16 formats.
Here’s a quick overview of the essential YouTube ad video specs and technical requirements:
- File format: .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm & HEVC (h265)
- Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
- Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
- Resolution:
- 1080p (Full HD)
- Recommended pixels (px) for HD: 1920 x 1080px (horizontal), 1080 x 1920px (vertical)
- 720p (Standard HD)
- Minimum px: 1280 x 720px (horizontal), 720 x 1280px (vertical)
- SD
- 640 x 480px (horizontal), 480 x 640px (vertical)
- 1080p (Full HD)
- Frame rate: 30 FPS
- Aspect ratio:
- Horizontal — 16:9 (HD), 4:3 (SD)
- Vertical — 9:16 (HD), 2:3 (SD)
- Maximum file size: 1GB to ≤256 GB
- Length: Best video length for YouTube ads is between 12 seconds to 3 minutes
- 6 seconds (YouTube bumper ads)
- <60 seconds (YouTube Shorts)
- 15-20 seconds (up to 30 seconds for YouTube TV ads) (non-skippable in-stream)
- No max length for in-feed and skippable YouTube ads




* For optimal quality, we recommend using HD resolutions whenever possible (vs. SD).
Further Reading


The Complete List of YouTube Ad Specs
If you’re looking for non-skippable YouTube ads specs, in-stream, or YouTube Shorts video requirements, you can find them all in this comprehensive blog. See the detailed requirements on video length, resolution, file format, and aspect ratios to ensure your ads meet YouTube’s guidelines.
When complying with the YouTube ad sizes, take note that your entire ad might not be fully visible. Both the YouTube app and YouTube TV interface feature elements like the Skip Ad button and engagement options (like, share), which can obscure portions of your video.
To help with this, we’ve created YouTube ad safe zone guides to show you where to avoid placing text or CTAs, ensuring your ad remains fully visible within the safe zone.






Further Reading


Safe Zone Guide for Vertical Video Ads
As a YouTube advertiser, the Shorts placement must already be on your radar. Don’t limit your vertical video ads to just one platform—find the optimal safe zones to promote across other short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.
Types of YouTube Advertising Campaigns
With a wide range of options for both organic and paid marketing on YouTube, it’s essential to choose the right type of paid ad campaign that aligns with your specific goals.
No matter your video advertising objective, there’s a YouTube ad campaign type designed to help you succeed—here’s a breakdown of your options:
Video Reach Campaigns (VRC)
- By its name, VRC is perfect for Awareness and Reach objectives. In addition to broad visibility across the YouTube app, VRC now also allows advertisers to extend their reach to Google TV and YouTube TV channels. Available YouTube ad formats for VRC include in-stream (bumper and skippable), in-feed, and Shorts.
- VRC campaign types:
- Efficient reach
- Non-skippable reach
- Target frequency
- With on-point creatives, precise targeting, and the right social media advertising agency, Strike Social’s 2024 data shows a 41% lower CPM for VRC than YouTube Trueview.
Video View Campaigns (VVC)
- Designed to maximize views, Video View Campaigns uses Google’s AI to strategically place YouTube ads where they are most likely to be watched and engaged. Placements include in-stream (skippable ads), in-feed, and YouTube Shorts feed.
- Since its launch in Q3 2023, VVC has shown significant cost efficiency, with our campaigns demonstrating up to 56% savings.
- For brands looking to tell their story through YouTube video advertising, our data on Video View Campaigns show great view-through rates (VTR), particularly on Connected TV and mobile devices, where audience engagement and viewer retention are highest.
Video Action Campaigns (VAC)
- Video advertising on the YouTube platform prompts viewers to take action by purchasing, visiting the website, or subscribing to a service. Video Action Campaigns (VAC) can be used to promote YouTube shopping ads through your Google Product Feed or generate leads and sign-ups from engaged viewers.
- VAC will be upgraded to Demand Gen by Q2 2025, and we recommend that advertisers begin transitioning early to take full advantage of the enhanced capabilities it will offer.
Further Reading


Video View Campaigns vs. Video Action Campaigns
Is VVC or VAC the right choice for your brand? Each campaign type offers unique advantages, and choosing the right one depends on your brand’s specific goals. Explore the benefits of each to determine which YouTube ad campaign best suits your objectives.
Performance Max
- Another way to promote through YouTube ads and expand across the Google Search Network, Gmail, Display Network, and Discover channels is to use Performance Max campaigns (commonly known as PMax).
- Previously, Google PMax ads have caused some turmoil with brand safety and ad suitability due to appearing on unauthorized websites and YouTube Kids videos. It takes scrutiny and making sure ad placements are visible to make sure you are fully aware of when and where your PMax campaigns show up.
- Since then, significant improvements have been made to enhance transparency for YouTube advertisers. During the Google Marketing Live 2024 announcements, it was announced that YouTube placements and exclusions will now be visible to brands running Performance Max campaigns.
- Moreover, YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, has been enhancing the AI capabilities of PMax ads. This includes innovations such as a text-to-image model for creative assets and ‘page-specific assets’ that help better align ads with placement websites and improve engagement with audiences.
YouTube Ad Placements
When advertising on YouTube, you can be seen on more than just the mobile app or the website itself. Your YouTube video ads can conquer everything from small smartphones to bigger Connected TV screens.
Here in our YouTube ads guide, we show you the platforms and placements available for your YouTube campaigns:
- YouTube app: Users can download the YouTube app from their smartphones, tablets, or desktop devices. The same ad placements when users visit the YouTube website across their devices.
- Connected TV: Yes, your YouTube paid ads can also appear on TV! Through Connected TV advertising, you can tap into an audience of over 300 million monthly users. CTV ads have proven highly effective, with some campaigns achieving up to 65% video ad completion, even with skippable ads.
- YouTube TV: YouTube TV is a subscription-based service that provides live television channels and content such as shows, sports, and events. It currently boasts over 8 million subscribers and continues to grow. Yet another way to reach audiences on YouTube TV is through Pause Ads, which allows your ads to appear on viewers’ screens while they pause content.
- Google TV: Similar to YouTube TV, Google TV is also a streaming platform accessible through devices like Chromecast, smart TVs, mobile devices, or the new Google TV Streamer. As of September 2024, Google TV’s network already offers 150 channels, with more to come.
- Google video partners (GVP): Google video partners are trusted, high-quality websites and apps where your YouTube ads can be displayed outside of the YouTube platform. Partnering with Google has advantages, as YouTube can use Google’s inventory to get more video views and impressions even when the intended audience is not using YouTube itself.
What You Need to Know Before Launching Your YouTube Ad Campaigns
As we move forward in this YouTube advertising guide, it may seem that running ads on YouTube sounds easy. But before anything else, you must iron out your YouTube ad strategy before going to Ads Manager to start running your campaigns.
Audience Targeting
YouTube ad targeting can take many forms: device, location, gender, age, interests, etc. There are two primary audience segments within Google Ads where you can define your target audience for YouTube campaigns:
- Audience: Targeting the who, when, where, and what—gender, age, parental status, household income*, interests, locations
- In simpler terms, YouTube audience targeting is simply targeting your target market. With a potential audience base of 238 million unique users in the US, the key here is being specific about who you want your YouTube ads to be viewed by.
- For instance, an HVAC brand trying to take advantage of the demographic’s interest in sports using YouTube Custom Intent audiences can effectively acquire 11 million views through its campaign despite being a non-sports-related brand.
*Targeting by household income (HHI) is only available in Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United States.
- Content: Targeting the YouTube content your audiences are engaged with—keywords and topics they are searching for, devices and platforms they are browsing or seeing content on
- YouTube contextual targeting allows your video ads to appear on your chosen relevant content so it blends better with the user’s viewing experience.
- For example, during a holiday advertising campaign, retail brands can target shoppers looking for product reviews. YouTube is the top social media platform for researching holiday purchases, and 76% of shoppers say product review videos help them make better purchases. Contextual ad targeting is the way to go to make sure you get into audiences’ YouTube screens.
- In this example, a gaming brand can select these options under Topics so their YouTube ads can appear within these contexts and related videos:


The key is refining the scope of your audience to ensure you are paying for impressions and views from engaged audiences only, but not so narrowly that you inflate costs or harm campaign performance.
To find out how you can analyze and take advantage of each YouTube ad targeting method, here’s a quick guide:


Optimizing YouTube Ads Cost
YouTube advertising costs will vary based on numerous factors, but the hard part is ensuring you’re only paying for engaged views while keeping your budget under control.
How to optimize the cost of ads on YouTube?
- Know the prevailing YouTube ad costs by industry
- According to our Q3 YouTube Ad Benchmarks Report, costs in industries such as finance and travel have been 13% and 9% lower than in Q3 2023, despite the busy holiday season and the U.S. elections.
- Continuous monitoring and optimizations
- Launching your YouTube video ads is not a one-and-done process. It needs to be checked constantly to ensure that your ads are delivering and that costs are not going over.
- For video reach or awareness campaigns, keep CPM costs in check. For campaigns with Views objectives, watch CPV and YouTube ad view rates closely.
- Utilize optimal creatives and YouTube ad placements
- As YouTube evolved with its advertising enhancements, advertisers must adapt as well. Skippable YouTube ads leveraging on reach are doing really well on Connected TV placements, outperforming mobile and other devices by 10-20% based on our 2024 Q1 report.
- Depending on the cost and performance of your YouTube ads during your campaign flight, study the data for the best insights to make an informed decision on how you can lean on better costs by utilizing your outperforming creatives and placements.
Performance and Cost Benchmarks
Along with setting your goals for what you want to achieve with your YouTube ads, such as views or conversions, you should set a criterion for the range to which you want your campaign results to match or even exceed.
Using our successful campaigns on YouTube advertising, here are the key YouTube ad metrics to set your sights on:
- YouTube ad cost benchmarks
- Cost Per Mille (CPM): $5.70 to $12.36 ¹; $2.87 to $8.02 ⁴
- CPM for CTV Skippable Ads: $7.39 to $10.01 ⁵
- CPM for CTV Non-Skippable Ads: $4.74 to $7.09 ⁵
- Cost Per View (CPV): $0.01 to $0.03 ²
- CPM for CTV Skippable Ads: $0.0128 to $0.0220 ⁵
- Cost Per Click (CPC): $0.34 and $1.42 ³
- Cost Per Mille (CPM): $5.70 to $12.36 ¹; $2.87 to $8.02 ⁴
- YouTube ad views and performance benchmarks
- Click-through Rate (CTR): 0.07% to 0.17% ¹; 0.11% to 1.22% ³; 0.01% to 0.11% ⁴
- View Rate (VR): 43% to 57% ²
¹ Based on 2023 US YouTube TrueView InStream Non-skippable Campaigns
² Based on 2023 US YouTube TrueView InStream Skippable Campaigns
³ Based on 2023 US Video Action Campaigns
⁴ Based on 2023 US YouTube Bumper Ads
⁵ Based on Connected TV ad rates, 2024 US YouTube TrueView Ads Campaigns
Brand Safety and Suitability in YouTube Advertising
Even major brands with YouTube video ads can be criticized if they are displayed with inappropriate, unsuitable content that gives the brand a negative perspective. Thus, ad suitability and brand safety on YouTube are key to making sure your ads are shown with related content and away from the explicit content that may be lurking within the platform.
What brand safety features does YouTube have?
- YouTube inventory types: Choose from expanded, standard, or limited inventory. The recommended setting is “Standard”. “Expanded” extends your reach across more inventory, while “Limited” ensures your ads avoid more suggestive or explicit content.
- Third-party brand safety technology: With the help of carefully vetted third-party providers, YouTube continues to develop brand safety measures to maintain integrity in impressions and views generated through YouTube ads. These providers include Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, VuePlanner, and more.
How to ensure YouTube ad suitability with my campaigns?
- The difference between brand safety and brand suitability is that the latter focuses more on aligning your brand values with your target audience to strengthen the connection. Brand safety starts the process, and ad suitability fortifies it.
- YouTube has developed many tools for content suitability, which include the following:
- One key concern is appearing on YouTube Kids videos, as these are primarily viewed by children who do not have purchasing power. This means that clicks or views from these videos do not contribute to YouTube ads’ ROI. Ad suitability is achieved by excluding Kids channel placements and reallocating these views to more relevant audiences who can make a purchase or remember your ad for future decisions.
Step-by-step Guide to Publishing Your YouTube Campaign
Feel like you have everything you need and are ready to start video advertising on YouTube? Here are the basic steps to follow:
1. Set up your Google Ads account. You can use your existing Gmail account or use your business account. If you need to add access for your social media advertising manager or media buyer, you can do so by adding and editing Google Ads users to allow your team to help you manage your ads.
2. If you do not have one yet, create a YouTube channel for your brand and upload the video ad you will be using for your campaign. You’ll need the YouTube link to your video to add it to your campaign later.
3. Link your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account. Aside from performance tracking, this also allows Google Ads to acquire data for remarketing on YouTube for future video ad campaigns.
4. Once your Google Ads account is set up, go to the overview dashboard and click ‘+ New campaign.’
5. Choose your campaign objective, type, and subtype. For some scenarios, there will be another subtype before proceeding to the next screen. For example:
- Objective: Awareness and consideration
- Campaign type: Video
- Campaign subtype: Video views (click Continue); Video reach (select VRC subtype – e.g. Target frequency, then click Continue)
6. Fill in the rest of the campaign information, such as the name, budget, and start and end dates. Arrange your audience targeting settings as desired. As you update your campaign settings, ad formats, exclusions, and other elements, you can find an audience estimate on the right side of your screen.


7. Set up your video ads. Paste the YouTube URL so it retrieves the video from the platform. Add your target URL, CTA, ad headline, and description. You can add more creatives as desired and set them up using the same process, abiding by the YouTube ad copy specs.
8. Finally, set up your bid strategy. For an awareness campaign, the target CPM bid is the amount you are willing to pay for each 1000 impressions, which will be your entry in the ad auction.
9. Review your campaign setup. Once done, click on Create campaign.
Most YouTube ad campaigns are reviewed within 1 business day. Once your ad is approved (or rejected), you should receive a notification via Google Ads or your Gmail account.
Do You Need a YouTube Advertising Agency for Better Results in 2025?
After publishing your YouTube video ads, the real work starts during the monitoring and adjustments phase. Your social media advertising team must monitor cost levels, bid adjustments, and ad performance to ensure the best possible results.
This is a full-time endeavor that requires a dedicated team. If you think your YouTube ads strategy may be too heavy for your in-house team, consider hiring a YouTube advertising agency.
Benefits of Partnering with a YouTube Ads Agency
- Reduced In-House Workload
- YouTube advertising, particularly YouTube TV, requires significant resources. An agency can help by managing large-scale campaigns, freeing up your in-house team to focus on other platforms that require less effort.
- YouTube TV advertising, in particular, may be new to teams accustomed to traditional social media ads, making agency expertise invaluable for optimizing Connected TV placements and providing round-the-clock monitoring.
- Knowledge of Prevailing Costs and Performance
- A YouTube marketing agency continuously analyzes campaign performance data and industry benchmarks, always aiming for better results.
- Access to Advanced AdTech Solutions
- Our proprietary AI tool, Campaign Lab, utilizes more than 13 years of machine learning to help us with YouTube advertising campaigns from start to finish. It also performs its own monitoring and checks, alerting our teams to optimization opportunities across running YouTube ad campaigns.
- Proven Experience with Client Success Stories
- Having worked with various brands across multiple industries gives a YouTube ads agency a broad perspective on what strategies work best for different audiences and objectives. From a portfolio of successful campaigns, here’s a handful of our successful YouTube campaigns with exceptional results:
Achieve Greater YouTube Ad Results This 2025
Video advertising is rapidly growing, and YouTube continues to outpace other streaming and TV services, becoming an even more powerful platform for reaching your target audience. It’s the perfect time to capitalize on this opportunity and make the most of YouTube’s inventory and reach.
Start planning your YouTube ads strategy for 2025. Contact us today for a personalized walkthrough and start driving better results with your YouTube campaigns.
Strike Overview
- As you scale for your Q4 2024 campaigns, a Meta ad agency might be just what you need to optimize your holiday advertising costs this time of year.
- According to Quartile’s 2024 Retail Media Pulse Report, 99% of marketers plan to maintain or increase their Q4 budgets, with half committing to higher holiday ad spending despite significant factors affecting ad auctions, such as the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
- With Meta advertising ranking just behind Google Ads as a preferred platform for Q4 holiday advertising, enlisting the support of an ad agency is essential for effectively scaling your holiday campaigns while enhancing performance and managing costs.
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Partnering with a Meta Ad Agency for Optimized 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs
The peak 2024 holiday season is fast approaching, and with Meta restricting political ads a week before the election date, the ad space is again available for brands to compete.
Some brands may have paused their ads in October in anticipation of the influx of 50% of the political ad budget. We previously recommended against pausing your ads during this period; instead, it’s better to maintain an always-on approach while guiding your Facebook and Instagram audiences through awareness, engagement, and conversion campaigns.
To help you achieve peak performance during this busy season, here’s why a Meta advertising agency is key to optimizing your Q4 2024 holiday advertising costs.
How A Meta Ad Agency Can Improve Your 2024 Holiday Advertising Costs
In addition to assisting you in activating and managing your holiday ad campaigns during Q4 2024, partnering with a Meta ad agency to enhance your holiday marketing offers numerous advantages. Even with limited time for the learning phase, the expertise of a Meta advertising agency can serve as the foundation for steering your holiday ads toward success.
Expert Knowledge of Meta Holiday Ad Costs
A key priority for a social media advertising agency is making sure your ads deliver results and keeping your holiday advertising costs within your campaign budget—or even lower.
Strike Social’s service promise is our commitment to achieving your desired outcomes—whether that means hitting specific CPM or CPV targets or reaching a particular number of impressions or views within a set timeframe. With our expertise as a Meta ad agency, we establish benchmarks based on current rates, allowing us to devise effective strategies that meet your financial goals.
Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data for Q4 2024 indicates a trend of rising CPMs as the year progresses, underscoring the importance of proactive planning.


Consequently, we recommend building awareness in the months leading up to Q4, specifically in September and October. Then, ensure that you guide these audiences toward your lower-funnel campaigns, such as post engagement campaigns and traffic and conversion efforts. By October, shoppers are already searching for brands to consider for their holiday purchases.
However, awareness campaigns should follow an always-on strategy, as CPM levels tend to stabilize at a lower rate when Q5 begins at the start of the year. Meanwhile, lower-funnel campaigns show positive trends from Q4 through Q5, making this an ideal period for your holiday advertising efforts to shine, including capturing last-minute shoppers.
Further Reading





Boost Your Q4 Holiday Ad Conversions with Facebook Engagement Campaigns
As the holiday season heats up, it’s an ideal moment to drive audiences further down the funnel and maximize conversions. Facebook engagement campaigns excel in turning brand reach and visibility into meaningful interactions, positioning your brand for impactful results throughout the holiday period.
Hypergranular Targeting for Audience Segments That Drive Engagement
Just as you can utilize Facebook Audience Insights to identify target demographics such as age, gender, and location for your paid ads, a Meta ad agency leverages extensive insights gained from hundreds to thousands of previous successful campaigns.
An experienced agency specializing in Meta advertising possesses extensive knowledge from managing numerous Facebook and Instagram campaigns. Historical data from past campaigns is a valuable reference for understanding which audience segments perform best for specific industries and determining the optimal breadth or narrowness of targeting to achieve your desired views and clicks.
With over a decade of campaign experience on Meta and other social media advertising platforms, we have access to billions of data points that inform our decisions about ideal audience sizes and costs for precise targeting.
One of our recent successes involved a local fitness club aiming to drive digital sign-ups through a Facebook advertising campaign. Through link-click campaigns and precise location-based targeting, we ensured that ads reached the right audiences within the club’s service area. This strategic approach resulted in over 300,000 sign-ups, 1.5 million link clicks, and 700 million impressions, significantly enhancing the club’s digital presence.
Knowledge of Effective Ad Formats and Strategic Placements
With a deep understanding of Meta’s most effective ad formats, a Meta ad agency customizes options like Reels, carousels, and Stories to enhance engagement and performance. As Meta continues to expand its diverse array of ad formats and Advantage+ placements, it’s worth exploring which aspects of the Meta advertising network will drive traction for your holiday advertising campaigns.
For your Q4 2024 holiday advertising, Meta has introduced a new AI-powered feature within its Advantage+ shopping campaigns, allowing promotions to be showcased within the same ad. For instance, a promo code can be prominently displayed as a spotlight feature on a Reels ad:


Based on insights from Strike Social’s Campaign Lab data, here are our recommendations for the top Meta ad placements and advertising formats for your Q4 2024 holiday campaigns:


24/7 Execution of API-led Bid Optimization
Once your holiday marketing campaigns are launched through Ads Manager, the role of a Meta ad agency extends far beyond the initial setup. The real work begins when your Black Friday and Cyber Five ads enter Facebook’s learning phase, where they start tracking traffic or leads and competing in the ad auction.
A Meta advertising agency operates around the clock, ensuring continuous monitoring and optimization to capture every opportunity for bid adjustments and eliminate any tracking errors.
For example, during conversion campaigns, return on ad spend (ROAS) is a critical metric that requires constant attention. If your Facebook ad ROAS appears off, the Meta ad agency should swiftly identify the source of the issue. Fixing Facebook ROAS tracking can involve addressing straightforward cost discrepancies between your Facebook ad setup and your website or tackling more complex challenges, such as resolving Meta Pixel tracking issues with your tech team.
Contact Us
See how partnering with a SWAS AdTech agency can increase your campaign performance by 10-20%.
Strike Social is ready to work with your team and drive results for your holiday campaigns.
To enhance this process, our Campaign Lab technology facilitates continuous campaign monitoring every two hours. Notifications are sent to the designated media buying team, making sure there is always vigilant oversight on your Facebook and Instagram holiday campaigns.
Strike Social’s Proven Success on Meta Advertising
We can confidently say that you should choose us to manage your holiday advertising campaigns this year, but what is our promise without the backing of our clients’ success?
How Targeted Meta Ad Placements Produce 34% CPLC Efficiency
As part of its anniversary collection, a luxury watch brand’s Facebook advertising campaign needed to introduce its new product line. While their brand represents luxury and prestige, the goal was to effectively reach a broad audience that would likely engage with their Facebook ad campaigns.
77%
Reel overlay ads reach and impressions
10%
Reels efficiency vs overall CPLC
56%
Carousel total landing page distribution
Campaign objective: Link clicks, Landing page views
Strategy: Strike Social capitalized on the Carousel ad format’s effectiveness in driving engagement and complemented it with Facebook overlay ads on Reels. Given that nearly 50% of Facebook users’ time is spent watching video content, this strategy proved beneficial for high engagement.
Results: The campaign successfully combined targeted placements to drive engagement and cost efficiency. Facebook overlay ads on Reels captured 77% of overall impressions and generated 48% of link clicks, proving highly effective in reaching a wide audience. Feed placements provided an additional 15% of impressions and accounted for 36% of link clicks, while Instagram Stories, though a smaller contributor, added 3% of impressions and 8% of link clicks.
In terms of cost efficiency, each format demonstrated significant savings: Reels overlay ads reduced the cost per link click (CPLC) by 49%, Feed placements by 44%, and Instagram Stories by 38%. Altogether, this strategic mix resulted in a 34.69% reduction in overall CPLC compared to the projected rate, highlighting the advantage of targeted ad formats and thoughtful budget allocation for achieving high engagement at a lower cost.
Achieving 28x Facebook ROAS Through Data-Driven Monitoring
For a leading financial services provider, Strike Social executed a comprehensive campaign focused on acquiring conversions and leads, going through a meticulous approach from setup to ongoing optimization. It was a large-scale endeavor for a Facebook campaign and presented challenges, especially being far from the Thanksgiving and Christmas advertising surge.
66%
More impressions than guaranteed
7,000+
Purchases via the Facebook campaign
$1.5M
In revenue resulting in a 28x Facebook ROAS
Campaign objective: Conversions, Leads
Strategy: Strike Social reviewed up to 60 creatives, which were spread across multiple ad sets. The campaign targeted a nationwide audience, and while this setup was less complicated than other non-peak holiday Facebook campaigns, the challenge was to ensure it was directed towards audiences likely to engage, thereby reducing wasted ad spend.
Results: The conversion campaigns went live within 48 hours, swiftly generating impressions, clicks, and leads. Ongoing monitoring of the Meta Pixel was essential to maintain its effectiveness, allowing us to quickly resolve any issues in collaboration with the client. We also kept a close eye on cost per acquisition (CPA) and auction bids, which helped us meet our campaign objectives while staying within budget.
Thanks to this strategic approach, the Meta ad campaign achieved an impressive 28x Facebook ROAS, resulting in 66,000 leads and over 7,000 purchases through Facebook ads.
Your Go-To Meta Advertising Agency Partner is Just a Click Away
Choosing Strike Social as your Meta advertising agency means gaining access to unparalleled expertise, advanced tools, and proven strategies designed to optimize your Q4 holiday advertising costs.
With our focus on precise audience targeting, mastery of ad formats and placements, and proactive campaign adjustments, we are committed to helping you achieve both performance and cost-efficiency in your 2024 holiday marketing strategy.
Scaling your 2024 holiday advertising campaigns can be made easy. Fill out the form below for a personalized walkthrough of our ad tech solutions and discover how a certified Meta advertising partner can drive success for your campaigns. Whether you aim to reach new audiences or convert them into loyal customers, Strike Social is here to help.


Strike Overview
- The Q4 2024 holiday ad trends see an upward surge this year, reaching an estimated $271.58 billion—a 9.5% increase from 2023—highlighting a significant opportunity for advertisers.
- Meta’s platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, are experiencing robust growth with a 20% year-over-year increase in advertising spend, positioning them to potentially surpass global linear TV ad spending by 2025.
- The transition from Q4 to Q5 promises to be an exciting period as advertisers traverse holiday ad trends, particularly with the U.S. presidential election influencing the market.
- Have no fear—your Strike Social Holiday Guide for 2024 is here to help you maintain a strong advertising presence while keeping ad costs under control.
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Planning Your Q4 2024 Facebook & Instagram Holiday Ads
As you prepare for the busiest shopping season of the year, Meta is gearing up to meet the surge in holiday ad campaigns across Facebook and Instagram. The Q4 holidays — Thanksgiving, Cyber Five, Christmas, and New Year’s — represent the most critical window for capturing audience attention and driving performance.
With ad spending peaking during this period, competition in the auction is becoming fierce, and the stakes are high. To maximize your campaign outcomes while managing costs, advertisers must stay ahead of the trends shaping consumer behavior, creative strategies, and targeting tactics. Here’s how to strategically plan your Facebook and Instagram holiday ad campaigns towards the end of the year.
Q4 2024 Holiday Ad Trends Advertisers Should Watch Out For
Before the celebration continues, let’s take a sneak peek at what to expect this year and how it’s different from previous years to fully prepare you for your holiday campaigns.
Key Peak Advertising Periods in Q4 2024
By anticipating shifts in ad spend and key peak periods, you can optimize your strategy and control costs while driving results for your Q4 2024 holiday ad campaigns:


As more advertisers vie for auction space during the Q4 holidays, we can certainly see spikes in ad spending during this time. Historically, Q4 sees the highest ad spending, particularly on Facebook and Instagram (Meta), with Google following a similar trend. TikTok, on the other hand, tends to have a more unpredictable and sporadic pattern. This heightened competition across industries inevitably drives up Facebook and Instagram ad costs. We’ll explore this further as we go along.


Online Shopping and Spending Trends
Adobe forecasts that U.S. online sales will reach $240.8 billion from November 1 to December 31, up from $221.8 billion last year. In addition, Mastercard’s Spending Pulse data indicates a projected 7.1% growth in retail sales during this holiday shopping season compared to 2023. The rise in consumer spending will likely kick off early, with shopping ramping up as early as Halloween and peaking through Christmas, driven by big-ticket purchases during the gift-giving season.


Further, Numerator’s research shows that many Christmas shoppers are starting as early as three months before the holidays. For advertisers, this means awareness campaigns need to launch well before November to capture early interest and effectively guide potential buyers down the funnel in time for peak holiday ad campaigns.
Meta’s Holiday Ad Trends for Q4 to Q5
Data from Meta’s campaigns affirm this, as 41% of consumers continue making purchases from holiday ads well beyond the peak shopping season. Last year, CPM-focused Facebook and Instagram ads peaked around Thanksgiving, while CPA-focused campaigns were more cost-efficient during the same period.
In Q4 2023, conversion campaigns saw a 20% year-over-year increase in performance and a 3.3x return on ad spend (ROAS) when using Meta Advantage+. Meta is heavily promoting Advantage+ to help advertisers streamline the process of diversifying ads and placements, ultimately improving campaign returns.
This approach pays off during the holiday season, as consumers actively search for gifts through Christmas campaigns on Meta, creating a sizable audience that helps drive more efficient ad costs.


Download our Facebook ROAS Case Study
Discover how Strike Social achieved 66% more impressions than guaranteed and a 28x Facebook ROAS through precise execution and real-time campaign management for a financial services client.



Insights for Effective Holiday Advertising Strategy on Facebook & Instagram
Now that you have a clear view of the holiday ad trends and consumer behavior for Q4 and Q5 2024, it’s time to review the actionable strategies that will drive results and deliver outstanding performance for your Facebook and Instagram holiday advertising campaigns.
Start Your Holiday Ad Campaigns Earlier
With fewer shopping days between Black Friday and Christmas in 2024, early campaign launches will allow for better positioning. October marks the start of the buildup, especially with the final weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential elections, where 79% of 2024 political ad spending is pouring on key battleground states. With political ads wanting to reach as many audiences as possible, this creates fierce competition for audience attention, making it harder for awareness campaigns to break through compared to previous holiday seasons.
Concurring with Meta’s holiday ad trends, our Facebook benchmark report confirms that CPMs will rise during peak Q4 periods, especially around Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas promotions, as advertisers optimize to reach more markets. Average CPM for Q4 2024 is expected to increase, but campaigns focusing on engagement may benefit from higher engagement rates, particularly with the growth of new ad formats like Reels, which saw a 61% increase in 2023 compared to 2022. Thus, if you want to get a headstart on the lower CPM levels, an early start to your full holiday advertising campaign is necessary.


Further Reading





How Facebook Engagement Ad Formats Win Holiday Advertising
Engagement ads on Facebook and Instagram allow brands to build genuine connections that can later convert into sales. As competition rises and holiday shopping behaviors shift, focusing on engagement helps brands reach Meta’s vast audience while maximizing campaign efficiency for scalable results.
More Aggressive Holiday Advertising for Both B2B and B2C
The competition for ad space for Q4 2024 holiday ad campaigns is not limited to retail brands. Both B2B and B2C advertisers are aggressively vying for inventory, particularly on Meta platforms and Connected TV, as the holiday season ramps up with key events like Cyber Five and New Year’s advertising.
According to NRF’s 2023 Thanksgiving holiday weekend data, a record 200.4 million shoppers were active during the Cyber Five period, with 44% shopping online. Black Friday and Cyber Monday led online purchases, solidifying these events as significant revenue drivers for B2C brands while increasing competition with B2B brands vying for the same ad inventory.


For B2B companies, Q4 presents an ideal opportunity to reach decision-makers actively searching for advanced solutions for their businesses. It’s the perfect time to adopt a bold, action-oriented strategy, focusing on campaigns that drive clicks and conversions. With 76% of B2B buyers preferring to speak with someone before acquiring new services, Q4 is when many finalize their decisions on renewing or switching to new products or services.
Meta’s holiday playbook data supports this holiday advertising strategy, showing that CPA levels remain relatively stable throughout Q4 and Q5, compared to fluctuating CPM and CVR rates. Additionally, our data indicates that Facebook traffic campaigns targeting link clicks could see a 23% increase toward Q4, based on 2023 trends. Encouragingly, link-click engagement rates have been on the rise in 2023 compared to 2022, signaling a positive trend for engagement-driven campaigns.


Lead Customers from Top-to-Bottom Funnel Holiday Campaigns
By Q4, your awareness holiday ad campaigns from earlier in the year—starting as early as Halloween—should have built enough momentum to drive audiences into your lower-funnel holiday campaigns. While awareness ads are crucial, by this point in the holiday season, your focus should shift toward consideration and conversion campaigns to capitalize on the peak of the 2024 holiday shopping season.


Not only are lower funnel campaigns more cost-effective, but we’re also seeing high engagement rates, especially in Facebook advertising campaigns focusing on post engagement, clicks, and link clicks, aligned with Q4 holiday trends. Reels are particularly powerful, with short-form video content on Instagram reaching up to 30% of users, reflecting its growing dominance across Meta’s advertising network.
According to Adobe Analytics, mobile devices are expected to drive 53% of online sales during the 2024 holiday season. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on mobile-first conversion strategies to achieve your campaign goals.
Further Reading


Improving Facebook ROAS with Real-time Optimizations
Various factors can contribute to Facebook ROAS underperformance, from basic problems like inaccurate Meta Pixel tracking to more intricate issues tied to campaign management. Partnering with an advertising agency can provide the specialized knowledge and strategies to boost your Facebook ad ROAS. See the critical areas where an expert agency can make a difference in optimizing your campaigns and driving better results.
Diverse Creative Formats to Keep Holiday Ads Fresh
As competition heats up during the holiday season, brands often find their ads competing for the same audience’s attention. When users encounter the same ad multiple times, their engagement tends to wane, leading to missed opportunities.
When running top-to-bottom funnel holiday ad campaigns, Facebook and Instagram users can quickly become fatigued by seeing the same creative, sometimes after just two impressions. This leads to users scrolling past or swiping away from your holiday ads.
Incorporate a variety of creative formats in your strategy to avoid ad fatigue and ensure your Black Friday and Christmas advertising campaigns remain effective. Facebook and Instagram offer dynamic options such as Reels, carousels, and videos that can significantly boost engagement and keep your brand fresh in consumers’ minds.
• Pro tip: Adhere to the Facebook and Instagram ad specs so your ads fit seamlessly within users’ screens.
Explore how to optimize your placements using manual selection in Meta Ads Manager to find the formats that best align with your brand messaging:
Shine Bright on Shoppers’ Lists with Twinkling Facebook and Instagram Holiday Campaigns
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year” – as it should be for both consumers and Meta advertisers alike. Indeed, the Q4 to Q5 periods can be a balancing act, where the need to scale budgets must align with the goal of achieving an impressive return on ad spend.
With Strike Social’s SWAS (software with a service) AdTech expertise, our aim is to deliver better results for you at lower costs for savings. Our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, is designed to keep a close eye on your ads, ensuring that the full process from setup to campaign management is streamlined and optimized before your holiday campaigns even launch.
Learning the holiday ad trends and suggested strategies is just the beginning. Let us become an extension of your in-house team, helping you finish the year on a high note. Contact us today to request a personalized walkthrough of our AdTech service and see how we can enhance your holiday advertising performance.
Here’s a fun fact for you: 55% of marketers say that social media has directly helped them increase their sales.
That’s not all.
Marketers also cite other benefits of using social media for marketing purposes as increased traffic, exposure, and leads.


These statistics clearly show that social media marketing is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness and, most importantly, maximize ROI.
In this post, I’ll explain five expert-trusted strategies for maximizing ROI with social media marketing.
Let’s begin.
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Understanding Social Media Marketing ROI
ROI stands for return on investment. In this context, it refers to the measurable outcome from your social media marketing strategies. It’s basically what you get from investing your time, money, and effort in social media marketing.
Social media ROI is important because it helps you assess whether you’re making enough profits from your marketing strategies or running at a loss.
Your ROI can result from organic efforts or a direct monetary investment.
This means that you can build your social media audience organically without any paid promotions. Meanwhile, you can also directly invest money by paying for ads or influencer marketing collaborations.
5 Effective Strategies to Maximize Your ROI With Social Media Marketing
Maximizing ROI with social media marketing can be accomplished using compelling social media ads, influencer marketing, and leveraging certain marketing tools.
Let’s expand on this below.
1. Use Compelling Social Media Ads
One of the most effective ways to expand your content’s reach is by using social media ads.
Tracking Specific Demographics
With popular platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, you can create ads that target specific demographics. For example, the Instagram Ad Manager allows you to run targeted ads for specific locations, age groups, and genders.
Targeted social media ads increase the relevance of your content and enhance their effectiveness. This reduces your wasted ad spend and maximizes ROI in the long run.
Tracking Ad Performance
Additionally, with tools like Google Analytics, you can easily track the performance of your social media ads. It provides a URL campaign builder where you can generate URL parameters for your ads and track metrics like conversion, reach, and engagement rate.
You’ll be able to determine what works and what doesn’t. This helps you optimize future ads to maximize ROI.
Using Relevant CTAs
Speaking of improving the effectiveness of your social media ads, you should also use compelling and relevant CTAs in your sponsored ads. Use clear CTAs like “Shop Now” or “Learn More” to clearly convey action you want your audience to take.
Here’s an example of a clear “Shop Now” CTA.


Here’s another example of a YouTube ad with a clear “Learn More” CTA:


2. Use Social Media Marketing Tools
The next expert strategy for maximizing ROI is using social media marketing tools.
To increase your social media ROI, post consistently. This can be quite challenging to achieve if you have to manually post your content.
This is where tools for social media management come in. You can use them to:
- Automate Posting Schedules: This allows you to plan your content and post in advance. This way, you can maintain a consistent posting schedule, even during holidays and off-hours.
- Identify the Best Time to Post: Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer don’t just help you automate posting content. They also help you identify the optimal times to post to increase the relevancy and effectiveness of your content.
Take a look at Hootsuite’s dashboard showing the best days and times to publish.


- Measure ROI: Tools expelled in various social marketing guides can help in tracking and measuring your social media ROI. It analyzes your social media presence and helps you identify ways to increase your ROI. I recommend exploring this blog for more social media marketing tools for measuring ROI.
- Automate Ad Management: With ad management tools like Facebook Ads Manager and Google Ads Manager, you can automatically receive data-driven insights. You can then use these insights to identify how to improve your ads, thereby increasing your ad revenue and overall ROI.
3. Engage With Your Audience
Another strategy for maximizing ROI with social media marketing is engaging with your audience. Regularly doing so helps you build and nurture a relationship with them, there by increasing your social media presence and online visibility.
For example, a specialist divorce lawyers firm can promote its business by regularly posting informational and engaging posts and connecting with its audience by responding to their comments. This helps them to learn how to choose the right divorce solicitor for their family court cases.
A good way to engage with your audience is by:
- Responding to comments, messages, and mentions. Leverage online chatbot to set up automated responses on Facebook and Instagram to speed up your response time.
- Building an online community where you can easily interact with your audience and build a relationship with them.
- Creating content that encourages them to interact with your brand. For instance, live events, polls and feedback surveys.
Here’s an example of how a clothing brand, Topperzstore, uses polls to engage its customers on Instagram.


4. Leverage Influencer Marketing
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 85% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing. It’s a great way to build trust with your audience and increase your brand’s credibility.
Influencers have a niche audience comprised of thousands or even millions of followers depending on what type they are. For example, micro-influencers have anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 followers on any platform.
They play a huge role in maximizing ROI with social media marketing because they create impactful content that targets a specific audience.
Influencers can create user-generated content for your brand, which appears authentic and trustworthy. This leads to more people purchasing your products, thereby, increasing your ROI.
Before you choose an influencer to work with, assess their beliefs and values to ensure that they align with your product frameworks and brand. This will increase the relevancy and authenticity of the content they create for your brand. Consider the different types of influencers available to select the perfect match for your marketing goals.
Here’s an example of how a skincare brand, CeraVe, collaborates with an influencer who’s also a skincare enthusiast, effectively expanding its reach.


5. Track, Analyze, and Optimize Performance
Finally, you must keep a close eye on the performance of your social media strategy to ensure that it’s yielding positive results. Identify relevant metrics according to your campaign objectives and track them.
For example, the right Instagram metrics to track for awareness are impressions, video views, and more. For insights into engagement, track likes, comments, click-through rates, and shares.
Tools like Sprout Social allow you to easily track key metrics on a centralized dashboard. You’ll also get in-depth reports regarding your social media ROI and identify areas for improvement.
Here’s a view of the metrics you can track via Sprout Social.


Conclusion
And there you have it! Some tested strategies to boost your social media ROI.
When creating targeted ads, use compelling, relevant CTAs that clearly convey the next steps you wish the audience to take.
Embrace social media marketing tools to track and measure ROI and identify ways to boost it.
Finally, as you implement these strategies, remember to track, analyze, and optimize your performance. Take it one step at a time, remain consistent, and you’ll become a pro at maximizing ROI with social media marketing in no time!




This article is written by Reena Aggarwal, Director of Operations and Sales at Attrock, a result-driven digital marketing company. With 10+ years of sales and operations experience in the field of e-commerce and digital marketing, she is quite an industry expert. She is a people person and considers the human resources as the most valuable asset of a company. In her free time, you would find her spending quality time with her brilliant, almost teenage daughter and watching her grow in this digital, fast-paced era.
Have some great content up your sleeve? We invite you to reach out to us. We are excited to collaborate with talented writers and feature high-quality content on our blogs.
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The world’s top 5 social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Notice anything about these sites? That’s right, they all feature videos as the core part of their feeds.
So, why are these platforms so dedicated to video content? The answer is that videos grab people’s attention and keep them engaged. Research has shown that even on cross-media platforms like Facebook, people spend 50% of their time watching videos, and platforms like TikTok and YouTube are almost entirely dedicated to the medium.
Today, we will look at how you can grab your share of people’s attention by leveraging video marketing techniques to drive engagement, improve your click-through rates, and propel your brand forward.
Jump to Section
- What is video marketing?
- How video marketing drives brand growth
- 9 video marketing techniques to propel your brand forward
- Use trending formats and visuals for engaging, shareable videos
- Include keywords to improve search rankings and discoverability
- Create attractive thumbnails to encourage video clicks
- Partner with influencers to boost reach and credibility
- Encourage user-generated content with hashtag challenges
- Design videos for seamless mobile viewing with vertical formats
- Target specific demographics with precise ad campaigns
- Invest in different ad formats to maximize reach and engagement
- Engage with comments and build a sense of community
What is video marketing?


Video marketing on social media is very different from advertising on TV. While they both use the same medium, social media demands content that interests your customers. You want to entice and entertain. This is because people can scroll past content that doesn’t immediately grab their attention or skip through in-stream ads.
This presents many challenges, but it also offers businesses a huge opportunity to reach and connect with customers in a way that wasn’t previously possible. With the right approach, you can find customers in many new ways, from offering educational content to expanding your reach with a fully holistic omnichannel and multichannel experience for your customers.
How video marketing drives brand growth
It’s clear that people can’t get enough of videos on social media. Let’s look at how this can help you grow your brand.
Captures attention and increases audience engagement
Mediums that incorporate visuals and sound to tell a story have taken the world by storm for over a hundred years. There’s a reason—videos capture our imagination. We use sight to navigate the world and hearing to communicate. In short, we’re audio-visual creatures, and videos perfectly combine both to capture our attention. X (formerly Twitter), for example, found that posts with videos get 10 times more engagement than those without.
Video also has the power to capture atmosphere and portray feeling in a way that static images can’t, which drives audience engagement. Compare the reaction you get from seeing a picture of a skier with the feeling of watching an epic ski run down the sunlit slopes of Aspen. That photo might showcase the landscape or clothing, but it’s your creative video editing skills that will truly capture the atmosphere and tell a story.
Demonstrates products, leading to higher conversion rates
Because we absorb information so much better when it’s presented to us in a visual medium, videos are a fantastic way to showcase your product. Product demos are a perfect example of this and a particularly effective SaaS video marketing strategy.
Instead of selling your product, demonstrate it and let people make up their own minds. Using a screen recorder, you can create engaging demonstration videos that allow potential customers to see your product in action. When you get people to engage voluntarily, you can go so much deeper into the benefits of your product, leading to vastly improved conversion rates. A huge 90% of people say that demonstration videos are helpful in purchase-making decisions.


