Strike Overview
- Did you know that 63% of users believe most social ads lack a polished, professional appearance, often arising when the messaging doesn’t align with the chosen social media advertising format?
- Competition in the paid social media advertising market is intensifying, with mobile ad spend expected to reach $88.1 billion by 2028. As ad formats remain limited, users are becoming increasingly desensitized to repetitive ads, making them more likely to scroll past your content.
- Selecting the right ad type can transform your campaign from one that blends in with the crowd to one that captures attention and drives results.
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This post was updated in August 2024 to provide you with the latest information.
The key isn’t merely to use a variety of ad formats but to ensure that each ad type you pick is fresh and engaging. The goal is to make your ads stand out and resonate with your audience, no matter where they encounter them.
What Are the Different Ad Formats per Social Media Platform
To select the optimal ad format for your campaign goals, it’s essential to understand the variety of ad formats available across different social media platforms. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the types of paid social ads you can leverage on each major site:
YouTube
- In-stream ads
- Skippable in-stream ads
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
- Bumper ads
- In-feed ads
- Masthead ads
- Home feed ads
- Search results ads
- Watch next ads
- Shorts ads
- Outstream ads
Further Reading
Explore the Different YouTube Advertising Formats
Crafting a successful video ad campaign depends on choosing the best YouTube ad format to engage your audience effectively. With a variety of ad formats available to advertisers, you can broaden your reach and access YouTube’s vast audience base.
TikTok
- In-feed ads
- TopView ads
- Spark ads
- Brand Takeover ads
- Branded Mission
- Branded Hashtag Challenge
- Branded Effects
- Shop ads
- Feed ads
- In-stream video ads
- Video feed ads
- Marketplace ads
- Stories ads
- Messenger Stories ads
- Search Results ads
- Reels ads
- Reels overlay ads
- Business Explore ads
- Right Column ads (desktop only)
- Groups Feed ads
Further Reading
Which Facebook Advertising Formats Suit Your Campaign Best
With so many different Facebook ad formats available, determining which one is right for your brand can be challenging. While you may be tempted to try them all, each Facebook ad campaign objective has specific formats that are best suited for it.
- Feed ads
- Profile feed ads
- Explore ads
- Reels ads
- Shopping ads
- Stories ads
X (Twitter)
- Promoted ads
- Vertical video ads
- Amplify ads
- Takeover ads
- Dynamic Product ads
- Collection ads
- Single Image ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Event ads
- Document ads
- Thought leader ads
- Click-to-message ads
- Connected TV ads
- Sponsored Messaging
- Conversation ads
- Message ads
- Lead Gen Forms
- Text ads
- Spotlight ads
- Follower ads
Snapchat
- Single image ads
- Single video ads
- Story ads
- Collection ads
- Commercial ads
- AR Lenses
- AR Filters
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Standard width video ads
- Max. Width video ads
- Carousel ads
- Shopping ads
- Collection ads
- Idea ads
- Premiere Spotlight
- Showcase ads
- Quiz ads
- Lead ads
Which Social Media Advertising Formats Are Ideal for Specific Campaign Objectives?
It can be overwhelming, can’t it? With so many types of paid social ads available across various platforms, how do you choose the formats that align best with your campaign objectives?
To assist you, we’ve created a set of recommended social media advertising formats tailored to specific objectives, explaining why each format is a good fit.
Campaign Objective: Brand awareness
When using the brand awareness objective, your goal is to get audiences to know you. Whether they have heard about you or not, the aim is to introduce them to your services or products.
