Facebook Carousel Ads: A Super Guide to Boosting Conversions

Facebook Carousel Ads Explained

Learn how to use Facebook Carousel Ads to get leads and improve conversion rates.

Looking to really up your advertising game on Facebook?

Then learning how to create, manage, and optimize Facebook carousel ads can help you get there. 

Since its introduction in 2015, the carousel ad format has remained a staple for Facebook advertisers. Their ability to showcase multiple products, tell a story, or target customers with tailored messaging has made a highly versatile tool, ideal for business owners and digital marketers.

If you’re looking to run Facebook Carousel ads, we’re here to help. We’ll explain the basics of Carousel Ads, along with advanced strategies.

What are Facebook Carousel Ads?

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Facebook carousel ads are a type of advertising format that lets you display 2-10 images or videos on Carousel cards. Each possesses its own headline, image, description, and call-to-action that links users to its own landing page. Facebook users can either swipe left or right to explore your Carousel ad’s products or services.

When compared to single-image or video ads, carousel ads let you include more assets and information within a single ad unit. This helps your target audience absorb your message quicker, engage on your ad longer, and explore deeper into what you’re offering.

Why Facebook Carousel Ads can Enhance Your Ad Strategy

When the Carousel link ads first came on the scene, it outperformed single-image link ads by having a 30-50% lower cost per conversion and a 20-30% lower cost per click rate. Fast forward to the present, and the data behind the Carousel format continues to show compelling results.

According to data compiled by Social Marketing tech company, Kinetic Social, carousel link ads drove up to 10 times more traffic to advertisers in just three months compared to static sponsored posts. For you, this means more eyeballs on your ads and clicks, leading to more conversions and a higher ROI.  

But beyond the data, the benefits of Carousel ads are numerous, giving brands the ability to:

• Showcase various products or services, demonstrating each one's unique features.
• Narrate a brand's journey or story that caters to your target audience’s pain points.
• Highlight customer testimonials or user-generated content to build trust and credibility.
• Engage users with a mix of rich media such as images and videos to create a multi-dimensional viewing experience.
• Target users at different stages of the buyer's journey, i.e awareness, or consideration.
• Link each card to a post-click landing page to ensure users transition smoothly from your ad to a relevant and compelling page. 
• Promote blog posts, downloadable guides, and other content to engage and educate potential customers at every stage of the sales funnel.

Carousel ads are highly interactive and turn users into active participants. The longer they engage your ad, the more likely they are to remember your brand and take action. 

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When to Integrate Carousel Ads into Your Social Media Strategy

The great thing about Carousel ads is their flexibility and ability to be used in different scenarios. Whether you're a small to mid-sized business just getting started with social media marketing or an established enterprise, this ad format has its uses. 

If you want to take the following actions below, chances are Carousel ads are for you:

You Want to Tell a Story

Carousel ads are your storyboard. From introduction to climax, each card guides your audience through your brand's narrative in a snappy, engaging manner. Its storytelling made simple.

For example, your sequence could take unaware viewers through your product’s customer life cycle. First, you'd explain what the product is and how it works, followed by a demonstration, and ending with testimonials and a persuasive CTA.

You Have a Diverse Range of Products

Got too many standout products that deserve the limelight?

With Carousel ads, you'll get to display up to 10 of them. And that isn't enough, you can always create a video that showcases multiple products. Just ensure your brand's theme i.e logo and color scheme is consistent across each card.

Each slide can focus on a single product, highlighting any pain points they effectively address. In just a few minutes, you can convince viewers why you're the solution to their problems.

You Want to Increase Engagement

If a viewer has stumbled onto your Carousel ad, chances are they'll continue scrolling through it. These longer interactions help build deeper connections with the audience. Instead of a fleeting glance, viewers will spend more time absorbing the information, visuals, or story you've laid out across the carousel's slides.

Longer engagement times are generally indicative of higher recall for your brand, boosting brand awareness.

You Want A Cost-effective Way to Advertise

Facebook carousel ads offer great value, plain and simple.

With a staggering user base of 1.49 billion – more than the combined populations of North and South America – Facebook allows you to reach a broad audience at a fraction of the cost. Simply put, the vast audience ensures that your brand gets the attention it deserves. It's a smart investment.

Carousel Ad Image and Video Sizes

Like any ad format, there are optimal image and video sizes for carousel ads. Using the right sizes ensure your ads are approved during Facebook’s ad reviewal process and displayed properly. 