Conveys brand story, fostering emotional connection
Video content excels in engagement due to its ability to convey stories visually, tapping into our natural preference for visual information. On social media, storytelling fosters emotional connections, as people are curious about others’ lives, from friends to celebrities to fictional characters.
For instance, if you’re promoting event venues, you shouldn’t just share generic shots of each room. Instead, show people having fun there – both during events, and ‘backstage’. You’re selling an experience as much as a place, so your videos should make viewers feel like they’re a part of it already.
By sharing your authentic story, including your motivations, your team’s passion, and what customers value about your product, you can create meaningful bonds with your audience. People are eager to listen to genuine stories, making storytelling a powerful tool to connect.
Expanding social media reach through more shares
Research shows that videos are 52% more likely to be shared than any other form of content. It makes sense. If you concentrate on making content that entertains, amuses, or moves your audience, they’ll want to pass on that feeling to others.
Content on social media is becoming increasingly creative. Today, users are able to share real-time online photo booth pics on platforms like Facebook and Instagram instantly, create interactive polls, use VR and AR, and so much more. So creating innovative and impactful video content that’s highly shareable is a great way to stand out.
Enhances SEO performance, driving organic traffic
Videos are favored by search engines like Google, boosting a site’s ranking for two notable reasons.
Firstly, videos keep visitors on your site longer, a metric tracked by tools like Google Analytics, and affect how Google ranks your page.
Secondly, video content is highly shareable and can encourage clicks to other sites, such as YouTube, enhancing your site’s performance on search engines, and your SEO strategy. Sharing videos on platforms like TikTok also improves page rankings.


9 video marketing techniques to propel your brand forward
Let’s look at some practical steps you can take to drive engagement with your brand.
Use trending formats and visuals for engaging, shareable videos
Understanding the dark arts of online algorithms can be tricky. But being one of the first to get on board with trends or a new hashtag can give you a massive boost in visibility and shareability, leading to a snowball effect. You have more shares and likes because you are one of the first, which leads to your content being pushed in the rankings, more shares and likes, and so on.
This can work well for content in the real world, too. If you spot a news story or political event related to your product, use the free searches by creating content that will appear when people search for it.
Include keywords to improve search rankings and discoverability
Making sure your webpage has the right words and phrases is crucial for SEO and your search ranking. Similarly, picking the right keywords is critical to ensuring social media algorithms include your video content on your customer’s feed.
Choosing the right hashtag is even more vital on TikTok, where subscribers can ‘Favorite’ hashtags based on their interests. Do your research: find out what’s trending in your field, and maximize your reach. Start using the creative center, but don’t forget to note what your competitors and existing customers already use. A host of automated marketing tools can also help you find the right information.


Create attractive thumbnails to encourage video clicks
Effective video promotion goes beyond relying on autoplay or algorithms. To truly capture attention, focus on crafting an engaging thumbnail for your video. Here are key points to consider:


- Choose a captivating image: It doesn’t necessarily have to be a clip from your video, but it must grab attention.
- Opt for the right size: Use an image with a 1280 x 720 resolution (16:9 aspect ratio) as recommended by YouTube.
- Incorporate text: Since video descriptions often go unnoticed, add brief, compelling text to your thumbnail.
- Maintain consistency: Build a recognizable brand image through consistent styling or templates, which will make your videos easier to identify.
- Ensure contrast: Given that many users watch on mobile phones, make your thumbnail stand out by using high contrast.
- Be honest: Your thumbnail and video content should match to build trust and encourage repeat views.
Remember, the aim is not just to get more clicks, but to grow a loyal viewer base by being genuine and visually appealing.
Partner with influencers to boost reach and credibility
Creating engaging content can be challenging, which is why turning to professionals, specifically influencers, can be beneficial. They offer several advantages when it comes to online video marketing.
Firstly, influencers have already earned the trust of their followers, addressing one of marketing’s core challenges.
Secondly, they help target and grow your audience efficiently, especially for niche products, ensuring you don’t waste your advertising budget.
Lastly, influencers understand their audience, enabling personal and effective communication. This means they can foster direct engagement through social media.


Encourage user-generated content with hashtag challenges
People who have grown up online demand authenticity from their videos. They’ll spot a fake veneer a mile away. That’s why user-generated content (UGC) can be a great way to put out more content without bombarding your audience or coming across as pushy.
Perhaps the best way to do this is by running a competition to encourage users to post content. A great example of this comes from e.l.f. Cosmetics, who came up with the #eyeslipsface challenge. The challenge soon went viral, and their videos were viewed over a billion times in just two days, two billion times within two weeks.
It’s also worth looking at customer review examples that incorporate videos. When asking for feedback and reviews, incentivize customers to add videos of them using your product or service. This is a great way of using UGC to build trust and market your brand without being overly promotional.
Design videos for seamless mobile viewing with vertical formats
When producing videos, it’s crucial to consider the format and device they will be viewed on, as audiences increasingly watch content on mobile devices.
This means choosing the right aspect ratio is key—vertical formats work well for quick viewing, while horizontal might be better for longer content that benefits from more detail. Additionally, leveraging mobile devices offers significant advantages, not just for viewing but also for engagement.
Finally, remember that using mobile devices offers some huge benefits. After all, phones aren’t just social media devices, even if it does often seem that way. Suppose you have a customer with a problem. In that case, you could email them. Or, you could use text messaging to send links to demonstration videos or push notifications to tell your audience when you have a new video out.
Target specific demographics with precise ad campaigns
Social media platforms are designed for advertising. Users aren’t the customers; they’re the product. That means that while a social media platform is designed to keep people engaged, the clever stuff is all behind the hood, and it’s there for you, the real customer, to use.
Instead of simply posting your videos, make sure you figure out who your target audience is. Figure out their age, economic status, and other demographics to help you reach the right people. Filter using interests, too, or use contextual targeting to ensure you get your video content to the people who want to see it.
Invest in different ad formats to maximize reach and engagement
From the outside, ads on social media can look pretty standard. In reality, it’s more complicated. It pays for you to diversify your ads to make the most of your money and ensure you get the best reach and engagement without bombarding customers.
For example, to extend your YouTube video reach, you can use in-feed ads, which you pay to have pop up in your customers’ feeds for them to click on when browsing. These skippable and non-skippable in-stream ads appear before, after, or during the middle of other longer videos.


TikTok also has various types of ads, including in-feed ads, branded hashtag challenges, and TopView ads, which play when users open the platform, as well as other features, such as branded effects that can encourage user-generated content.
Engage with comments and build a sense of community
Finally, don’t forget the social aspect of social media. Posting videos is just the beginning of the conversation. A great video can hook customers, but there is always the opportunity to interact with your customers and build a community. This can help personalize your brand and create loyalty while boosting your click-through and conversion rates.
It can also be a great and non-intrusive way to give customers a little nudge to remind them that you’re still there. Instead of sending a “just checking in” email that will inevitably annoy your customers who are too busy to respond, you can gently remind them that you’re there and ready to listen.
Remember to respond to both positive and negative comments, too. Even if you’re never going to get a sale out of those people who post negative things, your comments won’t go unnoticed by others. Of course, you can still feel free to ignore the trolls. It’s best not to give them any attention at all.
Summing up
Video marketing can be a fantastic way to connect with your audience. We’re hardwired to respond to visuals and audio, and people spend more time watching videos than ever before. With the right story and carefully crafted content, you can improve your brand’s reach and get your message out to people in a way that can emotionally engage potential customers.
But be sure to put the work in to make your video content hit home. Figure out your ideal customers and target them. Take the time to format your content correctly, and create thumbnails that attract your audience.
Use the myriad tools that social media platforms offer to ensure that you’re getting maximum reach. These techniques allow you to reach new audiences, drive engagement, and propel your brand forward.
This article is written by J.P. Walti, Vice-President of Marketing, Creative, and Web at RingCentral, an AI-powered communications software provider. He has two decades of experience in marketing and creative fields. Visit his LinkedIn page here.
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Strike Overview
- If you’re part of the 92% of US businesses utilizing social media advertising, there’s always room to scale, which is where ad management services can help brands and agencies grow quickly.
- Digital advertising moves at a fast pace, and beyond staying updated with platform changes, managing ad costs during peak seasons can become overwhelming if you’re handling campaigns in-house.
- Finding social media solutions that efficiently address all your needs can be challenging. The first step in looking for ad management services is identifying areas where you need assistance.
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The real win when advertising on social media is having reliable ad management services that provide comprehensive solutions and cutting-edge technology to streamline your efforts. While placing ads on social media platforms may seem straightforward, effective ad management requires skilled professionals, adequate resources, and the right advertising technology to ensure your campaigns are on track.
Why Ad Management Services Are a Smart Choice for Efficient Social Media Advertising
When evaluating ad management services, it’s important to look beyond basic tasks like campaign activation, routine checks, and reporting. Effective ad management involves a range of advanced features that can significantly enhance your social media advertising efforts.
Advanced Tools for Targeting and Audience Segmentation
While you may have a specific audience in mind for your campaigns, your chosen ad management services should offer advanced tools for more precise targeting and audience segmentation.
Given the broad reach and diverse user demographics across social media platforms, effectively pinpointing your desired audience can pose a challenge.


What to look for:
- Advanced targeting capabilities, including demographic, geographic, and behavioral segmentation to refine your audience.
- Tools to assess whether your audience needs to be expanded or narrowed down to enhance campaign performance.
- Access to past audience data to provide actionable optimization tips for improving ad results.


Comprehensive Ad Monitoring Tool for KPI Measurement
91% of businesses use multiple social media platforms when advertising online. Thus, you need ad management services that can offer something that covers a measurement tool to make sure that all social media platforms are being monitored to make sure that they are continuing to deliver results.
You should be able to compare results, for instance, TikTok vs. YouTube advertising, to determine which video ad platform performs better. This will allow you to present these results to your client and make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts.
What to look for:
- Comprehensive and transparent reporting tools that offer real-time data on key performance metrics.
- Clear and easy-to-understand data on impressions, view rates, engagement, conversions, CPM, CPV, CTR, etc.
- API integration with major social media advertising platforms and third-party analytics platforms.
Flexibility in Supporting Different Advertising Formats and Creatives
You need access to ad management services that can assist you in identifying the best ad formats based on your available creatives. While it’s understandable that your brand’s creatives are presented as is, the ad management services’ role is to develop a media plan and recommend advertising formats and placements where your creatives will be presented effectively and attractively to viewers.


What to look for:
- Support for a variety of ad formats (e.g., skippable ads, non-skippable ads, bumper ads, etc.)
- Advanced ad technology that helps determine which social ads can be combined or should be run as separate campaigns for optimal delivery and to avoid internal competition
- Extensive knowledge of safe zones and ad specifications to ensure your creatives are displayed in the correct format without concealed information.
Efficiency in Cost and Budget Management
One of the issues with social media advertising services is the lack of knowledge, for instance, about the average CPM for an awareness campaign. It can be easy to get lost when managing ads in programmatic advertising, and it may be unclear whether costs can be optimized.
Inefficient budget allocation can result in poor cost efficiency and wasted ad spending. Therefore, an effective ad management services agency should help control costs while improving results.
What to look for:
- Tools and features that enable precise budget management, cost control, and optimization strategies to maximize ad spend efficiency.
- Tools to monitor campaign pacing to ensure the full campaign flight is delivering and spending at an efficient rate.
- Transparent pricing models and bidding strategies that align with campaign goals.
Alignment with Brand Safety Standards and Compliance with Ad Platforms
Another concern in digital marketing is ensuring that your brand’s advertising campaigns comply with each platform’s guidelines. It is also important to prevent ads from appearing alongside inappropriate or non-brand-safe content, which can damage your brand’s reputation.
For example, a school supplies brand should avoid having ads shown with alcohol or extreme activities content, while ads for a children’s charity should not appear with content related to war, drugs, or sexual material.
What to look for:
- Knowledge about brand safety measures and compliance with industry standards.
- Ad tech that provides content filtering, whitelisting/blacklisting capabilities, and is partnered with reputable brand safety organizations.
Once you identify your specific needs, the next step is to understand the strengths of these ad management services before inquiring. This is where Strike Social steps in, helping you address these concerns and turn them into your strengths.
Further Reading


Understanding Brand Safety in YouTube Advertising
A brand’s connection to unsuitable or irrelevant content can have negative consequences, pushing potential customers away. Discover how YouTube safeguards brands from such content and how you can implement these practices in your advertising strategy.
Social Media Solutions Offered by Strike Social’s Ad Management Tools
Strike Social proudly presents the capabilities embedded in our digital marketing software, Campaign Lab, which has powered thousands of successful campaigns. As we approach a decade of delivering high-level optimization and results, let’s explore the ad management services that Strike Social provides to our clients.
Combining the machine learning and AI capabilities of Campaign Lab with the expertise of our media buying teams, we ensure campaigns run efficiently and can adapt to necessary optimizations. Below are our proprietary technology tools and expert optimizations:
Precise Audience Targeting with Campaign Generator
- The Campaign Generator tool recommends a media plan and provides additional targeting options based on the campaign objectives. It analyzes input criteria to suggest the most effective budget allocations and audience segments, serving as a guideline for optimizing campaigns effectively.
- Once we input fields such as ad platform and format, campaign start and end dates, budget, main metric (e.g., CPM), and bid cap (e.g., Max CPM), the Campaign Generator provides recommended budget splits and maximum rates per audience group targeting.
- The data utilized in these recommendations is derived from historical data of previous successful campaigns. This information serves as an additional benchmark for media buyers, allowing them to make informed decisions toward improving campaign performance.


Gathering References from Previous Successful Campaigns
- Campaign Lab features a References tab that provides valuable insights, even if we haven’t run campaigns for a specific brand or client. This tab recommends references based on targeting, budget margins, and platform. These references can serve as a guide when optimizing campaigns during the management phase.
- For example, if we are running campaigns for an alcoholic beverage brand that is new to our system, despite not having run previous campaigns for this brand, Campaign Lab will provide us with references to other previous campaigns with similar campaign references, such as gambling, 18+, and the like. Thus, we can learn from successful strategies and avoid potential pitfalls based on past campaigns.
Setting Pricing Benchmarks with Data Insights
- The Data Insights feature provides a reference point for media buyers when determining pricing strategies. By inputting campaign specifics such as start and end dates, platform, budget, primary KPI, country/geo-targeting, and brand industry (if applicable), Campaign Lab offers insights into how metrics like CPM will perform.
- This information empowers media buyers to set appropriate campaign pricing, such as bid caps. It provides valuable benchmarks, including minimum CPM, maximum CPM, and median rates, allowing for better allocation of bid margins.
- When campaigns exceed expectations during the early stages, we communicate with clients to adjust the bid cap downwards. This transparent approach ensures clients know their campaigns’ strong performance while maintaining optimal profit margins.


Providing Suitable and Safe Channels for Your Ads
- During the planning phase of YouTube advertising campaigns, one key element of YouTube brand safety and suitability is making sure that ads only appear with content that you deem suitable for your brand. Within our ad management services tool, we have integrated the capability of providing suggested channels that are safe for your brand to run your ads with.
- The Channel Recommender analyzes target audience behavior and preferences to suggest appropriate channels for YouTube ads.
- It provides a list of channels for targeting through placement or custom affinity. Additionally, we have integrated an automatic exclusion feature for YouTube Kids’ channels to prevent ads from appearing in those placements.
- Our media buying teams then scan through the provided channels to ensure they are currently active.
Ensuring Even Budget Distribution and Optimal Results
- Our digital marketing experts regularly use the Pacing Dashboard to monitor campaign pacing and performance, ensuring the correctness of parameters and creatives, maintaining optimal ad delivery, and making real-time adjustments to bids and budgets.
- This ad management tool helps meet campaign targets within the specified time frame, identify and rectify discrepancies early, and optimize overall campaign effectiveness.
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Partner up with a SWAS (Software with a Service) AdTech agency that enhances your campaign results by 10-20%.
See how Strike Social can function as an extension of your in-house marketing team.
How Strike Social’s Ad Management Services Deliver Results
Strike Social’s ad management tools and expert media buying teams have achieved remarkable results across thousands of successful campaigns. Here are some standout examples showcasing the effectiveness of our solutions:
YouTube Advertising Solutions for Aquarium Park Sign-Ups and Sales
By utilizing YouTube VAC, the team effectively engaged mobile-centric users and ensured that the most effective ad placements were focused on for budget.
With optimal campaign pacing using our Pacing Dashboard, our media buying experts were able to monitor how the spending is tracking to ensure that both spending and returns are maximized throughout the campaign flight, driving the performing ad creatives to achieve more clickthroughs and conversions for the campaign.
3M+
Impressions
20K+
Campaign Clicks
2K+
Conversions
Facebook Advertising for a Fitness Club Using DMA Geo-Targeting
The Facebook campaign aimed to drive sign-ups to their fitness club across their 200+ locations. By ensuring our ad management tool targets only the desired locations, we focused on demographics and location to attract highly qualified leads with strong sign-up intent.
With a clear understanding of the target audience, we utilized our ad management services tool to create the audience profile without manual research.
300K+
Sign-ups
1.5M+
Campaign Clicks
700M+
Impressions
Maximizing Video Views for an HVAC Brand’s YouTube Campaigns
Recognizing Canada’s strong sports culture, we tailored our strategy to target sports audiences for an HVAC brand. By using YouTube Video View Campaigns (VVC) along with Custom Intent and Custom Affinity audiences, we achieved impressive view rates and engagement levels, even for a non-sports brand.
11M
Completed video views
81%
Video View completion rate
40%
Lower CPV for Skippable ads
How Can Our Ad Management Services Help You?
The expertise of our media buyers, combined with the advanced data science in our social media advertising tools, makes Strike Social a trusted social media advertising agency for brands in the US and worldwide.
Whether you need support for a seasonal campaign or a year-round advertising strategy, our ad management services can meet your needs. Contact us to discuss the type of social media advertising services you require, and we will provide a personalized walkthrough to help you achieve your brand’s goals.
For quicker results, request a demo and one of our sales representatives will reach out within 24-48 hours.
Strike Overview
- As we approach the U.S. presidential election, 2024 political ad spending is projected to rise by nearly 30% compared to 2020.
- This surge is already evident across various traditional and digital marketing channels, creating a competitive space in social media advertising.
- For non-political advertising agencies, this means anticipating increased competition for ad space and higher costs as the election draws nearer.
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Recent developments are poised to significantly change the trajectory of the elections and political advertising in general. To make informed decisions about your ad strategies and budget allocations, we must first analyze the key events and what they mean for the 2024 political ad spending trends.
What Are the Major Events Impacting 2024 Political Ad Spending?
Several events have already influenced – and will continue to influence – political ad spending during this U.S. election cycle. Currently, the projected U.S. political ad spend for 2024 is expected to exceed $12 billion, reflecting a 24% increase from the 2022 midterm elections. However, given the dynamics of recent political events, there is still potential for significant changes as we approach election day.
June 27: The First Presidential Debate Sparks Hesitation Among Biden Supporters
The initial presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden revealed notable weaknesses in the latter’s performance. His lackluster delivery, characterized by a hoarse voice and unclear responses, raised concerns among his supporters.
“What we witnessed was a very ill Joe Biden struggling to make sense of his own jumbled and meandering thoughts.” – Sean Tully, Baltimore | “Why hasn’t President Biden been evaluated… so we can all know… about his state of health and his ability to carry out his duties as president?” – Susan Talbott, Tuscany-Canterbury | “Biden’s problems aren’t momentary and aren’t merely because of a bad debate performance.” – Harry Enten on X |






July 13: Attempted Assassination of Former President Trump During Pennsylvania Rally
As Republican presidential nominee Trump spoke during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, multiple shots were fired toward his direction, barely missing him, with one of the shots injuring him on his right ear. Trump was pronounced safe, but the incident has been classified by the FBI as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
July 16: Dismissal of One of the Three Remaining Criminal Cases Against Trump
In mid-July, Former President Donald Trump was cleared of one of the three remaining criminal cases against him. This dismissal follows a different fate in another case: a conviction on 34 felony counts related to the 2016 election.
Despite these convictions, Trump’s ability to continue his presidential campaign remains intact, especially as sentencing has been postponed until September.




July 21: President Joe Biden Drops Out of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race
President Joe Biden, initially committed to running for re-election, officially withdraws from the 2024 presidential race. Biden has since nominated Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic presidential candidate.
July 23: Vice President Kamala Harris Steps In as the Democratic Nominee
Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. With this endorsement, Harris is set to challenge Former President Donald Trump and four independent and third-party candidates.
Budget Allocation in U.S. Political Ad Spending for 2024
Given the significant events that have already occurred and the many more expected leading up to the election, how will the budget for political ad spending be allocated? With increased funding for both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, we need to step back and examine the overall distribution of funds for the 2024 political ad campaigns.
Has a U.S. Election Candidate Dropped Out Before?
Advertisers should not be surprised by Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. This is not the first time a major candidate has exited the race close to the election. In 1972, Democratic candidate George McGovern’s running mate, Thomas F. Eagleton, withdrew and was replaced by Sargent Shriver just three months before the election. The Democratic ticket of George McGovern and Shriver lost in a landslide election defeat to Republican President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew.
In Kamala Harris’s case, this shift signifies a reallocation of the Democratic Party’s ad spending budget. With Election Day just over three months away, Harris faces a compressed timeline to transition the Biden-Harris campaign to focus on her candidacy. This will likely lead to a more concentrated and targeted ad spending strategy to maximize impact in the limited time available.
How Will the Democratic Party Adjust Their Campaign Strategy and Rebranding?
Under Biden, Democratic ad spending was expected to ramp up from September to October. With Harris taking over, spending is expected to increase much earlier. Harris has already raised $200 million for her campaign and is set to inherit $100 million from the Biden-Harris campaign. This rapid fundraising effort will likely result in a significant push in ad spending to rebrand and promote her candidacy.
Historical Perspective on Political Ad Spending
Along with traditional advertising mediums, digital advertising for political campaigns is expected to rise, accounting for 25% of total spending on presidential advertisements and other political ads.


CTV and Digital Political Advertising on the Rise
The 2024 Olympics and political ad spending are major drivers of CTV advertising’s growth this year. While broadcast and cable are still projected to receive the highest budget allocations for 2024 political ad spending, CTV is expected to account for up to 45% of the digital ad spending budget, with social media advertising at 17.5%.
Google TV and YouTube TV ads are the top destinations for increased CTV spending, primarily due to their extensive reach.


Social Media’s Role in Digital Marketing for Politicians
Despite paid social media advertising accounting for a small portion of the total political ad spending for 2024, it remains a key medium for candidates to promote themselves and their parties. Many U.S. adults are wary of using their information for political advertising and believe social media platforms should not allow such ads.
This creates limited space for political advertising on social media. However, this also presents an opportunity for those willing to navigate the restrictions, as there may be less competition in the social media ad space.
Platform | Allowed | Allowed with restrictions | Not allowed |
---|---|---|---|
✔ (authorization required) | |||
✔ (authorization required) | |||
YouTube | ✔ (verification required) (with targeting restrictions) | ||
TikTok | ✘ | ||
X (Twitter) | ✔ | ||
✘ | |||
Snapchat | ✔ | ||
✘ |
Further Reading


Is Pausing October Ads the Right Move as Election Season Intensifies?
As the 2024 election draws closer, ad auction costs are set to rise with the influx of political campaign ads, especially with 50% of political ad spend expected in the final 30 days before election day. Explore data and insights to assess whether advertising during this October surge in political spending is worth the investment.
What Advertisers Should Be Aware of Amidst the Surge in Digital Political Ad Spending
This information is not just for political advertising agencies; digital media buyers in general must be aware of these movements in the digital ad space to position their advertising strategies effectively. Here are the key strategies and considerations for media buyers and advertisers during the height of political ad spending on paid advertising platforms.
Swing States Likely to Increase Political Ad Spend
A “swing state” is a U.S. state that can likely determine or turn over the results of the presidential election, possibly due to unbridled support for one candidate or extremely high poll results leading to the election. In 2016, Trump won 7 out of 11 swing states against Hillary Clinton.
This year, six swing states are being considered:
- Arizona
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Nevada
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
As of May 2024, here’s how the ad spend for these states has been going:


The Democratic Party, led by Kamala Harris, has taken an early lead with plans to invest $50 million in political advertising across six key states. Meanwhile, MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump group, is set to spend $32 million on negative campaign ads targeting Harris’ record as a prosecutor. These attacks will begin in her home states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona.
As Harris’ poll numbers rise among Pennsylvania voters, the competition for ad spend in this state is expected to intensify.
What This Means for Media Buyers:
Geo-targeting-wise, the impact of political campaigns on your brand’s existing campaigns can drive CPM rates higher, especially leading up to the election peak periods.
If budget is an issue, nationwide brands can focus ad spending on non-swing states, where the competition will be lighter on the political ad side and similar to non-political periods.
Here are our CPM projections on how political ad spending will affect CTV advertising costs in the months leading to the 2024 US presidential election:
As shown above, CPM costs are projected to rise from September to October due to heightened political ad spending. Traditionally, October is a peak month for efficiency in Q4, but the surge in political advertising is expected to drive up costs during this period.
CPM costs are anticipated to decline in November, particularly in the final week before Election Day. This decrease is attributed to platforms like Meta instituting bans on political ads during the final week of the campaign and after the polls close, possibly lowering CPM costs at that time.
Quick tip to optimize ad spending:
When running a long-term campaign, utilize always-on advertising.
If you’re concerned about overspending, there’s no need to turn off your ads during the election period. Instead, reduce budgets and spending during this campaign duration for consistent performance, focusing on your top-performing ads and campaigns.
When the election period winds down, likely around November, you can increase your auction buys to get that extra push. You can achieve your desired results with proper campaign pacing while maintaining efficiency.
Capitalize on Targeting Strategies Restricted for Political Ad Campaigns
Depending on the social media advertising platform, several restrictions are imposed to balance advertising policies and the safety of user information. Regular paid advertising campaigns already have an edge against political advertising, as the latter faces multiple restrictions on audience targeting.
What This Means for Media Buyers:
For example, U.S. political campaign ads on Google and YouTube can only use the following targeting methods:
- Geographic location (except radius around a location)
- Age, gender
- Contextual targeting options such as ad placements, topics, keywords against sites, apps, pages, and videos
Thus, media buying teams should focus their ad spend on campaigns directed towards other targeting strategies such as:
- Interest targeting
- Household income
- Custom audience and segments
- Custom search terms
- First-party data such as website visitors, customer lists, etc.
Video Advertising on YouTube and CTV Will Be Maximized
CTV advertising for political ads received a huge leap from just 19% of the digital ad spend budget allocation in 2020, primarily because it provides a more targeted, personalized ad experience. Additionally, the completion rate for CTV ads can reach up to 96%, making it an excellent medium for ensuring video ads are fully viewed by audiences.
As competition for video ad placements increases on YouTube, YouTube TV, Google TV, and Connected TV, advertisers must adapt to maximize their media buys during the height of the 2024 political ad spending.
Strike Social has demonstrated the efficiency of CTV in YouTube campaigns, proving it to be the most effective medium even when compared to mobile platforms.
What This Means for Media Buyers:
CTV ad inventory is vast, including not only Google TV and YouTube TV but also major streaming apps like Pluto TV, Hulu, Crackle, and Netflix, along with CTV app devices like Roku, Chromecast, Firestick, Apple TV, and other connected devices.
If you haven’t expanded to CTV advertising yet, especially in YouTube campaigns, know how you can do so to broaden your reach and achieve increased efficiency.
Managing Your Ad Spending During the Political Campaign Season
The 2024 political ad spending surge is inevitable, and so is the increase in digital ad space spending. Brands and advertisers must be ready to adjust and adapt to the changing dynamics of the U.S. elections during this period.
While increased budgets and spending are projected, they can be managed effectively with the right media planning and support from a reliable social media advertising agency.
Contact our team today for a personalized walkthrough and see how Strike Social’s technology can help you achieve your desired results at efficient costs.
Strike Overview
- Did you know that using Meta Advantage+ placements can help your brand decrease CPM by up to 22% and reach 6% more people with the same spend?
- Since introducing the Advantage+ suite for Meta advertising in 2022, it has been developed for various campaign types to help advertisers optimize their campaigns more efficiently. One advancement is Meta Advantage+ placements, which distribute ads across all placements available in the Meta network.
- But is it always the best choice? When should you opt for Meta Advantage+ placements, and when should you choose manual placements?
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What Are Meta Advantage+ Placements?
We must understand its meaning to determine whether Meta Advantage+ placements are right for you. Advantage+ placements are part of Meta’s complete campaign solutions, using AI to maximize each ad impression and exposure on the Meta platforms.
What Are the AI Solutions Within the Meta Advantage+ Suite?
Here are the various Meta Advantage+ functions advertisers can utilize in ad campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Meta Audience Network.
Meta Advantage Solutions | Purpose | Function |
---|---|---|
Advantage campaign budget | Budget Automation | Distributes your budget across ad sets based on performance. |
Advantage+ audience | Audience Targeting | Utilizes Meta’s AI to find your audience matching your selected audience profile automatically. |
Advantage custom audience | Audience Targeting | Builds custom audiences from website visitors, customer lists, app activity, etc. |
Advantage lookalike | Audience Targeting | Builds custom audiences from website visitors, customer lists, app activity, etc. |
Advantage detailed targeting | Audience Targeting | Provides advanced targeting options to expand where Meta’s AI sees better performance beyond basic demographics such as location, age, and gender targeting. |
Advantage+ placements | Audience Targeting | Automatically selects the best ad placements within the Meta ads network to maximize performance. |
Further Reading


Explore the Benefits of Using Meta Advantage+ Catalog Ads
Meta Advantage+ catalog ads automatically adjust elements like creative and placements for products that capture customer interest. When a customer engages with a product from your catalog, Meta creates a targeted ad designed to increase appeal. This feature enhances your advertising strategy by driving more effective engagement and sales.
Where Will Your Ads Appear with Meta Advantage+ Placements?
Depending on your campaign objective, your ads can appear in various placements and formats across Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta ads platforms.
When Should You Use Meta Advantage+ Placements?
Now that you know which platforms and placements your ads can appear on, as well as which objectives and ad formats are compatible with Advantage+ placements, it’s time to determine if it’s the right fit for your brand and advertising goals.
If you meet one or more of the following criteria, we recommend turning on Meta Advantage+ placements to maximize your advertising efforts on Meta platforms fully.
New to Facebook and Instagram Advertising
- For advertisers new to the platform who lack sufficient data to determine effective placements, Advantage+ placements utilize Meta’s extensive data and algorithms to identify the best ad placements automatically.
- This way, you can rely on Meta’s AI to distribute your campaigns across all available placements based on your ad format and objective. Meta will gather data to help you determine which placements work best.
- For instance, if you’ve been advertising more on YouTube and TikTok with video ads, Advantage+ placements can help identify the most effective ad placements within Meta’s advertising ecosystem.
Testing New Placements
- If you want to experiment with new placements or ad formats within the Meta Business Suite, Advantage+ can automatically include them in your campaign and measure their effectiveness.
- For example, if you have been primarily advertising on Instagram and are considering expanding to Facebook ads to acquire a new audience, such as promoting a new line of mocktails for a younger demographic, Advantage+ placements can help determine if Facebook placements are worth adding to your media plan or if maximizing Instagram ad placements would be more effective.
Download our 2024 Facebook CPLC Case Study
See how Strike Social used Facebook Reels and Carousel ads to highlight the brand’s reputation for stylish, durable automatic watches at competitive prices. By strategically allocating budget and selecting optimal ad formats, the campaign achieved a CPLC 34.69% below the guaranteed rate, proving the power of smart ad placements.



Expand Ad Reach for Awareness and Traffic Campaigns
- Advantage+ placements can significantly boost your ad’s exposure when you aim to generate traffic or reach new audiences. By distributing ads across multiple platforms, Advantage+ placements help enhance both reach and engagement.
- The main purpose of Advantage+ placements is to broaden the visibility of your ads by displaying them across more locations within the Meta Audience Network. This means your ads will reach a larger audience, including users of mobile apps and websites beyond Facebook and Instagram.
- Though there isn’t a specific list of apps and websites within the Meta Audience Network, applying Advantage+ placements ensures your ads are seen in diverse digital environments, expanding your reach far beyond Meta’s own platforms.


When Should You Choose Manual Ad Placements Over Advantage+?
Manual ad placements can be advantageous when your advertising goals on Meta require a more tailored approach. If your objectives or concerns align with the following points, consider using manual placements:
Specific Placement Goals
- When you have specific goals for particular placements, choosing manual placements provides better control and precision, allowing for more targeted optimization.
- For instance, if your brand’s strategy revolves around video ads and you’ve seen positive results from this format, manual ad placement allows you to focus exclusively on high-performing Meta ad placements like Reels ads and other video-centric options.
Low-Quality Actions
- If you notice that certain placements are resulting in low-quality actions or conversions, such as accidental clicks or clicks from bots, it may be wise to exclude those placements manually. The algorithm does not inherently recognize low-quality clicks, so manual adjustments are necessary.
- For example, a study by a major B2B company found that while Meta Advantage+ helped them acquire more leads, their quality was lower than those leads acquired through traditional targeting and placement controls. In such cases, manually managing placements can help you focus on channels that yield higher-quality results.
Leads | Qualified leads | % of Qualified leads | |
---|---|---|---|
Advantage+ | 211 | 12 | 5.68% |
Manual targeting 1 | 141 | 20 | 14.18% |
Manual targeting 2 | 105 | 39 | 37.14% |
Controlling Cost Efficiency
- Manual placement offers more control over budget allocation. Since Advantage+ placements aim to maximize ad exposure, they can also lead to increased spending.
- Like Meta’s Campaign Budget Optimization technology, your budget is managed by Meta’s AI, which may limit your ability to control how your budget is distributed across different placements. If maintaining tight control over your budget is crucial, manual placements can help you allocate funds more precisely and avoid potential overspending.
Advanced Meta Advertisers
- Manual placement offers more flexibility and control for experienced media buyers with a deep understanding of their target audience and Meta’s platforms.
- Having granular control and the ability to make adjustments as needed is advantageous when working with an expert social media advertising agency. With specialized media buying teams optimizing your campaigns around the clock, you can achieve greater results while managing costs effectively. This ensures your Meta advertising is set up for success, even without relying on Meta Advantage+ placements.
Contact Us
Discover how a SWAS AdTech partner like Strike Social can help your campaigns achieve up to 20% better results.
Further Reading



Guide to Meta Ad Sizes: Ensure Your Creatives Fit Every Placement
Meta ad sizes and specifications differ by ad type and placement. Advertising on Meta opens up multiple placements across Facebook, Instagram, and other apps within the Meta network. Make sure your creatives are sized right to capture audience attention across all placements.
Opting In and Out of Meta Advantage+ Placements
You can set up your campaigns once you determine whether to use Meta Advantage+ or manual placements. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you configure your Meta ad placements before the campaign launch:
How to Turn On Meta Advantage+ Placements
- Log in to Meta Ads Manager. Ensure you are logged into your Facebook account and have access to the Ads Account on which you will be setting up the campaign.
- Click Create at the Campaign level, then choose your campaign objective.
- For the campaign setup, choose Manual campaign.
- Proceed with the usual campaign setup. At the campaign level, you can decide whether to turn on the Advantage campaign budget (formerly campaign budget optimization) before moving to the Ad set level.
- You can toggle between Advantage+ and manual placements on the Ad set level. The default setting is Advantage+ placements. To keep Advantage+ placements active, do not make any changes.
- Continue with the rest of your campaign and ad setup.
How to Turn Off Advantage+ Placements and Switch to Manual Ad Placement
- Follow steps 1-4 as outlined above.
- Once on the Ad set level, scroll to the Placements section and click Edit to switch to manual ad placement.
- Toggle the button to turn off Advantage+ placements and click on Manual placements.
- You can choose the specific ad placements you want within Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the rest of the Meta Audience Network.
- Once you have selected your desired placements, proceed with the rest of your campaign and ad setup.
It’s best to decide upfront which option is best for your campaigns, as changing your ad placement setup mid-campaign can disrupt the learning phase and lead to inconsistent ad performance. By determining the best ad placement strategy before the campaign flight, you can steer your campaigns more effectively and develop a clearer plan for optimizing results.
Is Advantage+ Really Beneficial for Your Meta Campaigns?
Are you ready to leverage the power of Advantage+? You’ve seen various perspectives, and by now, you should be able to evaluate whether Meta Advantage+ placements can truly enhance your brand’s results. The next step is to test it and determine how much control you need over your campaigns versus letting Meta’s AI optimize your ad placements. The real answer lies in taking action.
If you have questions about using Meta Advantage+ for your campaigns and how Strike Social can combine our expertise with AI to drive better results for your brand, reach out to our team for a personalized walkthrough of our tools and technology.
Strike Overview
- Just a few days after the big event, how can advertisers continue driving post-Amazon Prime Day sales? This event holds significant importance for retailers and consumers, as it generated approximately $1.8M in purchases on average within the first day of its two-day duration.
- This year, 36.87% of U.S. online shoppers seized Prime Day deals, particularly in October—just months ahead of the 2024 holiday advertising peak.
- Given the momentum Prime Day generates for retail advertisers, maintaining consumer interest beyond the event itself is essential. See Strike Social’s tips and strategies to maximize sales beyond Amazon Prime Day 2024.
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Now that you’ve successfully shipped off many orders and achieved substantial sales during Amazon Prime Day, it’s time to reassess your inventory stocks and strategize how to push the excess stock using paid social media advertising. Whether you have high inventory levels remaining or simply want to maintain the momentum from Amazon Prime Day, we’ve compiled these tips to extend your post-Amazon Prime Day sales well beyond the event.
5 Tips to Maximize Your Sales After Amazon Prime Day Ends
Retaining interest and keeping Amazon shopping purchases flowing can be a significant challenge after major retail events like Halloween, Thanksgiving, or the 4th of July. Consumers typically tighten their purse strings and wait for big discount events like Amazon Prime Day in the summer, the back-to-school season, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
According to Salesforce’s data, 23% of all online holiday sales occur during Cyber Week, with average discounts reaching up to 27% of unit prices. However, sales remain steady seven weeks before the peak retail holiday and even four weeks afterward.
Here are five tips to keep up the momentum, secure Amazon shopping cart checkouts, and seal the deal on those Prime Day sales.
1. Analyze Your Amazon Prime Day Sales Data
Once Amazon Prime Day concludes, the first step is to evaluate the performance of your sales campaigns during the 48-hour event.
❓ Determine which ad or ad group received the most link clicks.
❓ Identify which ad or ad group generated the highest engagements.
❓ Evaluate which ad format was most effective for each product or collection.
Understanding the success of your top Amazon Prime Day ads will guide your strategy for effectively marketing the remaining inventory.
Let’s convert this data analysis into a visual to offer a clearer view:


Based on this data, here are quick insights and recommendations to improve your post-Amazon Prime Day sales campaigns:
- Refine Targeting:
- Luxury: Expand targeting beyond the top 10-20% HHI bracket. Consider broader income brackets or interests like art and travel that align with luxury watch buyers.
- Sport: Test different interests within the “outdoor activities” category (e.g., running, hiking, swimming).
- Bidding & Budget Adjustments:
- Classic: Given the high VR and CTR for several Classic Collection ads, consider increasing bids to capture more impressions and potential sales.
- For ads with consistently low CTR and engagement (e.g., Diamond-Studded Watches, All Sport Collection Watches), consider reallocating budget to better-performing ads or ad groups.
To further evaluate the effectiveness of your Amazon Prime Day ads, collaborate closely with your sales team to gather metrics such as:
- Items added to cart;
- Items purchased
These metrics provide insights into customer behavior post-Amazon Prime Day, helping refine strategies to maximize sales after the event. It’s crucial to correlate your ad performance with actual sales numbers to develop strategies that effectively boost your post-Amazon Prime Day sales.
Further Reading





Drive Holiday Sales with Post Engagement Campaigns
Meta’s data reveals that 55% of holiday shoppers were influenced by Meta technologies in their purchasing decisions. Discover how Facebook engagement strategies can turn broad audience reach into meaningful interactions and higher conversions during the holiday season.
2. Keep Your Amazon Prime Day Campaigns Active
Don’t slam the brakes on your Amazon Prime Day advertising campaigns. With the Amazon shopping data you gather after the two-day event closes, you should be able to make informed decisions about optimizing your campaigns to attract audiences for post-Prime Day deals.
Ad messaging and creative tip:
During Day 1 of Amazon Prime Day, 56% of shoppers waited for items to go on sale. Offer exclusive post-Prime Day deals or limited-time discounts to capitalize on lingering purchase intent.
Combine your in-demand products with your listed Amazon Prime Day products, which have ample inventory. This strategy allows you to engage individuals who expressed interest in your, for instance, high-priced items but were seeking complementary deals.




Audience targeting tip:
54% of customers doing their Amazon shopping will likely complete their purchase when they see a discounted price for items left in their abandoned shopping carts. To capitalize on this, focus on retargeting audiences who showed interest during the event but didn’t make a purchase. During your Amazon Prime Day campaign, gather enough data to create an audience list for remarketing immediately after the event.
For instance, if you used a landing page for your Amazon product links, ensure your platform pixel (e.g., Meta pixel) is installed to capture website visit data. This allows you to retarget users who clicked on your landing page and find similar customer profiles who are likely to choose you for their Amazon shopping.




Campaign optimization tip:
Maintain consistent campaign pacing throughout the entire campaign duration. Start your campaign before Amazon Prime Day 2024 and ensure it continues smoothly after the event concludes.
Allocate peak budget specifically for the 16th and 17th, with higher auction bids during Prime Day week. Afterward, adjust your bids to regular levels for consistent campaign delivery.
3. Sustain Brand Recall Post-Prime Day
After Amazon Prime Day concludes, leverage your campaign insights to drive future awareness and consideration-focused campaigns. If you’ve achieved your sales goals during this period, now is the time to ensure your brand remains prominent outside peak Amazon shopping seasons.
Awareness and consideration campaigns:
Aim for an effective frequency of ‘three-plus’ exposures. This means your ads should be seen by each audience member at least three times to ensure they leave an impact and are remembered.


One effective approach is using a Video Reach Campaign with targeted frequency settings, allowing your Amazon shopping ads to be shown up to 4 times weekly or 8 times monthly to the same viewer.
Sales campaign:
Did you know that after a customer’s first purchase, there’s a 27% chance they will buy again? This likelihood increases to 49% after their second purchase and jumps to 62% after their third. Don’t halt your sales efforts just yet — capitalize on post-Amazon Prime Day sales to clear excess inventory and retain customer loyalty.
Temptations, a cat treat brand, effectively utilized Amazon Prime Day to boost customer loyalty. During the 2023 event, they secured 74% of direct purchases, with the remaining 26% made through their Amazon store. Additionally, 28% of all purchases were from repeat buyers, showcasing the effectiveness of their promotional strategies.