This is the first step in making an impression, ensuring your brand is seamlessly integrated into their viewing experience.
| Platform | Recommended advertising format | Advantages |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Bumper ads Skippable in-stream ads | Bumper ads are short and non-intrusive, ideal for quick brand messages. Skippable in-stream ads allow higher viewer engagement, making sure they see your brand and get an idea of who you are. |
| TikTok | In-feed ads | In-feed ads blend with user content, offering a natural integrated experience. Audiences might not even notice they are watching an ad, but it can effectively incite brand recall. |
| Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | Feed ads Reels ads | Feed ads reach a broad audience and are effective for widespread brand visibility, appearing directly in users’ scrolling views. Reels ads cater to short-form content trends and are easily seen when users are on the Reels screen in their app. |
| Single Image ads Carousel ads | Single Image ads deliver a clear and direct message to professionals. Carousel ads, suitable for LinkedIn’s informational nature, can quickly inform users about what you offer. | |
| X (Twitter) | Promoted ads | Promoted ads offer various formats, such as text, image, video, and carousel, ensuring broad visibility and flexibility in how you present your brand. |
| Snapchat | Single video ads | Single video ads are engaging and ideal for quick, compelling storytelling within the platform. |
| Image ads | In a visually-centric platform like Pinterest, image ads should be visually appealing to capture attention quickly. |
Download our Health and Fitness Campaign Case Study
Beyond the timely execution of strategies like creative swaps and campaign optimization, Strike Social utilized a dedicated, hands-on approach, leading to over 700 million impressions for the awareness campaign.
Campaign Objective: Consideration and engagement
The consideration objective aims to encourage audiences to engage with your brand by learning more about your products or services.
At this stage, the focus is on sparking interest and providing valuable information that motivates users to interact, explore, and consider your offerings as a potential solution to their needs. It’s about moving from awareness to active interest and engagement.
| Platform | Recommended advertising format | Advantages |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | In-stream ads (skippable & non-skippable) | Skippable in-stream ads ensure that viewers who choose to watch are genuinely interested, encouraging engagement even if they skip. Non-skippable ads allow you to convey a quick story, capturing viewers’ attention fully. |
| TikTok | In-feed ads Spark ads | In-feed ads keep your brand top of mind for users who have interacted previously but are not yet leads or sales. Spark ads help you utilize existing content from brand ambassadors or your own team to drive engagement and authenticity. |
| Video feed ads In-stream video ads | Video feed ads benefit from a dedicated video section in the app, placing your brand in front of users actively seeking video content. An in-stream video ad appears before or after an organic video, allowing viewers to experience your brand without interrupting their viewing experience for long. | |
| Stories ads | Stories ads offer a scrollable experience, driving interaction without leaving the app. | |
| Sponsored Messaging Thought Leader ads | Sponsored Messaging directly initiates contact with potential leads, increasing the likelihood of user engagement. Thought Leader ads position your brand as an authority, encouraging users to follow or reach out for further engagement. | |
| X (Twitter) | Vertical Video ads Click-to-message ads | X has expanded to short-form content, so if you excel at vertical video ads on other platforms, you should also leverage this format on X. Click-to-message ads facilitate direct interaction, driving engagements through conversations. |
| Snapchat | Story ads | Story ads deliver rapid storytelling as users swipe through the Story feed. |
| Showcase ads | Showcase ads allow you to present multiple products or services through images or videos, giving users a comprehensive view of your offerings. |
Campaign Objective: Conversions and sales
The conversion objective focuses on driving specific actions that result in measurable outcomes, such as purchases, sign-ups, or inquiries.
This stage is all about turning interested prospects into customers by providing compelling CTAs and facilitating an easy path to conversion. The goal is to achieve tangible business results through effective and persuasive advertising.
