The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Collection Ads (2024)

Your Guide to Facebook Collection Ads

Use Facebook Collection ads to provide your customers with a visually appealing and interactive shopping experience. This allows them to browse through your products without ever leaving Facebook.

In the crowded and competitive world of eCommerce advertising, generic ads just won't cut it. Even your most loyal customers can become desensitised to repetitive ads, making it more crucial than ever to use new, innovative ad formats to capture and retain your audience's attention.

Enter Facebook Collection Ads—a game-changing format that elevates traditional static ads into an immersive, interactive shopping experience. The result? More attention-grabbing moments, increased engagement, and, ultimately, higher conversions.

Let's review Facebook Collection Ads, how to set them up, and some best practices for optimising your ads for success.

What are Facebook Collection Ads?

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Source: Facebook

Have you ever paused mid-scroll to check out a Facebook ad featuring a collection of products? They’re like something you’d find on a sleek eCommerce site or in a high-end glossy magazine. These are Collection Ads—designed to bring the mobile shopping experience directly to your customers within the social media platform.

Strictly on mobile, Collection Ads allow advertisers to showcase a cover video or image with four product images displayed underneath. Once clicked on, users are taken to Instant Experience—a full-screen, immersive environment that opens directly within Facebook, showcasing a curated selection of your products. Here, users can browse through the products, and when they're ready to buy, are directed seamlessly to your landing page to complete the purchase.

How Facebook Collection Ads Work with Instant Experience

When Facebook Collection Ads are combined with Instant Experience (formerly Canvas Ads), its effects are significantly amplified to deliver an engaging, seamless shopping user experience. It's essentially like having a virtual storefront on your mobile device.

Here's how it works in three main steps:

Spark Interest: Collection Ads capture attention by combining media with relevant products, creating an engaging, discovery-driven mobile experience.
Deepen Engagement: After a user clicks on the ad, they're taken to an Instant Experience where they can explore products and learn more about your brand.
Drive Conversions: Instant Experiences guide prospects to your website, landing page, or app, turning their interest into action, like making a purchase.

This process is particularly effective for industries who use lifestyle visuals to sell products – think fashion, home decor, or travel. But even if yours doesn't necessarily fit into one of those categories, Collection Ads can still help you captivate your audience and drive traffic to your website.

As of now, Facebook Collection Ads appear on Facebook Feed, Stories, and Reels, and Instagram channels like Reels, Feed and Stories. The ad format is available to all Facebook advertisers, regardless of the industry.

Facebook Collection Ad Specs

To maximise your Meta Collection Ad performance, whether on Facebook or Instagram, you need to follow the recommended design specifications. By doing so, you're ensuring your ads will load quickly and look great.

General Overview

Cover Media: The first media asset displayed to users, whether it's an image or video
Facebook: Collection Ads feature a cover image or video followed by 4 product images.
Instagram: Collection Ads include a cover image or video and 3 product images.

Ad Copy Design Specifications

Headline: Max 25 characters.Aappears above the product images on Facebook but isn’t supported on Instagram.
Body Text: Max main text is 90 characters. This text is positioned above the primary creative, delivering your key message to the users.

Video Specifications:

Aspect Ratio: Use a 16:9 or 1:1 ratio for videos.
Resolution: Aim for a minimum resolution of 1080 x 1080 pixels, but go higher if possible to maintain clarity.
Formats: Recommended formats include MP4, MOV, or GIF, with H.264 compression for the best results. Ensure your video has a fixed frame rate and progressive scan.
Audio: Use Stereo AAC with a 128 kbps bitrate.
File Size: Keep video files under 4 GB for optimal performance.

Image Specifications:

Aspect Ratio: Facebook favours a 1.9:1 ratio, while Instagram supports 16:9 or 1:1.
Size: Images should be at least 1080 x 1080 pixels. The recommended dimension is 1200 x 628 pixels for sharp and clear visuals.
Formats: JPG and PNG are the preferred formats for high-quality images.
File Size: Ensure image files do not exceed 30 MB.

Slideshow Ads:

Aspect Ratio: You can use 16:9, 1:1, or 2:3 ratios, but Facebook will automatically crop to 1:1 if your images vary in size.
Audio: For slideshows with sound, use Stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps.
Music: Supported audio formats include WAV, MP3, M4A, FLAC, and OGG. Remember to secure the necessary rights for any music you use in your ads.

Supported Objectives:

The following objectives are supported by Facebook and Instagram Ads:

Placement options:

Either use Advantage+ placements (formerly known as automatic placements) or use manual placements, which include:

Facebook Feed
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook video feeds
Facebook Stories
Facebook Reels
Instagram Feed
Instagram Stories
Instagram Reels
Instagram Explore
Instagram Explore home

Note: The lookbook Instant Experience template is not compatible with Instagram placements, and the digital circular template doesn't work with Instagram Reels.