4. Re-identify your Targeting Segments
A social media advertising team that optimizes your campaigns around the clock allows you to shift from broad to highly specific targeting once you identify successful market segments or demographic audiences. Conversely, you can broaden your audience to increase impressions or views.
Eliminate Irrelevant Placements, Boost Effective Ones
When running YouTube ads, analyze which topics and channel placements yield the best results for your Amazon shopping ads. Pause or remove placements that underperform during your post-Amazon Prime Day sales push. Conversely, optimize bids for YouTube channel placements, driving clicks and conversions to maintain top ad spots.


Which Household Device Worked Best?
Besides assessing keyword effectiveness and ad placements, you must evaluate which device targeting yielded the best results for your ads. Did mobile ads generate more traction, or did Connected TV viewers contribute to higher click-through rates and views?
Our Q2 2024 YouTube benchmarks reveal that ads delivered on Connected TV garnered 55% more impressions than ads delivered on other devices. Mobile devices followed closely, with a 38.2% share of impressions.
As the Connected TV (CTV) market expands, it demonstrates that targeting large-screen devices remains a viable and effective strategy. However, mobile devices continue to excel due to their accessibility and user-friendly nature.


Furthermore, Amazon Prime Day data from the event’s second day indicates that over 60% of average household spending fell within the $100 to >$200 range, with each order averaging $10 to $40. This suggests that consumers shop via mobiles and place multiple orders after discovering better deals or offers on different devices.


Understanding your top-performing devices enables strategic decisions post-Amazon Prime Day. Whether expanding to Google TV or focusing on mobiles, align your strategy with campaign data to maximize post-event sales before the next retail cycle.
Further Reading


Expand Your Audience with Google TV and YouTube CTV
As YouTube’s Connected TV inventory grows, media buyers aiming to connect with living room audiences should make Google TV and YouTube TV a core part of their media strategy.
5. Coordinate your Post-Amazon Prime Day Sales Strategy with The Team
Once you’ve gathered all campaign data and identified successful and unsuccessful strategies, you can convene with your client or agency to strategize for post-Amazon Prime Day sales.
Aligning your media buying team’s strategy with your target Amazon shopping sales is essential for maximizing your brand’s ROAS (return on ad spend) and achieving optimal results from your paid social media ad campaigns. This alignment ensures that both teams are on the same page. In contrast, the media buying team optimizes Amazon shopping ad performance using machine learning and AI; the sales team can provide insights and direction to enhance overall effectiveness.
A significant advantage is having a responsive media buying team capable of 24/7 optimization. At Strike Social, our teams leverage advanced technology and media buying expertise to achieve desired KPIs while optimizing costs. This approach ensures that your Amazon Prime Day advertising campaigns perform well even after the event, maintaining strong brand visibility and audience engagement.
Explore how Strike Social’s data-driven approach delivers measurable results for your campaigns. Contact us here and find out how our experienced team can help you reach your social media advertising goals.
Strike Overview
- Have you already launched your back-to-school ad campaigns? You may have noticed the influx of shoppers as early as June, with a significant spike expected from August to September.
- As the peak of this retail season approaches, it’s not just about generating impressions and views for your back-to-school ads on social media. The ultimate goal is to attract audiences, convert them into leads, and transform those leads into buyers.
- To achieve this, you need to guide your audience from simply knowing about your brand to making a purchase. Here are five strategies to maximize your profit markups this back-to-school and back-to-college season.
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5 Back-to-School Advertising Strategies That Generate Sales
The winter holidays may be the biggest advertising event throughout the year; however, back-to-school marketing promotions come to a close second. Hence, competition can be fierce as school and college necessities are among the first items that back-to-school shoppers seek. But you should be good to go if you have the right back-to-school ad strategy to tap into those markets and appeal to those interests.
Whether you’re running a back-to-school weekly ad for college dorm furniture or recurring social campaigns for the trendiest school bags, these strategies for your back-to-school ad campaigns are designed to drive your audience from their screens to their shopping carts.


1. Develop Funnel-Focused Campaigns
Within the Meta platform, Facebook has allowed brands to effectively promote their back-to-school ads, from raising awareness and building consideration to ultimately driving conversions.
By creating a well-structured funnel-focused campaign, you can guide your Facebook audience from becoming aware of your brand to increasing brand recall by targeting those who engage with your brand and similar brands.
The next step is to present them with engaging back-to-college and back-to-school ads that build trust. By featuring information about educational resources and specific programs, you can attract students who are looking to choose a college major, ultimately converting them into leads or buyers.


Here’s a sample media plan that takes your audience from awareness to conversion:


To optimize your back-to-school ads timeline, here’s a comprehensive breakdown of our Facebook benchmarks spanning Q2 to the start of Q3:


Using Advantage+ audience targeting, you can expand the reach of your back-to-college ad campaigns while applying detailed targeting options such as age, gender, interests, demographics, and behavior. Custom audiences, such as lookalikes and those based on Meta engagements, can also be utilized with Advantage+.


2. Implement Advanced Audience Targeting
Just as you can target sports audiences for a non-sports brand, you don’t need to be a back-to-school supplies brand to succeed during the back-to-school advertising season. YouTube, combined with Google’s advertising ecosystem, reaches up to 600M+ users and devices. While this reach is excellent for brand awareness, the ultimate goal is to narrow it down to funnel your audience toward conversions.
By leveraging YouTube and Google’s advanced targeting capabilities, you can optimize audience targeting to maximize your sales during the back-to-school and back-to-college season.
Get on the Big Screens
With families spending time at home during the summer break, it’s the perfect time to utilize Connected TV devices, which are present in 83% of U.S. households. This year, the top back-to-school shopping destination remains online, with 57% of shoppers expected to shop from their desktop computers or mobile phones.


Expand the Summer Sales
Target “summer” searches and interests while integrating summer themes into your ads to blend with users’ searches and browsing activity.




Shoppers have already started as early as the 4th of July, with others waiting until Labor Day. These periods provide the best opportunities to capture shoppers’ attention and drive purchases for school and college supplies.
Further Reading



5 Winning Strategies for Your Fourth of July and Summer Ads
No matter your industry, there are countless ways to make your Fourth of July campaigns shine. Stay ahead of the competition this summer with our expert tips for creating engaging and impactful holiday ads.
3. Excluding Negative Keywords and Topics
With regard to YouTube brand safety and suitability, it is imperative to remain informed about any potentially adverse issues that may arise, particularly when employing a specific geo-targeting strategy. It is essential to avoid any association with negative news or controversial topics, as such headlines can harm brand perception and reputation.
Video & Channel Placement Exclusions
You can exclude your ads from appearing on news channels. While news channels can be an effective way to reach parents, they can also negatively impact your brand if your back-to-school ads are shown alongside undesirable news.


Additionally, exclude your ads from YouTube Kids channels to prevent unintended clicks that can skew your ad performance.


Negative Keyword Targeting
Similar to keyword targeting, you can create a list of negative keywords that you don’t want your ads to appear with. Set this up at the account level to apply a default set of negative keywords to all your back-to-school and back-to-college YouTube campaigns.




You can also create negative keyword lists at the campaign and ad group levels.


Category Exclusions
Using category exclusions in YouTube ads gives you greater authority over the contexts in which your advertisements are displayed. By excluding categories like tragedy and conflict, profanity, rough language, sexually suggestive content, and other sensitive topics, you can ensure that your back-to-college and back-to-school ads appear alongside content that better aligns with your brand’s image and values.






4. Boost Your Sales Using Spark Ads and UGC
Spark Ads on TikTok allow brands to promote User-Generated Content (UGC) and their own organic content as sponsored ads within the platform. According to TikTok’s data, Spark Ads have a 20% higher landing page arrival rate than non-Spark Ads. Additionally, brand recall on TikTok increases by up to 27% when brands partner with TikTok influencers.
Further Reading



Promote User-Generated Content with TikTok Spark Ads
With TikTok Spark Ads, you can boost visibility for your own videos or those from content creators by turning them into promoted ads. Discover how to leverage influencer-generated content to reach a wider audience on TikTok.
- Promote Trust: Utilize content from TikTok users who post about your product or service to build trust in your brand.
- Provide Authenticity: Showcase authentic experiences with your brand, enhancing credibility.
- Foster Collaborations: Develop good relationships and potential collaborations with TikTok users who can promote your brand to their audience.
For example, a mini printer brand showcased its product by demonstrating how cleanly it prints a skeletal system diagram, which the student in the video could easily stick to their notes.
Another example is a portable stove pot, where a college student shows how easy it is to prepare a quick meal without leaving the dorm bed.


Quick Tip: Increase TikTok Ad Engagement with Back-to-School Hashtags
To keep your TikTok video ads visible in related school and college searches, make sure to include relevant hashtags. We recommended including the following key hashtags in your organic posts, particularly when you intend to utilize them for Spark Ads campaigns:
#backtoschool
#schoolsupplies
#schoollife
#firstdayofschool
#backpack
5. Maintain Brand Recall with Proper Campaign Pacing
Utilize always-on advertising to keep your brand top of mind for back-to-school shoppers. While you don’t need to be the top bidder or show up constantly, it’s crucial to be visible during peak back-to-school sale days. With proper campaign pacing and strategic timing, you can maintain a consistent presence on users’ feeds, increasing your impact when they decide to purchase.
Take note of these peak retail events, during which 68% of shoppers plan to make their purchases for school and college supplies. These are the times to increase bids within your campaign duration:
- 4th of July
- Prime Day
- Labor Day
Boost Your Returns with Effective Back-to-School Sales Ad Campaigns
As you prepare, launch, and monitor your campaigns during the back-to-school marketing season, remember that while all funnel stages are important, the ultimate goal is to generate sales and keep the cycle going. To ensure your social media advertising efforts pay off, you must partner with experts who can help you maximize your profits by optimizing your campaigns for better results.
At Strike Social, our goal is to drive results for your campaigns. With over 10 years of successful campaign data, we help you achieve your goals by setting up tailored segments based on data science and ensuring transparency in outcomes. We can help you maximize your campaign performance on YouTube and other biddable social platforms. Contact us here to discuss how we can boost your sales campaigns.
Strike Overview
- Digital marketing has become indispensable, with 97% of consumers checking a company’s online presence before purchasing or visiting the business.
- Social advertising is a top priority, commanding up to 53% of marketing budgets, followed closely by digital video advertising at 51% and influencer marketing at 49%.
- Therefore, our media buying teams must stay current with the latest digital marketing and advertising trends in 2024.
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We prioritize regular training sessions to ensure our strategies are up-to-date and aligned with the newest updates on the paid social media ad platforms we manage for our clients.
Our annual media buyer training has commenced, and we are excited to share the key highlights and insights from our digital marketing training with you.
Strike Social’s Key Digital Marketing Training Modules
Our expert leads have compiled the latest updates in digital marketing across various social media advertising platforms. Here’s a detailed look at each training session, the best practices shared, and the critical updates discussed.
Reviewing YouTube Advertising Strategies


Beyond the insights from Google Marketing Live, we aim to keep our YouTube media buyers and digital marketing teams informed of the latest updates and best practices. We reviewed current practices within our digital marketing and advertising agency and highlighted new YouTube advertising trends and tools that our media buyers should anticipate.
Raising the Bar on Digital Advertising Campaigns on YouTube
Our experts discussed the various campaign types we endorse as part of the YouTube strategy within our digital marketing agency. Given the diverse client goals, our media buyers must be well-versed in the different video advertising campaigns available on YouTube. This allows them to select the most compatible campaigns to achieve specific objectives.
Identify the unique comparisons that distinguish various YouTube campaign types from one another:
Campaign Type | Placements | Reporting | Targeting |
---|---|---|---|
Video Reach Campaigns (VRC) | Can select single placement | Segmentable delivery reporting (skewed if only one placement is chosen) | All targeting options available |
Video View Campaigns (VVC) | Fixed – multi-ad format placement | Segmentable delivery reporting | All targeting options available |
Video Action Campaigns (VAC) | Fixed – multi-ad format placement | No segment in delivery reporting | All targeting options available except contextual targeting |
Audience Targeting Updates
The Audience Manager tool in Google Ads aids our YouTube media buyers in organizing distinct audience groups for various campaigns. This eliminates the recurring task of manually setting up audience targeting for each campaign, saving our media buyers valuable time. As a result, they can swiftly proceed with the subsequent steps.
Our YouTube expert provided valuable insights on audience targeting setup during the digital marketing training. Here’s a summary of the key updates shared:
- If you want to target audiences based on interests, purchase intentions, or Google search terms, you can save them as Custom segments. You can also expand a Custom segment by including individuals who browse similar websites or use similar apps that you choose.




- The Custom segment you create can then be added to the Audience list, which includes all audience targeting setups established by our media buyers for a particular YouTube advertising campaign they will launch for the client.
Note: If you want to test a Custom segment on the Reach planner before starting the campaign draft, save it first so it appears on the Reach planner platform.
- In addition to website visitors and activity, brands can also remarket to audiences who have previously interacted with their YouTube channel. To do this, brands must link their YouTube channel to their Google Ads account so that media buyers can use this retargeting feature when setting up video campaigns.


Questions from Our YouTube Media Buyers
Why is my 6-second ad not delivering on bumper ad placement?
- Bumper ads must be strictly 6 seconds or less. Even a millisecond over will disqualify the ad.
- Aim for a maximum length of 5.9 seconds to be safe.
Is household income targeting available to all locations?
- No, household income targeting is only available in select locations and varies depending on the campaign type (Display, Demand Gen, Search, Video):


- Income ranges used to target ads are as follows: “Top 10%,” “11-20%,” “21-30%,” “31-40%,” “41-50%,” “Lower 50%,” and “Unknown.”
- Note that the “Unknown” category is only relevant if you want to reach people whose household income is not known.
- Although the actual income levels for these ranges are not publicly available, you can contact your Google advertising partner for more details.
TikTok Marketing for Advanced Media Buyers


Compared to more established digital marketing platforms such as YouTube and Meta, TikTok is still relatively new for our media buyers. Consequently, TikTok frequently updates its platform to compete with the advanced features of YouTube and Meta’s ad managers. Here are the essential points we discussed with our TikTok media buyers during the digital marketing training sessions:
Understanding TikTok’s Learning Phase
The learning phase for TikTok ad campaigns can extend longer than that for other platforms. Typically, this phase lasts around 10 days, during which TikTok’s ad delivery system experiments to identify the most effective audience and optimize performance. To successfully exit the learning phase, TikTok aims for at least 50 conversions within this period.
In contrast, Meta’s learning phase generally lasts 7 days or requires 50 optimization events, while YouTube’s learning phase is much shorter, spanning 1-3 days.
Expansion of TikTok Ad Targeting Capabilities
TikTok offers a growing suite of targeting options to help media buyers reach the right audience. In addition to traditional audience targeting, keyword targeting is now available, allowing for more precise audience filtering. TikTok Search Ads, in particular, leverage this capability to connect with users who are actively searching for specific terms.
A recent update in TikTok marketing introduced negative keyword match types, allowing media buyers to exclude specific keywords from their campaigns. This exclusion can be done through:
- Broad match,
- Phrase match, and/or
- Exact match.
This feature helps avoid irrelevant impressions and acts as a crucial TikTok brand safety measure, preventing associations with sensitive or harmful content.
6-Second Views vs. 6-Second Focused Views
The Focused View campaign objective, introduced in Q3 2022, improves on other TikTok marketing objectives. With Focused View, advertisers only pay when a user watches an ad for at least 6 seconds or engages with it within the first 6 seconds rather than merely viewing it. This metric ensures more meaningful interactions and better ROI for our digital marketing and advertising agency.


Ad Budget Management on TikTok
Aside from setting up a campaign or ad set budget, TikTok requires you to add funds through the Finance section on the TikTok Business Center.
To begin, navigate to the “Finance” section of the TikTok Ads Manager and link the ad account you are managing. From there, you can add funds to your account balance using a credit card or other supported payment method.


Mastering Digital Advertising in Meta Platforms


Through Meta, the combined reach of Facebook and Instagram offers advertisers a powerful digital marketing tool. Our experienced media buyers have extensively tested the newest features in Meta advertising and divulged their insights during the digital marketing training, detailing how these enhancements have elevated the campaigns within our digital marketing and advertising agency.
Meta Advantage’s Edge
Meta Advantage perfectly complements Strike Social’s AI and machine-learning capabilities. Similar to how our media buying teams utilize historical data for precise audience targeting, Meta Advantage uses its data to understand audience behavior and effectively apply these insights to your meta ad campaigns.
Here are the key Meta Advantage features that were included in our discourse:
Advantage+ App campaigns: In digital marketing, advancements in machine learning and AI algorithms aim to automate repetitive tasks and minimize manual labor. Meta’s AI, incorporated into Advantage+ app campaigns, assists in delivering higher-performing creative content for app promotion campaigns to more relevant audiences on more effective placements.
Furthermore, the campaign setup has been simplified, allowing media buyers to provide fewer inputs and create only one ad set with the capability of bulk ad creation. This means that advertisers can efficiently generate up to 50 ads simultaneously, eliminating the need for repetitive ad duplication.


Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: Designed for e-commerce businesses, Advantage+ shopping campaigns aim to maximize conversion likelihood, optimizing your advertising budget in the process. By generating multiple ad variations and evaluating their performance, Meta’s IG and FB ads management system ensures that the best-performing ads are deployed.
If your brand meets the following criteria, incorporating Meta Advantage into your digital marketing strategy can yield significant benefits:
- Growing your audience: If you aspire to expand your business, Advantage+ shopping campaigns are your trusted partner. Powered by machine learning, these campaigns optimize your ad delivery, ensuring your products reach a broader audience.
- Introducing new products or collections: Launching a new product or collection? Advantage+ shopping campaigns are the ideal solution. The system generates a range of ad variations, evaluating their performance with different audiences. The most effective variants are then strategically deployed in the market.
In addition to advanced campaign management, Advantage+ also offers the ability to optimize your budget. Discover more about Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization here.
Further Reading



Facebook Advertising Costs and Insights
Analyzing Facebook ad costs by campaign objectives provides valuable clarity, allowing agencies to allocate budgets effectively and support spending decisions with data-driven insights.
Additional Advantage+ Features for Media Buyers to Consider
Meta continues to allow media buyers to incorporate specific audiences into digital marketing campaigns but to maximize Meta’s capabilities, more Advantage+ features are available for use:
Advantage+ Audience: This feature utilizes Meta AI’s extensive flexibility, offering the largest potential audience and allowing your ads to reach a diverse range of viewers.
- Advantage Detailed Targeting: Broadens your campaign’s reach by allowing you to target a wider, relevant audience. Start by selecting specific interests, job titles, or other detailed targeting criteria that align with your desired audience. From there, this Advantage+ function automatically expands your targeting to include related audiences who may not meet the exact criteria but are nonetheless relevant to your brand.
- Advantage Custom Audience: Optimizes your ad delivery beyond the custom audience you initially defined. When you create a custom audience based on website visitors, for example, Advantage Custom Audience will show your ads to similar users who weren’t included in your original targeting. This optimization ensures that your ads reach a broader audience while maintaining relevance to your initial custom audience.
- Advantage Lookalike Audience: By using your customer list, Advantage Lookalike Audience enables the identification of additional users who share similar characteristics to your original lookalike. This can potentially enhance your campaign’s reach and performance by targeting a broader audience that aligns with your existing customer base.
Advantage+ Placements: By utilizing historical data and understanding your audience’s behavior, the system increases inventory availability, which lowers costs. Meta’s system can place your ads on multiple digital advertising platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Meta Audience Network partners, and other available placements. Ads Manager delivers your ads to all available placements, optimizing results across them.
Exploring the Vast Advertising Capabilities of DV360


Display & Video 360 (DV360), formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM), is a comprehensive, integrated platform that empowers a digital marketing agency to streamline and optimize advertising efforts. As a demand-side platform (DSP), DV360 revolutionizes how media buying teams acquire ad space, offering automated and efficient solutions for display, video, mobile, and search campaigns.
During our digital marketing training sessions, participants engaged in captivating discussions centered around the know-how of DV360. Explore the key takeaways and insights from these discussions right here:
Key Benefits of Using DV360 as a DSP
Automated Real-Time Bidding (RTB): DV360 enables RTB to automatically bid on ad inventory in real-time, ensuring brands get the best possible prices while reaching the target audience.
Wider Inventory Reach: Gain access to a vast network of premium publishers and ad exchanges, maximizing campaign reach and impact.
User Targeting: With DV360’s advanced targeting capabilities, you can reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and locations. These targeting options include those exclusive to DV360’s partnered networks, providing advertisers access to a diverse audience.
Reporting & Optimization: Through in-depth reporting and advanced analytics tools, media buying teams can gain valuable insights into campaign performance. This robust system empowers them to create data-driven reports and propose strategic optimizations.
Best Practices for Setting Up Campaigns on DV360
DV360’s interface can be overwhelming for media buyers who are still getting acquainted with the platform. As a crucial tool for digital advertising, DV360 requires a strategic approach to campaign setup. To assist media buyers, our digital marketing and advertising agency experts have compiled a guide with practical tips and tricks to help create effective campaigns on DV360.
Campaign Naming Conventions: When managing multiple campaigns for clients, media buyers must adopt specific and clear naming conventions to locate previous campaigns easily. Avoid using generic names like the “brand” alone. Here are some examples:
- Basic Structure:
- [Brand] – [Year] – [Month/Quarter]
- With Objective and Format:
- [Brand] – [Year] – [Month/Quarter] – [Objective] [Format]
- With Objective and KPI:
- [Brand] – [Year] – [Month/Quarter] – [Objective] [KPI]
Note: If the client has a preferred naming convention, try to obtain and use it. Aligning with the brand’s existing or previous campaigns can ensure consistency and clarity.
Managing Budget and Pacing: To ensure accurate tracking of budget utilization, media buying teams are encouraged to activate the “Show Actualized” option in DV360. With this setting enabled, DV360 displays the actualized budget for completed campaign segments, reflecting the actual amount spent.
This feature gives media buyers visibility into the remaining unspent budget available for reallocation to other segments. It’s essential to note that this budget should only be used after each campaign segment has concluded, allowing media buyers to make informed decisions about reallocating unspent funds.
Conversely, if “Show Actualized” is not ticked, DV360 will solely display the initial total budget, disregarding the funds expended. This can lead to miscalculations and overspending.
To illustrate this more clearly, see the example below:
Scenario | “Show Actualized” Enabled | “Show Actualized” Disabled |
---|---|---|
Campaign 1 Budget (Initial) | $10,000 | $10,000 |
Campaign 1 Spent | $8,500 | $8,500 |
Campaign 1 Remaining Budget | $1,500 | Not Calculated |
Campaign 2 Budget (New) | $1,500 | $1,500 |
Total Budget Displayed by DV360 | $10,000 | $11,500 |
Important notes:
- After a media buyer sees the actualized unspent amount for a segment, it must be manually reallocated to another campaign segment to take effect.
- Actualizing a budget segment while active will set its remaining budget to 0, stopping bidding for all line items until the next segment begins.
- Accurate unspent budget figures may be delayed up to 48 hours after a budget segment concludes.
In addition, DV360 provides various pacing options to customize how your budget is distributed throughout your campaign. To ensure that the pacing setting applies to the entire campaign duration, we recommend setting it to “Flight“.
When selecting a campaign pacing setting, you have three options:
- ASAP: This option prioritizes spending your budget as quickly as possible. While required for YouTube campaigns, it’s generally not recommended for real-time bidding (RTB) campaigns, as it may lead to budgets being exhausted too early within the campaign flight.
- Even: Even pacing distributed your budget evenly across the campaign period. For example, a $10,000 budget over 10 days would spend $1,000 per day.
- Ahead: This option front-loads 20% more of the ideal daily spending, aiming to exhaust the budget faster than even pacing. For instance, with a $10,000 budget over 10 days, it will spend $1,200 on the first day and adjust the remaining daily budget accordingly. This can be advantageous when advertising costs increase towards a month’s or quarter’s end.
Implementing Brand Safety Exclusions: By default, the following content labels should be excluded from digital marketing campaigns on DV360:
- DL-MA: Content suitable only for mature audiences.
- Not yet labeled: Content that has not been labeled.
For Strike Social’s media buying teams, we recommend excluding all sensitive categories. However, if we’re handling an alcohol brand campaign, for example, alcohol exclusions should not be ticked unless the client requests otherwise.


DV360 also allows the client to apply additional brand safety options with third-party verified partners. However, opting for these additional settings can lead to higher ad spend due to associated costs, including a CPM upcharge for each selected brand safety option. Thus, media buying teams must inform and guide clients to ensure full awareness before proceeding.
Strengthening Strategies with Ongoing Digital Marketing Training
At Strike Social, we foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, ensuring alignment and maintaining efficiency across our media buying teams in different markets. These sessions occur throughout the year, allowing the teams within our digital marketing and advertising agency to reconnect, foster interdepartmental connections, and stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends.
We prioritize our annual digital marketing training sessions for several key reasons:
Staying Ahead of the Trends
Digital marketing evolves rapidly, much like how viral videos swiftly gain millions of views. To address this fast-paced environment, we emphasize ongoing communication and updates between Strike Social and our partners. This allows our digital marketing and advertising agency to proactively respond to industry shifts and promptly relay them to media buying teams for immediate implementation in their advertising campaigns.
In addition to our annual digital marketing training, we keep our media buying teams informed with regular catch-ups and quick updates through our communication channels. Major digital advertising updates are also shared in our newsletter, which you can sign up for here.
Team Alignment and Collaboration
Empowering our teams with the latest knowledge on digital marketing platforms creates a more skilled, confident, and collaborative marketing team capable of achieving greater results.
Check out our recent case study, where our YouTube media buying teams successfully promoted a Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) while reducing CPM costs and increasing efficiency.
Fostering Human Connection
The annual digital marketing training provides valuable opportunities for personal interaction and relationship building within the team. While our media buying teams may have their own team communication, it’s important to achieve alignment with other media buying teams handling different campaigns and share best practices.
Investing in Success
Our digital marketing training is designed as a strategic investment that provides long-lasting advantages for both individual marketers and organizations. The enhanced optimizations and learned improvements gained from our training empower media buyers to analyze and incorporate new information. This newfound knowledge is then applied to the advertising campaigns we manage for our clients, resulting in increased effectiveness.
It’s a continuous cycle for our digital marketing and advertising agency that consistently delivers positive outcomes, contributing to the overall success of our clients’ advertising efforts.
By openly sharing our digital marketing training insights, we aim to build trust and transparency with our clients and partners. We want you to know the faces behind the campaigns, understand our processes, and see the dedication we bring to every project.
To learn more about our technology and how we can provide efficient results for your digital marketing campaigns, contact us today or request a walkthrough from our sales team.
Strike Overview
- Google TV is quickly becoming a key player in Connected TV (CTV) strategies, with U.S. CTV ad spend projected to reach $22.7 billion in 2024.
- In June 2024, Google TV joined the roster of platforms available for brands to advertise on through Google’s Connected TV network.
- YouTube TV is already a leading force and is anticipated to be the largest paid CTV platform by 2026. With Google managing both YouTube TV and Google TV, how can advertisers effectively differentiate their strategies to determine what works best for their brand?
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CTV advertising is becoming increasingly precise with the introduction of Google TV Ads. Google’s new advertising network transforms traditional television ad outreach by enabling more accurate targeting for digital streaming platforms. Streaming TV channels, Advertising-Based Video on Demand (AVOD), and Subscription-Based Video on Demand (SVOD) continuously dominate the living room, outperforming previously loved tubes.
Data from Nielsen shows a 17% decline in cable and broadcast viewing distribution from 2022 to Q1 of 2024. In contrast, digital streaming distribution grew almost twice as fast as the decline of traditional TV, increasing by 33% during the same period.
Marketers must adapt to the shift in TV viewing habits towards more controlled content consumption. When advertising on streaming platforms, it’s essential to consider the viewing environment. Content consumed on larger screens, such as Smart TVs, is well-suited for co-viewing. Digital streaming has popular live shows, including lifestyle, sports, and news content. Remember, Google TV content is different from your usual YouTube UGC videos.


Now that the viewing trends are leaning more toward digital platforms, YouTube is strategizing to boost its CTV (connected TV) traffic by integrating Google TV directly into Android-based smart TVs such as Sony, Philips, TCL, and Hisense. This integration will remove the need for an external device like Google Chromecast to access the Google TV platform, positioning YouTube to compete with other digital streaming platforms like Hulu and Roku.
With the expansion of the Connected TV (CTV) inventory, media buyers looking to extend their reach to living room viewers must incorporate Google TV and YouTube TV into their media plans. But aren’t Google TV and YouTube TV ads the same?
YouTube TV and Google TV Ads Differences and Similarities
Regarding videos targeting viewers interested in streaming content, Google and YouTube TV ads cater to different audience behaviors and provide distinct advantages.
The advantage for marketers is that both Google and YouTube TV ads serve as valuable extensions for expanding the reach and awareness of their YouTube campaigns. Let’s flesh out the differences and similarities between Google TV and YouTube TV ads.
What is a Google TV Ad?
Google TV Ads are in-stream video advertisements shown on the Google TV platform, enabling integration with smart TVs and streaming devices. These ads are displayed within an aggregated interface alongside other streaming applications like Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Disney+, and various live streaming channels.


What is a YouTube TV Ad?
YouTube TV ads are part of YouTube’s broader Google ecosystem and are available on its subscription-based live TV streaming service. With over 100 channels, YouTube TV includes the YouTube app, major networks, and cable channels, and provides a mix of skippable and non-skippable ad formats.
YouTube TV and Google TV Ads Similarities
1. Setup in Google Ads
Media buyers can set up both Google and YouTube TV ads on the Google Ads platform. This integration allows advertisers to create, monitor, and optimize their campaigns from a single interface, streamlining the advertising process and providing a unified reporting system for tracking video ad metrics.
2. Media Buyers Cannot Guarantee Specific Channel Placement
Advertisers cannot guarantee that their ads will appear on specific channels. Both platforms operate on a broader network level, where ads are distributed across various channels based on targeting parameters and auction outcomes. This approach ensures broad reach but limits control over specific placements.
Further Reading


Excluding Video and Channel Placements in YouTube Campaigns
When you run ads on Connected TV using Google Ads Manager, gaining visibility into ad placements can be challenging. Fortunately, for YouTube video ads, you have control over exclusions, allowing you to prevent ads from appearing on channels like Kids’ content or other categories that may not align with your brand’s values or goals.
3. Auction-Based Buying
Both Google and YouTube TV ads are bought through an auction-based system. Advertisers bid for ad placements, and the highest bidders win the slots. This system is designed to maximize the efficiency of ad spending, allowing advertisers to reach their target audiences while maintaining budget control.
4. Support for Traditional and Vertical Video Creatives
Both platforms support traditional horizontal video creatives as well as vertical video formats, offering advertisers the flexibility to tailor videos for diverse viewing experiences and maximize engagement across devices.
YouTube Shorts ad creatives are especially gaining popularity among CTV viewers, making it another reason why running Connected TV ads using the YouTube platform can effectively expand audience reach.
5. Measurable Performance
The performance of both YouTube and Google CTV Ads is measurable through detailed network reporting. Advertisers can track key metrics such as impressions, views, view-through rates, and clicks. This data-driven approach allows for continuous campaign optimization and pacing.
Download our YouTube CTV Case Study
Discover how a leading quick-service restaurant chain maximized YouTube’s Skippable TrueView In-Stream ads and CTV. With an Always-On strategy and dynamic creative rotations, Strike Social used advanced data science tools for daily optimizations, targeting CTV audiences with precision.


YouTube TV and Google TV Ads Differences
1. Ad Cost Models
Media buyers can only purchase Google TV Ads on a CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis. This model charges advertisers based on the number of impressions their ads receive, making it ideal for brand awareness campaigns where reach is a priority.
On the other hand, running Connected TV ads using YouTube TV offers both CPM and CPV (Cost per view) bases. The CPV model charges advertisers only when viewers watch their ads, providing a cost-effective option for performance-driven campaigns focused on viewer engagement.
2. Campaign Accessibility
Google TV Ads are available in Video Reach Campaigns, which include Efficient Reach and Non-Skippable Reach sub-campaigns. These campaigns are designed to maximize reach by ensuring ads are shown to a broad audience, utilizing non-skippable formats to guarantee full ad views.
YouTube TV Ads are accessible through various campaign types, including Video View Campaigns. These campaigns focus on reach and leverage viewing and engagement metrics, such as longer watch time and ad retention.
Further Reading


10 Essential Insights from YouTube Video Reach Campaign Data
Our analysis of Strike Social’s U.S. campaign data using VCR to maximize impressions offers valuable insights into Video Reach Campaign performance. With an insider’s look into our team’s data interpretations, campaign strategies, and success metrics, here’s what our 2024 YouTube data reveals about optimizing Video Reach Campaigns.
3. Ad Formats
YouTube TV Ad offers marketers a variety of ad formats, including skippable and non-skippable ads and longer ad lengths. This variety allows advertisers to tailor their campaigns based on specific goals and viewer preferences. While Google TV ad currently supports two ad formats:
- 15-second non-skippable ads: Ensure the complete delivery of the advertiser’s message without the risk of viewers skipping the ad.
- 6-second bumper ads: Short, impactful, non-skippable ads are ideal for reinforcing brand messages or calls to action in a concise format.
4. Inventory Differences
Google TV Ad’s inventory is comprised of hundreds of channels built into the Google CTV ads platform, including live sports, full-length TV shows, and movies. The ad inventory is integrated with smart TVs and streaming devices like Chromecast, reaching viewers who use these platforms extensively for entertainment.
On the other hand, YouTube TV ad inventory includes live TV from over 100 channels and a vast library of on-demand content. This platform combines traditional TV viewing with the flexibility of streaming, offering a diverse range of content from major networks and niche channels.
How To Setup Google TV Ads?
Setting up Google TV Ads involves several steps, from creating a Google Ads account to launching your targeted campaign.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you through the process:
Step 1: Create a Google Ads Account
- You’ll need to create an account if you don’t already have one. Visit Google Ads and sign up. If you already have an account, log in.
Step 2: Set Up a New Campaign
- Start a New Campaign:
- In your Google Ads dashboard, click the + button to start a new campaign.
- Select “New campaign.”
- Choose Your Campaign Goal:
- Select a goal that aligns with your advertising objectives. For Google TV Ads, the objective type should be “Awareness and Consideration” or “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance”
- Select Campaign Type: Choose the “Video” campaign type. Google TV Ads are part of the video ad format.


- Configure Campaign Settings:
- Campaign Sub-Type: Select either “Efficient Reach” or “Non-Skippable In-Stream” to maximize the reach on Google TV.


- Network Settings:
- The “YouTube videos” option is already pre-selected. Tick the “Google TV” option. You may remove the “Video partners on the Google Display Network” to increase the possibility of your video ads appearing on YouTube and Google TV. For device setup, unselect all the devices except for “Connected TV”
- Budget and Bidding:
- Set your daily budget and bidding strategy. For Google TV ads, you typically bid on a CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis.
- Choose Your Ad Formats:
- Select the ad formats you want to use. Google TV supports 15-second non-skippable in-stream ads and 6-second bumper ads.
- Proceed with Audience Definition, Creative Details, and Review and Launch Your Campaign:
- Review Settings: Double-check all your campaign settings, targeting options, and ad formats.
- Launch Campaign: Once everything is set, click “Create Campaign” to launch your Google TV ad campaign.
Expand YouTube Ad Awareness Campaign Reach to TV Viewers
Integrating Google TV ads into your YouTube awareness campaign strategy significantly enhances your ability to reach and engage audiences across multiple devices, including smart TVs, streaming devices like Chromecast, and mobile devices. Google TV ads leverage Google’s new expanded advertising ecosystem, enabling precise targeting based on demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring your ads reach the most relevant audiences.
This integration allows seamless management within the Google Ads platform, providing a unified interface for creating, monitoring, and optimizing your campaigns. Additionally, comprehensive reporting tools offer valuable insights into performance metrics, helping you fine-tune your strategy for better ROI.
Google TV ads are primarily non-skippable, guaranteeing full message delivery, which is particularly effective for brand awareness campaigns. In contrast, YouTube ads offer skippable and non-skippable formats, providing flexibility based on campaign goals.
Combining both platforms allows you to mix ad formats to maximize viewer engagement and manage ad spending more efficiently by utilizing CPM and CPV models. This combined approach leverages the strengths of Google TV’s live TV shows and YouTube’s User-Generated Content (UGCs), ensuring your brand message reaches the right people at the right time across various devices, ultimately enhancing the overall effectiveness of your advertising strategy.
Cross-channel strategies are great for engaging customers across different platforms and enhancing brand visibility and sales. This article will explore platform choices and discuss influencer collaborations, advertising options, engagement strategies, and target demographics.
We will also give you a step-by-step run-down on developing a cross-channel marketing strategy for your business.
What is cross-channel marketing?
In short, cross-channel marketing involves using multiple channels to reach customers. It integrates various marketing channels (e.g., email, social media, websites). Using different channels and methods creates a seamless experience for the customer and allows businesses to engage with customers in various ways.
Email newsletter software, such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact, can be particularly effective in nurturing leads and maintaining customer relationships through personalized communication.
This is intended to increase the success of your sales lead generation efforts. It also allows for a more coherent and consistent message across the various platforms, giving customers a better experience with the brand.
How does cross-channel marketing enhance brand visibility?
The digital era has meant businesses must adapt their outbound lead generation strategies. Gone are the days of just knocking on doors. Granted, that strategy meant meeting customers where they were – literally. But today’s customers are everywhere, so your business must reach audiences in all these places.
Cross-channel marketing enhances brand visibility by ensuring that your brand is present across multiple platforms and channels, which has the benefit of reaching a wider audience than one single platform.
You can engage with customers who use different channels to conduct their affairs by using a combination of online and offline channels, such as social media and email, websites, and physical stores.
You also meet customers at different points in their buying journey. This approach’s consistency and cohesiveness help reinforce your brand message. Every channel, be it YouTube advertising, email, or anything else, promotes the same ideas and messages to offer a consistent marketing strategy, regardless of how you interact with your customers.
Things to consider when choosing a platform for cross-channel marketing
When deciding which platforms to use, you should keep a few key points in mind. We’ll go through these together below.
But before we do, it’s worth noting that managing multiple platforms can get complicated. While some tools can help you stay on track with individual channels like social media or email, consider other tools like Trello, Asana, Monday, or Kanban software.
The latter can be particularly helpful for marketing as you can create visual boards, add attachments to tasks, and view insights into your workflow.
Short-form versus long-form content
Depending on who you are targeting (your audience) and your marketing goals (e.g., brand recognition, sales, customer retention), you’ll need to decide whether short-form or long-form content best suits your needs. You will want to choose the most suitable for effectively conveying the message you want.
Short-form content can include an organic social media post or a static ad. Long-form content focuses more on articles (e.g., blog posts) or videos (e.g., Instagram reels). This is a great choice for quickly capturing someone’s attention and conveying key messages concisely.
Long-form content, on the other hand, allows you to offer more in-depth information, establish thought leadership, and engage individuals who want real knowledge and solutions to tricky problems.
Opportunities for influencer collaborations
Influencer collaborations can help you to enhance brand visibility and reach a wider audience. This is particularly effective if you’re developing a go-to-market strategy for a new offering or audience.
What is a go-to-market strategy? It’s essentially a roadmap for launching a new product or feature or introducing an existing product into a new market.
Since influencers have followers who trust their recommendations, they are useful assets for promoting these products and services. You should keep the following in mind if you want to go down this path:
- Relevance: The audience of the influencers you choose should align with your target demographic and brand values; otherwise, they might not engage with you.
- Engagement: You should pick influencers with high engagement rates, not just based on their number of followers.
- Quality: Check that the quality of the influencer’s content, as well as their style and tone, matches your brand image and messaging.
Advertising options and sponsored content
When exploring possible advertising options and sponsored content for your marketing strategy, you want to choose platforms that align with your brand and help you reach your target audience. You should consider the following aspects:
- Platform choice: You should pick the popular platforms amongst your target demographic, e.g., social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, search engines, and websites.
- Advert formats: Consider the advertising formats available on the platforms, such as display ads, videos, and sponsored posts. This will help you decide which best suits your marketing goals.
- Measure performance: Monitor and analyze your performance metrics to optimize their success. This will allow you to make data-driven decisions going forward.
Engagement strategies for cross-channel marketing
When developing your cross-channel marketing strategy, you’ll want to consider personalization, in other words, creating tailored content for your target audience. You could employ interactivity within your strategies, such as polls, quizzes, surveys, etc. This would encourage more active participation and engagement from your audience. Utilizing customer engagement software can support these strategies by helping you track user behavior, segment audiences, and automate personalized interactions across various touchpoints.
Further, user-generated content is a great way to make your audience feel involved, all while generating great and authentic content and building a community.
You should also keep your finger on the pulse of trends, new technologies, and platforms, adapt your strategy as you go along, and remain relevant. This can help you counter challenges such as decreased social media engagement, competing for your audience’s attention, and keeping your brand image consistent.
Target demographics, interests, and user interactions
When planning your marketing strategy, you need to identify key demographic factors regarding your audience, such as age, gender, location, income level, education, and occupation. This can help you curate buyer personas that collectively represent your target audience. To refine these personas and guide your strategy, use reliable market research tools to track trends, analyze competitors, and gather consumer insights.
Taking it a step further, understanding your audience’s interests, preferences, and hobbies will help you tailor your messaging and content to make it more attractive to them.
Finally, you can check and analyze how they interact with your brand across the channels so that you can learn how to optimize engagement and the user experience.
Content formats, length, and interactive features
In terms of content formats, you want to choose those that best showcase your brand and that your audience will enjoy. These could be videos on TikTok, blog posts, infographics, podcasts, or even interactive quizzes! Interactivity can encourage your audience to participate and engage more with what you’re putting out there, making you more memorable.
How to develop a cross-channel marketing strategy
The following 6 steps will guide you through developing a cross-channel marketing strategy that meets your target audience’s preferences so that you can optimize your efforts for success!
Clearly outline what you aim to achieve
Your first step is to define your goals and objectives. Without this, you are walking around in the dark without a head torch. Your goals could be directed to increasing brand awareness, generating more traffic to your landing page, or increasing sales. Whatever you decide, your aims will be the magnet that pulls you in the right direction when making strategic choices.
Understand your target audience
Next, you want to conduct market research to identify your target audience’s demographics, behaviors, and preferences—in other words, to gain a deeper understanding of your customers. This step is vital for helping you make tailored marketing choices aimed at your customers’ specific preferences and keeping them in line with who they are.
Gather this data from robust sources such as your email database, surveys and questionnaires, contact center CRM software, customer feedback, market research, online communities, and social media analytics. The combined data will inform which channels you use and what types of content you produce.
Choose the most relevant channels
You then want to pick the channels that best align with your target audience’s preferences. This could include social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, email marketing if your audience uses email, search engine marketing, and many more.
By choosing the most relevant channels, you can create targeted marketing campaigns that potentially increase engagement and conversion rates in the financial services sector. Additionally, integrating a system like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Licensing can boost campaign efficiency by optimizing customer data management, centralizing insights, and streamlining operations across multiple channels.
Different channels offer different content format options, so you can create diverse content depending on your channel of choice.
Maintain a consistent brand message and identity
Make sure you are consistent in your brand messaging, tone of voice, and identity across all channels.
This will help you build brand recognition, going from the short-term to long-term memory of your customers as well as building trust among your audience. When something feels familiar, people often trust it more. Familiarity is key.
Create tailored content for each marketing channel
While your style, tone, message, and identity should be consistent across all your channels, you should create content optimized for each channel’s format and specific audience. Instagram, for example, is great for short videos. Email is better with static images. Websites can include blogs and longer articles.
Using a cross-channel marketing approach could enhance the effectiveness of your strategy, for example, by targeting specific customer segments and tailoring messaging to their preferences within the healthcare insurance sector environment.
Cross-promote your content across multiple channels
Finally, you should cross-promote your content between channels. You can do this by sharing content from one channel to another—e.g., including a link to a video in an email, or linking to an article on your website with a post on Instagram.
This can help amplify your message and reach a wider audience so that your content gets the most bang for its buck. It also helps you to ensure the consistency that we talked about earlier.
Social media tools come into their own here, so do your research and consider which software will save you time while helping you be consistent. Some of these tools are beneficial for redistributing content between blogs and social media, some can automate posts across different channels, and others have built-in analytics.
Conclusion
Cross-channel marketing is a great way to enhance brand visibility. By integrating different channels into a seamless experience for your audience, you can create a cohesive brand image that appeals to diverse customer groups.
Cross-channel marketing enhances trust and familiarity and improves customer experience through consistency and accessibility. Implement the steps outlined in this article to develop your own cross-channel marketing strategy for your business today!
This article is a guest post. The guest author is solely responsible for ensuring the accuracy and authenticity of the information provided in the article. Any product or service recommendations or mentions made in the guest post are not endorsed by Strike Social.
We invite you to contact us for guest posting opportunities. We are excited to collaborate with talented writers and feature high-quality content on our blogs.
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Strike Overview
- Given the significant spending of $41.5 billion last year, coupled with the projected influx of approximately 300,000 international students, brands have a prime opportunity to capitalize on back-to-school campaigns effectively.
- With the back-to-school season set to be another peak retail period this 2024, brands should start planning their marketing strategies now.
- As the saying goes, “The early bird catches the worm.” By launching your campaigns ahead of time, you can ensure your brand stays top of mind for consumers, positioning yourself as the top choice during the back-to-school shopping period.
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The Latest Back-to-School Marketing Trends for Your 2024 Strategies
Before finalizing your 2024 back-to-school campaigns, review how the 2023 season unfolded to gather advertising ideas. Examine the trends and assess whether your media plan aligns with previous ad seasons, identifying the top strategies to implement.
Timing Your 2024 Back-to-School Campaigns
To successfully target shoppers during the back-to-school season, you must begin your campaigns well before the season starts in early July.
Statistics show that 55% of consumers start shopping around this time, making it essential to have campaigns up and running or in the learning phase before that. Additionally, many parents take advantage of Amazon Prime Day for back-to-school shopping deals, making it a strategic point to engage potential customers.
However, don’t exhaust your budget early on. Keep your campaigns running through the school season and even afterward. Despite the initial rush, 85% of shoppers still have half of their shopping left after the first weeks of July. Notably, one-third of US students return to school in mid-August, presenting further opportunities for your back-to-school advertising efforts.