| Platform | Recommended advertising format | Advantages |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Shorts ads | Shorts ads target users who are already engaged with the platform, presenting your ad at the right moment during their conversion journey. |
| TikTok | Shop ads | Shop ads provide a direct path to purchase within the app, allowing users to complete their purchase without leaving the platform, and streamlining the conversion process. |
| Search Results ads Collection ads | Search Results ads reach users actively searching for specific products or services, indicating high intent. Use Instant Experience with Collection ads to showcase your product within the app, for users to complete purchases without leaving the platform. | |
| Explore ads Reels ads | Explore ads reach users searching for new content, increasing the chances of engagement if your brand aligns with their interests. Reels ads engage users with trendy and interactive content, ideal for capturing attention at the conversion stage. When your audience is highly targeted, Reels ads drive significant action. | |
| Lead Gen Forms Event ads | Lead Gen Forms capture leads directly on LinkedIn, providing you with instant access to lead information. Event ads effectively promote webinars, workshops, and professional events, allowing users to express interest or register immediately. | |
| X (Twitter) | Dynamic Product ads | A Dynamic Product ad offers personalized recommendations based on user behavior, such as products they have viewed or added to their cart, encouraging them to complete their purchase. |
| Snapchat | Commercial ads | Commercial ads offer high visibility with impactful messages through non-skippable ads, driving users toward immediate action and conversions. |
| Shopping ads | Shopping ads feature product images that enable users to make purchases directly. |
These aren’t fixed, as not every brand has the same playbook and approach when launching social media marketing campaigns online. Therefore, it’s not a one-and-done approach when looking at this chart. We recommend taking time to analyze your campaign’s goals, the creatives you have prepared, and other criteria to determine the most effective social media advertising format for success.
Questions to Consider When Choosing the Types of Paid Social Ads for Your Campaigns
Selecting the most effective social media advertising format for your campaigns—whether top-funnel or bottom-funnel—requires careful consideration of several key factors. To guide you in this decision-making process, we’ve compiled a list of crucial questions to address:
- What are the campaign objectives?
- Who is the target audience?
- What is the budget?
- What is the nature of the product or service?
- What type of content do you have?
- How does the format align with the platform’s strengths?
- What are the expected results?
- What are the creative constraints? (i.e. safe zones)
- What tools and metrics will be used to track the success of the ad format?
- Is the format scalable and adaptable?
Here’s an example to illustrate how this works:
Brand: Furniture retailer
Goal: Promote discounted rates for office furniture as part of a back-to-school campaign
- What are the campaign objectives? Consideration and engagement
- Who is the target audience? Parents of back-to-school children, back-to-college students seeking dormitory furniture
- What is the budget? $10,000
- What is the nature of the product or service? Furniture & fixtures
- What type of content do you have? Video ads in both vertical and horizontal formats
- How does the format align with the platform’s strengths? YouTube is the selected advertising platform due to its video-centric nature and broad audience reach. Utilizing video ads on this platform leverages its strengths in visual storytelling and audience engagement.
- What are the expected results? Increase views and clicks to the website, highlight discounted rates, and showcase various furniture pieces.
- What are the creative constraints? (i.e. safe zones) Vertical video ads are optimized for YouTube Shorts. Ensure text within the creative is visible and not obstructed. Horizontal video formats will be used in a separate campaign to assess their effectiveness independently.
- Which metrics will be used to track the success of the ad format? Google Ad Manager for YouTube ads, with key metrics including views, CPV, clicks, CTR, and view-through rates.
- Is the format scalable and adaptable? Yes, the format can be scaled and adjusted based on performance data and campaign needs.
This approach ensures that your chosen social media advertising format is thoroughly researched and strategically planned before launching the campaign and testing the ad creatives. By methodically addressing these questions, you can confidently choose the types of social media ads that align best with your campaign objectives.
Selecting the Right Social Media Ad Format Requires More Than One Formula
Keep in mind that social media advertising is never static. Trends and audience preferences evolve, as do the social media advertising formats that work for your brand. Your digital marketing team should always be open to quickly scaling and adapting. This can be challenging, especially if you have limited resources or tight deadlines for launching your ads.
Strike Social can assist you in optimizing your social media advertising needs, delivering exceptional results while being cost-efficient. Reach out to our team, and one of our sales representatives will contact you within 24-48 hours to discuss how we can support your needs.