Ad Templates:

Facebook offers several templates to simplify the ad creation process:

Instant Storefront: Perfect for showcasing a diverse range of products.
Instant Lookbook: Great for highlighting products in a lifestyle setting.
Instant Customer Acquisition: Tailored for driving actions like sign-ups or purchases.
Instant Storytelling: Ideal for crafting a narrative-driven ad experience.

By following these specifications, you'll be well on your way to creating high-performing Collection Ads.

How to Set Up Your Product Catalogue

Before creating a Facebook Collection Ad, you'll first need a product catalogue. Without one, you’ll hit a roadblock when trying to create your campaign. Here’s how to get everything in order:

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Access Catalogues

Head over to Meta Ads Suite and click on "All Tools."
Under "Sell Products and Services," choose "Commerce."
Alternatively, you can go directly to your Meta Commerce account.

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Name Your Catalogue

Click "Add Catalogue."
Select your product category.

Give your catalogue a name, then click "Create."

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Add Products to Your Catalogue

Either upload your products or connect to your chosen eCommerce platform, like Shopify.
If manually adding products, you can either upload a data feed (like a spreadsheet) or add products individually.
For manual uploads, include all the key details: images, titles, descriptions, website links, and prices for each product.
If you have multiple categories, you can create product sets to organise your inventory more efficiently and target specific audiences with relevant products.

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How to Create Your Facebook Collection Ad

With your product sets

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Start Your Campaign

Go to Meta Ads Manager.
Select '+ Create' to begin a new campaign.

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Choose Your Objective

Select your campaign objective: awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, or sales. For Collection Ads, 'Sales' is often a solid choice, but pick what aligns with your goals.

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Select Your Conversion Location and Performance Goal

For awareness campaigns, select “Maximise reach of ads” or enable store location features if you have a physical store linked to your Facebook Page. For traffic, engagement, leads, or sales objectives, select 'Website' or 'App' as your conversion location.

If you're directing users to an app, ensure deep linking is enabled for product-level navigation, particularly on Instagram.

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Choose your Product Set

Select the product set you wish to promote.

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Set Your Budget and Audience

Complete the budget, schedule, and audience sections.
Select 'Advantage+ placements' or 'Manual placements' to define where your ads will appear.

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Pick Your Ad Format and Design Your Ad

Double-check that you’re using the correct Facebook and Instagram Business Pages.
Select 'Collection' as your ad format.

Add your primary text, headline, and decide whether to dynamically select products from your catalogue or manually choose them.

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Set Up Instant Experience

Choose an existing Instant Experience or create a new one in the destination section. Options include:

Storefront: Feature products in a mobile shopping experience.
Customer Acquisition: Encourage users to discover your brand and products.
Lookbook: Showcase your products in lifestyle images with product tagging.
Digital Circular: Highlight offers to drive traffic to your local stores (not available on Instagram Reels).

If using the Storefront template, you can choose to order products dynamically based on popularity or manually rearrange them.

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Preview Your Ad

The preview tool displays exactly how viewers will see your ads across different placements like Feeds, Stories, Reels, and more. This is your chance to double-check that your creative is correctly cropped and appears as you intended.

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Finalise and Launch

Once everything looks good, click 'Publish' to make your ad live.

And there you have it! Your Collection Ad is now live, ready to engage customers and drive sales.

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Tips for Creating High-impact Facebook Collection Ads

Facebook Collection Ads exist to attract shoppers, whether they're impulse buyers or those looking for something specific. Here are a few tips from Meta and our experts to make sure your ads hit the mark:

Use a compelling video or cover image: This will help stop people mid-scroll as they pursue their feeds. Like regular ads, a good hook is paramount to success.
Keep it concise: With headlines, it's all about quality over quantity - keep things short and snappy to convey your message effectively.
Use High-quality images: Like clothes appearing on a shop window, high-quality images help to catch the eye of potential customers. Make sure your images are clear, well-lit and strike the right balance of showcasing your product while remaining visually appealing.
Target the Right Audience: Facebook offers various targeting options-from demographics to interests and behaviours. If possible, use a Lookalike audience based on your existing customers to reach a similar group of interested shoppers.
Highlight product benefits: Instead of waffling on about features, focus on your product's benefits. Let customers envision using your product and how it could enhance their lives.
Create a story or narrative: Instead of just listing products, use videos to tell a story and create an emotional connection with your audience. For example, if you're selling sunscreen, a woman on a tropical beach with her family is more engaging than a static product shot.
Leverage a comprehensive range of products: Aim to showcase at least 50 items per product set. This product variety helps Facebook's algorithms optimise and serve the best-performing products to your audiences.
Let Facebook’s AI Optimise Your Ads: Select 'Order dynamically' during Instant Experience setup. This will allow Facebook’s AI to automatically display the top 2-4 products based on user popularity and purchase history.
Direct People to More Products: Include a 'Shop Now' or 'Learn More' button to lead your audience to your product catalogue or website, allowing them to browse and discover more items of interest.
Utilise Retargeting: Use Facebook's pixel to track website visitors and retarget them with specific product ads based on their browsing behaviour.
Add URL Parameters: Include URL parameters in your ad’s destination URL to help track where users are coming from and which ads are performing best.
Preview your ads: Use the ad preview tool to see how your ad appears across different placements.
Show product locations in lifestyle photos: When showcasing your products in lifestyle photos, mark them by entering their name or ID. This allows users to click on the marked items and be directed to the product page for purchase.
Use urgency tactics: Including limited time offers or low stock alerts can create a sense of urgency and encourage your audience to make a purchase.