What’s on the Back-to-School Shopping List
Spending per household is expected to rise, with electronics and computer-related accessories in high demand for up to 69% of back-to-school shoppers.




Additionally, big-ticket items such as dorm and apartment furnishings are popular this year, driven by a projected increase in college enrollment. Public college enrollments are expected to increase by 230,000, while private college enrollments are expected to increase by 80,000.




Drivers of 2024 Back-to-School Spending
In addition to higher prices, 43% of shoppers want to purchase new items this year, such as trendy streetwear-inspired back-to-school outfits for kids, or versatile footwear that complements any school look. By staying in tune with what your audience wants and aligning your offerings accordingly, your brand has the opportunity to attract new customers through innovative products and compelling campaigns.
Moreover, big-ticket items and additional school supplies are major drivers of spending during back-to-school season. Hence, brands offering packages or promotions on these items should expand their advertising efforts to highlight them effectively.
How to Prepare Back-to-School Campaigns That Hit the Marks
Will your back-to-school advertising campaigns pass the checklist for effective ads that will excel this year? Here’s how your back-to-school social campaigns can pass with flying colors and achieve the metrics you’re aiming for.
Prioritize Mobile Optimization
In the 2022-23 school year, 47% of U.S. parents shopped exclusively on mobile devices. Use short-form videos for Meta Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. Using the 9:16 ad format, you can take advantage of mobile-first placements and gain better visibility among mobile users. Check out the TikTok benchmarks for this time of year:


Further Reading



Cross-Posting Your Back to School Ads on Short-form Video Ad Platforms
Ensure your back-to-school ad campaigns stay impactful by adhering to the safe zone requirements of each short-form video platform. Follow these guidelines to avoid underperformance—or worse, ad rejections.
With 40.9% of YouTube watch time on mobile devices, YouTube Shorts is a prime spot for ads. The latest Google Marketing Live update allows landing pages to be viewed in-app, boosting user engagement.
Quick tip for your back-to-school campaigns: Ensure your landing pages and websites are mobile-responsive to maintain a consistent layout across all devices.


Maximize Reach with Cross-Device Targeting
In addition to the standard contextual or audience targeting options available for YouTube ads, you can also target specific devices such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, and TVs. Interestingly, despite desktop computers only accounting for 23% of retail website traffic in Q1 2024, they were responsible for 34% of all purchases in the United States.
Quick tip for your back-to-school ads: Use Product Studio to enhance the backgrounds of your back-to-school ad creatives without needing entirely new content. Ensure your Shopping ads are optimized for desktop viewing as well.
Engage Repeat Customers
Don’t neglect visitors who didn’t convert on their first visit. Retargeting on social media helps remind them of your brand, especially during peak shopping. According to Mintel research, dads primarily rely on brand familiarity (32%) and social media (33%) when shopping for back-to-school supplies. On the other hand, moms prioritize school recommendations (41%) and promotions or coupons (40%).






Incorporate discounts and coupons in your retargeting ads. A discount can drive an initial purchase, and a coupon for future use encourages repeat business. Additionally, loyalty or reward programs should be offered to incentivize frequent purchases further.
Quick tip for your back-to-school advertising strategy: To effectively target dads and moms, consider incorporating discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, and rewards into your back-to-school retargeting ads.
A discount can encourage a one-time purchase, while a coupon for a subsequent purchase can increase customer loyalty. A loyalty program or rewards system for frequent purchases can be the cherry on top, further incentivizing customers to continue buying from you.


Additional Strategies for Your Back-to-School Ads
Promote Inclusivity in Your Back-to-School Campaigns
While Americans with disabilities constitute a significant consumer base, only approximately 1% of advertisements feature them.
Both students with disabilities (54%) and typically developing students (51%) spend over two hours on social media, highlighting the importance of inclusive advertising. Surprisingly, few back-to-school advertising campaigns highlight individuals with disabilities.
Creating inclusive ads demonstrating how your products or services benefit this demographic can help close this gap. By doing so, you’ll align with the values of diversity and inclusion and tap into a significant and often overlooked consumer base.
College students consider personal care items a significant part of their list, comprising 30% of their shopping. Hence, brands need to understand how to showcase inclusivity effectively. Benefit Cosmetics has set an excellent example with its ad featuring Kate Grant, a woman with Down syndrome, as the lead role. This ad garnered 5K likes and positive engagement on Instagram, demonstrating the importance of celebrating diversity and inclusivity in marketing campaigns.


Appeal to Price-Conscious Shoppers
With a consistent presence in the market, discount stores continue to attract price-conscious buyers, accounting for approximately 40-50% of shoppers for the past three years. Furthermore, up to 46% will purchase pre-configured back-to-school kits this year.
Your social media ad campaigns should emphasize discounted bundles and promotional packages to stand out and capture the attention of budget-minded shoppers. This approach effectively appeals to consumers seeking cost-effective and convenient shopping solutions during the back-to-school season.
Tap into the Millennial Parent Demographic
Millennials are now entering the phase where they have children of school age, which means they are a key demographic for your campaigns. 71% of millennial parents prefer to purchase back-to-school supplies online, with YouTube and TikTok being popular platforms for influencer marketing.
The convenience and wide selection of online shopping, coupled with the influence of social media, have made online shopping the preferred choice for many millennial parents.


Advertiser’s Notes for Your Back-to-School Social Campaigns
Don’t wait for the peak period to prepare your media plan and launch your back-to-school campaigns on paid social media. With the help of this Strike Social guide, we’ve compiled key takeaways to ensure your campaigns are a success this peak advertising season:
Keep Your Ads Active Before, During, and After the Back-to-School Season
With the right campaign pacing, maintain a balanced budget and ad delivery throughout the entire campaign period from early July to late August or early September.
Refresh Your Creatives Without Taking New Images or Videos
Google’s AI has made it easier for advertisers to keep their creatives fresh without constantly creating new content. With the Product Studio, you can optimize your back-to-school ads with captivating backgrounds and designs for desktop and mobile placements.
Refine Your Audience Targeting
Age and country demographics are just the beginning of audience targeting for paid ads. Use keywords, retargeting, affinity, and live events to refine your audience and improve ROAS and conversion rates.
Strike Social helps brands optimize performance without exceeding costs. Contact us now to learn more about Strike Social’s services and customized solutions and discover how our data-driven approach can drive measurable results for your campaigns.
Strike Overview
- Have you experienced having a lot of impressions or leads on your ads in the first few days, only to see it deteriorate as the campaign goes on due to a lack of campaign pacing?
- Without a watchful eye, that can happen if your social media campaigns are not monitored regularly. You might see your ad delivery spike initially, setting your expectations sky-high, only to be disappointed over time as it exhausts its capacity.
- Just like in a marathon, if you sprint through the first few kilometers, you’ll end up exhausted towards the end. That’s how campaigns work, and it’s why campaign pacing is extremely important.
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How We Manage Campaign Pacing in Social Media Advertising
Campaign pacing in social media advertising refers to the strategic distribution of your advertising budget, ad delivery, and overall campaign efforts over a specific time period. Like a skilled sailor navigating through varying winds and tides, you aim to ensure your resources endure the entirety of your journey, hitting peak performance precisely when needed.
Depending on the objective of the ad campaign, the ad pacing can follow different approaches:
Campaign pacing by objective
This involves controlling the overall spending and delivery of the entire campaign over its duration based on a singular objective. For instance, in a Post Engagement campaign, the goal is to keep the pace of consistent ad delivery for engagement such as views, clicks, or likes, throughout the campaign flight. It’s useful to ensure a consistent presence throughout the campaign period.
Campaign pacing by budget
Focuses on controlling the campaign’s daily or weekly budget. Budget pacing helps ensure that your campaign doesn’t overspend or underspend on a specific day or week, allowing for more granular control over budget allocation.
The Negative Impacts of Poor Pacing and the Benefits of Effective Pacing in Advertising
Proper pacing in your social media ad campaigns can make or break the results of your digital advertising efforts. Let’s explore the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to ad pacing for your campaigns:
Advantages of Effective Pacing
Optimized Budget Utilization
- Pacing in digital marketing ensures your budget is allocated efficiently throughout the campaign duration. This prevents overspending or underspending during the early days of your campaign flight and ensures you have resources for ad delivery during peak periods.
- For example, when you run your Father’s Day campaign for the whole month of June, you should ensure that you have enough budget allocated during the peak dates (i.e., June 16 and 1-2 days before and after the event) to maximize your exposure and still have a regular budget towards the end of the month.
Consistent Brand Exposure
- With a well-paced ad delivery, your brand remains visible and engaging throughout the campaign.
- For instance, if your target impressions are 10,000 daily, proper pacing should keep you within this level without exceeding or underpacing so you consistently receive around 10K impressions daily.




Further Reading


Strategic Insights for YouTube Video Reach Campaigns
Always-on campaigns provide sustained exposure, fostering brand recognition and loyalty over time. To maximize the impact of your YouTube Video Reach Campaigns, focus on pacing your spending strategically while aligning with broader objectives, such as key events or promotional periods.
Disadvantages of Poor Pacing
Missed Opportunities to Reach the Target Audience at Optimal Times
- Poor ad pacing can cause you to miss key moments when your audience will most likely engage with your ads, leading to lower reach and conversions.
- For instance, in our Father’s Day example, if you allocate excessive funds during the campaign’s early days, you may not have the flexibility to increase your budget during peak times modestly. Similarly, if you constrain the budget too tightly during peak periods, you may spend funds on less relevant days, such as the month’s end, which is not as closely tied to the event.
Difficulty in Identifying Performance Trends and Making Timely Optimizations
- When your campaign lacks a structured pace, analyzing performance data and identifying trends becomes harder. Ineffective campaign pacing can delay necessary optimizations and hinder your ability to improve campaign results.
What Does It Mean When My Campaign Is Underpacing vs. Overpacing?
Understanding the signs of underpacing and overpacing is crucial for maintaining a healthy and effective social media advertising campaign. Recognizing these issues early on allows you to adjust and optimize your campaign for better results.
Underpacing
When your campaign is underpacing, it’s spending less than its allocated budget or not generating as many conversions or clicks as expected. This can happen for several reasons, such as:
- Low Bids: Your bids may be too low, making your ads less competitive in auctions.
- Narrow Targeting: If your target audience is too narrow, you might not reach enough people to exhaust your budget.
- Low-Quality Ads: The platform’s algorithm may limit delivery if your ads have low relevance or engagement rates.
Overpacing
As the opposite of underpacing, overpacing happens when your social media campaign spends more than the allocated daily or overall budget or receives a spike in engagement that is more than the supposed regular ad delivery.
- High Bids: If your bids are too high, you might win more auctions but exhaust your budget rapidly.
- Extremely Broad Targeting: A broad target audience can lead to your ads being shown to many people, quickly consuming your budget.
- High-Frequency Capping: If your frequency cap (the limit on how often a person sees your ad) is higher than usual, it can accelerate ad delivery and budget depletion.
Contact Us
Team up with a SWAS AdTech agency that enhances your campaign outcomes by up to 20%.
By understanding the causes and signs of underpacing and overpacing, you can proactively manage your social media advertising campaigns and ensure they perform at their best. Advertising pacing is a dynamic process that requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment to achieve optimal results.
How Strike Social Manages Pacing in Advertising Campaigns
Keeping a constant watch over your social ad campaigns is crucial, but monitoring them around the clock can be exhausting. What works today may not be effective tomorrow, and you need a reliable advertising partner to handle the hard work for you. Strike Social excels in this area, ensuring optimal performance through strategic campaign pacing.
Precision and Efficiency
Strike Social ensures optimal ad spend and consistent pacing throughout the campaign by precisely aligning ad budgets and goals, thus avoiding overspending and underspending.
In a YouTube Video View Campaign, we successfully delivered all of the requested views consistently throughout the campaign flight, with minimal deviations from the average weekly impressions ordered. Furthermore, we managed to achieve a campaign CPV that was 16.67% lower than the requested Max CPV.


Diverse Pacing Strategies
Strike Social employs various pacing methods tailored to the campaign’s objectives:
- Budget order ensures a steady distribution of the budget throughout the campaign duration.
- Outcomes order prioritizes desired outcomes, such as impressions, clicks, or views.
Internal Tech Tool and Expertise
We have developed an internal tech within our proprietary tool, CampaignLab, to facilitate effective campaign management.
Coupled with the expertise of our media buyers, this tool enables our rotating team to monitor all ad campaigns continuously. This constant oversight ensures that campaigns are optimized in real-time and that necessary adjustments are made promptly.
Ignite Your Campaigns with Strategic Ad Pacing
Seeing impressive results at the start of your campaign can be exhilarating, while slow starts can feel disheartening. However, proper ad pacing is the key to sustainable success in social media advertising. By carefully managing your campaign’s pacing, you can ensure your budget, impressions, and clicks last throughout the campaign, allowing for adjustments and optimizations.
While AI tools can assist you in achieving your campaign objectives, the success of your campaign ultimately lies in your hands.
Partner up with Strike Social to maximize the potential of your social media ad campaigns. Reach out to our team and discover how much more you can accomplish with our expert guidance and cutting-edge solutions.
Strike Overview
- If your brand always includes a disclaimer at the bottom of your video ads, there’s a good chance no one’s seeing it – likely due to not adhering to the platform’s safe zone guides.
- Having a safe zone template can help you post your ads on any social media platform without worrying about your profile picture, ad copy, or even the like and share buttons covering it up.
- Check out the safe zone guides for popular short-form video ad platforms like TikTok, Reels, and Shorts to ensure that the important parts of your ad are visible to your audience, no matter which platform you choose.
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What are Safe Zone Guides, and Why Do They Matter?
In video advertising, the “safe zone” is the area within your video ad that is guaranteed to be fully visible to viewers across different devices and platforms. These safe zones vary across platforms due to different user interfaces and functionalities.
This area is typically centered within the frame and avoids the edges where elements like platform icons, captions, or user interface elements might overlap and obscure your content.
- Placing essential elements like your logo, key messages, and call-to-action buttons within the safe zone guarantees visibility and prevents them from being cut off or hidden.
- 87% of audiences associate trust in a brand with high-quality video ads, which means ensuring your CTAs are free from any obstructions. A clear message not only captures attention but also encourages viewers to engage—whether that’s watching the full video, clicking on links, or taking the desired action.
- Adhering to safe zone guidelines makes your video ads look more polished and professional.
Safe Zone Templates for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram and Facebook Reels
Social media platforms have specific safe zone guidelines to ensure the optimal performance of ads. Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in ad rejection or underperformance.
Video ads on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels commonly encounter issues such as icons on the right side, text at the bottom, dead space at the top, and cropped content on the sides. Safe zone guides are crucial to prevent these elements from negatively impacting captions and screen shares.
Further Reading



Instagram Safe Zone Guidelines for Ad Creatives
Discover best practices, precise specifications, and safe zone recommendations for various Instagram ad formats, including images, videos, carousels, Stories, and Reels. Tailor your creatives to fit each placement and deliver the most optimized version to your target audience.
To simplify the process, we will explore the recommended safe zone guidelines for various short-form video ad platforms and develop a comprehensive safe zone preset that you can easily apply to your short-form video ads. This central guide will provide a clear and concise reference for creating effective short-form video ads that can be seamlessly uploaded to any ad platform you choose.
9:16 Safe Zone Guide for Vertical Video Ads
Facebook Reels | Instagram Reels | YouTube Shorts | TikTok | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aspect Ratio | 9:16 | |||
Safe Zone Guide (Keep These Areas Clear) | 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% sides | 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% sides | 15% top, 35% bottom, 4% left, 18% right | 14% top, 11% left, 22% right, 45% bottom (up to 4 lines of text) |
Download the safe zone guides for 9:16 ads here:
Let’s combine these concepts and establish a universal safe zone template for all vertical video ads across various social media platforms.
Safe Zone Guide for 16:9 Ad Formats
Facebook Reels | Instagram Reels | YouTube Shorts | TikTok | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aspect Ratio | Not recommended | 16:9 | ||
Safe Zone Recommendations (Avoid Placing Elements Here) | 22% right, 40% bottom | 11% left, 22% right, 28% bottom(up to 4 lines of text) |
If you’re launching a landscape video ad campaign on YouTube Shorts and TikTok, use this safe zone guide on what areas you should avoid when adding your messages and important branding elements:
Click to download the 16:9 vertical format safe zone templates:
Safe Zones for 1:1 Ad Size And Other Considerations
Facebook Reels | Instagram Reels | |
---|---|---|
Aspect Ratio | 4:5 | |
Design Safe Zones (Leave These Areas Clear) | 13% right, 10% bottom | 13% right, 10% bottom |
While the 4:5 aspect ratio is not among the commonly recommended dimensions for Facebook and Instagram ads, it remains a supported option on the Meta platform. To ensure your 4:5 video ad displays optimally, we have compiled a safe zone preset that you can utilize during the ad creation process:
YouTube Shorts | TikTok | |
---|---|---|
Aspect Ratio | 1:1 | |
Design Safe Zones (Leave These Areas Clear) | 17% right | 10% left, 22% right, 41% bottom |
Another ad size supported by both YouTube Shorts and TikTok is the square format, or 1:1. We’ve converged these safe zone specifications to create a single template for video ads with this ad size.




Commonly Asked Questions On Video Ad Safe Zones
What tools can I use to visualize the safe zone in my video editor?
- The safe zone templates provided in this blog can be easily copied and pasted into your video editor.
- In Adobe Express, for example, upload the safe zone preset and layer it over your video ad creative. This lets you see if any essential elements, such as your logo or disclaimer, are covered. Adjust to ensure your ad is safe from typically covered areas before uploading and launching your campaigns.


Is there a universal safe zone for all platforms?
- Each platform has a unique user interface (UI), so you must consider their specific safe zones to create a universal safe zone template.
- Refer to the universal safe zone guides for the different ad sizes here.
Where should I place text and logos on Reels to avoid being cut off?
- For a 9:16 video ad size, position your text and logos around the top left portion. This placement ensures they won’t be covered by the profile picture, ad copy, or like and share buttons.
- Use this merged safe zone template for Facebook and Instagram Reels in the 9:16 video ad format:


The Role of Safe Zones in Optimizing Ad Campaigns
As media buyers, you may assume that safe zones are solely the creative team’s responsibility. However, since video ads are a crucial part of the advertising campaign process, they also fall under your jurisdiction. Any obstruction in the important elements of the video ad creative can significantly impact your ads’ success or failure. Therefore, you must know and adhere to safe zone guidelines and templates before uploading to the ad platforms.
But what’s next once you’ve ensured your ad creatives perform optimally? Enhance your knowledge by exploring the Strike Social blog. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow our LinkedIn page to stay up-to-date with paid social media advertising trends and insights.
Strike Overview
- The 2024 Father’s Day celebrations presents a prime opportunity for brands to make their mark, tapping into the inherent sentimentality and appreciation for dads everywhere.
- In 2023, Father’s Day spending in the US reached $22.9 billion, setting new records for this cherished holiday.
- As we approach Father’s Day 2024, brands must seize this occasion to its fullest potential. If you haven’t begun planning your Father’s Day advertising campaigns, now is the time to start.
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Top 2024 Father’s Day Strategies for a Winning Ad Campaign
The quest for the perfect Father’s Day gifts starts early, with searches spiking as early as the first week of June. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a newly-fledged media buyer, there’s ample opportunity to build up your ads before the 2024 Father’s Day frenzy reaches its peak. From consumer behavior to advertising strategies, we’ll cover what you need to know to maximize this retail opportunity.
What Consumers Are Looking For This Father’s Day 2024
While trends may evolve, the timeless nature of our fathers’ preferences often remains constant. If you’ve ever assumed that shopping for dads is a breeze compared to shopping for moms, think again.
Take a look at the 2023 Father’s Day advertising trends and observe how consumer behavior has shaped over the years:
Where People Shop for Father’s Day Gifts
As you gear up for Father’s Day advertising this 2024, it’s evident that online platforms will continue to reign as the top shopping destination for consumers. Social media platforms are already buzzing with anticipation for this retail event, making it an opportune moment for advertisers to capitalize on the paid social media advertising space.




What Father’s Day Shoppers Are Searching For
Drawing parallels to trends observed during Mother’s Day, “gifts of experience” are increasingly valued during these celebratory occasions. These experiences may include tickets to sporting events, concerts, or indulgent dinners and brunches.
However, for Father’s Day 2023, special outings took precedence, followed closely by clothing and gift cards as the top two choices. Subscription boxes have also emerged as a top pick, offering curated selections ranging from specialty cocktails and shaving sets to golf gear and apparel.


Drawing parallels to trends observed during Mother’s Day, “gifts of experience” are increasingly valued during these celebratory occasions. These experiences may include tickets to sporting events, concerts, or indulgent dinners and brunches.
However, for Father’s Day 2023, special outings took precedence, followed closely by clothing and gift cards as the top two choices. Subscription boxes have also emerged as a top pick, offering curated selections ranging from specialty cocktails and shaving sets to golf gear and apparel.
Father’s Day Ad Spotlight:
Catch a glimpse of The Personal Barber’s video ad promoting a shaving subscription set. The ad showcases the set’s contents and provides audiences with a vivid depiction of what they can gift their dads this Father’s Day.
Subscription boxes allow dads to explore new products and experiences tailored to their interests, making them thoughtful and convenient Father’s Day gift options that continue to delight throughout the year.
Further Reading


8 Creative Ways to Market Your Subscription Boxes
Subscription boxes are thriving, and people can’t get enough of them! With Father’s Day just around the corner, standing out with unique subscription box marketing ideas can be challenging. That’s why we’ve compiled 8 strategies to keep your subscribers engaged and excited for every celebration.
Father’s Day Advertising Ideas to Lead Your 2024 Campaigns
Now that you’ve gained insights into Father’s Day 2024 shopper preferences, it’s time to translate this knowledge into actionable strategies. Not all brands will have the same offers; thus, you can certainly use these tips to ensure your brand remains at the top of customer’s minds when they see your ads on social media.
Strategic Targeting
Specify your audience
Utilize the advanced targeting options provided by paid social media ad platforms. You can reach highly relevant audiences by leveraging user demographics, interests, purchase history, and even life events (such as getting married).
On YouTube, you can target your video ads to users experiencing specific life events, such as recently getting married or planning to get married soon. Additionally, you can target users who have identified as parents, allowing their spouses or children to see your ads as part of the Father’s Day advertising campaign. Here are the estimated weekly impressions for these audience demographics related to Father’s Day:


Line up the lookalikes
If you have a robust customer file, upload it onto your chosen ad platform to create lookalike audiences. Platforms like TikTok utilize AI to identify similar Father’s Day audiences with shared characteristics, boosting the chances of driving purchase intent.
Bonus Tip: Retargeting your website visitors
Remember to retarget website visitors who have shown interest in Father’s Day-related products or categories. Targeted ads can serve as reminders to complete their purchases.
On TikTok, you can utilize the Website Traffic type of Custom Audience to retarget individuals who have performed specific actions on your website. If you have installed the TikTok Pixel on your website, you can also enable retargeting on your specific ad group based on their previous actions.


Shifting family dynamics
Move beyond traditional dad stereotypes and tailor your Father’s Day advertising campaigns to resonate with people buying for single dads, stepdads, grandfathers, or other father figures.
According to NRF’s 2023 data, half of those celebrating Father’s Day purchased gifts for a father or stepfather, followed by a husband (27%), son (11%), brother (9%), friend (8%), or grandfather (7%).
Platform-Specific Strategies
Interactive Instagram ads
Create engaging video ads in the form of Instagram Stories. Use interactive features like polls, quizzes, and product demos to captivate your audience. Some examples of Father’s Day creative ideas include running a poll asking users to vote on their favorite Father’s Day gift or including a quiz about their dad’s preferences.
Alternatively, you can showcase your product in action on Instagram Reels ads. Include direct links to your e-commerce site, allowing users to shop instantly from your ads.




Under a Clicks objective, you can see how your ad drives traffic to your website. Here are the benchmarks for Clicks-focused campaigns on Instagram to gauge your success during the Father’s Day advertising period:


Capture attention on TikTok
60% of consumers trust brands that feature user-generated content (UGC) because it offers social proof from influencers and content creators who share genuine experiences with your product or service.
Incorporate UGC into your TikTok ads by highlighting your Father’s Day gift packages or showing how creators celebrate Father’s Day using your exclusive service. If your main objective is to boost brand awareness, here are some CPM benchmarks to guide your campaign evaluation:


Get Insider Tips on Father’s Day 2024 and More
Father’s Day 2024 is another excellent chance to boost your brand’s visibility on social media. Even though it’s only halfway through the year, you don’t want to miss out on this profitable opportunity. Onto the rest of 2024, we’ll continue to track and share insights on peak advertising trends for upcoming seasons.
For more valuable information, browse our blog and subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.
Strike Overview
- Uncertain about whether targeting sports audiences is profitable in paid ads? Consider this: a U.S. poll found that 25% of respondents are sports enthusiasts. That equates to approximately 83 million people you can already reach.
- Further, the growth of sports betting has shown a consistent 10% CAGR year-on-year, with an estimated value of US$23.80 billion by 2029, highlighting the increasing interest of U.S. audiences in sports and sports-related activities.
- With sports audiences dominating viewership during peak events, even non-sports brands can achieve significant results by incorporating them into ad targeting strategies.
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How Targeting Sports Audiences Drives Results During Major Sports Events
The meteoric rise of powerhouse women athletes like Simone Biles, Alex Morgan, Sabrina Ionescu, and Caitlin Clark exemplifies the surge of sports on social media. Beyond their remarkable achievements in women’s sports, these athletes have each seen their careers skyrocket and a boost in social media engagement. Comscore reported that women’s sports are becoming mainstream, boosting a 219% YoY social media growth from ESPNW.
This year, the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament shattered viewership records, capturing the attention of sports fans nationwide. The championship game between the University of South Carolina and the University of Iowa drew 18.7 million average viewers, peaking at over 24 million combined on ESPN and ABC. The 2024 collegiate season marked the first time a women’s final surpassed the viewership of the men’s championship game.
Let’s understand how social media’s influence is pivotal in sports marketing. By examining how brands and advertisers can harness sports-centric content strategically, we can uncover opportunities to enhance campaign engagement, establish emotional connections with audiences, and create brand loyalty.
Sports Teams and Athletes are Becoming Brand Champions
Sports teams and athletes possess universal appeal, enabling businesses to engage with enthusiasts and a broader demographic that may not traditionally follow sports.
These types of content transcend various cultures and demographics, capturing themes of unity, perseverance, and victory that resonate with the masses. Notably, sports fans, regardless of their level of fanaticism, often engage with a team or athlete’s social media pages, especially during significant events.


Caitlin Clark, a generational talent in the WNCAA, has experienced phenomenal growth on Instagram, mirroring her exceptional career. In September 2021, she had 46,808 followers. Approximately three years before securing the top pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, Clark has amassed a remarkable 1.5 million followers on Instagram. Her follower count surged during her March Madness stint, with approximately 60k new followers in February-March 2022, 350k in February-April 2023, and a staggering one million in February-April 2024.
The prominence of sports fandom on social media has been amplified recently, particularly with the increasing popularity of women athletes filling our social newsfeeds. As a result, brands can capitalize on this surge of engagement by aligning their advertising campaigns with the trending sports buzz. This strategic placement of ads within relevant sports-related content can effectively capture the attention of a wider audience and enhance brand exposure.
Why Should Non-Sports Brands Add Sports Audiences To Their Targeting?
Given the effectiveness of sports teams and athletes as brand advocates, it’s beneficial to understand why non-sports brands should consider including sports audiences in their paid social strategies.
Looking at the example, Caitlin Clark’s explosive growth on social media exemplifies the individual athlete’s influence and the broader potential for brands to tap into these vibrant fan bases and target highly engaging sports content.
Here are three insights on why advertisers should be targeting sports audiences:
1. Broader Market Reach
Sports and athletes provide a gateway to diverse audiences. Lifestyle brands can have a fresh new set of eyes from sports and athlete followers. Sports content usually shows victory, motivation, and perseverance, and brands can harness these themes to enhance their ad narratives.
2. High Engagement Levels
Athletes like Caitlin Clark demonstrate the potential for quality engagement with sports followers on social media platforms. Brands should be around conversation during key sports events. Interaction with sports followers drives results as it translates into significant brand awareness and recall.
3. Efficient Personalized Messaging Through Localized Campaigns
During events like the NCAA Finals, geo-targeting specific regions or cities where games are being held or where fan bases are located can be highly effective. Localized campaigns allow for more personalized marketing, leading to higher engagement rates at a lower cost than broader national campaigns.
Sports Audience Targeting in Action
The team used custom affinity audiences in a YouTube ad campaign, balancing sports-centric audience targeting and sustainability interests. The campaign achieved a 13% CPM efficiency for non-skippable ads and a 40% cost reduction in CPV for skippable ads.
An important insight gained was that sports-centric audience targeting worked well with non-skippable ads on connected TVs (CTV). Understanding viewers’ viewing intent based on the device can increase efficiency. For non-skippable ads on larger screens, viewers are likelier to stick around and watch the ad, as they’re consuming long-form sports content like condensed games, replays, analysis, or match breakdowns. Unlike mobile viewers, attention spans are shorter, and viewing intent is mixed.
Balancing the ratio of sports-centric and interest-based, matching the right ad formats, and device targeting are factors that advertisers shouldn’t overlook.
Download our 2024 YouTube HVAC Case Study
By targeting sports audiences, the HVAC brand tapped into its viewer’s interests, leading to significant reach and surpassing view targets through the use of Custom Intent audiences in its YouTube campaign.



Social Platforms Ad Tools That You Can Use In Capitalizing Growth in Sports Viewership
Having established the synergy between the explosion in sports viewership and social media, advertisers can now know how to capitalize on the popularity of high-profile sports events by utilizing social platforms as dynamic advertising toolkits. These platforms allow brands to effectively engage with sports fans at all levels by tapping into each platform’s user base’s unique features and consumption habits.
Apart from targeting sports audiences, below are three refined strategies advertisers can employ:
Streamline Endorsements or Brand Partnerships Process
- TikTok Spark Ads: Collaborate with influential creators to produce authentic branded content. For example, a sports drink brand might partner with fitness influencers on TikTok to create native-looking workout videos that subtly highlight product benefits.
- Instagram Branded Content: Partner with athletes and influencers to integrate branded messages into their content, enhancing credibility and appeal.
- YouTube BrandConnect: Work with YouTube publishers and sports content creators to amplify brand narratives within fan communities, fostering deeper connections.
Leverage Specific Features or Ad Placements for Integrated Campaigns
- Instagram and Facebook Reels, Stories Ads: Use immersive, short-form video content to captivate audiences and drive engagement during major sports events.
- YouTube Shorts Ads: Go for bite-sized, visually compelling advertisements to reach viewers and maintain their attention.
- TikTok Interactive Add-Ons: Boost engagement through interactive elements like stickers, filters, and mini-games, making ad experiences more engaging.
Further Reading





Which Short-Form Ad Platform is Your Go-To?
TikTok pioneered bite-sized videos and quickly became one of the fastest-growing social media platforms. In response, Meta introduced Reels on Instagram and Facebook, while YouTube Shorts soon followed. The question is: which short-form video platform should your brand prioritize?
Utilize Extensive Targeting Capabilities
- TikTok Hashtag Targeting: Reach audiences based on their interests and behaviors within specific content categories, such as #Olympics2024 or #marchmadness2024
- Facebook and Instagram Behavioral and Connection-Based Targeting: Target users precisely based on their interests, online activities, and connections to sports-related pages and groups.
- YouTube’s Access to CTV, Affinity, and In-Market Audiences: Exploit advanced targeting options to reach highly relevant audiences across devices and platforms, optimizing for viewers actively looking for sports content or related products.




If you’re looking to harness the power of sports fandom in your marketing campaigns and see real efficiencies in targeting sports fans, our team is ready to assist.
We understand the dynamics of sports marketing and the unique opportunities it presents on social platforms. By partnering with us, you’ll access data-centric insights that can transform your advertising efforts.
Strike Overview
- Savvy media buyers recognize that sales or conversions aren’t always the primary Instagram ad metrics to track.
- Beyond traditional Instagram metrics like cost per view or impressions, the true pulse of your campaign lies in nuanced indicators tailored to your campaign objectives.
- We invite you to broaden your focus beyond the usual metrics you monitor in your Instagram ad reporting and to know and understand the specific ones crucial for your campaigns.
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This post was updated in January 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Key Instagram Ad Metrics That Drive Successful Campaigns
Every brand approaches asocial media ad campaigns with unique objectives. For businesses with physical stores, Instagram image ads featuring exclusive in-store discounts serve as a lure for foot traffic. Conversely, florist shops leverage Reels to showcase their artistry, aiming to drive online bookings via their website. Consequently, while florists prioritize website clicks and conversions, brick-and-mortar stores assess ad impressions against actual visits.
We aim to elaborate the varied Instagram ad metrics essential for monitoring campaigns and align them with your specific objectives, goals, and brand identity.
Different Metrics for Instagram Advertisers
When managing Instagram ad content, it’s crucial to distinguish between organic and paid advertising strategies. Use the Instagram Insights dashboard to track organic performance, while Meta Ads Manager is your go-to for paid Instagram advertising analytics.
Organic Metrics from Instagram Insights Dashboard
Instagram Insights offers valuable insights into your organic content’s performance. Here are the key Instagram metrics to track on the Instagram Insights dashboard:
- Reach: The total number of unique accounts that have seen your content.
- Impressions: Impressions indicate the number of times your content has been displayed on users’ screens.
- Profile Visits: Refer to the number of times users have visited your Instagram profile. It includes direct visits to your profile and external clicks from platforms like Facebook, and other apps from the Meta Audience Network.
- Content Interactions: Content interactions encompass various user engagements with your posts, such as likes, comments, saves, and shares.
- Followers: The followers metric tracks the growth of your Instagram follower count over time.