Here are the recommended specs for creating carousel ads:

Facebook Carousel Ad Image Specifications

• Thumbnail dimensions: 1080 x 1080 pixels with a 1:1 aspect ratio
• Image size limit: 30 MB
• Body text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters
• Link description: 20 characters
• Number of cards: 2-10

Facebook Carousel Ad Video Guidelines

• Video file size limit: 4 GB
• Maximum video duration: 240 minutes
• Suggested video formats: .mp4 and .mov
• Video length: Up to 240 minutes

To avoid pixelated ads that look unappealing, use the recommendations above to make sure your carousel ads display properly.

To learn more about ad formats, read our Facebook ad sizes and specifications 2023 guide. We look closer into the nuances of each format, ensuring your ads shine on any platform or device.

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Preparing for Your Facebook Carousel Ad Creation

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Before we explain how to create a Facebook Carousel ad, ensure the following prerequisites are met. Afterward, you can expect your ad creation process to be smooth and hassle-free.

1. You must have a Business Facebook page or authorization to advertise on another's page.
2. You need an advertising account or permission to access one.

Lastly, you should have all Carousel images, videos and any other ad creative for your carousel ads ready on your device. This can include your brand logo image, product images, video demonstrations, user testimonials, or any graphics that depict promotions and offers.

Ensure all visual elements follow Facebook's image and video size guidelines and all copy to the platform's advertising guidelines. If you have multiple call-to-action buttons, and links, ensure each is relevant to its corresponding image or video and directs users to the correct landing page.

Lastly, if you're integrating any tracking URLs or UTM parameters for analytics, have those links prepared and tested ahead of time. The more organized you are, the more streamlined the ad creation process will be.

How to Create a Carousel Post for Facebook

Ok, now let's get to the nitty gritty of our article - creating a Facebook Carousel ad. Follow these simple steps below and your ads will be golden:

1. Go to your Meta Business Manager account. 
2. Select 'All Tools' on your left sidebar, then 'Ads Manager'.

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3. On your Campaigns page, click on the green 'Create' button.

4. Choose your marketing objective, and click continue. Only the following objectives are compatible with carousel ads:

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• Reach
• Brand awareness
• App installs
• Traffic
• Conversions
• Lead generations
• Catalog sales

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5. Give your Advertising campaign a name, and fill in all the necessary details. We recommend enabling 'Advantage campaign budget' to ensure you're maximizing your ad spend.

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6. On the next page, set your audience and budget. Target a demographic that's most likely to engage and click on your ads. To do this, input details such as age, gender, location. You can also include unique interests, behaviors, and more.

7. Next, select 'Carousel' from the 'Ad setup' section.

8. Scroll down and include all images and videos for your ad.

9. Uploaded images with a yellow icon indicates that the image may need adjustments or isn't optimized for carousel ads.

10. Include your headline, description and website URL for all slide cards.

11. Add your CTA from the 'Call to action’ dropdown menu. This is optional, but we recommend adding one to make your ad even more impactful.
12. Review your Carousel Ad in the 'Ad Preview' section.
13. Before publishing, consider setting up event tracking to monitor conversions your ad might influence. 

This includes: 

• Website Events 
• App Events 
• Offline Events 

For web events, you won’t need to select a domain. Also, if using UTM codes or specific URL parameters for analytics, ensure they're set correctly.

14. Click 'Publish' when you're happy with everything!

Your carousel ads will now appear across various ad placements, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network.

Facebook Carousel Ads Best Practices

Anyone can create Facebook Carousel ads. However, the advertisers who really lead the pack typically use a strategic approach, incorporating proven best practices to maximize engagement rates and conversions.

.When creating your next Facebook Carousel Ad, use the following tips:

1. Make Your First Image the Hook

Why do viewers stop scrolling through their news feed to look at an image or video?

It’s because whatever stopped them caught their attention. This could have been a statement that piqued their curiosity, an eye-catching graphic, or a compelling question.

With Carousel Ads, ensure to showcase your best-performing card first. Ensure it's compelling enough to entice viewers to take a proper look into your ad. After all, in the rapid-scroll world of social media, first impressions are everything.

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2. Use High-resolution Images

High-quality images are eye-catching, better understood, and are more likely to be shared. So when your products aren't displayed optimally, it hurts your brand and how people perceive your business. Therefore, you need to invest in well-lit and properly composed visuals that force people to stop and look.

Instead of relying on stock photos, ditch them and use your own high-quality images. Start building your brand’s visual identity by consistently showcasing authentic, unique, and high-quality visuals that resonate with your brand's ethos and values.

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2. Use Clear, Informative Headlines

The headline of your Carousel ad is important for a couple of reasons:

• Your headlines are indexed by search engines
• The headline will appear alongside your ad images in the news feed

While images and videos can narrate your brand's story, the headline clues viewers in before they click. It gives context and information to what the ad contains, and what you're ultimately offering. Without a good headline, they’ll be less compelled to navigate through your slides. 