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Facebook Collection Ads Examples and Respective Results

Not convinced if Collection ads are worth the trouble? Here are some examples of successful Facebook Collection ad campaigns:

GameStop's Holiday Campaign

During 2017's holiday shopping season, GameStop ran six collection ads featuring their "Games Day Sale." Targeting a custom audience of PowerUp Rewards members and a lookalike audience, the ads were intended to increase both online and in-store sales.

The campaign, and its respective messaging, “Up to 50% off the biggest games of the year.” which ran from December 17–24, 2017, delivered impressive results:

7.5X increase in incremental ROAS
4% incremental lift in conversions
6% incremental lift in sales

This is just one example of how collection ads can help magnify the impact of a sale or promotion and drive sales across multiple channels.

Adore Me's Return to Facebook Advertising

Adore Me made its monumental return after a year off Facebook advertising with their swimwear line a collection ad campaign. Using lifestyle cover images and thumbnails, the brand successfully drew in lead spring and summer collections.

The campaign, which ran from March to April 2017, exceeded expectations:

20% increase in website conversion rate
32% lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) than their goal
23% of total purchases were attributed to the collection ad

Adore Me demonstrates that even after a year-long hiatus, it's possible to successfully reconnect and re-engage Facebook audiences with the right ad format.

RIMOWA's Luxury Strategy

Luxury luggage brand RIMOWA, is known for its sleek visuals and high-quality products. When looking to increase online sales, RIMOWA used collection ads with video content to elevate their brand presence and drive conversions. The campaign resulted in:

2X boost in ROAS
Improved brand awareness
Increased ad recall

Here, we see that collection ads can also be a brand-building tool for luxury brands, helping to increase awareness as well as driving sales.

Scandiweb PPC Case Study

Scandiweb conducted analysis among their four PPC clients using collection ads over single-image or video ads. Over 30 days, they found:

+62% Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
+35% Average Order Value (AOV)
-34% Cost Per Click (CPC)
+32% Click-Through Rate (CTR)

This case study shows that, at least in certain industries, collection ads can outperform more traditional ad formats. If you're running a PPC campaign for e-commerce, it may be worth testing collection ads to see if they can deliver on your business goals.

Other Meta Collection Ad Examples

Besides the brands above, various other businesses have seen impressive results with collection ads. Here are some quick examples:

Dollar Shave Club's Subscription Boost: Dollar Shave Club mixed collection ads with Instant Experience and saw subscriptions jump by 1.5%, and cost per subscription drop by 30%. It’s a great example of how collection ads can work wonders for subscription-based businesses.

Sephora: Sephora rolled out collection ads to showcase new products and saw their ROAS climb by 32%. It’s just one example of how even the biggest retailers can benefit from Collection Ads.

FabFitFun's: FabFitFun brought collection ads into their marketing mix and watched their Facebook ad CTRs soar by 80%. It’s proof that collection ads also work to drive up engagement rates among audiences.

Unlock Endless Ad Inspiration and Insights with MagicBrief

With MagicBrief’s Ad Library, you have access to over 12 million ads from 50,000+ brands, all searchable using MagicAI. Explore and save ads for inspiration, then link your Facebook account to track key metrics and fine-tune your campaigns.

With MagicBrief, you'll have all the inspiration and data you need to create successful collection ads for your business. Don't hesitate to give them a try and see the results for yourself!

Collection ads FAQs

What's the difference between Carousel Ads and Collection Ads?

Carousel Ads display multiple images or videos in one ad unit, all which individually link to a specific URL. Collection Ads, meanwhile, feature a cover photo and a series of product images or videos that lead to an Instant Experience when clicked.

What is Instant Experience?

Instant Experience is a full-screen interactive experience that opens when a user clicks on your ad. This immersive experience acts as a landing page and allows users to browse products, watch videos, fill out forms, and more without ever leaving the app. When combined with collection ads, it helps create a shopping journey that seamlessly integrates with the user's Instagram browsing experience.

How do I track the performance of my Collection Ads?

Like traditional Facebook ads, you can track Collection ad performance on your Facebook Ads Manager. Metrics like clicks, conversions, reach and engagement are available for you to analyse and optimise your ad performance. You can also use third-party analytics tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social for more detailed insights.

Are collection ads mobile only?

Yes, collection ads are only available on mobile devices. This is because the Instant Experience feature is optimised for the mobile browsing experience and allows for a more immersive and interactive ad experience.

Can I use Collection Ads to retarget my audience?

Yes, simply create a custom audience of people who have interacted with your brand or visited your website and use that as your target audience for your Collection Ads. This allows you to show relevant, personalised content to people who have already shown interest in your brand, increasing the chances of conversion.