Instagram Ad Metrics to Monitor in Ads Manager
Meta Ads Manager offers a comprehensive array of metrics for tracking Instagram ad campaigns:
Instagram Metrics by Performance and Clicks
- Reach: The total number of unique users who have seen your ad at least once during the reporting period.
- Frequency: The average number of times each user has seen your ad during the reporting period.
- Impressions: The total number of times your ad has been displayed to users.
- CPC (Cost Per Link Click): The average cost incurred for each click on the linked landing page on your ad.
- CPM (Cost Per 1000 Impressions): The average cost for every 1000 impressions of your ad.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): Measures the percentage of users who clicked on your ad after seeing it.
Further Reading






Connect with New Audiences Through Instagram Partnership Ads
Want to expand your usual audience targeting in Instagram? Partnership Ads allow you to access influencer communities, opening doors to new audience segments and enhancing your targeting.
Metrics for Instagram Engagement Campaigns
- Post Comments: The number of comments left on your ad posts.
- Post Saves: The number of times users have saved your ad posts.
- Post Shares: How often have users shared your ad posts with others.
- Link Clicks: The number of clicks on the URL link included in your ad.
Instagram Metrics to Track for Video Engagement
- Video Plays: The total number of times your video ad has been played by users.
- 2-Second Continuous Video Plays: This metric tracks the number of times users have watched your video for at least two continuous seconds.
- Cost Per 2-Second Continuous Video Play: The average cost for each two-second continuous video play.
- 3-Second Continuous Video Plays: Similar to 2-second plays, this metric measures the number of times users have watched your video for at least three continuous seconds. In Instagram metrics, a “view” is counted only when the video has been played for 3 seconds or longer.
- Cost Per 3-Second Continuous Video Play: Cost for each three-second continuous video play.
- ThruPlays: ThruPlays indicate the number of times your video ad has been played to completion or for at least 15 seconds.
- Cost Per ThruPlay: Calculates the average cost incurred for each completed or 15-second continuous play of your video ad.
Further Reading





Prioritize Visibility with the Instagram Ad Specs
Creating visually striking Instagram ads is only half the battle—it’s equally important to ensure essential elements of your ad remains visible. Familiarize yourself with the ad specs for each format to guarantee nothing important gets lost.
How To Determine the Right Instagram Performance Metrics
Now that you understand the corresponding Instagram ad metrics based on your objectives and goals, it’s time to apply this knowledge effectively. Reporting campaign success to your client involves considering various ad types and elements, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.
To effectively tailor your Instagram ad reporting, align your tracking efforts with your advertising strategy. Consider including these standard Instagram ad metrics in your reports:


As media buying experts, tailoring reports to the intended audience is essential for effectively conveying the impact of your Instagram campaigns. Here’s a breakdown of key metrics and core metrics to focus on in different scenarios:
Scenario 1: “I’m overseeing an Instagram Story Ad campaign for our health and fitness app, with the primary objective of increasing app downloads. What specific Instagram ad metrics should I include in the report for the finance team?“
- When presenting the report to the finance team, focus on metrics that align with revenue and cost efficiency:
- Key Metrics:
- App Installs: Directly translates to potential paying users and future revenue.
- Cost per App Install: Indicates the cost-efficiency of acquiring app downloads from your Instagram Stories campaign.
- Impressions: Provide context on how often your ad was viewed relative to app installs.
- CPM: Instagram CPM helps inform future budget allocation decisions by understanding the cost of reaching a thousand users.
- Additional Metric/s:
- Swipe Up/Forward Rate: Reflects user engagement with the ad’s call to action (downloading the app).
- Key Metrics:
Scenario 2: “As a media buyer for a retail business, I manage the Instagram Collection Ad campaign, which aims to drive sales. How should I structure the Instagram marketing dashboard for the creatives team, and which metrics should I prioritize for their review?“
- When presenting the report to the creatives team, the right Instagram metrics to track should be related to ad viewership and engagement:
- Key Metrics:
- View Rate: Percentage of users who viewed the ad after it appeared in their feed.
- 3-Second Continuous Video Play: This indicates viewer engagement beyond the initial impression, as a “view” is only considered once it surpasses the 3-second mark.
- Cost per Thru Play: Average cost for each completed view of the video ad.
- Thru Plays: Thru Plays serves as the primary metric for the creative team, allowing them to gauge the effectiveness of the content in engaging viewers and encouraging them to watch a substantial portion or the entirety of the ad.
- Additional Metric/s:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): Instagram CTR provides insight into viewer interest and potential bridge to sales.
- Key Metrics:
Identifying The Ad Metrics That Matters Most
By now, it’s clear that seemingly simple numbers on an Instagram ad metrics dashboard hold a wealth of information. These metrics extend far beyond the advertising department, impacting various teams within your organization. Tracking the right metrics based on your specific campaign goals fosters collaboration and alignment, creating highly engaging and effective Instagram ad campaigns throughout the year.
Equipping yourself with a deep understanding of key Instagram ad metrics empowers you as a media-buying expert. This knowledge translates to strategic decision-making, campaign optimization, and, ultimately, achieving your advertising objectives on Instagram.
Head over to Strike Social’s blogs for even more valuable insights on social media advertising.
Strike Overview
- Have you ever pondered the secrets behind Instagram advertising formats that seamlessly engage audiences without feeling intrusive?
- With Click-focused campaigns having an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.31% to 3.01%, standing out on Instagram has become increasingly challenging.
- Crafting impactful Instagram ads extends beyond compelling visuals; it involves selecting the optimal format that aligns with your marketing objectives.
- In the next step of our Instagram guides, we’ll explore the available Instagram advertising formats, offering advertisers the expertise crucial for achieving campaign excellence.
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This post was updated in January 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
2025 Instagram Advertising Formats To Integrate Into Your Strategy
Formulating an effective Instagram ad hinges on its ability to engage audiences and align with your brand’s narrative. Should you opt for Reels, static images, or perhaps Collection or Shopping ads? Many businesses grapple with this decision, unaware of the diverse Instagram ad formats you can choose from.
The reality is, each ad format brings its own set of strengths to the table. While a static image ad may excel in launching a new product, a compelling video ad can better convey your brand’s story. By understanding the full spectrum of Instagram ad formats, you can tailor your message to resonate with the right audience and achieve the desired results.
How Many Types Of Ad Formats Does Instagram Offer
Instagram sets itself apart from platforms like Facebook and Twitter with its emphasis on captivating visuals that immediately grab users’ attention. From striking photos to engaging videos, visual content plays a pivotal role in connecting with audiences and conveying brand messages on Instagram.
Given the platform’s visual-centric nature, understanding how to leverage creative visuals effectively is essential for successful advertising on Instagram. Let’s explore the various ad formats available:
Instagram Explore Ads
- Ads that appear on the Explore page of Instagram, where users go to browse content that is tailored to their interests based on their past behavior and interactions on the platform.
- Positioned within the “similar posts” section, Explore Ads engage users who are actively exploring relevant content.
Instagram Feed Ads
- This ad format appears seamlessly within users’ main feed, alongside organic posts from accounts they follow.
- This type of Instagram ad is designed to blend in with the organic content and can take various forms, such as image posts, carousel ads, and video ads.
Profile Feed Ads
- Allows ads to be displayed within a user’s profile feed as they scroll through the content. These ad formats are specifically shown in the vertical scrolling experience activated when someone taps on a thumbnail on a user’s profile, rather than in the profile grid itself.
- The ads are designed to blend in with the organic content in a user’s profile feed and offer a new way for advertisers to reach audiences in a more personalized and engaging manner.
Reels Ads on Instagram
- These ads appear between organic Reels on Instagram, presenting full-screen vertical videos.
- With a maximum length of 15 minutes, Reels ads mimic the format of Instagram Stories ads, offering businesses an opportunity to showcase their brand in short-form videos.
Further Reading



Creative Safe Zone Guides for Reels, Shorts, and TikTok
As short-form video continues to dominate, brands need to quickly adapt their content. Since videos are displayed in varying layouts, you must ensure your CTAs remain visible and unobstructed by platform interface elements.
Shopping Ads
- Note: As of February 6, 2023, the Instagram Shop tab is no longer available on the app shortcuts.
- Instagram Shopping Ads allow eCommerce brands to showcase their products directly within the app.
- Tagged with product information such as price and description, these ads simplify the purchasing process for users without redirecting them to external websites.
Instagram Stories Ads
- Vertical, full-screen ads that appear between users’ Stories on the Instagram app.
- Unlike organic Instagram Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, Instagram Story ads can be displayed throughout the campaign duration, reaching audiences at the frequency selected via Meta Ads Manager.
How Do These Different Ad Formats Appear On The Instagram App
Let’s embark on a visual journey to better understand how these Instagram advertising formats are integrated into the user experience. To do so, we need to look at each ad format and how it appears within the user interface, providing insights into its placements.
Image Ads


Video Ads


Carousel Ads


Collection Ads


Which Types of Instagram Ads Suit Your Brand’s Objectives
Now that you’ve explored the range of Instagram advertising formats available for your advertising campaigns, it’s essential to align your choices with your brand’s specific objectives. Selecting the right ad formats depends on your advertising goals and the message you want to convey to your audience.
Let’s see how each ad format can complement your brand’s objectives:
Campaign Objective | Ideal Ad Formats & Placements | Advantages | Target Audience |
---|---|---|---|
Awareness | Feed Ads (image, video) Profile Feed Ads (image, video) | Captures attention with visuals. Introduces brand identity and values. Reaches a broad audience actively discovering new content. | Audiences interested in topics relevant to your brand. |
Traffic | Explore Ads (image, video) Stories Ads (image, video) Reels Ads (video) | Drives website visits or app downloads with clear CTAs. Briefly showcases website/app value proposition. Highlights different features or benefits in a swipe-through format. | Instagram users interested in the problem your website/app solves; users actively browsing for relevant solutions. |
Engagement | Feed Ads (carousel) Reels Ads (video) | Encourages reactions with interactive or entertaining video content. Tells a compelling story or asks a question to spark discussion. | Users actively scrolling through feeds and stories; people interested in topics related to your brand or niche. |
Leads | Explore Ads (carousel, collection) Stories Ads (image, video) Reels Ads (video) | Briefly explains an offer and uses CTAs for contact details. Highlights offer details with a lead gen form included or through a landing page link. | Viewers actively seeking solutions or resources; people interested in your offer and willing to share contact information. |
App Promotion | Feed Ads (video) Stories Ads (video) Reels Ads (video) | Drives app installs with clear CTAs. Utilize sponsored content and partnership ads with content creators and UGC to promote app features. Highlights diverse app functionalities. | Instagram audiences actively browsing for apps that address their needs. |
Sales | Explore Ads (carousel, collection) Reels Ads (video, collection) | Showcases high-quality product images and clear purchase CTAs. Demonstrates product features and benefits in action. Creates a buying journey narrative or showcases product variations. | Users actively considering product purchases; those interested in the category or niche your product falls under. |
Questions from Instagram Media Buyers
When running campaigns with multiple ad formats across various placements, how can I analyze which formats are more effective?
- Consider tracking key metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, impressions, engagement rates, and conversion rates aligned with your campaign objectives.
- Utilize Meta Ads Manager to closely monitor these metrics and gain insights into audience resonance and desired actions.
- Depending on your campaign objectives, focus on cost metrics like cost-per-mille (CPM) for reach-focused campaigns and cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) for lead generation campaigns.
- Compare and analyze these metrics to identify the top-performing Instagram advertising formats and allocate your budget accordingly. For instance, if your Reels and Stories ads are driving higher leads for your campaign, consider manually removing other placements to allow your ad set to concentrate on these formats.
- Alternatively, leveraging Advantage+ placements enables Meta’s AI to allocate your ad set’s budget across multiple placements, prioritizing those likely to yield the best results.
Are there any general trends in terms of which ad formats tend to be more expensive on Instagram?
- Here are the average cost benchmarks for Instagram ads based on 2023 Strike Social data:


- As for the specific ad formats, here are the 2023 end-of-year benchmarks:


- Generally, Stories and Reels ad placements, known for their immersive and engaging nature, can be more costly than Feed Ads. However, actual costs may vary depending on factors such as audience targeting and location.
Navigating Your Choices Across the Different Instagram Ad Formats
After exploring this blog, you’ve likely gained a foundational understanding of Instagram advertising, but there’s still much more to uncover. This guide serves as a crucial resource for media buyers seeking to enhance their expertise before launching campaigns.
Remember, mastering Instagram advertising formats requires ongoing learning and refinement. Keep this guide accessible and stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter for additional insights and resources to support your media buying journey.
Next, explore our guide on Instagram ad specs for optimizing your campaigns.
Strike Overview
- Despite scrutiny surrounding sports betting ads, the industry remains steadfast. Legal bets in the U.S. soared to over $125 billion last year alone.
- According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), Americans spent $10.49 billion on sports betting during the 2024 Super Bowl, marking a 24.8% surge from the previous year.
- Yet even with these promising figures, many sports betting companies remain cautious about advertising on social media. Understandably so, given the constant change in gambling laws and advertising regulations. But shying away from this opportunity is not the answer.
- From preparation to launch and beyond, this guide will ensure your sports betting ads on social media run seamlessly, avoiding potential interruptions.
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This post was updated in January 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
What’s the State of Sports Betting Advertising Today?
Despite a 21% decline in 2023, sports betting advertising in the U.S. continues to experience significant growth. As of November 2024, the American Gaming Association (AGA) reports an 8.6% year-over-year (YoY) revenue increase for the commercial gaming industry, with sports betting specifically showing a remarkable 26.8% YoY growth. This brings sports betting’s share of the industry to 10.9%.
This upward trend is largely driven by the increasing number of U.S. states legalizing sports betting for adults aged 21 and above.
The addition of markets like North Carolina and Vermont, which have recently launched sports betting and now allow sports betting ads, has significantly boosted engagement.
Sports Betting Ads on Social Media
TikTok emerges as a prominent platform for engaging sports audiences with a remarkable 2.15% engagement rate, surpassing Instagram (0.75%) and Facebook (0.22%).
Social media’s influence extends further to sports gambling behavior, with celebrities and influencers increasingly utilized in advertising efforts. These personalities—sports journalists, former athletes, and betting experts—engage specific sports communities, offering targeted content and authentic interactions that resonate with audiences.
With these trends in mind, brands launching sports betting ads must consider how to capitalize on these insights to enhance their strategies.


Preparing Your Sports Betting Ad Campaigns Before Launch
Launching sports gambling and betting ads requires complexities and adhering to specific constraints. Before you hit “publish,” we recommend reviewing this checklist to ensure your campaign is primed for success.
Audience Targeting
Sports audiences have undergone a significant transformation, partly propelled by notable events like the Taylor Swift effect during the Super Bowl. The 2024 NFL season saw record-breaking female viewership, including a 53% surge among teenage girls, a 24% increase among women aged 18-24, and a 34% rise among women aged 35 and older.
On platforms like Facebook and YouTube, sports-related content commands significant engagement rates. Sports teams lead the pack on Facebook with an average engagement rate of 0.27%, followed closely by influencers at 0.23% and higher education at 0.15%. Moreover, the projected surge in sports viewership on YouTube will reach 90 million by 2025.
Limitations: Media buyers must recognize the varying legal age requirements for gambling across different US states, with some jurisdictions prohibiting it altogether. We recommend setting the minimum age for sports betting ads at 21 to ensure compliance and maximize reach. Refer to the table below for state-specific regulations:
Location Targeting
For sports betting apps or websites seeking a global audience, especially during major occasions like the Olympics, you must assess the legal framework of the countries you intend to focus on. Each nation maintains its unique regulations concerning sports betting advertising.
Below is a summary of select countries and their positions regarding sports betting ads on YouTube. If a country is not included, it means that YouTube ads presently do not accommodate gambling ads in that jurisdiction.
For more detailed information on limitations in specific countries, click here.
Ad Platform Considerations
While you may have a preferred platform for advertising where your campaigns typically perform well, note that not all platforms permit sports betting ads on social media, and each has its own set of guidelines to follow.
TikTok, for instance, prohibits the promotion of gambling or any related activities. Meanwhile, on Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram, advertisers must seek written permission and are prohibited from targeting sports betting ads to audiences under 18 years old.
There’s more flexibility on YouTube, as the platform allows the promotion of sites or content related to online gambling. However, advertisers must undergo Google certification before advertising sports betting apps or websites. If you want to promote sports betting apps or sites on YouTube, you can apply through Google’s official platform certification here.
Best Practices for Promoting Sports Betting on Social Media
After obtaining certifications and permissions and successfully launching your ads on your chosen platform, the next step is to ensure the continuity of your campaign. Here’s a closer look at potential issues that may arise mid-flight and how you can resolve them:
Disapproved Landing Page
- Problem: Your ad links to a landing page that violates platform policies, such as containing excessive gambling references or lacking responsible gambling resources.
- Resolution: Ensure your ad includes clear disclaimers, especially regarding age restrictions. Incorporate prominent visuals or audio reminders indicating that viewers must be of legal gambling age. Additionally, consider “pinning” a comment that outlines responsible gambling practices and resources associated with your brand.
Further Reading



Why Facebook Rejects Your Ads (and How to Avoid It)
Facebook’s advertising platform enforces strict guidelines that all advertisers must adhere to. Learning the typical causes of ad rejection can help you avoid the lengthy and often frustrating appeals process.
Lack of Transparency or Misleading Claims
- Problem: Ads that lack transparency regarding odds, promotions, or terms of service or contain misleading claims may be disapproved of or restricted.
- Resolution: Avoid making exaggerated claims or omitting crucial information that could mislead users. Use clear and prominent disclosures to ensure transparency and foster trust with your audience.
Targeting Minors or Restricted Audiencces
- Problem: Targeting minors or audiences not permitted to participate in gambling activities.
- Resolution: Be mindful that legal gambling ages vary by state. Consider creating separate campaigns or ad groups targeting states with differing legal ages. For example, one campaign could target states with an 18+ legal age for gambling, while another focuses on states with a legal age of 21+ for online betting.
Policy Changes Mid-Campaign
- Problem: Your chosen advertising platform may implement new policies mid-campaign, restricting your ad content and leading to rejection or disapproval.
- Resolution: Subscribe to alerts or industry blogs to stay informed about platform policy changes. Quickly adapt your campaign creatives and targeting to comply with updated regulations. This proactive approach helps prevent disruptions and ensures the smooth progression of your sports betting app ads.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Gambling Ads in Online Advertising
When it comes to advertising sports betting on social media, it’s natural to be skeptical due to many restrictions and limitations. Will it be too expensive? Can it achieve the same reach and efficiency? Let’s examine this further.


The data from YouTube’s Q1 2024 TrueView Instream Skippable campaigns reveals that gambling ads achieve a 10% lower CPV compared to the overall 2023 benchmarks of our US campaigns. Additionally, CPV for online gambling ads experienced a further 7% reduction, indicating a continued efficiency in cost-effectiveness.


In Facebook campaigns utilizing the Impressions objective, the CPM for gambling ads is strikingly 70% lower than our US campaign benchmark. This stark contrast highlights the potential efficiency that your sports betting ads can attain through paid social media advertising platforms.
Get Your Sports Betting Ads In The Game
Regardless of the restrictions surrounding advertising sports betting on social media platforms, it’s clear that there are strategies to leverage the excitement and expansive reach available through this channel. With numerous upcoming sports events, social media advertising offers a prime opportunity to get your sports gambling ads seen.
Reach out to our team to discover additional ways to capitalize on paid social media advertising to enhance your sports betting campaigns.
Strike Overview
- Amazon dominates 37% of the estimated $100 billion market for retail media ads, making it a prime opportunity for media buyers to capitalize on Amazon Prime Day 2024.
- This two-day event, slated for July 16th and 17th, sees an uptick in ad click-throughs by 226%, alongside a 409% increase in ad spend compared to the preceding 30 days.
- For retail media buyers, seizing the moment to enhance your Prime Day strategy is essential for staying ahead of the competition.
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This post was updated in January 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Winning Ad Campaigns for Amazon Prime Day 2024
Exclusive sale events hold a unique allure for shoppers, and the numbers from the 2023 Amazon Prime Day speak volumes: U.S. sales surged nearly 6% year-over-year to $6.4 billion on the event’s first day alone.
As we approach the 2024 Amazon Prime Day, set to rival even the busiest retail holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, anticipation is high for what could be one of the largest e-commerce moments of the year. With retailers gearing up to offer substantial discounts, consumer spending is expected to soar. But where do media buyers fit into this equation?
Amazon Prime Day Trends Across Seasons
Amazon Prime Day debuted on July 15, 2015, commemorating the company’s 20th anniversary. Initially accessible in only 9 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and France, the event has since expanded to over 20 countries and now spans a duration of 48 hours.
Shopping by Household
In 2023, over a third (37%) of US households participated in Prime Day, marking a notable increase from previous years. This surge was accompanied by a slight uptick in spending per household, fueled by increased orders.


Shopping by Preference
82% of Amazon Prime Day shoppers in 2023 knew what they wanted to purchase, with 53% specifically holding out for discounted prices during the event. Additionally, 34% of shoppers availed themselves of Lightning Deals, emphasizing the event’s appeal to bargain hunters.


Shopping by Deals
The satisfaction levels among Prime Day shoppers were high in 2023, with two-thirds expressing extreme or high satisfaction with the deals offered. Notably, data reveals that most deals featured percentage-based discounts, with a significant proportion offering discounts of 60% or more.


How To Promote Amazon Prime Day Products On Social Media
When promoting Amazon Prime Day 2024 products on paid social media, there are a few considerations to remember. While Amazon has its advertising platform, Amazon Ads, which offers opportunities both on and off the platform through the Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP), leveraging social media advertising can enhance your promotional efforts. However, there are some potential hurdles to navigate.
Platform Policies
One significant obstacle advertisers face is the inability to track events, particularly conversions and purchases, when using Amazon shop links on social media advertising platforms. You cannot install the Meta pixel on Amazon shop links, and thus tracking purchases becomes challenging. Facebook’s Terms of Service categorize Amazon as a third-party advertising website, imposing limitations on advertising within Meta.
What you can do:
Instead of using direct Amazon links, which violate Facebook’s terms, consider using a dedicated landing page for your featured Amazon Prime Day products. Directing traffic to a landing page allows you to bypass the restriction and provide more flexibility in presenting your products.
A dedicated website and landing page enable you to showcase additional product benefits and features that may not be included in your Amazon product descriptions. This presents an opportunity to tailor your messaging to your audience and highlight unique selling points not openly stated in your Amazon product link.


Further Reading



Accurate Facebook ROAS Tracking for Amazon Prime Day
Learn the mechanics of calculating Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) to better identify your ideal Facebook ROAS benchmarks. Explore the typical issues and discover practical solutions to ensure accurate ROAS reporting.
Approaching Audiences
As Amazon Prime Day 2024 approaches, competition intensifies, with fierce competition for ad space and user attention. With an estimated 2.5 million reach as early as two months before the event, precision in targeting is crucial to focus your advertising efforts within your brand’s niche.
What you can do:
While targeting specific audiences may incur higher costs, social media platforms offer the advantage of precise audience targeting. Utilizing custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and retargeting options enhances your ability to reach those interested in your products.
For example, platforms like TikTok allow the creation of custom audiences based on landing page visits or engagement with your profile.


Since Amazon Prime Day 2024 is expected to occur from July 10th to 11th, consider uploading your custom audience list from previous retail seasons, such as Mother’s Day and the 4th of July.
Furthermore, if your landing page remains active year-round, ensure you embed the TikTok pixel to target a lookalike audience of your landing page visits from the last 30 days.
Technicalities and Backend
Tracking the effectiveness of your social media ad campaigns requires the proper setup of backend analytics to determine whether sales originate from your campaigns. Establishing connections between your ads and landing pages is essential for accurately measuring campaign performance.
What you can do:
Utilize UTM parameters in your landing page URLs to track traffic sources. For instance, if YouTube video ads drive traffic to your Amazon Prime Day 2024 landing page, create URLs with UTM parameters indicating the traffic source.
By tracking these links through Google Analytics, you can assess the impact of your social media advertising efforts and optimize accordingly.
Here’s an example:
https://yourbrand-amazonprimeday.com?utm_source=bumperads&utm_medium=videoads&utm_campaign=amazonprimeday2024&utm_id=youtube
You can obtain this using an online UTM builder. Tracking the link through GA4 lets you determine if you’re gaining landing page traffic from your YouTube ads.
Effective Ad Formats For Your Amazon Prime Day Strategy
When advertising your products on social media for Amazon Prime Day 2024, you must choose ad formats that effectively showcase your offerings. While Amazon ads are straightforward, featuring product images, prices, and details, transitioning these ads to social media can be tricky.
Fortunately, several ad formats are available on social media platforms that can help boost your Prime Day marketing efforts.
Meta Collection Ads
The Collection ad format lets you showcase large cover images or videos and smaller product images from your catalog. Users who tap on the cover image or video are directed to a full-screen Instant Experience to explore your products.
Tapping on the smaller product images leads users to your nominated landing page for your Amazon Prime Day featured products.
Meta Carousel Ads
Like Collection ads, Carousel ads enable you to display multiple images or videos within a single ad. Users can scroll through the carousel and select items that interest them, eventually directing them to your dedicated landing page.
The fun thing about Carousel ads is you can take them through a journey. Create a continuous creative (see a sample below) or simply list down the Prime Day products you want to feature.




Further Reading



Optimizing Your Meta Ads for Prime Day Promotion
The Meta platform feeds offer many opportunities to promote for Amazon Prime Day. It’s important to stay updated on the latest Meta ad sizes and specs to maximize engagement and relevance with audiences.
YouTube Shopping Ads
Despite Amazon and Google Merchant Center being separate platforms, you can link them to make the most of Google and YouTube’s reach. You can export your Amazon shop catalog to the Google Merchant Center using various external tools.
From there, YouTube Shopping Ads will feature your products on the platform through search partners and suggested products.
TikTok Interactive Add-Ons
To enhance your Prime Day marketing strategy, utilize TikTok’s interactive add-ons to showcase your exclusive 2024 offers effectively. These interactive ad campaigns take on a shorter flight, thus complementing seamlessly with your ongoing brand awareness TikTok campaign.
Engage with users who have previously interacted with your awareness campaigns through retargeting, gradually building anticipation towards Prime Day. These engaged audiences will be specifically targeted with the gift code sticker ad, enticing them to explore your Amazon Prime Day deals further through the interactive campaign.
During Amazon Prime Days 1 and 2, integrate the gift code sticker interactive add-ons into your video campaigns. As the gift code sticker appears in your ad, viewers can effortlessly click “Redeem Code” to copy it to their phone’s clipboard and redeem the code when purchasing from your Amazon shop.
Prime Your Ads for Amazon Prime Day Sales
E-commerce platforms hold immense power, often underutilized. With Amazon Prime Day 2024 approaching, there’s still time to optimize your listings and social media ads for the platforms we’ve discussed.
While participation in the Amazon Prime Day event promises gains for Amazon sellers, integrating strategic social media campaigns can significantly amplify your results. Curious about how to maximize this opportunity? Contact us today or schedule a meeting with our team. Let’s make it happen.
Strike Overview
- As advertisers, we know that Mother’s Day advertising campaigns often revolve around flowers, chocolates, and warm embraces – all for the brand we represent. But how do you infuse your campaigns with genuine love and relevance?
- Even though last year’s spending numbers are slightly down, there’s still much anticipation for 2025 Mother’s Day celebrations. Online shopping is still the top choice for buyers, making social media ads a great way to get to audiences first.
- According to Numerator’s 2025 US Holiday Preview, 74% of US adults are expected to celebrate the Mother’s Day festivities. Being the third most anticipated holiday just behind Christmas and Thanksgiving, are we bound to see high peaks in ad spending during this season?
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This post was updated in March 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
How to Create Successful Mother’s Day Advertising Campaigns
In 2024, Americans allocated up to $33.5 billion for Mother’s Day gifts and festivities, according to the National Retail Federation. While this marked a slight dip from the steady increase in Mother’s Day spending since 2019, it still ranked as the second-highest recorded spend for the holiday.
For advertisers, this emphasizes the importance of staying top-of-mind during Mother’s Day advertising season. How can you make your brand stand out and capture more sales? Explore the strategies in this blog to learn how to make the most of this much-awaited holiday.
Analyzing Consumer Behavior for Mother’s Day Marketing Strategies
Before we strategize how your brand can make its mark, you must understand first how consumer behavior shifts during this holiday.
Online shopping remains the top destination for Mother’s Day purchases, making digital ad strategies more important than ever. By analyzing past trends and spending patterns, you can uncover key insights to optimize your 2025 Mother’s Day campaigns.
Shopping Destinations
According to NRF’s survey, online spending surged in 2020 due to limited in-store options. However, the past four years have seen a resurgence in physical store visits, with specialty stores gaining popularity as shoppers seek curated Mother’s Day gifts and unique experiences.
Despite this shift, online retailers continue to attract the most shoppers during the holiday. Thus, your Mother’s Day sale ads must be strategically targeted to the right audiences to drive clicks and engagements where it matters most.


Gift Choices
Flowers, greeting cards, and special outings have remained the top three gift choices for three consecutive years. The allure of “gifts of experience” continues to grow, reflecting consumers’ desire for meaningful presents that foster lasting memories.
Although jewelry and electronics dominate consumer sales and spending, special outings continue to claim the second spot, highlighting the preference for unique experiences. Mother’s Day gifts are increasingly focused on the memories people want to create with their loved ones, as spending on special outings continues to rise in 2024.




Purchase Planning
Unlike other holidays that require extensive planning, most Mother’s Day gifts are purchased within one to two weeks before the holiday.
With Mother’s Day 2025 falling on May 11th, brands should time their Mother’s Day advertising campaigns strategically. While the majority of shoppers buy last-minute, 30% of purchases happen one to two months in advance.
Tapping into this early shopping window allows brands to build awareness, capture high-intent buyers, and maximize conversions leading up to the holiday.


Further Reading


Advertising Strategies to Build Up Your Father’s Day Campaigns
With Father’s Day just around the corner, brands have a prime opportunity to capture attention. As the celebration kicks off near summer, now is the time to refine your paid social campaigns for greater reach and engagement.
How Advertisers Can Spark Buzz for Mother’s Day Promotions
Now that we understand shoppers’ preferences and behaviors during this retail holiday, how can we align our Mother’s Day advertising strategies to stay at the top of our minds? Here are the tips to keep in mind:
Engage Your Audience with Interactive Ads
Did you know that audiences are 47% more likely to engage with interactive ads compared to static formats? By creating Mother’s Day advertising campaigns that invite participation, brands can capture attention, encourage clicks, and ultimately drive conversions.
Take France Luxe’s Mother’s Day Facebook ad, for example. Using carousel ads, they transformed their promotion into a Mother’s Day gift guide, enticing audiences to swipe through multiple product options.
Carousel ads on Facebook are a powerful tool for driving engagement, as each card swipe counts as an ad interaction. This Facebook ad format is especially effective for highlighting multiple offers or discounts across different products.


Explore the cost-per-engagement (CPE) benchmarks during the Mother’s Day purchase planning period:


CPE costs increase by up to 23% in the 1-2 months before Mother’s Day, indicating a competitive period for engagement-focused ads. However, in the 1-2 weeks leading up to the event, CPE drops by 16%, making it a prime window for driving conversions. This trend highlights the importance of focusing on engagement early, ensuring your Mother’s Day ads drive awareness and lead consumers toward making purchases in the weeks leading up to the big day.
Highlight Relationships and Motherly Love
Mother’s Day is fundamentally about celebrating relationships, particularly the bond between mothers and their loved ones. Tailor your campaigns accordingly:
- for women aged 30 and above, expressing gratitude towards mothers in general may resonate;
- younger demographics like Gen Z and millennials may appreciate assistance in finding the perfect gift for the maternal figures in their lives.
On TikTok, 73% of ad viewers get inspired by recommendations for special occasion gifts. Brands can take advantage of this engagement to capture their target audience and drive purchase intent.
Short-form ads certainly hit the spot, much like Bath and Body Works’ ad with a 21-second duration. The specialty retail brand promotes their seasonal fragrances while tapping into nostalgic memories of the content creator’s childhood with her mom. This emotional connection aligns with what shoppers seek when choosing Mother’s Day gifts.


While uncertainty around TikTok’s future in the U.S. lingers, advertisers still have an opportunity to capitalize on declining CPMs. See the TikTok CPM benchmarks during this period:


The 2-3 weeks leading up to Mother’s Day is when shoppers actively seek sale ads and gift ideas on TikTok. CPMs rise steadily in March and April as brands compete for visibility, with costs peaking up to 17% higher in the final week. Still, up to 20% of TikTok users make their Mother’s Day purchases during this time, presenting a last-minute opportunity for brands to drive conversions.
Communicate Your Mother’s Day Marketing Offers
Don’t hesitate to promote your Mother’s Day offers prominently. Whether it’s discounts, promo codes, or seasonal packages, make sure your audience knows about them. Since special outings have consistently ranked among the top three gift choices for this season, being explicit about your offers can significantly impact your Mother’s Day advertising campaigns.
Take a look at this ad from Ancient Lore Village, which showcases bookable experiences like wine dinners and brunches—activities that moms and wives can enjoy. By tapping into Mother’s Day celebrations, they create an engaging and compelling reason for viewers to take action.
Starting your Mother’s Day advertising early helps build momentum and keeps your brand top of mind when consumers are ready to purchase or book. Using Advantage+ audience retargeting, you can re-engage ad clickers and engagers, guiding them down the funnel toward conversion.


To help guide your Mother’s Day ad costs for 2025, here are the Facebook CPC benchmarks for clicks campaigns targeting website traffic objectives:


Cost-per-click (CPC) peaks in March, aligning with the surge in Mother’s Day purchases, before dropping by 37% as the holiday approaches. However, costs spike again at the end of May, driven by early ad spend for 4th of July and summer campaigns, as brands prepare for purchases made 1-2 months in advance, as well.
Find New Audiences with Influencer Communities
Influencer campaigns have proven effective across various brands and social media platforms. In fact, a leading CPG brand saw up to a 70% lower CPLC (cost-per-link-clicks) from its influencer campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. This highlights the power of influencer marketing in driving engagement—especially when partnerships align well with the brand and are targeted to the right audience.
For their Mother’s Day promotions, Sephora partnered with Bustle, a digital media brand catering to women-focused content like beauty and fashion.
One of Sephora’s key collaborations was with @audreypatriciaw, a lifestyle content creator with over 17,000 Instagram followers. In her video, she shared her personal fragrance recommendations for Mother’s Day gift ideas and directed viewers to shop for them on Sephora’s website.


Download the Multi-Platform Influencer Case Study
For a leading CPG brand, utilizing influencer-driven content is the key to driving engagement across audiences in different paid social media advertising platforms.
With Strike Social’s campaign activation and management expertise, the team successfully optimized the performance and cost-efficiency of influencer campaigns in TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.


Celebrate Your Brand This Mother’s Day 2025
While Mother’s Day might seem like just another retail event, it’s a golden opportunity waiting to be seized. With online shopping continuing to dominate this season, there’s no better time to leverage the hype and dive into the frenzy.
We understand your love for your moms and the brands you represent. So, why not make this Mother’s Day 2025 a win-win? Craft compelling campaigns that tug at heartstrings and connect with consumers on a deeper level. By delivering what they want and need, you’ll ensure your brand feels the love it deserves.
As you gear up for Mother’s Day 2025, keep your finger on the pulse of consumer trends, think outside the box, and offer irresistible deals. With the right strategy, you’ll make this Mother’s Day one to remember.



Article by
Syd Olivarez, Strike Social’s SEO Content Specialist
Syd crafts content on paid digital advertising strategies, blending 5+ years of writing expertise with 3 years in digital marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends to deliver valuable insights that keep brands informed and competitive.
Strike Overview
- Did you know that brands investing in 2024 Olympics advertising on paid social can see up to 22% higher brand recall and a 27% increase in brand searches?
- The 2024 Olympics is shaping up to be a massive digital event, with YouTube alone surpassing 33 billion visits for Olympics-related content.
- This global event allows advertisers to reach audiences well beyond the United States. However, with top-tier brands vying for advertising space, the challenge arises in securing visibility without the hefty price tag.
- How will social media trends influence advertising strategies and costs for this year’s Summer Olympics?
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Budget-Focused Strategies for Your 2024 Olympics Advertising Campaigns
Amid the pandemic’s peak, the Tokyo Olympic Games 2021 set a record-breaking 5.5 billion streaming minutes watched on social media and platforms like NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports app, and Peacock. Additionally, the International Olympic Committee’s social media accounts gathered 6.1 billion engagements, including video views, shares, comments, and likes during the games.
With such an extensive potential reach spanning different devices, updating your advertising strategies becomes crucial. Identifying your target audience and knowing when and where to reach them best is key to effectively advertising during the 2024 Olympics season without overspending.
How Your 2024 Olympics Advertising Plan Can Look Like
As the 2024 Summer Olympics draws closer, the window of opportunity to promote your brand remains wide open. If your brand is not an official Olympics sponsor or partner, there’s ample time to start your 2024 Olympics social media marketing and test your way into an effective campaign.
Budget and Timeline
Whether you’re presenting Q2 and Q3 marketing ideas to your director or catching up on utilizing your marketing budget, paid social media advertising offers a flexible and effective way to reach your target audience.
The beauty of having a set budget is that platforms’ AI capabilities can adapt to your requirements. Here’s a breakdown of how your sample budget and timeline can look like:


Refined Audience Targeting
To craft a detailed targeting strategy for your 2024 Olympics advertising plan, it’s essential to understand how your audience consumes related content. Aside from the brand you are advertising, what preferences and interests should you be focusing on?


We’ve crafted a detailed list of all Olympic sports available for interest targeting on advertising platforms.
Get the full list here.
To test how this refines or broadens your reach even further, let’s look back at the table from above:


Case Study: HVAC Company Campaigns Targeted Towards Sports Fans
During last year’s winter season, an HVAC company launched an advertising campaign to target both the US and Canadian markets effectively. However, with distinct demographics, interests, and audience behaviors in each region, the challenge was to devise strategies that could succeed in both markets.
Canada Strategy
In Canada, the campaign’s approach was tailored to showcase the resilience of the company’s HVAC solutions across various seasons. Additionally, the campaign leveraged YouTube’s audience targeting capabilities, particularly focusing on Custom Intent audiences and Canada’s enthusiasm for sports.
These strategies yielded the following outcomes:
- A 13% increase in CPM efficiency for Non-skippable ads
- A 40% reduction in CPV for Skippable ads, surpassing Strike’s guaranteed rates
- Sports-centric audiences comprised 51% of the campaign’s spending, views, and impressions. Despite being smaller in size, this audience segment delivered equal engagement and value to the campaign.
While the campaign didn’t directly target sports events, it effectively tapped into the audience’s interests, particularly Canadians’ passion for sports. This highlights the versatility of the marketing strategy, which is suitable for year-round implementation in the Canadian market and effective beyond specific sporting events.
Download the YouTube Audience Targeting Case Study
By targeting sports audiences across Canada, Strike Social successfully optimized for video views and cost-efficiency for a major HVAC brand. Discover the strategy behind this successful YouTube campaign.



US Strategy
For its U.S. campaigns, the HVAC brand aimed to cater to the substantial number of mobile viewers prevalent in the country. To achieve this, the brand adopted Video View Campaigns (VVC), distributing its creative across various formats, including skippable in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts.
The VVC initiatives yielded the following outcomes:
- The campaigns generated 19 million impressions and 5.3 million+ total video views.
- 43% of views and 37% of clicks originated from YouTube Shorts ad placements.
- Connected TVs (CTVs) achieved 94.66% video completion rate (VCR).
This case study showcases the importance of adapting creatives to cater to mobile viewers while also ensuring visibility across other platforms like CTVs. Despite the focus on mobile audiences, the brand successfully reached a substantial number of viewers through both Shorts and CTV placements, highlighting the equal importance of these platforms in the VVC strategy.
Bonus: Creative Strategies for Sustaining Advertising Momentum Post-2024 Olympics
The sports season isn’t just for die-hard fans anymore. Even casual sports enthusiasts and those curious about their country’s performance can be valuable targets for paid social media advertising.
Here are some creative tips to ensure your advertising remains impactful long after the Olympics:
IcyBreeze
IcyBreeze, a manufacturer of portable AC units, smartly capitalized on the Olympics without explicitly mentioning the event in their ad. By featuring Coach Prime from the University of Colorado Boulder’s football program, they targeted their audience effectively. While the ad focused primarily on product usage, its association with Coach Prime subtly tied it to the Olympics, offering versatility for year-round use.
NBC and BuzzFeed
NBC have not only broadcast live Olympic events in the past but have also collaborated with BuzzFeed on Olympic features distributed across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. One standout example is their feature with Olympic Swimmer Townsley Haas, addressing the unique challenges faced by tall individuals, commonly known as “tall people problems.”
Listicle videos like this one consistently rank among the most popular types of video content on social media platforms.
e.l.f. Cosmetics
Despite being released on Game Day, the e.l.f Cosmetics ad did not explicitly reference the big event, allowing e.l.f to repurpose it year-round. By seizing the ad spot and leveraging celebrity endorsements, e.l.f ensured its brand stayed at the top of the mind long after the event.
Furthermore, notice how engagement accumulates two months after its initial posting on YouTube, underscoring its ongoing relevance and effectiveness in connecting with the right audience.


Here’s how you can follow suit: Imagine you’re a TV distributor looking to capitalize on the 2024 Olympics buzz. Rather than directly referencing the event, envision a scenario where a family upgrades to a larger TV to enjoy quality time together watching the games. By focusing on the bonding experience facilitated by your product or service, you can resonate with audiences beyond the scope of the Olympics.
High-Impact Strategies for 2024 Olympics Advertising
The strategies outlined in this guide are paramount to your advertising success during the 2024 Olympics. With NBC Olympics securing $1.2 billion in ad sales for the upcoming games, it’s clear that ad space competition will be fierce. However, budget constraints need not limit your reach to Olympic audiences.
This is just the beginning of what you can achieve. For further insights on optimizing your 2024 Olympics advertising strategies, send us a message and discover how Strike Social can elevate your campaigns. Contact us for inquiries or schedule a consultation with one of our experts today.
Strike Overview
- Running a successful paid social media campaign requires understanding the platform’s language—such as learning the Instagram glossary for advertising terms. From basic terms like Instagram usernames (handles) to key advertising metrics such as engagement and video views, knowing these fundamentals is essential before launching your Instagram campaign.
- Instagram’s user base in the U.S. has grown from 110.8 million in 2019 to a projected 148.3 million by 2026. With Meta continuously enhancing the platform, Instagram remains one of the most widely used social media channels both in the U.S. and globally. Paid advertising on Instagram could provide the boost your brand needs.
- A strong campaign starts with a solid foundation—explore the complete Instagram terminology and vocabulary before you begin creating content and strategizing your campaign.
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Instagram Advertising Terms: The Beginner’s Handbook
The initial step in effectively setting up your Instagram advertising efforts is to familiarize yourself with the essential glossary of Instagram terms. That’s where our comprehensive guide comes in. From understanding the essentials of content creation for your brand on Instagram to monitoring your metrics and analytics effectively, our marketer’s glossary for Instagram provides all the guidance you need.
The glossary is thoughtfully organized into categories for ease of use. You can either choose to explore terms by their category or simply scroll down to find the specific terms you need, arranged in alphabetical order:
Foundational Instagram Terminology
Grasp the fundamental elements through this detailed Instagram glossary, which covers the initial terms. If you’re new to advertising on Instagram, this is where to begin:
Instagram Paid Advertising Terms
If you’re gearing up for paid marketing on Instagram, check out this section for essential terminologies used in Instagram advertising:
Instagram Glossary for Ad Metrics & Analytics
Your Instagram Ads’ effectiveness depends on your ability to track and interpret their performance accurately. This section provides you with the crucial Instagram terms needed to understand the analytics of your campaigns:
Ad formats: These refer to the various ways your ad can appear on Instagram. Each format offers unique advantages for specific goals:
Carousel Ads: Feature multiple images or videos swipeable within a single ad.
Collection Ads: Showcase multiple products within a single ad unit.
Explore Ads: Ads displayed on the Instagram Explore page, a curated feed of content based on user interests.
Image Ads: Single, static images used for advertising on Instagram.
Reels Ads: Ads displayed within the Instagram Reels feed.
Shopping Ads: Product-focused ads that allow users to tap directly on the ad to view product details and initiate a purchase journey.
Story Ads: Ads displayed within the Instagram Stories feed. They come in various formats like photo, video, or even interactive elements like polls or quizzes.
Video Ads: Short video ads used for advertising that can grab attention and tell a compelling story.
Further Reading


Discover Instagram Ad Formats to Elevate Your Creatives
Captivating visuals are key to engaging audiences and delivering your brand message on Instagram. Whether through eye-catching photos or dynamic videos, understanding Instagram’s various ad formats will help you showcase your brand effectively.
Ad placements: Know where your ads appear on Instagram. Here’s a breakdown of the key ad placements:
Instagram Explore Ad: Ads displayed on the Instagram Explore page, reaching users actively seeking new and engaging content.
Instagram Feed Ad: Appears within the regular Instagram feed, seamlessly blending with organic posts.
Instagram Profile Feed Ad: These ads appear directly on a user’s profile feed, specifically below the bio section. They offer targeted exposure to users who have already visited a particular profile.
Instagram Reels Ad: Similar to Instagram Stories Ads, these ads appear within the Instagram Reels feed.
Instagram Stories Ad: These ads appear within the user’s Instagram Stories feed, blending with organic stories from followed accounts.
Algorithm: The system that determines the order in which users see content in their feed. It considers factors in a user’s engagement, relevance, and activity.
Archive: A section where you can hide posts from your profile without permanently deleting them.
Average View Time: The average duration for which users watch your video ad.
Bio: A short description about yourself or your brand.
Boosted post: Increasing the visibility of an existing organic post through paid advertising.
Campaign objectives: Here are some primary goals you can choose from when setting objectives for your Instagram ad campaigns:
App Promotion: Encourage users to download your mobile app directly from your ad.
Awareness: Reach new audiences who might not be familiar with your brand.
Engagement: Increase interactions with your ad content, such as likes, comments, shares, and saves.
Lead Generation: Collect leads from potential customers who are interested in your product or service.
Sales: Drive specific actions such as purchases on your website.
Traffic: Drive traffic to your website or a specific landing page.
Caption: The text accompanying your post, providing context or details.
Carousel Post: A post format allowing you to swipe through multiple images or videos within a single post.
Carousel Swipe Rate: The percentage of users who swipe through all the images/videos in your carousel ad after seeing the first frame.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of users who clicked on your ad after seeing it.


Comment: A way to leave a message publicly on a post.
Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA): The average Instagram cost you pay for each action acquired driven by your ad.


Cost-per-Click (CPC): The average amount you pay for each click on your ad.


Cost-per-Thousand Impressions (CPM): The average cost you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is displayed.


Direct Message (DM): A private messaging feature for sending messages directly to other users.
Engagement Rate: A metric measuring how well your content resonates with your audience. It’s further broken down as:
Engagement Rate by Follower: Shows how well your content performs within your existing follower base. Computed as engagement divided by follower count.
Engagement Rate by Impression: Indicates how well your content performs with everyone who sees it, regardless of following status. Divide engagement count by total impressions received by the ad.
Engagement Rate by Reach: Shows how well your content engages the unique users who see it. Computed as total engagement divided by reach.
Explore Page: A curated page featuring content based on user interests and trending topics.
Followers: Users who have subscribed to see your posts in their feed.
Following: Accounts you’ve chosen to see content from in your feed.
Frequency: The average number of times a user sees your ad during a campaign.
Geotagging: Adding a location tag to your post, allowing users to discover location-based content.
Hashtag: A word or phrase preceded by “#” to categorize your content and help users discover it.
Handle (@username): Your unique identifier on Instagram.
Highlights: A collection of saved stories that appear permanently on your profile.
Impressions: The number of times your post appears on a user’s screen.
Influencer: A social media personality with a dedicated following and the ability to influence purchase decisions.
Further Reading






Enhance Audience Targeting with Instagram Partnership Ads
Traditional targeting strategies for Instagram ads can drive results, but Instagram Partnership Ads take it a step further. By collaborating with influencers, you can reach highly engaged niche audiences who are more likely to connect with your brand.
Insights: The built-in analytics tool on Instagram that provides data on your post performance and audience demographics.
Instagram Live: Streaming live video content where viewers can comment and interact in real-time.
Paid reach: The number of unique accounts who see your content through paid advertising efforts.
Posts: The content you share on your profile, including photos, videos, and stories.
Profile: Your public-facing page showcasing your posts, bio, and follower information.
Profile Picture: The main image representing your account.
Profile Visits: The number of times users visit your Instagram profile after seeing your ad.
Reach: The number of unique accounts who were shown your post.
Reels: Short, engaging video clips with creative editing tools and music options. They can be up to 3 minutes long and include either a single video or a combination of images and videos.
Further Reading
Enhance Audience Targeting with Instagram Partnership Ads
While short-form video ad platforms all use a 9:16 aspect ratio, their safe zones vary significantly. Explore the safe zone templates and guides here to ensure your logo, key messages, and call-to-action buttons remain visible and unobstructed.
Saved Posts: Content saved by users to revisit later, which can be public or private.
Sponsored Post: A post created by an influencer or media outlet in partnership with a brand, typically disclosed with #ad or #sponsored.
Stories: Short, disappearing photo or video clips viewable for 24 hours.
Story Completion Rate: The percentage of users who watch your entire story ad.
Swipe-Ups/Link Clicks: (For Stories Ads) The number of times users swipe up on your story ad to visit the linked website or landing page.
Tag: Mentioning another user (@username) in your post or comment, creating a link to their profile.
Verified Badge (Blue checkmark): A mark awarded by Instagram confirming the authenticity of a public figure or brand.
Video View: The number of times your video content is played, including replays.
Website Conversions: The number of specific actions users take on your website after clicking your ad (e.g., purchases, sign-ups).
The Essential Instagram Glossary Every Advertiser Needs
The importance of mastering the specific language of each platform cannot be overstated — especially on Instagram, where the visual and dynamic interplay of content creates unique opportunities for brands.
As you move forward, armed with the insights from our comprehensive glossary, remember that the language of Instagram is continually evolving. Staying abreast of new terms and trends is crucial for maintaining the relevance and effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
Thus, whether you’re figuring out which hashtags to use, where your ads will show up, or how to read your campaign analytics, understanding Instagram’s terminology is the first step toward engaging your audience and boosting your brand.