Don't don't use clickbait to trick your audience. Instead, remain truthful and intriguing to maintain your brand’s credibility. Remember, you're not going to turn leads into precious conversions if they feel misled.

3. Combine Static Images with Videos for a Dynamic Experience

Integrating both static images and videos in your Carousel Ads offers an enriching and dynamic viewer experience. While images can effectively convey information quickly, videos can dive deeper, showcasing your product’s nuances or telling a more detailed brand story.

By alternating between images and videos, you can grab attention, better narrate your story, enhance engagement and much more. It also separates you from the crowd, which is necessary in the cluttered space of social media marketing.

4. Consider Mobile Experience

With most Facebook users accessing the platform via mobile devices, your ads should be optimized mobile viewing. Ensure your text is legible, images are clear when viewed on smaller screens, and the overall ad is easy to navigate on a mobile interface.

For a glimpse of top-performing carousel ads in action, explore our collection of Facebook Carousel Ad Examples.

5. Study Competitor Ads to See What Works

Ad creative can make or break your ad's performance. So when designing your next Carousel Ad, check out what your competitors are doing. Look at their ad creative, take note of what works and why they've implemented certain features. For example, if your competitors are featuring 3-5 images on average, you can do the same for your ads.

Besides studying competitor's ad creative, you can also evaluate their ad’s messaging, target audience, storyline and even their posted times. After doing this for a while, you'll understand what works in your industry and what doesn't.

MagicBrief is one great tool for analyzing competitor’s ads. It helps you save and analyze hundreds of ads in their comprehensive, all-in-one ad library. From there, you can identify the components of successful campaigns and replicate them for your own.

6. Begin A/B Testing Your Ad Variations

If you’re aware of your competitor's ads, you'll probably have a few ideas to try out on your own. But, instead of implementing all these ideas over several campaigns, begin A/B testing. This simply means creating and testing two or more ad variations to see which components perform best.

Use Facebook's A/B testing feature during your Carousel ad campaign setup to evaluate the effectiveness of your ads, ad sets, and overall campaigns. By pinpointing the right audience, optimizing your budget, and identifying the most impactful creative elements, you can streamline and enhance your advertising approach.

7. Use Text Overlay to Better Get Your Message Across

Many of your viewers won't expand your ad’s description to read its entire copy, especially when viewing it on mobile. Instead, their eyes will be initially focused on your image, or video.

If you're using text to communicate your message, you’ll want people to read it. A short and simple text overlay on the image, or video, will help your audience understand your message. Ofcourse, you don't want your text overlay to be overpowering and distracting, so only include the essential information in it.

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How MagicBrief Can Help You Create Stellar Carousel Ads

Looking for an easier way to create compelling Carousel Ads?

MagicBrief’s ad library can get you there by giving the inspiration necessary to develop fantastic, award-winning ads. 

After downloading our handy Chrome extension, you’ll be able to seamlessly save ads from Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram right into our centralized library. From there, you can build collections by industry or brand and analyze the patterns, strategies, and design elements that make these ads stand out.

Deep Dive Analysis: With MagicBrief, you can dissect each ad, understanding the nuances of their messaging, visuals, and call-to-actions. This insight can be invaluable when crafting your own Carousel Ads.

Stay Updated: The digital advertising landscape is ever-evolving. With MagicBrief, you're always in the loop, ensuring you're aware of the latest trends and best practices.

Competitor Watch: Keep a close eye on what your competitors are doing. Understand their strategies, identify their strengths, and spot potential gaps that your brand can capitalize on.

Zero Cost, Maximum Value: The best part? All of our features are free! Dive into the world of Carousel Ads with MagicBrief without any financial commitments.

Ready to elevate your advertising strategy? Register with MagicBrief and stay ahead of the curve, always.

Why Facebook Carousel Ads are Here to Stay

Ads in Carousel form were designed for versatility, effectively giving advertisers a blank canvas to tell their brand's story. They provided a unique opportunity to showcase multiple images or videos within a single ad, creating a rich, engaging user experience.

In today's fast-paced digital world, having the ability to capture attention with varied content in one ad space is a game-changer. So, it's no wonder they've become a favorite among advertisers and are here for the long haul. Dive in, get creative, and let Carousel Ads elevate your brand's storytelling game!

To learn more about great ads, read our comprehensive guide on Mastering the Facebook Ad Library. You’ll learn how to dissect successful campaigns and stay ahead of the competition.

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