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Our expertise spans over 1 billion managed campaigns.





Setup & Monitoring
Our process ensures a streamlined campaign setup, enhancing time and resource efficiency.
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Strike Overview
- The looming news of the US TikTok ban is sending ripples through its community. Although TikTok has only been around for less than a decade, it has captured the hearts of 150 million users in the US alone.
- The ease with which TikTok was adopted raises the question: will it be as easy to move on from it? While Meta Reels and YouTube Shorts emerge as the next top advertising platforms, are TikTok users truly ready to make the switch?
- With growing concerns, brands must peer into the horizon and consider the possibilities ahead in the wake of this recent development.
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This post was updated in January 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
After News of the US TikTok Ban, How Can You Shift Your Social Media Ad Strategies?
The latest U.S. TikTok ban updates include a tentative shutdown date set for January 19, users migrating to another Chinese social app called RedNote, and incoming President-elect Trump planning to attempt saving the app after his inauguration.
Despite the challenges posed by the upcoming TikTok ban, it seems that the concerns primarily stem from lawmakers, attributed to their limited understanding of the technology, rather than from the US audience, which has shown remarkable composure. While significant and deserving of attention, the situation about the US TikTok ban presents an opportunity for us to prepare you for the inevitable and forthcoming shift.
The Uncertain Future Post-TikTok Ban
It all started in 2020 when then-US President Donald Trump viewed TikTok as a national security threat and announced that the government was considering banning the app. Fast forward to March 13, 2024, when the Senate passed the bill approving the legislation that forces TikTok to sell ownership from a Chinese-owned company to a United States-owned one.
While the TikTok app may not be a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), ByteDance has a diverse ownership structure: 60% by global investors, including those from the U.S., 20% by its Chinese co-founders, and 20% by its employees, which includes thousands in the U.S.
Further Reading


Map Out the U.S. TikTok Ban Timeline
Reflect on TikTok’s evolution in the US—from a platform for dance trends and viral skits to a centerpiece of national security debates. Explore the multifaceted story of the app’s rise and the controversies that have culminated in TikTok being banned from government access and potentially from US users entirely.
Despite ongoing discussions and legislative actions in the works for months, TikTok’s popularity remains strong. However, the threat of the U.S. TikTok ban is a real possibility. This raises important questions for advertisers about adapting and preparing for a future that might change TikTok’s operations drastically.
What Does the Bill to Ban TikTok Mean for Future Campaigns?
Should it retain its affiliation with ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, the potential ban of TikTok in the United States presents a complex scenario for advertisers utilizing the platform. Here, we examine what such a scenario could mean for brands and advertisers capitalizing on TikTok views and engagement:
Reach and Targeting Challenges
- With the TikTok app banned, a primary consequence would be the immediate loss of the US audience demographic. Advertisers who have been targeting American users might find themselves asking, “Why can’t I target USA on TikTok ads?”
- The answer lies in the unavailability of TikTok within the United States, compelling those who wish to reach American consumers to pivot towards TikTok local ads.
Accessibility of Digital Assets on TikTok
- Another significant hurdle would be accessing the digital assets you have uploaded on TikTok, including videos, music, and your TikTok shop.
- As TikTok and its users brace for the impending ban, the app will provide an option for users to download their data to retain their personal information. Once the U.S. TikTok ban goes into effect, the videos uploaded may become inaccessible, requiring creators and brands to download what they can while they still have the chance.
- Although TikTok has tried to store US user data within domestic data centers in Northern Virginia and Hillsboro, these measures may not suffice to ensure access to these assets once the TikTok ban is implemented.
Budget Allocation Concerns
- The legislative journey towards potentially banning TikTok, stretching over four years, has already sparked widespread concern among advertisers regarding their ad budget allocations on the platform.
- For advertisers who have already set their 2025 budgets and are concerned about the US TikTok ban, the risks are becoming increasingly tangible. It is crucial for advertisers to stay cautious and adaptable with their budget planning, especially for mid-Q1 2025 and beyond.
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How Can TikTok Advertisers Adapt to the Change?
The possibility of TikTok being banned in the U.S. is becoming increasingly likely. Even if a request for another 270-day extension is approved, delaying the ban until October, TikTok advertisers in the U.S. must take proactive steps to adjust their strategies.
Below are key approaches to consider in light of the uncertain future concerning TikTok getting banned in the U.S.:
Adjusting your Audience Targeting Strategy
If the United States is no longer available for targeting, you can adjust your location targeting settings within TikTok Ads Manager. This is particularly useful for international brands, ensuring that budgets are not wasted on an unavailable US audience.
Alternatively, you can identify countries with significant US/American tourist populations as alternative targets. This approach helps maintain engagement with American users indirectly, for example, through their top travel destinations. For instance, the top 5 American travel destinations in 2024 that can be targeted on TikTok are United Kingdom*, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, and Italy.
* Targeting the United Kingdom (GB) is only available for managed accounts in Australia (AU).
Safeguarding Digital Assets
In anticipation of TikTok assets potentially becoming inaccessible, consider migrating them to alternative platforms like Meta and YouTube. Expanding to these platforms secures your assets and opens up new avenues for short-form video advertising.
- Reels is dominating on Facebook and Instagram, with users spending approximately two-thirds of their time engaging with video content. Moreover, Instagram alone is projected to account for over 50% of U.S. ad spend in 2025.
- Advertisers transitioning to Shorts in 2025 should note that 43% of U.S. ad buyers are already active in this space. Optimizing YouTube ad costs is achievable with the support of the right AdTech agency. By leveraging the flexibility to optimize across Shorts, feed, and even CTV, you can achieve high performance at competitive costs.
Keep producing vertical, short-form content to align with your audience’s established viewing habits and preferences, ensuring a consistent user experience across platforms.
Budgetary Considerations and Planning
Anticipate potential changes by formulating a plan that includes TikTok but also consider a strategic reallocation of your budget towards alternative platforms.
For instance, in planning a Super Bowl 2025 campaign where TikTok is a primary channel, consider reducing its budget while increasing allocations for Meta and YouTube. Here’s an example:


This strategy involves adjusting the advertising budget, initially allocating 50% to TikTok in Q3 2024, then reducing it to 40% by Q4 2024. To address anticipated changes proactively, the plan includes further decreasing the TikTok budget to 25% by Q1 2025. The funds saved from this reduction will be shifted towards YouTube advertising, capitalizing on its Shorts feature, which closely mirrors the short-form video format popularized by TikTok.
By proactively adjusting audience targeting settings, migrating digital assets, and reevaluating budget allocations, you can stay ahead and maintain your brand’s advertising strategies with minimal disruption.
What Opportunities Lie Ahead for TikTok Advertisers?
With the US TikTok ban on the horizon, it’s evident that adaptability is key. The risk of TikTok becoming inaccessible overnight highlights the need for proactive planning and strategic foresight. Being caught off-guard by TikTok’s potential exit from the US market could significantly impact your advertising efforts. Still, with the right tools, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.
Collaborating with an advertising partner capable of navigating these uncertainties is crucial. Our experienced team offers essential insights for expanding your advertising to other platforms, preparing you for any outcome of the U.S. TikTok ban. Arrange a consultation with us to explore how your advertising strategies can continue to thrive.
Strike Overview
- The restriction of TikTok in the United States began in 2022 when President Joe Biden signed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, prohibiting the app on federally owned devices.
- The motion gained momentum in 2024, fueled by concerns over ByteDance, the Chinese-owned company behind TikTok, CapCut, and other apps. If ByteDance fails to secure a U.S. buyer, the push for a complete ban on TikTok in the U.S. will likely persist.
- Based on the TikTok ban timeline, the app could become unavailable as early as January 19, 2025. With uncertainty looming, marketers must understand the implications and prepare for their next strategic move.
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This post was updated in January 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
Restriction of TikTok in the United States & Marketers’ Next Move
The ticking clock on the restriction of TikTok in the United States grows louder each day. As US TikTok app users closer to the possibility of a ban, the platform’s vibrant community, encompassing a wide range of demographics, faces an uncertain future.
The concerns surrounding TikTok go beyond its user base, as marketers globally prepare for potential disruptions to advertising strategies and content creation if the full restriction of TikTok in the United States moves forward.
To fully grasp this complex debate, we must look back at TikTok’s evolution in the US. It’s a tale of transformation—from a hub for dance trends and viral skits to a focal point of national security discussions. Join us as we unpack the multifaceted narrative of the app’s ascent and the ensuing controversies that have led to increasing TikTok restrictions in the US.
See a snapshot of the pivotal moments that have shaped TikTok’s journey in the US, underscoring the app’s ascent and the controversies that have threatened its presence.
The evolving narrative around TikTok’s operational challenges in the US speaks a broader conversation about digital privacy, national security, and the future of international tech companies on American soil.
For marketers who have found efficacy and opportunity on the platform, the looming question is not just hypothetical but pressing: ‘What are the next steps after hearing the news about the restriction of TikTok in the United States?”


Why Panicking Shouldn’t Be On Your 2025 TikTok Advertising Strategy
The motion for TikTok restrictions in US has caused fear and panic among many users, creators, and advertisers. Headlines scream “Ban TikTok!” while social media feeds are flooded with speculation and lists of “Here’s what to do”. But before hitting the panic button, let’s take a deep breath and separate fact from fiction based on the recent news about the restrictions of TikTok in the United States.
Focusing on Facts Rather than Fear
Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding TikTok getting banned has become a breeding ground of confusion and baseless decisions. Here are some common anxieties we’ll discuss and give light:
Complete TikTok Ban Imminent
- While the US House has proposed a nationwide ban in 2024, the enactment could take effect by January 19, 2025. The situation is constantly evolving, with ongoing discussions and investigations. There’s still many discussions going on, such as TikTok appealing to President-elect Donald Trump, showing his stats from the last election and how TikTok views boosted him amongst other candidates.
- However, shall the full restrictions of TikTok in the United States take effect, this would impact not only the general public but also government devices and all government contracts. This includes personal devices used for federal contract work. To determine if your company is exempt from these restrictions, consider conducting an EPLS search.
Data Vanishing Act
- Users worried about losing all their data can find some solace here. Since June 2022, TikTok claims to have transferred US user data to Oracle servers in the US. However, skepticism persists regarding China’s potential data access.


Safekeeping Content
- Similar to having a window to access the data, even in a scenario when complete TikTok restrictions take place, users can download their data – photos, videos, and other content.
The Fall of the TikTok Influencer
- Geographical restrictions may not signal the end of influencer marketing fueled by TikTok Spark Ads.
- Many influencers and creators are already pivoting to alternative platforms and reshaping their strategies to cultivate fresh audiences from the ground up.
Further Reading





YouTube Shorts vs. Reels: What’s the Next Go-To Short-Form Platform
With a potential TikTok ban looming in the US, advertisers should keep their options open. Between YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, which short-form platform should you turn to next?
TikTok Community Adaptation
- If a ban happens, it’s unlikely to be immediate. The restriction of TikTok in the United States would give advertisers time to adjust their strategies and explore alternative platforms that might emerge to fill the gap.
- Businesses and creators should be ready to follow where the TikTok Nomads will eventually find their new home.
Short-Term Effects of Full TikTok Restrictions for U.S. Advertisers
Advertisers who have decided to stand still and tell their clients “Business As Usual” right after the news breaks out may reap their rewards.
Surge of Ad Costs on Other Short-Form Platforms
The ripple effect of TikTok restrictions in the US could catalyze a redistribution of ad budgets across paid social platforms.
Once ad money started to steer away from TikTok, advertisers might feel the tilt of price movement when comparing ad cost to other major short-form video platforms such as YouTube and Meta. This heightened activity might initially drive up ad costs.
Loyalty to TikTok May Still Pay Off
Moreover, the departure of brands who advertise on TikTok, anticipating a ban, opens up the floor for lower competition on the platform. This scenario creates a more open playing field for those who choose to stay, offering enhanced visibility and potentially higher engagement rates at lower costs.
Remember, the users did not leave the platform, and TikTok’s average time spent on the platform continues to rise. Isn’t that the land filled with milk and honey for the TikTok advertisers?
New Avenues to Discover when Diverting TikTok Ads
Lastly, the rise of emerging platforms in the wake of TikTok’s challenges could spotlight new advertising opportunities. These platforms will likely introduce innovative targeting options and deeper audience insights, offering fresh avenues to explore and capitalize on.
YouTube has developed its ad solutions by adding YouTube Shorts to its ad placements (Video Action Campaign, Video View Campaign, and Video Reach Campaign).
Further, Facebook is supercharging Reels by adding it to their sales-driven campaign objective, shopping ads.
How Do We React About The Restriction of TikTok in the United States
In today’s lens, the news of TikTok getting banned may seem like a hurdle, but it can also be an opportunity for growth and efficacy. Businesses that remain adaptable and embrace change will be well-positioned to thrive in the evolving digital landscape.
Advertisers should stay on their fingers about the latest developments surrounding the ban and potential timelines. From a long-term perspective, advertisers can prevent TikTok doom’s day by diversifying their marketing strategies by exploring alternative platforms and tailoring content to each platform’s specific audience and format. Remember, strong content that resonates with your target audience is the backbone of any successful digital marketing campaign, regardless of your chosen platform.
For short sprints of TikTok ad campaigns, media buyers may see efficiency once the room filled with buyers starts emptying some space due to moving ad money away from TikTok. Remaining proactive, creative, and data-driven, you can transform uncertainty into a springboard for success in the ever-changing world of digital marketing.
If you want to talk more about the possible effects and what to do next about the news around the restriction of TikTok in the United States, feel free to contact our Strike experts.
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Strike Overview
- In 2024, streaming in the U.S. reached 5.74 billion hours, highlighting the rapid growth of live streaming.
- With 22.7% of social media users watching live streams, Easter advertising through live streaming presents a major opportunity. While Easter ad spending declined 6% YoY (2024 vs. 2023), this shouldn’t deter advertisers from maximizing their promotions.
- Discover how Easter live stream ads can elevate your brand and leverage this expanding video format.
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Promote Easter Live Stream Effectively on Social Media
Promoting live streams has become a staple marketing strategy as consumers increasingly turn to online platforms for shopping and entertainment. In the United States, live streaming has captivated a niche, with 3 in 10 shoppers expressing a preference for engaging and purchasing during live events, drawn by the dynamic and interactive buying experience. Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and TikTok are the most sought-after platforms for live video streaming.


Facebook Live stands out, preferred by 45% of US citizens aged between 35 and 54, demonstrating its broad appeal for a more mature audience. Conversely, YouTube Live captures the younger demographic, with 35% of people aged 18 to 34 favoring this platform.
The entertainment and appeal of live streaming merge with Easter’s festive spirit. Spending in categories such as clothing, candy, gifts, and more increased in 2023 — with clothing rising from $0.7 billion in 2022 to $1 billion and gifts from $1.3 billion to $1.8 billion — leveraging live streaming can significantly amplify brand’s visibility and engagement during the onset of the chocolate bunnies over family gatherings.
Yet, distinguishing live-streaming events amid the bustling social feed filled with the keyword “Easter” calls for a standout strategic media plan that can turn crickets into a busy bunny.
This blog will help you discover strategies and tips to engage your viewers. It’s time to turn your deserted live streams into a field of engaged viewers.
Eyeballs Wanted: Overcoming the Live Stream Visibility Hurdle
The challenge of empty seats—or, in social commerce, the empty live stream—is one that no brand or advertiser can afford to ignore. Despite months of meticulous preparation for an online live event, the harsh reality is that even the most engaging content can go unseen, leaving seasoned marketers questioning where they went wrong.
But what are the far-reaching implications of an unsuccessful live stream, especially when promoting live events on social media? Hosting an unsuccessful live event leads to more than just immediate disappointment. The possible results can be:
- Loss of resources: Time, effort, and finances evaporating without the expected return on investment.
- Tarnish brand’s credibility: Painting your brand as disengaged or uninspiring at a time when capturing the festive spirit of Easter is crucial.
- Missed opportunity: Loss connections with your audience and create memorable experiences around the Easter celebration.
The emotional toll on marketers is profound, affecting not just the morale of the team but also casting a long shadow over future promotional strategies, breeding hesitation and doubt.
Understanding these challenges is critical, but they don’t have to define your Easter’s fate. With a clear goal to transform potential visibility hurdles into hopping stones, you’re on your way to building a more engaged, loyal, and enthusiastic community around your brand’s live-streaming efforts.
Resurrecting Your Easter Live Stream With These Organic and Paid Best Practices
As Easter week approaches, brands and marketers anticipate a surge of interest in chocolates, gifts, decorations, and other items related to the celebration. However, challenges and a lack of marketing push can cause livestream events that aim to create immersive online experiences to falter.
Strike Social can help you pivot from empty baskets to egg-citing opportunities for your brand with these best practices and solutions for organic and paid strategies.
Cultivate an Engaged Community Through Organic Strategies
Focus on Your Content Marketing
- Begin your promotional journey weeks in advance. Crafting engaging blog posts like “Top Easter Basket Ideas” and weaving mentions of your upcoming live stream into the narrative can spark interest.
- Capture more eyes by sharing teasers and behind-the-scenes glimpses across social media platforms, stirring curiosity and anticipation.
- Engage your audience with compelling questions and polls, transforming passive viewers into active participants.
Social Media Optimization
- Remember never to underestimate the power of precise keywords and hashtags. It would help if you used them actively to optimize your content. Incorporating relevant Easter-related hashtags can aid your posts in being easily discoverable by those celebrating the season.
- Regarding your live stream, choose a title and description rich in relevant keywords to boost your visibility. SEO plays a huge role in social media platforms as well.
- Remember, timing is everything—go live when your audience is most active, but steer clear of the peak Easter celebration to avoid competing for attention.
Connect with Your Community
- Interactive content, such as short-form videos and stories, offers an excellent avenue for engagement. Host Q&A sessions or contests to fuel excitement for the live stream.
- Collaborating with influencers can exponentially increase your event’s visibility while encouraging your followers to share the stream, extending your reach even further.


Amplify Your Reach Using Social Media Ad Solutions
Multi-Stage Ad Campaigns
- Complement your organic efforts with targeted social media advertising campaigns tailored to your objectives.
- Pre-event Ads: Utilize brand awareness and prospecting campaigns to reconnect with existing followers and reach similar audiences. Consider running these weeks before the target date as an “always-on” campaign.
- Retargeting & Remarketing: Days leading up to the event, launch campaigns to retarget audiences who have interacted with your organic and paid content.
- Live Stream Reminder: Run another retargeting campaign during the live stream to remind viewers about the ongoing event and encourage them to tune in.
Leverage on Influencer’s Authentic Storytelling Content
- Interactive content, such as short-form videos and stories, offers an excellent avenue for engagement. Host Q&A sessions or contests to fuel excitement for the live stream.
- Collaborating with influencers can exponentially increase your event’s visibility while encouraging your followers to share the stream, extending your reach even further.
Utilize Platform-Specific Ad Formats
- Explore various ad formats to find what best suits your campaign:
- Meta, Facebook, and Instagram: Branded content, partnership ads, and Reels can significantly boost your campaign’s efficiency.
- YouTube: Video Action Campaigns (VAC) and Video Views Campaigns (VVC) offer a cost-effective way to encourage ad stickiness and campaign conversions.
- TikTok: Interactive Stickers and Spark Ads leverage the platform’s unique features to drive viewer action and create more authentic engagement.
By seamlessly blending organic and paid strategies, you can resurrect your Easter livestream efforts, capturing viewer attention, fostering lasting connections, and delivering an unforgettable experience that resonates with your audience. Embrace this strategic approach, and watch as your livestream ascends to new heights of success.


Spring Into Action and Crack The Golden Opportunity on Your Easter Livestream
The path to promote a live streaming event is finding the right balance of organic and paid strategies. By leveraging content marketing, social media optimization, community building, targeted social media advertising, influencer marketing, and platform-specific ad formats, brands can effectively capture viewer attention, foster lasting connections, and deliver unforgettable live stream experiences that resonate with their audiences.
Whether you’re gearing up for the Easter season or planning a year-round livestream strategy, the key to success lies in understanding your target audience, crafting compelling content, and leveraging the right tools and platforms to amplify your reach and engagement. Take the first step towards promoting livestream success by consulting with our media buying experts. Our seasoned media buyers possess the knowledge and expertise to craft a tailored livestream promotion strategy that aligns with your campaign goals and resonates with your target audience.
Marketing on an unfamiliar platform can be challenging, but fortunately, you have Strike Social’s YouTube advertising glossary to assist you. YouTube is ubiquitous these days, with users spanning all age demographics, from 18 to 65 and beyond. Whether you’re a seasoned YouTube user or just starting out, having a comprehensive glossary of YouTube advertising terms can be invaluable for navigating this vast platform.
How Well Do You Understand YouTube Advertising Terms
Moving from being a viewer to a creator to a marketer mirrors the journey of brands stepping into YouTube advertising. Together, we’ll explore and understand the ins and outs of YouTube video advertising terms. As you get to a deeper stage, you may find some familiar terms and some that can be very new to you.
The global growth of YouTube advertising is undeniable, projected to reach $33.5 billion by the end of 2024. So before jumping into the complex stages, let’s start by revisiting the fundamentals as your starting point.
For Content Creators
Marketing Terms
Managing YouTube Ads
Glossary for Media Buyers
YouTube Glossary of Terms for Content Creators
Before placing ads onto YouTube, understanding the platform’s basic terminologies is crucial to effectively manage your channel and engage with your audience. This section delves into essential terms relevant to uploading videos, channel management, and viewer interaction.
Introduction to YouTube Marketing Terms
Crafting successful YouTube marketing strategies requires a solid understanding of the core concepts specific to the platform. In this section, we provide an overview of the fundamental vocabulary essential for developing effective marketing campaigns on YouTube.
YouTube Advertising Management Terms for Beginners
Gain the knowledge needed to launch and manage successful advertising campaigns on YouTube, setting the stage for future growth and optimization. This section offers a comprehensive guide to basic campaign metrics and ad management on YouTube.
YouTube Advertising Glossary for Media Buyers
Explore a comprehensive range of marketing terms designed to arm media buyers with the knowledge and tools necessary for executing highly targeted YouTube campaigns.
Ad Copy: The written text that appears alongside your video ad, including the headline, description, and call to action (CTA).
Ad Suitability: Aligning video ads with contextually relevant content suitable for the target audience. With YouTube hosting diverse content types, it’s crucial to ensure an alignment with the content.
Affinity Audiences (Custom Intent): Allows for the creation of more personalized audience groups tailored to your brand, as opposed to broader audience segments. For instance, instead of targeting “Basketball Fans,” a brand focusing on the sports season might opt to target individuals interested in “College Basketball” specifically.
Analytics: A central hub within YouTube Studio that provides creators and marketers with valuable insights into their channel’s performance. It offers a comprehensive overview of key metrics and data visualizations to help users understand how their content is resonating with viewers and identify areas for improvement.
Audience Segments: Audience groups are categorized by their activity using Google products or estimated based on likely interests in specific content.
Awareness and Consideration: The campaign objective focused on increasing the number of viewers reached by your video ad.
Bid Strategy: The method you use to determine how much you are willing to pay for each ad impression or click.
Brand Safety: Ensuring your ads are displayed alongside appropriate content aligned with your brand image.
Bumper Ads: Short, non-skippable video ads lasting six seconds or less, ideal for quick brand messaging or product teasers.
Call to Action (CTA): A clear and concise message within your video ad or content encourages viewers to take a specific action, like visiting your website or learning more about your product.
Campaign Objective: The specific goal you aim to achieve with your advertising campaign (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, website traffic).
Cards: Interactive elements appear during your video, linking to other videos, playlists, or websites.
Category Exclusion: Using category exclusion targeting for YouTube enables you to exclude your ads from appearing on video categories that don’t align with your product or brand on YouTube. Examples of the categories include Content suitable for families, Games (fighting), Health (sensitive), and more.
Channel: Your personalized space on YouTube to house your videos, playlists, and community.
Clicks: The number of times viewers click on your ad, redirecting them to your desired landing page.
Click-through Rate (CTR): The percentage of viewers who click your ad after seeing it is calculated as (clicks/impressions) x 100. This metric indicates ad effectiveness.
Comments: Textual responses viewers leave on your video, foster interaction and feedback.
Community Guidelines: A set of established rules that creators and viewers must follow to maintain a safe, respectful, and positive environment on the platform. These guidelines outline what type of content is and isn’t allowed on YouTube.
Connected TV (CTV) Advertising: Reaching viewers on smart TVs and streaming devices through YouTube ads.
Content Suitable for Families: Videos deemed appropriate for viewers of all ages, including children. Excluding “Content suitable for families” from YouTube advertising prevents views and clicks from minors.
Content Theme Exclusions: A feature within YouTube advertising that allows advertisers to exclude their ads from being displayed on videos, websites, or apps associated with specific themes that might not align with your brand identity. Here’s how you can set up your YouTube content theme exclusions.
Contextual Targeting: By selecting relevant keywords or topics, this approach ensures that your ads are aligned with content that shares relevance. With this YouTube ad targeting method, your ads are strategically placed within YouTube search results and video content.
Conversion Tracking: Setting up tools to track specific actions viewers take after seeing your ad (e.g., making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter).
Copyright Claim: A notification you might receive if your content contains copyrighted material owned by someone else. If your video includes third-party content like music or clips, consider adding a YouTube disclaimer to reduce the risk of claims. A clear disclaimer can help explain how your use may fall under fair use, such as for commentary or educational purposes.
Copyright Strike: A penalty is issued by YouTube if your content infringes on someone else’s copyright, potentially impacting your channel.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA): The average cost you pay for each time a viewer takes a desired action like a website visit or purchase after seeing your ad.
Cost per Mille (CPM): Refers to the metric that represents the cost you pay for every thousand impressions your video ad receives.
Cost per View (CPV): The average cost you pay for each time your video ad is viewed, regardless of whether viewers click on it.
Custom Audiences: Targeting existing customer databases or website visitors through uploaded lists, allowing for highly personalized ad campaigns.
Daily Budget: The maximum amount you are willing to spend on your ad campaign each day.
Demographics: Targeting viewers based on factors like age, gender, parental status, and household income.
End Screen: Call-to-action elements are displayed at the end, directing viewers to other videos or your channel.
Engagement: The level of interaction your videos receive is measured by comments, likes, shares, and saves.
Exclusion Targeting: Excludes specific keywords and placements from seeing your ads to avoid irrelevant viewers.
Frequency Capping: Setting a limit on the number of times a specific viewer sees your ad within a certain timeframe.
Impressions: The number of times your video ad is displayed on viewers’ screens.
In-feed Video Ads: Consists of a video thumbnail and text. Users can watch the autoplay inline or click on the thumbnail to view the full video.
In-Market Audiences: Targets viewers actively researching or considering products or services related to your offering.
Inventory Types: Inventory types refer to the scope of content on YouTube where your video ads can be displayed. You can opt for expanded inventory, standard inventory, or the more restrictive limited inventory.
Landing Page: The web page viewers are directed to after clicking on your YouTube ad. It should be relevant to your ad and encourage the desired action.
Leads: A campaign objective aimed at attracting potential customers who express interest in your product or service by delivering targeted video content.
Live Streams: Real-time broadcasts allow you to interact directly with viewers at the moment.
Maximize Clicks: Automatically adjust bids to receive the most clicks on your ad within your budget.
Monetization: Enabling your channel to generate revenue through ads, sponsorships, and merchandise sales.
Multi-touch Attribution: Assigns credit for a conversion to all touchpoints a viewer interacts with (ads, website visits, etc.).
Negative Keyword Targeting: A brand safety measure involves assigning keywords that you don’t want your ads to appear with.
Playlist: A curated collection of your videos grouped together around a specific theme or series.
Programmatic Buying: Automated buying and selling of ad inventory in real-time, allowing for greater efficiency and optimization.
Quartile Views: A metric used in YouTube advertising reports, indicating the percentage of viewers who watched your ad to a specific point (e.g., 25%, 50%, 75%, or completion).
Retargeting: Retargeting on social media, specifically on YouTube, involves targeting viewers who have previously interacted with your brand or content with additional ads to maintain awareness and encourage further engagement.
Sales Objective: A campaign goal aimed at prompting viewers to take a specific action, such as making a purchase, after watching your video ads.
Shorts Ads: These video ads play on YouTube Shorts, YouTube’s own vertical and short-form video feed. Users can swipe or scroll to skip the ad at any time.
Skippable In-stream Ads: Video ads appear before, during, or after other YouTube videos, capturing viewers’ attention between content. After 5 seconds, users have the option to skip the rest of the ad to continue watching the video you appeared with.
Sponsored Content: Collaborations with other creators where they promote your brand or product within their videos, leveraging their established audience reach.
Subscribers: Users who choose to receive notifications when you upload new content, forming your core audience.
Target CPA: Sets a target cost per acquisition (CPA) and adjusts bids to acquire customers at that cost.
Thumbnail: The preview image representing your video in search results and browsing lists is crucial for attracting viewers.
Topic Exclusions: A feature within YouTube advertising similar to Content Theme Exclusions, but with a more granular level of control. It allows advertisers to exclude their ads from channels or videos tagged with specific topics such as news, politics, religion, controversial regions, drugs, crime, and mature men’s interests.
Trueview Ads: Skippable video ads with different lengths (in-stream and discovery) and billing options [CPV or cost per thousand impressions (CPM)], offering flexibility for diverse campaign goals.
Video Action Campaign: This is a type of YouTube campaign designed to drive specific actions from viewers, such as website visits, product purchases, app downloads, or lead generation.
Video Ad Safety Promise: This is a commitment by YouTube to ensure a baseline level of brand safety for video ad placements. The Video Ad Safety Promise guarantees that content containing extremely controversial topics like terrorism, nudity, and recent sensitive events will be automatically excluded from monetization, meaning ads won’t be displayed on such content.
Video Ad Specifications: The technical requirements for your video ad, such as video format, aspect ratio, and file size.
Video Discovery Ads: Ads displayed alongside search results and suggested videos, based on viewer interests and search queries.
Video Reach: A campaign objective subtype that emphasizes reaching a wider audience or repeatedly reaching the same individuals. You are charged for every 1,000 impressions of your ads displayed.
Video Views Campaign: This campaign objective subtype aims to garner views and interactions from individuals with a higher likelihood of being interested in your products or brand. Payment is made only when someone opts to watch your ad. Your ads may appear as skippable in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts ads.
View rate (VR): The average of views over the impressions your ad has received. In this context, “Views” refers to the number of times users actively watch or engage with an ad, while “Impressions” denote the total number of times the ad is displayed or served to potential viewers.
Views: The number of times viewers watch your video content.
Watch Time: The total duration viewers spend watching your videos is vital for engagement and monetization.
YouTube Kids: A separate app and website experience curated specifically for children. It offers content that is deemed safe and appropriate for younger audiences. For advertisers, we recommend excluding these when launching a YouTube campaign.
Your Comprehensive Guide to YouTube Advertising Terms Explained
Congratulations on completing our comprehensive guide to YouTube advertising terms! With this newfound knowledge, you’re better equipped to navigate through YouTube advertising with confidence. Don’t hesitate to bookmark this page for quick reference whenever you need a refresher. While it’s not necessary to memorize everything at once, having a go-to resource will come in handy as you continue to refine your advertising strategies.
Interested in expanding your advertising knowledge to other platforms? Check out our LinkedIn and Facebook glossaries! And for ongoing insights and tips straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter today. We’re committed to providing you with valuable resources to enhance your advertising expertise.


The Complete YouTube Guide
Strike Overview
- The debate between organic vs paid social media has long been a challenge for marketers.
- Should you rely on organic reach, leveraging its cost-effectiveness and potential for lead generation? Or is it worth investing in paid social media to amplify your content and reach a wider audience? Perhaps the optimal strategy lies in striking a balance between organic and paid efforts?
- Let’s look at what each social media marketing effort entails and how you can use it to your brand’s advantage.
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How Does Your Organic Social Media Reach Compare to Paid Campaign Results?
Traditional advertising methods such as TV and print media, while still relevant, now take a back seat to digital marketing. Leveraging digital ads and targeted strategies can amplify brand awareness by up to 80%. Additionally, 58% of US consumers say they made purchases after encountering a brand’s ads on social media platforms.
Hence, it’s essential for advertisers to possess the knowledge required to utilize both paid ads and organic content effectively. Recognizing the distinct advantages of each approach is crucial, as both contribute uniquely to brand promotion efforts. As marketers, understanding how these two marketing strategies complement each other is key to fully maximizing their potential in promoting your brand.
What’s the Difference Between Organic and Paid Marketing?
There’s no denying the substantial reach achieved through both paid advertisements and organic social media content. But can you differentiate between the two?
Let’s quickly run through the distinctions between organic and paid social media.


Organic and paid social media marketing strategies are no longer pitted against each other; rather, they work mutually to enhance brand visibility and engagement.
Organic social media efforts focus on fostering brand identity, engaging existing followers, and delivering value to current customers. Conversely, paid social media campaigns target new audiences, expand reach, and yield immediate results. By integrating both approaches, brands can adopt a comprehensive social media marketing strategy that capitalizes on the unique strengths of each.
Here are specific examples of how organic and paid social media marketing complement each other on different platforms:
Example of organic social media marketing: Run a trivia contest with engaging questions related to your brand to generate organic reach and comments.
Example of paid social media strategy: Promote the contest using image ads and utilize Lookalike Audiences, increasing participation from similar user profiles.
Example of nurturing your organic reach on Instagram: Share high-quality product photos and Reels using user-generated content (UGC), showcasing your brand in action to build brand loyalty.
Using paid social media campaign: Boost your Reels by featuring compelling visuals and influencer partnerships to drive traffic to your Instagram profile and product pages.
Further Reading






Maximize Influencer Collaborations with Instagram Partnership Ads
Instagram Partnership Ads allow advertisers to tap into creators’ established audiences, strengthening brand awareness through authentic and effective collaborations.
Example of organic social media marketing efforts: Publish informative articles and participate in industry discussions to establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche.
How to boost your reach with paid social media ads: Create a sponsored post to promote your articles to targeted audiences, increasing brand awareness among chosen industry professionals.
YouTube
Example of how to grow organically on YouTube: Create engaging video tutorials and product demos to showcase your expertise and benefits.
Example of increasing engagement through paid advertising: Run targeted pre- or mid-roll ads on relevant videos to drive brand awareness and website clicks.
TikTok
Generate organic growth on TikTok: Participate in trending challenges and utilize relevant hashtags to reach a wider audience organically.
Accelerate reach and views through paid ads: Utilize Spark Ads featuring your trending video content to increase reach and brand awareness among your selected demographic.
Differentiating the Results of Organic and Paid Social Media Marketing Activities
To better understand how your marketing efforts perform organically versus through paid advertisements, you must be able to distinguish between the two. This becomes particularly important when considering strategies to enhance your organic reach on Instagram, for example, such as promoting your Reels.
But how can you determine when organic methods are more effective versus the benefits of paid advertising for specific campaigns, or vice versa?
Expand the dropdown for each platform below to see how it works:
Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
To analyze boosted posts, you can assess your organic reach through Meta Business Suite and gain further insights into your paid social media marketing efforts via the Ads Manager.
For organic reach results:
1. From your Facebook Page account, expand the Manage Page menu by clicking the menu button.


2. Click on More tools and select Meta Business Suite from the dropdown.


3. On the left-hand side, click on Content.


4. Find the content you wish to analyze.


5. Click the three dots next to the content and select View insights.


6. On the expanded screen, you’ll find your organic reach, along with any paid reach if you’ve boosted the content.


For paid reach results:
While it may appear under Meta Business Suite, you must be in the Ads Manager to get a deeper understanding.
1. From the Meta Business Suite, expand the left-side menu and click on All tools.


2. Search for “ads” or scroll to the Advertise section, then click on Ads Manager to open it in a new tab.


3. Expand the left-hand menu and click on Campaigns.


4. Locate the ad campaign containing your boosted post and navigate to the Ads sets or Ads tab to view paid social media engagement results in Meta.
- Results in Ads Manager depend on your conversion tracking and campaign objective (e.g., Awareness or Conversion).
- In addition to Reach, you’ll find Results (e.g., for conversion campaigns), cost per result, and total spend for your paid ads campaign.
LinkedIn operates similarly to Meta when it comes to boosting posts. On your LinkedIn page, you can view your overall reach and engagement, and gain deeper insights into your paid advertising efforts through the LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
To access your organic reach results:
1. Click on your profile picture on LinkedIn, and select the Company Page.


2. Scroll to the post for which you wish to view results.
3. Click on the dropdown menu labeled Preview results located just below the like and comment buttons.


4. You’ll see an overview of your post’s performance. Browse through the tabs from the total, organic, and sponsored results.


5. Alternatively, you can also click on the View results button at the top of the post to access detailed engagement data.


To view the results of your sponsored post campaign:
1. From your LinkedIn page, click on Advertise at the top right corner of the screen, directing you to the LinkedIn Campaign Manager.


2. Select the ad account associated with your company page.
3. Click on the Campaign group, then Campaigns, to obtain a comprehensive overview of your sponsored post results.
4. From here, you can analyze metrics such as budget spent, paid engagements or conversions, and cost per result, depending on your campaign objectives.
YouTube
Promoting your YouTube video ads does not impact the algorithm on your channel. Since your ads run through Google Ads, you can check your organic engagement on YouTube through your YouTube channel dashboard. For insights into your paid YouTube advertising, switch to the Google Ads platform.
Analyzing organic YouTube video ads performance:
1. Access your YouTube Studio dashboard at https://studio.youtube.com/ using the Google account associated with your YouTube channel.
2. Click on the Analytics tab located in the left-side navigation menu.


3. In the Analytics section, you’ll find an overview of key organic performance metrics, including views, impressions, click-through rate, and average view duration.


4. Click on See More to see the detailed metrics for each video content.
5. Scroll to the Content tab to view specifics for individual videos.


Assessing paid YouTube ad performance:
1. Log in to your Google Ads account using the same Google account associated with your YouTube channel.
2. Navigate to the Campaigns tab.
3. Identify the specific YouTube ad campaign you wish to analyze from the campaign list.
4. Within the chosen campaign, review various performance metrics such as impressions, views, cost, conversions, and cost per conversion or cost per view, depending on the campaign objective.
TikTok
Unlike other platforms where organic and paid content are displayed distinctly, TikTok seamlessly integrates promoted content into user feeds. By utilizing TikTok Spark Ads, you can promote your existing organic posts as paid advertisements. Here’s how to differentiate between organic and paid views:
Measuring organic TikTok video performance:
Access your organic performance metrics within the TikTok Business Suite by following these steps:
1. From your TikTok account, click on your profile picture on the right side of the screen and navigate to Business Suite.
2. Click on Analytics, then Video, to see the performance of each of your TikTok video. Find the one you have boosted to see how it’s performing.
Evaluating paid TikTok video ad results:
1. From the Business Suite screen, click on Ads. You will be redirected to the TikTok Ads Manager.
2. Click on the Campaigns tab, and browse to the Ad group and Ad tabs to monitor the performance of your video ad.
3. You can then access the various performance metrics specific to your paid ads, including impressions, clicks, cost per click, and others based on your video ad campaign’s objective.
Balancing Organic and Paid Social Media Marketing Efforts
It’s essential to recognize that one social media marketing strategy cannot thrive without the other. It’s not a question of organic versus paid but rather how to integrate them effectively. Now that you have insights into assessing the impact of paid social media on organic reach and the performance of organic posts without paid campaigns, you’re better equipped to optimize both avenues.
As you discern the distinct impacts of organic versus paid ads, remember the value of a trusted partner who can help you maximize your reach by merging these marketing efforts. Schedule a free demo with our team of experts and discover the Strike Social difference.
Strike Overview
- With TikTok’s growing influencer and creator community, it’s evident why Gen Z users are 1.8 times more likely to buy from a TikTok shop than traditional marketplaces.
- TikTok Shop saw an impressive 222.9% YoY growth during the Q4 holidays, surpassing global e-commerce giant Shein in performance.
- This presents an indispensable strategy for brands, whether utilizing TikTok shop ads for exposure, retail purposes, or simply to get the word out.
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This post was updated in February 2025 to provide you with the latest information.
How TikTok Shop Transformed Buying Habits From Discovery to Purchase
Social media advertising platforms have now transformed beyond mere communication tools to bustling centers for e-commerce activities. TikTok Shop, introduced to the US market in September 2023, has rapidly gained traction, generating $363 million in consumer spending by November 2023 — just two months after its launch. It’s remarkable how the platform has evolved from a simple music and video-sharing app to a magnet for brands seeking advertising opportunities.
Keep on scrolling to discover the surge of TikTok shops and their significance for advertisers. Get amongst the lineup and seize the opportunity to maximize the capabilities of your TikTok shop ads.
The Rapid Ascent of TikTok Shops
TikTok’s share for video ad spend is currently at 7.0%, lagging behind YouTube and Meta at 8.2% and 30.4%, respectively. Now, TikTok Shop emerges as another avenue to increase the platform’s total ad spend.
Brands are flocking to TikTok Shops to tap into its engaged user base and create shoppable channels directly within the app. Integrated seamlessly into the platform, TikTok Shop ensures users are exposed to e-commerce opportunities, whether through showcased brands or live streams. With just a few clicks, users can browse and purchase products, all without leaving the app.


TikTok’s UX Simplifies Shopping Without Leaving the Platform
TikTok Shop’s integration into the main tabs of the app underscores its significance as a core feature, with users able to effortlessly transition between content viewing and shopping within the platform. While the concept of shop integration has faced challenges on other platforms, TikTok Shop demonstrates its resilience by providing easy access to customers.
As an example, when we looked up NYX Cosmetics on TikTok, the top results appeared on the first page. Additionally, we can browse through shops offering NYX products, videos, hashtags, and users. By selecting the users tab, we found our way to the NYX Cosmetics main TikTok channel and viewed their content. Furthermore, since their TikTok Shop is linked, we got to browse through their products without needing to return to the search results. Overall, TikTok excels in user experience with this integration.


The #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt Movement
The surge of influencer marketing on TikTok coupled with the introduction of TikTok Shop has provided brands new opportunities to connect with consumers. With a quick search of the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, users can find genuine reactions, recommendations, and reviews of products that other users and influencers have purchased. TikTok’s integration of shop listings and affiliate links has opened new avenues for influencer marketing, with over 100,000 creators already tapping into TikTok Shop’s affiliate program.
Discover how #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has empowered brands to collaborate with influencers and boost their presence on the TikTok shopping ad trends:
Dyson Airwrap
This hairstyling tool has become an instant sensation, accumulating over 5.1 billion views and sparking waves of enthusiasm from influencers and users alike. The Airwrap’s success lies in its ability to showcase its effectiveness through captivating video content.
L’Oréal
By utilizing the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, L’Oréal orchestrated its highest-volume sell-out to date by creating an exclusive box labeled with the hashtag and distributing it to 200 influencers. The campaign generated 4.5 million clicks and 1.7 million engagements.


Is Gen Z Redefining Consumer Behavior?
TikTok Shop and TikTok Live stand out as crucial features of the TikTok app where Gen Z’s preferences shape purchasing habits and brand perceptions. Here are key highlights of Gen Z’s dominance:
- Research suggests that Gen Z is more inclined to make purchases influenced by TikTok than any other channel. Moreover, 95% said that their last #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt purchase was worth the hype.
- Gen Z places high trust in TikTok influencers, surpassing other channels by nearly 40%.
- Evidence shows that products going viral on TikTok experience substantial growth, with one brand noting an 85% month-on-month increase in sales on Amazon.
- TikTok’s impact extends to eCommerce giants like Amazon, where dedicated features like Amazon Finds highlight products that have gained traction on TikTok, underscoring its influence throughout the customer journey.
TikTok Shop’s Growing Appeal to Buyers and Advertisers
As TikTok Shops gain momentum, the number of buyers continues to climb steadily. With an anticipated 35.8 million US social buyers in 2024, TikTok has quickly caught up to Facebook, with both platforms boasting a 37% user base making purchases.
Here’s why the trend toward TikTok Shop purchases is expected to persist, and why brands should take note:
Valuable Insights from Actual Customers
- TikTok Shops offer valuable insights by showcasing how many people have purchased a product. This provides social proof to consumers and enables brands to evaluate market trends and competitors’ success.
- Integrated shop features allow customers to leave reviews after their purchase, providing prospective buyers with firsthand information about the product’s quality and suitability.
Affiliate & Influencer Marketing Opportunities
- Consumers tend to trust personalities they admire, which is why major brands often enlist top celebrities like Jennifer Aniston for their advertisements. Today, influencers have become equally influential choices for brands.
- Affiliate marketing: Influencers can feature products in their video content and provide direct purchase links through their TikTok Shop basket, simplifying the buying process for their viewers and followers.
- Influencer marketing: Brands can collaborate with influencers for video ads or live streams, effectively showcasing products and driving engagement. Another prevalent strategy is sending PR boxes to influencers, allowing them to feature products on their TikTok channels and reach a broader audience.
Drive More Views and Sales to Your TikTok Shop with These Strategies
Given TikTok’s primary focus on video content, it’s only right to capitalize on video ads to promote your TikTok Shop effectively. So, how exactly can you boost your TikTok Shop by seamlessly integrating ads into the platform’s video stream?
Steal the spotlight with captivating video content
- The key to visibility on TikTok is consistent content creation. Showcase your products, business, and team in engaging videos. Incorporating human elements into your ads can significantly enhance their appeal.
- As an example, Cult Beauty leverages user-generated content (UGC) and hosts various series showcasing their products, like “Swatch This Space 💋”. In these videos, they demonstrate swatches of lip products and foundation palettes, helping buyers find the perfect color to match their preferences.
UGC: Unlocking great content
- While you create your own content, your customers can also do it for you! Engage with your community by featuring content created by your buyers and consumers. UGC not only builds trust but also extends your brand’s reach as it connects with the creators’ communities.
- NYX Cosmetics, for example, heavily relies on UGC to promote its brand, showcasing real users’ experiences with their products.


Utilize Video Shopping Ads
TikTok offers a range of advertising options designed to enhance your TikTok Shop and drive sales. Here’s how you can maximize these innovative ad formats:
Spark Ads
Take your existing videos to the next level with TikTok Spark Ads. By boosting your content, you can expand your reach beyond your current followers and tap into a broader audience.
Product Catalog
Get started on building your TikTok Shop by adding your products manually or using the provided templates.
TikTok Video Shopping Ads
These ads allow viewers to shop directly from captivating video ads featured on the For You page. Combining the best features of Collection Ads and Dynamic Showcase Ads, TikTok Video Shopping Ads offer an engaging and efficient shopping experience for users.
Is Your Brand Ready to Move to TikTok Shop?
Are you prepared to make the leap to TikTok Shop for your brand? Now that you’ve learned about the unique features and advantages of TikTok Shop, it’s time to consider integrating them into your marketing strategy.
While transitioning to a primarily video-based platform like TikTok may seem daunting for e-commerce brands, adaptation is key. Remember, your consumers are your audience, and increased visibility builds trust in your brand. Ultimately, embracing new opportunities like TikTok Shop can enhance your brand’s reach and credibility, leading to greater success in the long run.
As the NFL frenzy sweeps across advertising platforms, brands are eagerly jumping into the mix of Super Bowl social media campaigns to capitalize on the excitement. With TikTok amassing 25.7 billion views and Instagram buzzing with 8.6 million posts (and counting), the Super Bowl fever is in full swing.
What’s your game plan to join the action? Discover what top brands are up to and learn how to secure a victory with the winning Super Bowl marketing ideas.
Conquer the Big Game with Winning Super Bowl Social Media Campaigns
The showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers is approaching fast, and the Super Bowl ad space competition is only heating up. With CBS charging up to $7 million for a 30-second spot, major brands are pulling out all the stops, enlisting A-list celebrities like Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Steve Martin, and John Travolta to leave a lasting impression.
The surge in Super Bowl social media campaigns is highly evident, with TikTok ad spend skyrocketing by 400% YoY from January 1 to Super Bowl Sunday in 2023. As we anticipate the 2024 Super Bowl, the question arises: what new heights will this year’s social media campaigns reach?
Look at the latest Super Bowl advertising trends and explore how you can leverage these to build hype and engagement for your brand on social media.
- A Showdown of Innovative Super Bowl Marketing Ideas
- Comparing YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels for Super Bowl Social Media Advertising Strategies
- Early Super Bowl Victors: Brands Triumphing Ahead of the 2024 Tournament
- Play on the Offensive With These Super Bowl Social Media Advertising Trends and Tips
A Showdown of Innovative Super Bowl Marketing Ideas
In the upcoming Super Bowl 2024, all eyes are on the Chiefs vs. the 49ers. However, another competition brewing among advertisers and media buyers is the battle of Super Bowl advertising.
Celebrity vs. Influencer Marketing
For years, celebrity endorsements have been a staple in Super Bowl commercials, capturing audience attention with star power. Some examples include Snickers’ iconic “You’re not you when you’re hungry” ad featuring Betty White in 2010 and Wendy’s legendary “Where’s the beef?” spot from 1984.
Another standout Super Bowl commercial is the one from Coinbase’s 2022 ad, which took a social media-inspired approach by flashing a QR code across the screen. This innovative tactic propelled their app from 186th place on the app store to No. 2. Subsequently, in the 2023 Super Bowl commercials, Limit Break and Servant also leveraged QR codes in their advertising, following Coinbase’s successful lead.
In a sneak peek of this year’s Uber Eats Super Bowl commercial, Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, and David & Victoria Beckham (amongst others) take the spotlight.
@addisonre Guess who I’m coaching…?! 🪩🕺🕺🎶🍬 tune in to find out!! @Nerds Candy 2.11 #ad ♬ original sound – Addison Rae
Meanwhile, e.l.f cosmetics have “summoned” TikTok creator Benito Skinner, aka “Benny Drama”, and Meghan Trainor, a prominent TikTok personality and pop singer, alongside the cast of the legal drama series Suits, for their Super Bowl ad teaser. This move highlights e.l.f’s strategy of blending celebrity and influencer marketing to broaden their appeal and capture diverse audiences.
Traditional vs. Social Media Advertising
The AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens made TV history, attracting the largest audience ever for an AFC Championship Game and becoming the most-watched non-Super Bowl program on CBS in three decades. With a record-breaking viewership of over 55 million viewers, the game marked a milestone for TV ratings.
This massive viewership undoubtedly includes Swifties, eagerly tuning in to see Taylor Swift supporting her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. With 20.2 million female viewers, comprising 40% of the TV audience, it’s undeniable how Swift’s impact encompasses stadiums both for concerts and tournaments alike.
Super Bowl LVIII TV Ad Spaces in High Demand
As leading brands secure prime spots for Super Bowl viewing, audiences can anticipate a barrage of commercials from companies that have already secured their slots for the big game.
CBS has reported that its Super Bowl advertising slots were nearly sold out as early as November 2023. To accommodate new advertisers, the NFL has expanded its ad inventory, partly due to the popularity of “Thursday Night Football.”
Viewers tuning in to the Super Bowl can expect new advertising campaigns from prominent brands such as Kia, Osmow’s, Coca-Cola, Molson, M&M’s, and others as they vie for consumer attention during this highly anticipated broadcast.
Browsing the Super Bowl Social Media Campaign Stream
The NFL’s TikTok account is among many who capitalized on the Chiefs’ victory by sharing Travis and Taylor’s post-game interaction, garnering 12.7 million views as of the time of writing this article. Brands are also seizing the opportunity presented by the Swift-Kelce romance, integrating music and football themes into their Super Bowl social media campaigns.
With Super Bowl watch parties approaching, it’s no question that consumer spending on CPG food & beverage ads hit up to $2.3 billion during the Super Bowl week. As the weekend draws near, food chains are maximizing their Super Bowl ads to their way to get up to users’ feeds:
Comparing YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels for Super Bowl Social Media Advertising Strategies
Explore the effectiveness of short-form advertising for your Super Bowl marketing ideas. Discover how brands utilize these platforms to maximize their Super Bowl social media campaigns.
YouTube Shorts
Brands are tapping into the rising popularity of YouTube Shorts. The NFL, for instance, has incorporated YouTube Shorts ads directing viewers to their shop link, featuring content like selecting the color of the Gatorade drink for the 2024 Super Bowl.
Super Bowl ad teasers like Starry Lemon Lime featuring Ice Spice have garnered significant attention, with 3.4 million views in just two weeks.
YouTube intelligently houses Super Bowl 2024 ads on AdBlitz, providing a powerful showcase and expanding brand reach. Hyundai, for example, generated over 247 million impressions through YouTube during last year’s Super Bowl advertising period leading up to the big game.


TikTok
TikTok is buzzing with ‘pre-game’ content, teasers, and trailers, attracting users’ attention. Paramount+, for example, features snippets of NFL playoffs as part of its traffic objective campaign, promoting all seasons viewable on their platform, including the highly anticipated Super Bowl 2024.
The Taylor Swift Super Bowl phenomenon continues to inspire ad creatives. Culture Kings, a clothing shop, references “Team Swifty” in their conversion campaign caption, advertising Super Bowl LVIII clothing and merch on their TikTok ad. The ad showcases its effectiveness with click-throughs, particularly at the 1 to 7-second mark of the 11-second video.
Instagram Reels
Beyond podcast content, Instagram Reels emerge as a favored platform for brands like Once Upon A Coconut, promoting a chance to win $1000 for viewers’ Super Bowl parties through a “no purchase necessary” contest.


Bud Light also joins the fray, promoting their ad teaser via Post Malone’s Instagram account. With the singer’s 25 million followers, the reel already has 3.2 million views and 120K likes.


Early Super Bowl Victors: Brands Triumphing Ahead of the 2024 Tournament
As the countdown to Super Bowl 2024 commences, some brands have emerged victorious with their pre-game campaigns. Here’s a glimpse at the frontrunners in Super Bowl advertising:
Kristin Juszczyk, Clothing Designer
Known for creating custom Chiefs puffer jackets for Taylor Swift and 49ers-inspired outfits for Culpo, Kristin Juszczyk now holds a licensing deal with the NFL. The increasing prominence of fashion and beauty in Super Bowl advertising, particularly among younger women, can be attributed to Taylor Swift’s influence.


Dove and Kylie Kelce
Partnering with Dove, Kylie Kelce champions body positivity among female athletes through TikTok ad campaigns. As a field hockey coach, Kelce’s collaboration with Dove aligns with their message of empowerment.
@kyliekelce I’m partnering with @dove on the #KeepHerConfident Challenge to help keep girls in sports. 🏈⚽🏀🏑 Recent Dove research reveals 45% of girls drop out of sports due to low body confidence – together, we can raise awareness about this and help them stay in the game. 💙 📣 Make a video showing us your sports skills with the hashtag #KeepHerConfident, nominate a friend to join, and let’s show what girls can do when they stay in sports! #DovePartner #DoveSelfEsteemProject #BodyConfidentSport #GirlsInSports #BodyConfidence ♬ original sound – Kylie Kelce
@kyliekelce Swapping my jersey for team @Dove 👀 #DovePartner #KeepHerConfident ♬ Blue Arithmetic – DJ BAI
NYX Cosmetics
NYX ranks second in the top 10 ads category and is the fifth-most mentioned brand on X (formerly Twitter). Their TikTok strategy demonstrates how beauty brands can resonate with their demographic, which likely intersects significantly with the Swift fandom. Apart from NFL references, NYX also encourages user-generated content, as seen on their official TikTok account.
Play on the Offensive With These Super Bowl Social Media Advertising Trends and Tips
Now that we’ve provided insights on how to create a winning Super Bowl social media campaign, here are five actionable tips you can implement based on the trends discussed:
Identify influencers who align with your brand’s values and target audience
- Data from InsiderIntelligence.com reveals that US adults are more receptive to ads featuring familiar influencers or celebrities, particularly among viewers aged 18-29.
- (As seen on NERDS’ campaign with Addison Rae)
- NERDS effectively utilized paid partnerships with influencers like Addison Rae, who resonates with Gen Z audiences. The ads on her accounts garnered 10.7 million plays and 406K likes, for Instagram and TikTok combined.
- (As shown in the e.l.f. cosmetics campaign)
- e.l.f. cosmetics strategically utilized well-known personalities like Meghan Trainor and the Suits cast to capitalize on their widespread recognition from television and social media. Whether you’re a social media user or a TV viewer, chances are you’re familiar with these personalities and would be intrigued to watch their commercials.
Provide interactive experiences for your audience
- (As demonstrated by Once Upon a Coconut’s Instagram ad)
- Allow users to engage with your content actively. Once Upon a Coconut’s approach of offering a contest entry without requiring a purchase encourages maximum engagement from existing followers or newcomers to their ads. With a $1000 prize and a Super Bowl-focused ad, who can resist, right?
Take advantage of seasonal trends and opportunities
- (As observed in HOOPLA and NYX Cosmetics campaigns)
- Whether in the food and beverage or cosmetics industries, major advertising seasons like the Super Bowl guarantee increased visibility for your ads.
- Like holiday-specific campaigns (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.), the abovementioned brands demonstrated that sporting seasons are considered key advertising events.
Football enthusiasts are not the exclusive focus of Super Bowl social media campaigns anymore
- (As evidenced by NERDS, Dove, and Crocetti’s campaigns)
- NERDS targets Gen Z audiences, while Dove caters to female athletes. Crocetti’s, utilizing Taylor Swift’s image, targets Swifties who are now following the 2024 football season.
- While traditional male demographics may express discontent, the NFL and Super Bowl 2024 have shattered the notion that football is solely for men. Consequently, brands need to be bold in innovating their audience targeting strategies during this traditionally male-dominated season.
Utilize trending keywords and interests in captions and hashtags
- (As exemplified by Culture Kings, NFL social media accounts)
- Particularly with short-form videos, captions serve as searchable and attention-grabbing elements for audiences. A brief mention of “Swiftie” and “Kelce” can align your ad with extensive Swiftie-related content in social media advertising.
- Keep an eye out for trending hashtags used by brands to align with the top Super Bowl social media advertising trends. Hashtags such as #superbowl2024 and #sblviii are becoming increasingly popular, with the Chiefs vs. 49ers game just a few days away.
Fuel Your Competitive Spirit with These Super Bowl Marketing Ideas
Embracing trends isn’t just a bandwagon approach — it’s a strategic move that can catapult your ads to your audiences’ home screens during this football season.
Staying attuned to what’s trending is essential for brands to remain relevant and informed about what’s new, what’s hot (and what’s not). The Super Bowl social media campaign strategies we’ve outlined are proven techniques already generating traffic, conversions, and headlines. As the Super Bowl weekend looms, now is the opportunity to capitalize on these insights to ensure your brand stands out amidst the advertising frenzy.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:
- Father’s Day Advertising with Meta Advantage+: Tips for Smart Audience Targeting
- Smarter Paid Search with Google’s AI Max for Search Campaigns
- Google Marketing Live 2025 Recap: Key YouTube and Google Ads Updates for Advertisers
- Marketing to Gen Z: Social Media Strategies for Performance-Driven Brands
- TikTok News and Updates Q1 2025: What Advertisers Need to Know
- YouTube Shorts Views Are Changing: How You Can Adapt Your Paid Ads Strategy
53% of marketers recognize the potency of short-form videos, especially for promoting podcasts on Instagram and video content overall. It’s not a misconception; short-form videos have proven highly effective. As a leading platform for short video ads, Instagram Reels has already captured the preference of most advertisers.
But what about long-form video content like podcasts? Discover the strategies for Instagram marketing for podcasts in this blog.
Using Instagram Reels to Promote Podcast Channels
In the wake of the short-form video trend in 2020, Instagram swiftly introduced Instagram Reels. Fast forward to 2024, and content on Instagram Reels boasts a 22% higher engagement rate than regular Instagram videos. It has undoubtedly become a noteworthy platform for brands, promoters, and influencers.
Growing a podcast audience demands dedicated efforts, from nurturing your podcast content to cross-platform posting and engaging with listeners. As part of an effective podcast marketing strategy, Instagram Reels can be a helpful tool to promote podcasts to American Instagram users, exceeding 158 million users. This blog provides insights and strategies for leveraging short-form video advertising to promote your podcast on Instagram Reels.
Instagram Marketing for Podcasts: Why Paid Advertising is the Way to Go
Although limited to 90-second videos, Instagram Reels may seem an unlikely choice for promoting podcasts, especially when episodes typically span 20-40 minutes. Trimming content to fit this brief format is just one hurdle; the bigger challenge arises when brands and influencers neglect to promote podcasts on Instagram Reels.
To gain a deeper insight into why paid advertising is necessary for podcast growth on Instagram, consider the following limitations:
Sluggish podcast audience growth
- Relying solely on primary podcast platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcasts can only harbor slow audience growth. Similar to advertisers diversifying across paid social media platforms, influencers and promoters must consider Instagram Reels and other short-form video platforms to broaden their podcast audience.
Profile optimization without guaranteed visits
- Many influencers and promoters use Instagram’s aesthetic features, such as organizing creatives in groups of three or maintaining a specific color scheme to establish a recognizable brand identity.
- However, the success of this strategy depends mainly on audience visits and active engagement with your content.
Different video sizes on varied platforms
- Challenges ensue when you turn podcast episodes into Instagram Reels due to differing platform orientations and sizes. Ensuring alignment with the Instagram safe zone and appropriate ad sizes is crucial to prevent platform elements from obstructing essential points.
- This manual arrangement process within your Instagram account posts can be time-consuming, diverting attention from creating your subsequent podcast episode.
Organic reach can be very limited
- Despite crafting bite-sized clips from your full video for Reels, each lasting less than a minute or two, the organic reach remains constrained. Organic posts cannot select your audience, and although you can choose topics related to your Instagram Reels content, it doesn’t offer precise targeting for your audience.
YouTube Shorts vs Instagram Reels vs TikTok for Podcast Promotion
Cross-promotion is a common practice to maximize each platform’s diverse social media audiences. Each caters to a distinct demographic and reach, making it essential to extend your reach to increase your podcast listeners. To determine the most effective platform for your goals, let’s evaluate these short-form video advertising platforms:
YouTube Shorts
TikTok
Instagram Reels
Monthly users: 1.5 billion
Pros: Leverages existing YouTube audience and search engine optimization, potentially reaching podcast listeners already active on the platform.
Cons: Offers only up to 60 seconds in length compared to other platforms, limiting brands and influencers from creating more in-depth podcast snippets.
Monthly users: 1.1 billion
Pros: Renowned for its discovery-driven algorithm, potentially reaching large audiences beyond current followers. A highly engaged user base drives organic reach, particularly for creative and entertaining content. Advanced editing tools and features contribute to virality.
Cons: TikTok’s demographic is mostly 18-34 years old, which might not match all podcasts’ target audience.
Monthly users: 2.35 billion
Pros: Reels visibility benefits from an established Instagram user base and cross-posting to Facebook, potentially reaching active podcast listeners on these platforms. The algorithm prioritizes content relevant to existing interests and connections, which can be leveraged to target specific demographics. While less extensive than TikTok, editing features still offer creative options for engaging content.
Cons: Organic reach can be moderate to low, especially for new creators. The algorithm prioritizes engagement with existing content, making discovering new podcasts more challenging.
How Can Instagram Reels Be Used to Increase Podcast Listeners?
Opting for paid Instagram podcast marketing can significantly enhance your visibility on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram). The opportunities provided by Meta open doors for effective podcast promotion on Instagram Reels ads. Here’s how you can make the most of it:
Potential for collaboration
- Growing a podcast audience involves increasing visibility among fellow podcast creators and influencers. Utilizing Instagram Reel ads for advertising provides an avenue to connect with prominent brands and promoters, fostering community building and loyalty.
- Establishing a sense of belonging for your audience enhances resonance with your content, increasing the likelihood of continued engagement with your future updates.
Campaign objectives aimed at your goals
- If you aim to boost video views on your source platform as a brand or influencer, utilizing the traffic objective is a strategic choice to guide audiences to your primary platform.
- Alternatively, for those seeking increased views on their Instagram page, you can attract listeners to your podcast clips through the engagement objective.
Wider audience reach and targeting options
- With the predominant age group on Instagram falling between 18 and 44 years, aligning seamlessly with the podcast audience demographics, which also boasts 66% from the same age range, the platform provides substantial reach. Using Meta’s audience targeting options, you can refine your focus based on age, gender, demographics, interests, and behaviors.
- Tips and tricks: If you have an existing database, you can upload your list on Meta Ads Manager and generate a lookalike audience. The ad platform will analyze your database’s profile, allowing for more precise targeting of audiences similar to your existing user base.
Measurable results through ad metrics
- Evaluate the achievement of your diverse goals through various Instagram Reels advertising campaigns. Are you witnessing an increase in Reels views when they are stored in your Instagram profile? Alternatively, do your audiences favor clicking through to your podcast channel on platforms like Amazon or Google Podcast to access your complete podcast episode?
- These measurable metrics, available through Meta Ads Manager, offer tangible results that allow you to make smarter decisions about promoting your podcast on Instagram reels going forward.
Other Tips and Strategies To Get More Views on Podcast Reels
Together with your podcast engagement strategies through Instagram Reels advertising, consider incorporating the following approaches:
Utilizing trending hashtags
Hashtags serve to categorize specific videos into niche topics, catering to an audience actively searching for them. For example, some top hashtags for podcasts include:
“Link in bio” approach
The “link in bio” strategy is a practical way to consolidate your outreach efforts. Incorporating a URL such as Linktree into your Instagram bio establishes a centralized hub for outgoing links that direct users to different destinations, including your podcast channels, other social media platforms, or dedicated websites.
Implementing a “Link in Bio” enables your campaign to generate clicks to your Instagram profile. This, in turn, encourages more audience engagement with your profile and the associated content.
Gain More Listeners by Promoting Podcast on Instagram Reels
Growing a podcast audience may pose challenges if you’re uncertain where and how to promote it. Having gone through this guide, we trust you can effectively implement these podcast engagement strategies and commence promoting your podcast on Instagram Reels.
The best practices for podcast Reels marketing have been revealed. Your next move now is to create engaging podcast snippets for Instagram Reels. The creative aspect of your ads is under your control. We’ve laid the groundwork; it’s now up to you to take action. Start promoting your podcast in Instagram Reels and witness a rapid increase in your podcast listenership.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:
- Father’s Day Advertising with Meta Advantage+: Tips for Smart Audience Targeting
- Smarter Paid Search with Google’s AI Max for Search Campaigns
- Google Marketing Live 2025 Recap: Key YouTube and Google Ads Updates for Advertisers
- Marketing to Gen Z: Social Media Strategies for Performance-Driven Brands
- TikTok News and Updates Q1 2025: What Advertisers Need to Know
- YouTube Shorts Views Are Changing: How You Can Adapt Your Paid Ads Strategy
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
Ad Specifications & Best Practices
Brand Safety and Suitability
Ad Campaign Tips and Strategies
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Ad Specifications & Best Practices
Brand Safety and Suitability
Ad Campaign Tips and Strategies
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Ad Specifications & Best Practices
Ad Campaign Tips and Strategies
Ad Specifications & Best Practices
Brand Safety and Suitability
Ad Campaign Tips and Strategies
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Valentine’s Day 2024, the month of love and affection, is not just about roses and chocolates anymore. For media buyers and advertisers, it’s a season of ‘Roi and Roses,’ a time to blend romantic campaigns with solid returns on advertising investment. This Valentine’s week, an estimated 52% of adults are expected to celebrate, potentially pouring a little close to $26 billion into the economy, as per the latest projections.
TLDR? Jump straight to our comprehensive guide at the end.
2024’s Valentine’s Day Advertising Trends on Social Media
Valentine’s Day celebrations have evolved outside of mostly romantic and exclusive for couples. With the evolution of celebration, Valentine’s Day has gone from cherishing moments with family, friends, and even pets. Brands are taking the opportunity to connect through heartfelt paid social campaigns.
Expressing love can sometimes mean giving gifts or creating experiences during this season. And where does anyone look for Valentine’s gift ideas? Nothing short, almost everything is on social media platforms. Let us observe last year’s trend in ad spend and audience engagement to better prepare for the upcoming celebration.
YouTube’s Valentine’s Cost and Engagement Dynamics Trend
Strike Social data recorded an early spike during early February, suggesting early ad placement is critical in setting up love campaigns. Interestingly, the Click-Through Rate (CTR) steadily climbed as Valentine’s Day approached, peaking on the actual day. This trend shows more consumers are engaging with ads as the day of love draws near.
Facebook’s Valentine’s Cost and Engagement Dynamics Trend
Facebook showed a consistently high CTR through the first half of February. Notable peaks of CTR appeared during the weekends. Together with the streak of CTR, a midweek spike in CPC has been recorded. This pattern suggests that advertisers actively engage audiences throughout the days before the big Vday.
TikTok’s Valentine’s Cost and Engagement Dynamics Trend
TikTok experienced significant spikes in CPC, particularly on the weekday before Valentine’s Day, reflecting a competitive environment as advertisers vied for attention. Despite a relatively lower CTR than Facebook, TikTok’s dynamic platform remains a fertile ground for trend-driven and creative campaigns for the younger demographic and even the much older ones.
Marketers’ Love Language: Mastering Keywords
The art of using words in marketing transcends greeting cards and sweet nothings. For media buyers, it’s a key to unlocking the hearts of social media users. When used strategically, keywords attract and engage the right audience and help avoid unwanted content, ensuring brand safety and suitability.
This section will discuss keyword strategies to enhance your campaigns’ ROI and turn them into a blooming success.
YouTube Ads: Balancing Targeting and Brand Safety with Keywords
Selecting the right keywords for Valentine’s Day is more than just finding relevant search terms. It involves thoughtful thinking on keywords to use to reach and create a positive impact on audience perception. Specific keywords like “Valentine’s Day gift for her” target niche audiences, increasing ad visibility. Conversely, adding terms like “Cheap Valentine’s Day gift” to your Keyword Exclusion list prevents negative brand associations. Mastering this balance between visibility and relevance is crucial.
TikTok Ads: Diverse Keyword Usage for Creative Insights
TikTok’s dynamic platform offers a unique advertisers’ playground for keyword experimentation. The TikTok Creative Center inspires advertisers to craft compelling ads with diverse keyword applications. Using the inspiration tool, the Strike team searched for keywords related to Valentines that could influence the TikTok community to engage with ad creatives.
Based on the team’s observation, TikTok segments keyword usage into three types: ad text, overlay text, and voice-over. The top short-form video platform challenges traditional contextual targeting, primarily focusing on captions or hashtags.
The recent TikTok Creative Center data shows that the keyword “Valentine’s Day” positively impacted viewers, but results varied. Voice-over resulted in a median CTR of 5.06%, with 5 out of 10 ad creatives applications. Meanwhile, ad text delivered 4.61% engagement with 4 out of 10 ad creatives. Interestingly, a single ad creative using text overlay drove an impressive 8.53% CTR.
Facebook: Navigating Interest Targeting with Precision
While Facebook Ads Manager relies on interest targeting rather than traditional keywords, the principles are similar. With Meta’s extensive user base,3.05 billion users engaged on its platform, precise interest targeting on Facebook reaches specific audiences effectively.
Putting this into action, our analysis of various Valentine’s-centric interests revealed insightful cost metrics. For campaigns running from February 1st to 15th across North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Minnesota, targeting ages 25-65+ of all genders, we found that CPM for awareness campaigns ranged from $6.56 to $12.50. CPCs varied from $0.54 to $1.6 for action-centric campaigns with link-click objectives. This data highlights the importance of selecting the right interests to optimize ad spend and maximize campaign reach.
From YouTube’s strategic balance of targeting and brand safety to TikTok’s innovative use of diverse keyword applications, each platform offers unique opportunities for engagement and brand alignment. Facebook’s precision in interest targeting further underscores the importance of understanding and leveraging user interests to maximize campaign effectiveness.
Our analysis across these platforms reveals vital insights into optimizing ad spend and enhancing campaign ROI. For an overview of these strategies and to access the data, download our guide and bring out the full potential of your Valentine’s Day advertising efforts.
Valentine’s Day 2024: Evolving Synergy of Storytelling and Data Precision
For media buyers and advertisers, this season is a dynamic fusion of ‘Roi and Roses,’ where the art of crafting heartfelt campaigns intersects with the science of achieving returns on advertising investments. This year, with an estimated 52% of adults participating and nearly $26 billion at stake, the occasion is not just a celebration of romance but a great window of opportunity for savvy marketers.
Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok each present unique opportunities and challenges, necessitating tailored strategies. YouTube’s fluctuating CPC and steadily increasing CTR highlight the need for timely, targeted campaigns. Facebook’s consistently high CTR underscores the effectiveness of interest targeting, while TikTok’s dynamic keyword trends call for creative, trend-aligned content strategies.
For advertisers and media buyers, mastering this blend of creativity and data analytics will be critical to unlocking the full potential of this opportunity, turning the month of love into a period of meaningful returns.


For adept media buyers, mastering X ad specs remains a distinct advantage as X (formerly known as Twitter) stands out as an essential hub for breaking news. Despite notable brand pullouts, X has transformed into a ‘better value’ proposition, enticing brands with more affordable CPMs.
X now emerges as a promising opportunity for marketers who possess the expertise to navigate the platform strategically and take advantage of its potential for extensive reach.
Are Your Ads Aligned with the X Ad Specs?
The platform’s commitment to innovation is evident as it seeks to enhance its ad offerings with new X ad formats designed to integrate seamlessly into a user’s feed. As X opens up diverse placements within the app, advertisers can strategically take advantage of this opportunity to broaden their reach significantly.
The significance of understanding X ad specs becomes more pronounced than ever. Being knowledgeable about Twitter X ads specifications is essential to stay ahead as X continues to evolve and adapt alongside other giants in social media advertising.
- Keeping Up-to-Date: The Latest in X Advertising Guidelines
- The Insider’s Guide to X Ad Specs for the Latest Ad Formats
- X Advertising Today: Why You Should Stay Up-to-date With X Ad Specs
- Influencing Effectiveness By Adhering to the Latest X Ad Specs
Keeping Up-to-Date: The Latest in X Advertising Guidelines
The latest updates to X advertising guidelines significantly enhance advertisers’ control over their campaigns on X.
Adjacency Controls
- Advertisers can now create negative keyword and account handle lists for Twitter X ads displayed in the Home Timeline. These lists prevent ads from appearing in close proximity to content containing specified keywords or originating from designated accounts. Advertisers can now curate lists with up to 4,000 keywords and 4,000 accounts to universally apply controls across all campaigns associated with a particular handle.
Sensitivity Settings
- Sensitivity Settings allow X advertisers to set a default sensitivity preference at the account level, as it applies to the general suitability of ad placements within the Home Timeline. Brands can seamlessly combine Sensitivity Settings with the granular lists established through Adjacency Controls.
Surface Opt-Out
- Advertisers can now opt out of ad surfaces and placements that do not support Adjacency Controls and Sensitivity Settings, such as search or replies. Notably, both the “For You” and “Following” versions of the Home Timeline fully support Adjacency Controls and Sensitivity Settings, providing comprehensive control over the visibility of Twitter X ads.
Keyword Ads
- Advertisers on X can leverage desired keywords for targeting, so ads are placed near the most relevant topics on X. Keyword ads empower advertisers to seamlessly integrate campaigns with ongoing conversations and real-time search results, catering specifically to user interests.
The recent updates on the X advertising guidelines provide media buyers with refined control over their advertising strategies on X. Prioritize brand safety and relevance in every campaign by staying informed and adapting your approach to capitalize on these powerful features.
The Insider’s Guide to X Ad Specs for the Latest Ad Formats
Your roadmap to effective X advertising begins with ensuring your creative endeavors resonate flawlessly with the dynamic X ad specifications. Look at the array of Twitter X ad placements and how you can align your campaigns with the X ad size requirements.
Promoted Ads
Promoted Ads, like regular Posts, seamlessly integrate into users’ feeds, allowing reposting, replies, likes, and more.
Text Ads
Image Ads
Video Ads
Carousel Ads
Moment Ads
- Tweet copy: 280 characters. (Note: each link used reduces character count by 23 characters, electing 257 characters for Twitter copy.)
- Tweet copy: 280 characters. (Note: each link used reduces character count by 23 characters, electing 257 characters for Twitter copy.)
- File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.
- Note: GIFs uploaded will render as a static images
- File size: Max 5 MB
Click the buttons below to see X ad specs for each image ad type:
- Image size: 800 x 418 pixels is recommended for 1.91:1 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 or 1:1
- App title: Truncated at 200 characters. Included from app store; not customizable.
- Call to Action: Install, Open, Play, Shop, Book, Connect, and Order
- Image size: 800 x 418 pixels is recommended for 1.91:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 1.91:1
- Conversation Card
- (original Tweet in timeline)
- Tweet copy: 280 characters (same as above)
- Hashtag: 21 characters, including the hashtag character
- Pre-populated user Tweet
- (once user clicks on the CTA)
- Tweet copy: 256 characters
- Headline: 23 characters
- Thank You Tweet
- (after user has Tweeted out the Tweet)
- Thank you text: 23 characters
- Thank you URL (optional): 23 characters
- Image size: 800 x 418 pixels is recommended for 1.91:1 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 or 1:1. However, 1:1 will crop to 1.91:1 in mobile timeline.
- GIFs are not supported at this time.
- Tweet copy: Polls can include up to 280 characters of Tweet copy that appear above the image.
- Poll options: 2-4 custom poll options
- Once you’ve written your copy and added your image, you can add two to four custom poll responses to create your poll.
- Poll copy: 25 characters each
- Each poll option can include up to a maximum of 25 characters of text (which do not count against the 280 you can include in Tweet copy).
- Poll duration
- Select a time between a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 7 days. Poll duration starts when the Tweet is created, not when promoted.
- Image size: 800 x 418 pixels is recommended for 1.91:1 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 or 1:1
- Website title length: 70 characters. Please note — depending on device and app settings this description may truncate. Up to two lines of text are rendered on the card title; any text beyond that is truncated with an ellipsis. Although not guaranteed, limiting the description to 50 characters should ensure that truncation won’t occur across most devices.
- URL: must begin with http:// or https://
- Image size: 1200 x 1200 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio. 1200 x 628 pixels is recommended for 1.91:1 aspect ratio. Larger images will be better optimized for when users click to expand images.
- Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 or 1:1. Please note that the legacy composer supports any aspect ratio between 2:1 and 1:1.
- Tweet copy: 280 characters. (Note: each link used reduces character count by 23 characters, electing 257 characters for Twitter copy.)
- File types: MP4 or MOV
- File size: 1 GB max. For optimal performance we strongly recommend to keep files under 30 MB.
- Video length: 15 seconds or less is recommended. Up to 2:20 is supported. (Select advertisers are eligible to request an increase up to 10 minutes; however, we advise videos to be 9:55 to account for a range of video files. Please contact your Twitter Account Manager for more information.)
- Branding: Highly recommended throughout; if using a logo, it should be persistent in the upper left hand corner. Prominent product placement is highly recommended for driving product consideration.
- Captions: Closed captioning or text overlays are strongly recommended.
- Video bitrate: 6,000 – 10,000k (recommended 6,000k) for 1080p. 5,000k – 8,000k (recommended 5,000k) for 720p.
- Frame rate: 29.97FPS or 30FPS. Higher is acceptable (support up to 60FPS). If the available video has a lower frame rate don’t try to “upsample” it.
- Audio codec: AAC LC (low complexity)
- Video codec recommendation: H264, Baseline, Main, or High Profile with a 4:2:0 color space.
- Thumbnail
- Supported files: PNG or JPEG
- Aspect ratio: recommend matching sizing of the video
- Max size: 5MB
- Looping: Videos will loop if the video length is under 60 seconds.
Click the buttons below to see X ad specs for each video ad type:
- Video size: 1200 x 1200 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio. 1920 x 1080 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio. Larger videos will be better optimized for when users click to expand videos.
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1. Please note that the legacy composer supports any aspect ratio between 2:1 and 1:1.
- Video size: 800 x 450 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1
- Website title length: 70 characters. Please note — depending on device and app settings this description may truncate. Up to two lines of text are rendered on the card title; any text beyond that is truncated with an ellipsis. Although not guaranteed, limiting the description to 50 characters should ensure that truncation won’t occur across most devices.
- URL: must begin with http:// or https://
- Video size: 800 x 450 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1
- App title: Truncated at 200 characters. Included from app store; not customizable.
- Call to Action: Install, Open, Play, Shop, Book, Connect, and Order
- Video size: 800 x 450 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 16:9
- Conversation Card
- (original Tweet in timeline)
- Tweet copy: 280 characters (same as above)
- Hashtag: 21 characters, including the hashtag character
- Pre-populated user Tweet
- (once user clicks on the CTA)
- Tweet copy: 256 characters
- Headline: 23 characters
- Thank You Tweet
- (after user has Tweeted out the Tweet)
- Thank you text: 23 characters
- Thank you URL (optional): 23 characters
- Video size: 800 x 450 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1. However, 1:1 will crop to 16:9 in mobile timeline.
- GIFs are not supported at this time.
- Tweet copy: Polls can include up to 280 characters of Tweet copy that appear above the video.
- Poll options: 2-4 custom poll options
- Once you’ve written your copy and added your video, you can add two to four custom poll responses to create your poll.
- Poll copy: 25 characters each
- Each poll option can include up to a maximum of 25 characters of text (which do not count against the 280 you can include in Tweet copy).
- Poll duration
- Select a time between a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 7 days.
- Number of slides: 2-6 (Images or Videos)
- Media size
- Image Carousels: 800 x 418 pixels is recommended for 1.91:1 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Video Carousels: 800 x 450 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio. 800 x 800 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Aspect ratio
- Image Carousels: 1.91:1 or 1:1 image assets using a single aspect ratio within one carousel.
- Video Carousels: 16:9 or 1:1 video assets using a single aspect ratio within one carousel.
- For Carousels using mixed media, aspect ratios should remain consistent (1:1 image asset with 1:1 video asset).
- Link: One web or app destination for single-destination Carousels. Up to six unique web destinations for multi-destination Carousels.
Click the buttons below to see X ad specs for each carousel ad type:
- Website title length: 70 characters. Please note — depending on device and app settings this description may truncate. Up to two lines of text are rendered on the card title; any text beyond that is truncated with an ellipsis. Although not guaranteed, limiting the description to 50 characters should ensure that truncation won’t occur across most devices. This is customizable per card.
- URL: must begin with http:// or https://
- App title: Truncated at 200 characters. Included from app store; not customizable.
- Call to Action: Install, Open, Play, Shop, Book, Connect, and Order.
- The unique storytelling capabilities of Moment Ads allows you to create, curate, and promote Tweet collections beyond the 280-character limit.
Twitter X Amplify Ad
Twitter Amplify, a product suite tailored for Pre-roll Views campaigns, offers diverse avenues to showcase your brand: Amplify Pre-roll, and Amplify Sponsorship.
Amplify
Pre-rollAmplify
Sponsorships
Select your preferred video content categories from a pool of 15+, including exclusive Curated Categories in specific markets (subject to availability).
- File size: Maximum file size is 1GB.
- Video length: Recommended 15 seconds or less. Max: 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
- File types: MP4 or MOV
- Video aspect ratio: 1:1 is recommended as it will always render as square on desktop and mobile, timeline and profile. This and 9:16 (vertical) will take up the same amount of real estate, which is more than 16:9.
- Your ad will automatically be matched with publisher content that has a similar aspect ratio when available, but we recommend taking a look at the kind of publisher content you’d like to run on and planning to mirror trends in aspect ratio
- Recommended video size: 1200 x 1200 (minimum for 1:1 is 600 x 600)
- If not a 1:1 aspect ratio: 640×360 minimum
- URL (optional): must begin with http:// or https://
- Branding: Highly recommended throughout (keeping in mind that Amplify Sponsorships have product overlays in the top left and bottom right and left corners for publisher video previews, ad countdowns, etc.)
- Captions: Closed captioning or text overlays are strongly recommended.
- Video bitrate recommendation: 6,000 – 10,000k (recommended 6,000k) for 1080p. 5,000k – 8,000k (recommended 5,000k) for 720p.
- Frame rate recommendation: 29.97FPS or 30FPS. Higher is acceptable. If the available video has a lower frame rate don’t try to “upsample” it.
- Audio codec recommendation: AAC LC (low complexity)
- Video codec recommendation: h264, baseline, main or high profile with a 4:2:0 color space
Experience a unique 1:1 partnership with a single publisher, providing you with post-level control over your campaign.
- File size: Max 1 GB.
- Video length: 6 seconds or less recommended. Max: 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
- File type: MP4 or MOV
- Aspect ratio: 16×9 or 1×1 recommended, dependent on publisher content
- Recommended video size: 1200 x 1200 (minimum for 1:1 is 600 x 600)
- Any height is acceptable, but if the height exceeds the width, the video will be cropped to 1:1 in the feed.
- If not a 1:1 aspect ratio: 640×360 minimum
- URL (optional): must begin with http:// or https://
- Branding: Highly recommended throughout (keeping in mind that Amplify Pre-roll has product overlays in the top left and bottom right and left corners for publisher video previews, ad countdowns, etc.)
- Captions: Closed captioning or text overlays are strongly recommended.
X Takeover Ads
Position your brand at the forefront with X Takeover Ads, securing prime placement at the top of users’ timelines. Explore Trend Takeover and Brand Takeover formats, aligning your brand with the hottest trends of the day.
Timeline
TakeoverTrend
TakeoverTrend
Takeover+
- Tweet copy: specs for a Timeline Takeover placement will depend on the format used. Reference individual specs pages for the format you want to run.
- Supported formats:
- Image Ads
- Video Ads
- Carousel Ads
- Twitter Live
- Promoted Ads with Conversation Buttons and Polls
- Branded Hashtags
- Branded Notifications
- Appears on the homepage of Twitter.com for all users within a Trend’s region and within the Explore tab on mobile. 20 characters max.
- Trend description (optional but highly recommended):
- Appears directly below the Trend Hashtag on the homepage of Twitter.com for all users within a Trend’s region and within the Explore tab on mobile. 70 characters max.
- Companion Promoted Ad (required):
- Craft 3-6 Promoted Ads (can be image, video, gif, etc) to support the trend. These are eligible to show in the home timeline for users on both web and mobile, making the trend more discoverable.
Note: The Trend Takeover+ placement is not age-gated. Please ensure the GIF or image asset provided is appropriate for all ages (i.e. no weapons, guns, nudity, violence, etc.).
- File types: 6-second looping GIF, MP4, or static image
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 (for both GIF and images)
- File size: 5MB for image, 15MB for GIF
- Trend hashtag: Max 16 characters
- Trend description: Max 30 characters
- Creative must be delivered to Twitter via a darkTweet, with media (either GIF, MP4, or image) only. Media in card formats cannot be accepted.
- Trend name & description:
- Don’t duplicate hashtag in both Trend Name and Description.
- Trend Takeover+ will be attributed to @brandhandle, so no need to overtly brand the Description field.
- Use the Description to provide further context to your trend, make it declarative & intriguing.
- Avoid click-bait phrases such as “50% off”, “Buy One Get One Free”, “Limited Time Only”, etc.
X Live
Twitter Live allows brands to maximize engagement by placing Live ads on recommended stream specifications, and ensuring top-notch video quality during live events.
Recommended
stream
specificationsEvent page
specifications
- Please follow the stream specifications recommendation below for the best Producer experience. Please note: The list of supported encoders and services is not exhaustive and is subject to change.
- RTMP
Video codec: H.264/AVC
Video bitrate: 9Mbps (recommended), 12Mbps (maximum)
Audio codec: AA-LC
Audio bitrate: 128bps (maximum) - Resolution
1280×720 (recommended)
1920×1080 (maximum) - Frame rate
30 fps (recommended)
60 fps (maximum) - Keyframe interval
OBS: Every 3 seconds
Wirecast:
24 fbs = Keyframe interval of 72 frames
30 fbs = Keyframe interval of 90 frames
50 fbs = Keyframe interval of 150 frames
60 fbs = Keyframe interval of 180 frames - Supported encoders and services:
- Restream
- Golightstream
- Socialive
- OBS
- Wirecast
- Teradek
- Elemental
- Vmix
- StreamYard
- Streamlabs
- Event page description: 280 characters max.
NEW: Can contain external links! (pre-orders, ticket sales, other O&O site) - Carousel: Max 5 videos. Can be multiple live, VOD, GIFS, Photos. Requires additional investment – see pricing sheet.
- Hashtag: Autopopulating hashtag when Tweets are composed in Tweet bar.
- Timeline Tweet: Pulls in Tweets specific terms. Max 5 terms. For example: hashtags, keywords & phrases, executive names.
Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)
Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) allow advertisers to deliver precisely what customers need, precisely when they need it, by using the latest Web Conversions products on X.
Explore two distinct strategies under DPA:
- DPA Retargeting: Engage targeted consumers by showcasing products they’ve interacted with on your website, such as items added to their shopping cart.
- DPA Prospecting: Expand your customer base by reaching out to individuals who haven’t visited your website.
Prerequisites
Tips for
configuring
your campaign
- Implement the latest Twitter Pixel or Conversion API to track essential events and parameters.
- Enable tracking across key events such as Page View, Content View, Add to Cart, and Purchase.
- Incorporate content parameters to track specific products users view, add to their shopping cart, and purchase.
- Set up your product catalog on Twitter Shopping Manager, capable of supporting up to 1 million products or an 8GB feed file.
- Utilize Scheduled Feeds to seamlessly upload and sync your catalog data daily or multiple times per day.
- Make use of filters to create product sets that align with your ad campaign objectives.
- DPA accommodates both prospecting and retargeting campaigns. For retargeting, create Catalog Activity Audiences—individuals who have interacted with products in your catalog—and select them when setting up DPA campaigns.
- Enhance audience sizes by including relevant List Custom Audiences.
- On ads.twitter.com, create a DPA campaign under the Conversions or Website Traffic objectives.
- Stay informed about recent updates to Twitter’s Terms and Conditions for ads and measurement products. If prompted during campaign configuration, review and accept the terms outlined in Twitter’s master service agreement found here.
Follower Ads
Grow your follower base with Follower Ads, as they seamlessly blend into users’ timelines and “Who to Follow” boxes, enhancing visibility and attracting new followers.
X Ad Specs
for
Follower Ads
- Tweet copy: 280 characters. (Note: each link used reduces character count by 23 characters, electing 257 characters for Twitter copy.) Ensure there is actionable copy for this ad product.
Note: Creatives aren’t supported for this objective, only Tweet copy. The follower card will auto-render on your ads.
Branded Features
Add a creative touch to your brand presence on X with Branded Hashtags and Branded Notifications, enhancing your brand’s visibility and engagement.
Branded
HashtagsBranded Notifications
- Associate up to 5 #Hashtags with emojis, but keep in mind that a hashtag exceeding 250 mentions in the last 30 days may need a strong brand connection.
- Craft emojis at 72×72 pixels, ensuring clarity at 16×16 on light or dark backgrounds. Avoid overly light colors for optimal visibility.
- Opt for minimal details to amplify your message and prevent it from getting lost when minimized.
- Steer clear of multiple faces or logos—maintain visibility at 16×16.
Click the buttons below to see X ad specs for each type of branded notifications ad:
- Start with a compelling CTA Tweet, clearly outlining the user’s opt-in expectations.
- Commence the Instant Opt-In Notification Tweet with the user’s @handle.
- Schedule Notification Tweets to deliver promised content within a 30-day window.
- Include opt-out instructions for user flexibility.
- Craft a descriptive CTA Tweet, elucidating the multiple Tweets users will receive upon opting in.
- Begin Instant Opt-In Notification Tweets with the user’s @handle.
- Schedule multiple Notification Tweets with promised content.
- Run for a maximum of 30 days per scheduled notification Tweet, allowing up to 90 days for comprehensive campaigns.
- Launch with a CTA Tweet clearly communicating what users will receive.
- Start the Instant Notification Tweet with the user’s @handle.
- Allow for a 30-day campaign duration after the initial CTA Tweet.
X Advertising Today: Why You Should Stay Up-to-date With X Ad Specs
As we explore why Twitter X ads are thriving, let’s examine the core factors contributing to its enduring allure.
Advertisers’ Power Play During Q5
As the holiday fervor engulfs us, the temptation to ease up on advertising endeavors might seem compelling. However, Q5 trends for Twitter X ads tell a different story. Brimming with tent-pole moments spanning holidays, sports, entertainment, and more, this period becomes a strategic arena for advertisers. Far from slowing down, this is the opportune time to dominate.
Short-Form Video Ads on X
Recognizing the surge in short-form video popularity—embraced by up to 90% of global marketers—X (Twitter) steps into the arena. Currently, in beta testing, a distinct opportunity unfolds for select US advertisers. This beta phase allows bids on pre-screened, brand-safe Vertical Video feed inventory, establishing a partnership with Integral Ad Science (IAS).
The collaboration, integral to the GARM brand safety and suitability framework, ensures content alignment before the ad integration. Notably, this pre-bid product is tailored exclusively to the Vertical Video format, distinguishing it from the broader X Timeline.
Influencing Effectiveness By Adhering to the Latest X Ad Specs
As digital ads brim with noise from various platforms, the resilience of X Ads shines through. The commitment to innovation echoes loudly as X introduces new ad formats, seamlessly integrating into users’ feeds and opening up diverse placements within the app. It’s clear that X isn’t just holding its ground; it’s flourishing as a promising opportunity for marketers who possess the expertise to exploit its potential for extensive reach.
Staying informed about the evolving advertising trends in X ad specs allows marketers to keep pace alongside giants in the field. The platform’s real-time marketing capabilities and extensive user community make it an appealing choice for businesses seeking to engage with their audience and showcase their products.
To learn more about the ad specs for other social media platforms, click on the menu below.
The concept of advertising is nearly as old as commerce itself. Wherever businesses compete, there’s a need to get your brand noticed. But advertisement as an industry is one of continual change. With the advent of the digital age, there’s been a greater focus on quantifying ad effectiveness, and attention-based metrics are an up-and-coming way to do just that.
The economist Herbert Simon predicted attention’s role when he coined the term “attention economy” in 1971 – decades before the emergence of the digital age.
Nowadays, modern technology enables us to measure consumer attention in ways we couldn’t before. In this context, “attention” means the extent to which a customer views or listens to an ad when they’re exposed to it.
But what is attention in digital marketing, and how can attention metrics be used to boost your campaigns? Let’s find out in this guide.
The Problem With Other Digital Advertising Measurements
Attention-based metrics are not the only tool a marketer can use to determine the effectiveness of a campaign or broader strategy. Below are some other popular metrics, alongside why they might not give you the full picture of your performance.
Impressions and Viewability
Simply put, impressions are the number of times your ad has been loaded. So, each impression is an opportunity for your web domain ad to be seen by potential customers.
On the other hand, viewability is a metric that quantifies the likelihood of your ad being seen. For an impression to be considered viewable, it must be seen for at least one second, and at least 50% of its pixels must be visible on screen.


Using tools like Meta Business Suite, you can track the number of impressions and levels of viewability. For example, you can see how many impressions your ad has received in a specific amount of time. If your Facebook following is only in the hundreds, you might deem this a successful advertising campaign based on this metric alone. It also gives you a measurement to gauge future ads against.
But while these metrics are straightforward and give a clear idea of how many people see your ads, they’re not very useful for telling how many people actually engage with them.
That’s because it’s easy for attention-based metrics to provide a skewed picture. People might see the same uninteresting ad repeatedly, throwing off impressions. Or they might step away from their device with the browser still open on a webpage. This would cause apparent viewability to skyrocket, despite the complete lack of user attention.
Click-Through-Rates (CTR)
Let’s say you’ve recently set up a new service. You’ve managed to build your website and start growing traffic, but are seeing few of these visits convert into actual purchases. What can you do?
Since viewable impressions don’t account for engagement, you might turn to click-through-rates as an alternative. These are exactly what they sound like: the number of people actually clicking on your ads to follow their links.
CTR can be a useful measure of ad effectiveness, but it’s still a flawed methodology compared to proper attention-based metrics.
For one thing, CTR fails to show how much attention people actually pay. It can only tell you whether they clicked the ad, regardless of context. On top of that, it’s easy to click something by accident, especially on touch-screen mobile devices.
So, if you limit yourself to using this metric, you might not get to the crux of your issue and find out why your domain sales aren’t as high as you’d expect them to be.


Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM)
CPM is a bit of a confusing acronym for the uninitiated. It stands for cost-per-mille, as mille is verbal shorthand for a thousand. CPM is the level of financial cost to your business for every 1000 ad impressions.
Understanding CPM can be useful when creating advertising budgets. However, it can’t measure the overall performance and effectiveness of your ad – that is, how many people saw the ad in its entirety, absorbed the message, and took action.
That’s where CPM and other common advertising measurements fall short. They often measure metrics on the website or from a business’ point of view. However, they fail to recognize the actions and behaviors of consumers.


What Are Attention Metrics?
Unlike other measures of ad effectiveness, attention-based metrics are focused on the human side. As a result, they offer a more accurate view of how engaging your ad content actually is to your various audiences.
Measuring attention, however, requires a more involved process, since you’re gathering human behavioral data. This might involve, for example, an algorithm analyzing subjects via webcam and/or microphone. Although, since attention metrics are still an emerging concept, there isn’t a unified standard for how to measure it, and companies are also taking a variety of approaches to gather that information.
Attention-based metrics can be useful for developing lead generation strategies for e-commerce businesses. And that’s because you gain an in-depth understanding of your ad’s audience. Studying consumer attention can be a much more effective way of gauging their browsing and purchasing habits than simple web traffic data. And you can use this information to target new demographics.
You might notice that ads featuring certain kinds of products are better for growing your website traffic. For instance, a customized baking business might notice their ad about wedding cakes performs the best. With this data, the company can gauge consumer demand for such bakes. They can then conduct more digital ads along similar lines to compare metrics, and then choose to focus more on the wedding market for the future.
In this way, tracking these metrics can benefit your ad campaign development in the long-term. It gives you a clear path for investing in future online advertising campaigns, helping you narrow down your audience, market, and messaging. It can even guide business decisions such as branching out into a new market or focusing on a niche product or service altogether.
How to Gain and Measure Attention in Digital Advertising
There are already several established factors that drive human attention. If you want to put your best foot forward, it’s important to bear these in mind:
- Pixel space: The larger the ad, the more compelled we are to pay attention.
- Motion: Video content tends to be more engaging than a static image.
- Time: Short-form content is punchier, but long-form content has more detail.
- Placement: Some parts of a webpage are more likely to catch the eye.
- Interaction: Interaction with an ad boosts the likelihood of recall.
Tailor Ads to the Platform
Each platform has its own specifications, and you must be knowledgable and
With the right extension, it’s easy to annotate web pages with Google Chrome with notes and ideas, and this will enable you to create fresh and relevant content for each platform. You can add notes to tweak your YouTube video ads to use them in TikTok, for example.
Consider Active Time and Interactions
There are some simple metrics for attention to ads. They tend to suffer from some of the same issues we described in our first section, but the upside is you can study them “in the wild,” so to speak. For instance, the amount of time an ad is open in your active browser tab could be an attention-based metric.
There are also the interactions they have beyond simple click-throughs. So if a company like Only Domains ran a video ad to promote a new domain type, they might track the number of users fullscreening it. Similarly, they could run customer surveys through their ads and track the rates of response.
Conduct Lab-Based Studies
At its simplest, these methods involve studying eye movement with screen data to show whether people are looking. Facial coding even allows AI to study expressions to show how people feel while viewing your ads. That way, you’ll know whether they’re excited, bored, or just plain confused.
This can be particularly useful when it comes to A/B testing. For example, maybe you’re testing out some domain name hacks and different language ads to try and better appeal to international audiences. You can use a lab-based study to monitor which site not only attracts more visitors but also which is more engaging to each audience.


Attention-Based Metrics Are Still growing
Attention-based metrics can be incredibly useful for ensuring ad campaign effectiveness. But don’t forget that this is still an emerging form of analysis, and we don’t have a unified standard metric for consumer attention.
There is an upside, though: attention metrics have so much untapped potential left to discover. As more businesses embrace attention tracking for their ad campaigns, we’re bound to see some exciting innovations.
So, it’s clear that attention and engagement metrics, when used in tandem, will change the way we advertise. The only question is, how significant will that change be?
This article is written by Francis King, Head of Demand Generation at OnlyDomains, a domain management solution that offers global services and support that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Francis has been a part of the team since 2009. He is our go-to guy for everything online advertising. Originally from Melbourne, Francis cannot go a day without lifting weights; he is considering taking on Jiu-Jitsu next. Here is his blog.
Have some great content up your sleeve? We invite you to reach out to us. We are excited to collaborate with talented writers and feature high-quality content on our blogs.
Q5 Advertising Strategies’ are becoming indispensable for brands that leverage the post-holiday season. This period, often underestimated, offers a unique opportunity to engage with consumers who are still active and ready to spend. Traditional marketing approaches need to catch up in this digitally dominated environment. The emergence of Q5 advertising marks a strategic shift, focusing on capturing consumer attention when most brands are winding down their marketing efforts.
Recent data from Hubspot highlights this opportunity, revealing that 47% of consumers are inclined to make additional purchases after the holiday frenzy. This period is not just about handling returns; it’s a time when savvy consumers search for post-holiday deals and are open to brand loyalty reinforcement.
Therefore, integrating Q5 social media advertising is not merely an alternative but a critical strategy for businesses seeking to conclude their fiscal year on a high note. This approach taps into the unique consumer behaviors of this period, turning potential returns into opportunities for repurchases and brand engagement.
What is Q5, and why is it important for advertisers?
Before we dive into Q5 strategies and insights, let’s shed light on this mysterious “fifth quarter.” Distinct consumer behaviors following the traditional holiday shopping period from November to December typically characterize Q5, though there is no fixed start or end date.
Consumer activity during this time can be segmented into phases: early shoppers who complete their purchases around Thanksgiving and late shoppers active just before Christmas. Q5, however, commences post-Christmas and extends until the second week of January.
This period marks a shift in consumer focus – from gift-buying to self-purchasing and redeeming gift cards. According to Statista, nearly 30% of U.S. consumers engage in self-gifting, a noticeable increase from previous years. Additionally, 35% of gift card recipients will likely spend their cards within the first 45 days post-Christmas.
For advertisers, Q5 represents a fertile ground for digital marketing opportunities. It’s a time when consumer engagement remains high, yet many brands must improve their marketing efforts, leading to less competition and more potential for impact. By capitalizing on this period, advertisers can boost sales, strengthen brand loyalty, and set a positive trajectory for the new year.
Capitalizing on Post-Holiday Opportunities: The Q5 Advantage
While traditional pre-holiday advertising blitz gets all the attention, savvy marketers know the magic happens after the last Christmas gift has been unwrapped, often called Q5 or “Hidden Quarter.” Pouring all efforts during the high-stakes season of Cyber Five weekend and Super Saturday does not guarantee holiday campaign success.
Several key factors contribute to the disparity in outcomes:
Holiday promotion overload
- The holiday season is notorious for an influx of marketing messages. This saturation makes it increasingly challenging for individual brands to stand out. Consumers, overwhelmed by choices and offers, may find it difficult to notice or remember specific campaigns.
Late realization of consumer needs
- Consumers who have received gifts or have unspent budgets may be more inclined to shop after the holiday frenzy has subsided. This period is ripe for deal hunters and savvy shoppers looking for post-holiday bargains.
Missed opportunity
- A critical oversight by marketers is underestimating post-Christmas spending. According to Capitol One Shopping, 54% of U.S. consumers prefer gift cards as Christmas gifts, translating to a surge in spending post-Christmas Eve.
By acknowledging these trends, brands can effectively extend their holiday advertising strategies into Q5. This period, often dubbed the ‘Hidden Quarter,’ presents a golden opportunity to engage with consumers still in a spending mindset.
Q5 in Action: Data-Driven Insight to Fuel Post-Holiday Campaign
Let’s put the Q5 data into action. Strike’s Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok ads data will reveal insightful trends covering the whole holiday shopping period from November 1, 2022, until Jan 15, 2023. Last year’s US campaign data will equip us to build high-performing Q5 strategies that cut through the noise from the onset of the holiday shopping season to the last holiday shopping cart checkout.
Q5 YouTube Instream Skippable Ads: Data and Insights
YouTube’s Instream Skippable ads during Q5 present a lucrative opportunity. From December 26th to January 15th, we observed a high % view rate of 61% and a 24% reduction in median CPV compared to the Christmas period, marking the lowest ad cost across the holiday shopping stretch.
This trend indicates that while the auction intensity decreases post-Christmas, viewer engagement remains robust, offering an ideal scenario for advertisers.
Q5 Facebook Impression Ad Campaigns: Data and Insights
Strike’s Q5 Facebook advertising data presents a significant opportunity to leverage lower ad costs. Our Q5 Facebook median CPM has improved by 27% from the Christmas holiday, while the click-through rate has retained holiday engagement levels at 0.55%.
The trend of lower CPM does not indicate a decline in Facebook advertising campaign performance. Although the behavior of clicking every ad may not be as high as during the Christmas holiday, ad viewers consistently consume content. This new behavior is likely due to a focus on brand awareness and consideration, even without immediate clicks.
Q5 Facebook Link Clicks Ad Campaigns: Data and Insights
While holiday promotions auction battles heightened during the stretch of Thanksgiving and Christmas periods, our Facebook Link Clicks campaign data reveals efficiency at the tail end of the holiday shopping season. Q5 (December 26th to January 15th) holds the lowest median CPLC across all periods. After the busiest holiday, CPLC improved by 19% while maintaining a respectable Link Click Through Rate (LCTR) of 1.46%.
Q5 isn’t just about cheap clicks. It continues to drive high-quality traffic that converts. Facebook media buyers can turn post-holiday browsing into valuable consumer engagement, extending holiday sales success well into the new year.
Q5 TikTok Ad Impression Campaigns: Data and Insights
Strike’s Q5 2022 TikTok Impression campaign data offered a much lower median CPM than the previous periods, Thanksgiving and Christmas. With more stable cost in the auction, Q5 creates an opportunity to reach highly engaged TikTok community viewers as the Click-Through Rate remains high post-holiday celebration.
Developing a dynamic creative brings a unique vibe to the platform. Brands can tap into the content virality TikTok possesses, which eventually leads to high brand recognition and drives conversion and sales.
Crafting Effective Social Media Strategies for Q5 Success
As the data reveals, Q5 presents a significant, yet often overlooked, opportunity for advertisers to extend their reach and drive conversions beyond the traditional holiday season. Now that the potential has been revealed let us translate these insights into actionable paid social media strategies.
Create Momentum With Tent Pole Holiday Campaigns
- Anticipation and Urgency: Capitalize on key dates like Cyber Five, Panic Saturday, Christmas Day, and New Year by creating campaigns that build anticipation and urgency. Consider launching special offers or exclusive content during these periods.
- Brand Awareness Campaigns: Enhance brand visibility by running impression or reach-focused campaigns. Incorporate promotional countdowns and messaging around special or exclusive discounts.
Retarget With Relevance
- Focused Retargeting: During Q5, retarget website visitors, engaged consumers, or those with abandoned carts. Utilize dynamic video ads that align with their browsing history and offer personalized deals to reignite their interest in purchasing.
Build An Always-On Conversion-Focused Campaign
- Consistent Campaign Presence: Maintain an always-on conversion-focused campaign throughout the holiday season, including Q5. This approach ensures your brand remains visible across different consumer behavior phases.
- Utilizing Diverse Ad Tools: Leverage ad tools like shoppable ads, influencer collaborations, user-generated content, or interactive elements like polls and stickers to enhance engagement and drive conversions.
Don’t Hibernate, Activate Q5 Marketing Strategies
Q5 represents more than just a marketing strategy; it’s a shift in mindset. By understanding and adapting to the unique dynamics of this period, marketers can tap into significant potential for sales growth and elevate brand presence. It’s time to move beyond the traditional December 31st marketing slowdown and capitalize on the Q5 surge.
While campaign data guides your direction, remember that creativity is the key to engaging your audience. Use these insights and strategies as a foundation to develop Q5 campaigns that truly resonate and drive sales.
If you are ready to master Q5 social media advertising, book a meeting with us to explore specific strategies tailored to your brand and audience, ensuring your success in the post-holiday market.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s 2023 insights here:
The landscape of social media marketing continues to transform the online presence of any business with dynamic and innovative trends. Nowadays, businesses are generating more leads from social media marketing than content marketing and other marketing techniques. So, it’s really important to understand the social media marketing trends.
In this blog, we will explore the top 10 social media marketing trends that will dominate over other marketing trends in 2024. These trends range from the integration of cutting-edge artificial intelligence to talking about the importance of micro-communities. These trends highlight the industry’s move towards more personalized and immersive approaches.
- Using AI for enhanced user experiences
- Video content dominance
- Social commerce expansion
- User-Generated Content (UGC)
- Augmented Reality: Creating immersive experiences
- Voice Search Optimization
- Strategic influencer partnerships
- Live streaming and interactive experiences
- Prioritizing data privacy and security
- Micro and nano influencers
- Conclusion
Top 10 Social Media Marketing Trends
Understanding and leveraging below social media marketing trends will be pivotal for marketers looking to stay ahead in the highly competitive and ever-evolving world of social media. We have also discussed how each trend can be used effectively for business growth.


Using AI for enhanced user experiences
In 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing social media marketing by offering invaluable personalization. AI algorithms analyze user data to deliver content that aligns perfectly with individual preferences and behaviors. With the rise of multimodal AI analyzing text, images, and videos together, platforms can tailor content in more dynamic ways. This level of customization not only enhances user engagement but also boosts the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
According to a 2023 survey conducted by HubSpot, the findings reveal that marketers predominantly employ AI for the following purposes:
- 33% for generating ideas and finding inspiration,
- 28% utilize AI in the writing process for creating compelling copy,
- 26% leverage AI for crafting marketing images,
- 25% rely on AI to condense texts into essential key points, and
- 23% make use of AI for translating marketing content into various languages
Brands utilizing AI can expect to see significant increase in user interaction as their content becomes more relevant and appealing to each unique audience member. Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are the best examples of using AI to personalize the user experience by showing relevant content according to the user’s past history and interests.
Video content dominance
Short-form videos stand out as the most captivating content on social media, according to 66% of consumers. Furthermore, these videos are 48% more likely to be viewed compared to content on other platforms. In addition, 62% of businesses incorporate videos as a key element of their marketing approach. These engaging videos are perfect for capturing the attention of an audience and offering more information in a short time.
Use different types of content to engage your audience in a variety of ways. With that in mind, do not only focus on captions; incorporate diverse formats such as videos using advanced video editor software, transcribe audio to text for accessibility, and AI avatar to interact dynamically. Utilize reels, audio content, polls, quizzes, and other engaging elements to create a compelling video advertisement that can surely capture audiences.
Social commerce expansion
Social commerce is transforming social media into a vibrant marketplace. Social media platforms like Facebook are upgrading to integrate shopping features seamlessly, allowing users to make purchases without leaving the app. This trend is creating a more streamlined shopping experience, where discovery and purchase are part of a single journey.
47% of social media marketers report that their brands engage in direct selling through social media apps, highlighting the growing trend of social commerce. Looking ahead to 2024, social commerce will become a marketing trend for brands to meet the evolving shopping habits of their consumers.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Brands are finding great value in content created by their own customers. This method is known as user-generated content (UGC). This approach involves encouraging customers to share their own experiences with a brand’s product or service. This kind of content is incredibly effective because it’s genuine and relatable as real people showcasing how they use and enjoy the products in their everyday lives. Interestingly, visitors engaging with UGC exhibit a conversion rate that surpasses the average by 102.4%.
When brands share their content on their social media channels, it not only adds authenticity to their marketing. When a customer shares their reviews, they feel valued and part of the brand’s story, leading to increased loyalty and trust.
Augmented Reality: Creating immersive experiences
Augmented Reality (AR) is revolutionizing social media marketing by offering engaging and interactive experiences. Brands are using this innovation for virtual try-on, interactive ads, and engaging content that captivates the imagination of the audience.
AR not only enhances user engagement, but also provides a unique way for brands to showcase their products and services. It will be a key tool for creating impactful marketing experiences that stand out in a competitive market.
Voice Search Optimization
Voice Search Optimization has become an important trend in digital marketing in 2024. It can be easily found and understood by voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. People use this feature for internet searches and optimizing content for voice searches.
This trend is about understanding how people speak when they use voice search. This is often different from typing. It uses natural language, long-tail keywords, and question-based phrases in content.
Strategic influencer partnerships
Influencer marketing continues to evolve, with a significant shift towards more strategic and meaningful collaborations. Brands are partnering with influencers whose values and audience align closely with their own products and services. This approach allows businesses to check the credibility of influencers and reach them. They also ensure that the content is authentic and attracts the target audience.
In 2024, successful influencer marketing is about finding the right fit and building relationships that add value to both the brand and the influencer’s audience.
Live streaming and interactive experiences
Live streaming is changing the way brands interact with their audience. It offers a real-time and interactive experience that traditional social media platforms are not offering.
Brands use live streams to show off new products, answer questions, or take their audience behind the scenes. This way, people feel part of a community and get to know the brand better. Live streaming is great for keeping audiences interested and building stronger connections because it’s exciting and feels more personal.
Prioritizing data privacy and security
In a world where data privacy is a major concern, it is necessary for brands to prioritize transparency and security in their social media marketing. Consumers are more concerned about their digital presence and expect brands to respect their privacy.
Brands must strike a balance between personalized marketing and data safety to gain the trust and loyalty of their users. Data security is a key factor in building and maintaining a positive brand reputation.
Micro and nano influencers
In 2024, more businesses will be partnering with micro and nano influencers on social media. These influencers are not celebrities but everyday people who have a smaller yet highly engaged group of followers. Micro-influencers usually have followers in the thousands, while nano-influencers have even fewer. According to HubSpot’s 2023 Social Media Marketing Report, 80% of marketers are collaborating with smaller creators and influencers boasting under 100k followers. In contrast, 16% are engaged in partnerships with celebrities who have follower counts exceeding 1 million.
What makes them special is that their followers really trust their opinions and recommendations, almost like advice from a friend. Businesses collaborate with these influencers because they can reach specific groups of people in a more personal and authentic way. This approach often leads to better results for brands, as these smaller influencers have a strong connection with their audience, making their endorsements more genuine and effective.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have discussed the top 10 social media marketing trends to follow in 2024. These trends are the key to growing your business faster. Generally, the use of AI is increasing with social media for the best user experience. Also, strategic partnerships with influencers are becoming important to promote products on social media.
Video content, live streaming, and augmented reality provide interactive and engaging experiences, while user-generated content and authentic influencer partnerships build trust and community. Furthermore, with the growing importance of voice search optimization, data privacy, and sustainability, businesses must adapt to stay relevant.
This article is written by Jigar Agrawal, Digital Marketing Manager at eSparkBiz. He is passionate about anything related to Digital Marketing. He wants to unlock the world of technology and Social Media where every day there is a chance of new possibility as well as innovation.
Have some great content up your sleeve? We invite you to reach out to us. We are excited to collaborate with talented writers and feature high-quality content on our blogs.
Are you curious about how media planning using AI can revolutionize your advertising strategies, or do you find it adding complexity to your tasks? The idea of relying on generative AI for crafting your marketing ideas may seem ambitious. However, it promises to transform what once took a day into a mere hour of work. Is it too good to be true? Let’s find out.
Discover the Possibilities: Streamline Media Planning With AI
Forrester’s Q1 2023 survey reveals that 41% of US B2C marketing leaders have already explored AI for media plan optimization. Furthermore, an impressive 19% confirmed they already integrated ChatGPT into their marketing strategies. However, it’s essential to acknowledge that AI, even in its most advanced forms, is not perfect. It thrives when coupled with human input. Your expertise bridges the gap between AI’s potential and its impact.
Indeed, artificial intelligence thrives under your guidance. The pivotal element lies in crafting thoroughly designed ChatGPT media plan prompts. To truly maximize AI in media planning, you must assume the driver’s seat, rather than merely being a passenger.
- How Can ChatGPT Prompts be Customized for Specific Media Planning Needs
- ChatGPT for Different Media Planning Scenarios
- Achieve Precision in Media Planning with ChatGPT
How Can ChatGPT Prompts be Customized for Specific Media Planning Needs?
Your media plan serves as the blueprint for your advertising endeavors, making sure your message reaches the right audience at the right time. Now, imagine having a powerful ally to assist you – that’s where ChatGPT steps in.
Unlike other AI-driven tech integrated into advertising platforms, ChatGPT isn’t just a passive addition. It’s a dynamic solution that adapts to your specific needs, streamlining the preparation of your ad campaigns. With ChatGPT, your campaigns can be effortlessly drafted and uploaded when the timing is right.
To truly understand how ChatGPT media plan prompts can help, let’s dissect the core components of a top-notch media plan:
Audience Analysis
Understanding your target audience is imperative. Who are they? What are their preferences? How do they behave online? These are the media research questions to which ChatGPT can provide assistance.
How AI can improve media research for audience insights:
Example of ChatGPT media plan prompts for audience analysis:
Before you get started, provide ChatGPT with context and insider information about your business, your unique selling proposition (USP), and your niche. This ensures that this media planning tool can effectively step into your shoes. In this manner, ChatGPT can act not just as your assistant, but as an extension of your expertise.
Specific prompt:
I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody].
Your task is to craft a customer persona to promote [product or service]. [Add relevant information about your product or service.]
Your target audience comprises [include the details of your demographic: age, location, interests, etc.].
Social Media Channels
As a media buyer, you must also select the right paid advertising channels. Which platforms will be most effective? Will it be YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Reels, or a combination of these?
How can generative AI help with media planning:
Example of ChatGPT media plan prompts for determining social media channels:
Specific prompt: Based on the customer persona [choose the persona that ChatGPT previously provided] that you have developed, please craft a [duration] social media advertising plan for the [scenario] of [product or service]. Be sure to outline the specific media channels we should focus on to effectively reach and engage with this customer persona.
Budget Allocation
Now that you’ve identified where to advertise, the next piece for media planning with AI is budget allocation. How will you distribute your budget across various media channels to maximize reach and ROI?
How AI in media planning can help:
Example prompts in ChatGPT for media plan optimization:
Specific prompt: Considering the media channels you’ve identified, please proceed to allocate the budget for the upcoming [campaign duration, type of campaign]. The total budget available for this campaign is [your desired budget].
Content Strategy
Explore a range of content formats, including articles, infographics, and podcasts, and define your content strategy. Once you’ve mastered AI in media planning, you can set a consistent posting schedule that aligns with your target audience’s preferences and expectations.
How AI media planning tools can help:
Example of ChatGPT content prompts for media strategy:
Specific prompt: Based on the social media advertising channels you have identified, please create a comprehensive content strategy for [media channel/s] for the [campaign duration, type of campaign].
Campaign Timing
Timing is the unsung hero of marketing. These are the critical questions you need to ask: When will you launch your campaigns? How long should they run?
How can ChatGPT help with your media planning calendar:
Example of ChatGPT media plan prompts to determine campaign timing:
Specific prompt:
I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody].
Your task is to analyze the campaign data from [social media advertising channels] to pinpoint the optimal timing for these campaigns.
[Paste your campaign data here.]
ChatGPT for Different Media Planning Scenarios
The effectiveness of your media planning strategies isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor, and ChatGPT recognizes that. Let’s further explore media planning with AI and how it can accompany you through the entire media buying journey.
Market Research
When you’re introducing a new product to a market that lacks historical data, making informed decisions can be quite challenging. Utilize AI with media planning to build a comprehensive buyer persona based on available market feedback. Tailor it for your upcoming product launch by asking ChatGPT to provide insights into your potential customer’s demographics, preferences, and pain points.
See our sample prompt here for a pre-launch campaign.
SEO Optimization
You can employ ChatGPT’s content generation abilities to refine your meta descriptions and title tags. While ChatGPT isn’t a replacement for dedicated media planning tools for keyword research, it can offer suggestions to kickstart the process.
Specific prompt:
I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody].
Your task is to compile a list of the top [number of keyword options preferred] keywords to use in the ad campaign. These keywords should ensure that the ad for [product or service to be advertised] appears prominently in search results on [preferred social media channels].
Pro Tip: Don’t underestimate the significance of meta descriptions. They may be overlooked but still play a crucial role. ChatGPT can guide you on integrating meta descriptions effectively into your SEO strategy even before you begin crafting your content.
Specific prompt:
I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody].
Your task is to utilize the keywords you have identified and come up with [number of options preferred] options for a blog meta description.
Co-Branded and Influencer Campaigns
With the influencer marketing industry expected to reach $21.1 billion in 2023, it’s a space worth exploring. Generative AI can become your virtual marketing associate for co-branded and influencer partnerships. Here’s an excellent starting point:
Specific prompt:
I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody].
You are collaborating with [name of influencer], [provide a brief background of the infuencer you will be partnering with].
Your task is to develop an influencer campaign strategy to achieve maximum reach, engagement, and sales. Anticipate potential challenges that may arise and outline strategies to address them. Provide key metrics to measure the campaign’s success.
Achieve Precision and Revolutionize Media Planning with AI
We started by questioning whether these ChatGPT media plan prompts can truly enhance ad strategies. The answer, as we’ve uncovered, lies in the synergy between AI and human expertise. The promise of utilizing AI in media planning lies in its ability to streamline your tasks as you complement it with your advertising knowledge.
As you continue to utilize generative AI on your daily undertakings, remember that ChatGPT is your trusted ally. ChatGPT is here to support and amplify your efforts, but it’s your insights and direction that drive the ship forward.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:
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How frustrating can it be when you want better ChatGPT responses, but it’s not quite hitting the mark? Despite repeated requests, it still falls short of delivering the response you’re looking for. It’s a familiar scenario: the gap between what we ask and what we receive from AI-driven conversations.
How do you get each prompt you type in to hit the mark almost most of the time? Well, it’s all about crafting effective ChatGPT prompts that can shape the course of conversations, trigger insightful responses, and foster interactions that genuinely resonate.
Mastering Your Prompts and Getting Better ChatGPT Responses
In just five days following its November 2022 launch, ChatGPT already had a million users. This remarkable feat marked the onset of a generative AI revolution, with tools like Google Bard, Jasper, Perplexity, and more swiftly joining the fray. Such lightning-paced adoption speaks volumes about the potential of this innovative AI tool. As you stand ready to explore ChatGPT, where exactly should you begin?
AI followers and enthusiasts emerge one year after its introduction as they scale the learning curve and easily wield the platform. With ChatGPT’s user base surpassing 100 million, the prospect of becoming a ChatGPT prompting expert is well within reach. This article will help you discover techniques to improve the prompt quality and get better ChatGPT responses that are consistently on point.
- What Are the Common Issues with ChatGPT Prompts
- How To Write Better ChatGPT Prompts
- Improving Prompts and Enhancing Responses: The Road to ChatGPT Expertise
What Are the Common Issues with ChatGPT Prompts
Many AI users face common challenges that sometimes call for a bit of ChatGPT prompt troubleshooting to snag those better responses. Tackling these issues head-on is your golden ticket to unlocking richer interactions with this AI platform.
It’s a common misconception that readily available ChatGPT prompts found online are an easy ticket to flawless content.
While pre-made prompts can be a helpful starting point, they also yield vague responses. The quality and precision of your inputs are the driving factors to receive better ChatGPT responses. For instance, consider the prompt: “Create a social media content plan for December for our [company or product] on [topic of choice].”


While this prompt has generated a reasonably good response, we can’t directly utilize the provided copy and ideas. We still need to align them with the existing content we have on hand.
Moreover, the mentioned captions are too short, making it challenging to convey comprehensive data-driven insights and strategies on social platforms as intended.
ChatGPT answers can occasionally veer toward the overly generic.
This means that if multiple accounts within your niche use similar ChatGPT prompts, they might share nearly identical content on the same day, all centered around the same topic.
For better ChatGPT responses, you must craft highly specific prompts tailored precisely to your industry, niche, and the unique content you plan to publish.
Even with meticulously crafted ChatGPT prompts, it’s essential to acknowledge the tool’s inherent limitations.
Keep in mind that ChatGPT’s training data is only up to 2021. The AI tool cannot access real-time information or stay updated with developments beyond this cut-off date.
ChatGPT includes a prominent disclaimer in some of its responses: “Please note that the results are hypothetical and for illustrative purposes.” A reminder for those seeking factual and up-to-date information: getting desired answers may remain elusive when relying solely on ChatGPT.
How To Write Better ChatGPT Prompts
To make the most of ChatGPT, mastering the skill of crafting effective prompts is essential. By enhancing ChatGPT accuracy, each interaction yields more precise and relevant responses and adds significant value to your conversation.
Let’s look into the art of prompt optimization.
1. Talk to ChatGPT as if in conversation.
Think of ChatGPT as more than just a machine; engage in conversation as if talking to another person. It encourages ChatGPT to provide contextually relevant and coherent answers.
Generic prompt: Write a Facebook ad copy on [topic].
Specific prompt: Can you write a Facebook ad copy for [company] to promote [product]? Make sure to include this information in the ad copy: [pertinent information you would like to add such as current offers, product or service features].

2. Provide context within your ChatGPT prompts.
Explaining the background or situation helps ChatGPT understand the specific context of your query. To enhance ChatGPT results, you must go beyond merely posing a question.
Generic prompt: Write 5 LinkedIn ad headlines for [website or company].
Specific prompt: Can you write 5 LinkedIn ad headlines for [website or company] promoting [product or service] to [target demographic]?

3. Assign roles and identities to ChatGPT.
One way to improve ChatGPT interaction is to incorporate a persona into the conversation. This involves instructing ChatGPT to assume a particular profession or entity, aligning its responses with the chosen role.
Generic prompt: Write 5 Facebook ad copies to advertise [product or service].
Specific prompt: I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody]. Your task is to write 5 Facebook ad copies to advertise [product or service, including features and specific ad details you want to include].

Like assigning roles, you can prompt ChatGPT to take on your target audience’s persona. This means that ChatGPT can craft responses tailored to the identity and preferences of the specific audience you aim to engage.
Improved prompt: I want you to act as [company or entity]. You are [provide a brief background of the company or entity you want ChatGPT to embody]. Your task is to write 5 Facebook ad copies to advertise [product or service, including features and specific ad details you want to include]. This ad is targeted at [audience demographic].

4. Specify the response length you require.
Lengthy responses, often exceeding 500 words, can occasionally decrease quality and relevance. You’ll keep those answers sharp and on point by dropping in your preferred response length when crafting those ChatGPT prompts.
ChatGPT’s answers can occasionally be too brief or excessively long, potentially getting cut off. Therefore, guiding the response length is key to effectively receiving better ChatGPT responses.
Generic prompt: Write a Facebook ad copy on [topic].
Improved prompt: Can you write a Facebook ad copy for [company] to promote [product]. Make sure to include this information in the ad copy: [pertinent information you would like to add such as current offers, product or service features]. Keep the ad copy within [number of words].

5. Refine your ChatGPT prompts. And do it again.
If the responses you receive don’t precisely align with your intent, don’t hesitate to refine your prompts. Small prompt adjustments, like rephrasing questions or changing your approach, can guide you to getting the desired answers from ChatGPT.
For example, if you are not satisfied with the response from the prompt above:


Specify the modifications you need and let ChatGPT give you an answer closer to your desired response.
Improving Prompts and Enhancing Responses: The Road to ChatGPT Expertise
Effective ChatGPT prompts and precise responses are the foundation of a seamless and productive human-AI partnership. Remember that ChatGPT is not here to add complexity to your tasks but to streamline and enhance them.
We encourage you to experiment with different prompts and strategies to unveil ChatGPT’s capabilities. So, journey on and discover what more ChatGPT can do. As a nurturing expert in AI-driven communication, you hold the keys to shaping its future. Your creativity and innovation are the driving forces that will continue to launch this technology forward.
Expand your expertise. Browse Strike Social’s latest blogs here:
- Father’s Day Advertising with Meta Advantage+: Tips for Smart Audience Targeting
- Smarter Paid Search with Google’s AI Max for Search Campaigns
- Google Marketing Live 2025 Recap: Key YouTube and Google Ads Updates for Advertisers
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