Quick Guide to Facebook Video Ad

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Video is now an integral part of Facebook. The user base combined with the power of video has allowed this social media platform to become a rival to Youtube; sometimes it even surpasses the latter.

In fact, Facebook CPM is significantly cheaper. You can get 3x more impressions for your budget with Facebook when compared to Youtube. This means that Facebook helps you gather as many eyeballs as possible making it an attractive advertising platform.

With video consumption on the rise, it is safe to say that brands are turning to Facebook ads to create an online presence. So let us understand how Facebook ads work.


The power of Facebook video ad

Facebook is a social media platform with the largest user base which means that you get more visibility. Also, placing your ads on Facebook ensures that people will remember you.

Going back in time, take the case of Facebook’s Q3 earnings in 2015. Facebook recorded 8 billion daily video views which surpassed Youtube’s then published figures. So if you haven’t yet given a thought to Facebook advertising, now is the time to take advantage of it.

How to make your Facebook Video Ads work for you?

Focus on creating videos which engage even when muted

Your audience would definitely be interested in watching an advertisement with sound when they are inside their homes. However, the same doesn’t hold true when people are outside. When someone is checking their feed on their way to work, it is highly likely that they will watch the video without the sound.

So when you think of creating Facebook ads, focus on how you can leave the same impact with a video without sound. If you feel that your video can’t do without sound, use typography or add captions. Captioned videos increase video view time by almost 12%.

Video length matters

User engagement is influenced by the video length. It tends to decrease as the video length increases as can be seen in the following graph:


The chances of someone watching a long ad, that too on a social media channel, are very less. So it is important that you deliver the message as soon as you can instead of dragging the video.

Audience retention drops after a few seconds. So keep your videos short.

Attract viewers with thumbnail

Think of this. Someone has disabled the autoplay option for videos. So all they get to see is the thumbnail. If the thumbnail doesn’t create curiosity in the viewers, they are less likely to watch the video.

When you create a Facebook ad, it offers you various images from your videos to be picked as thumbnail. If you don’t find them engaging, you can always upload a custom image of your own to be used as an enticing thumbnail.

Retarget your audience

Facebook ad helped you push the viewer further down the funnel. But is that the end of your marketing journey? No.

Use Facebook ads to retarget your audience. Facebook allows you to retarget the viewers who completed your video ad. Simply design a Custom Audience campaign to reach out to those who have engaged with your videos in the past.

Test different use cases

Change thumbnails, edit videos, experiment with the call-to-action within your video ad. Testing your campaign with the variations allows you to target your customers more effectively.



Study how user behavior changes when you alter any of the above mentioned factors. Use the results to build a better social media marketing campaign.

Let your video ad tell a story

Video length is important but it is not the only factor that dictates the outcome of your ad campaign.

If you can master the art of storytelling by delivering a cohesive video, you can even increase the video length without (negatively) affecting user engagement.

Facebook’s mid-roll ads

Through mid-roll ads, Facebook has given a platform to small scale publishers to earn revenue.

Mid-roll facebook ads appear in videos that are longer than 90 seconds. While these ads interrupt user experience, they can be used to achieve visibility. However, do keep this in mind: mid-roll ads can be very annoying. So if you are taking away a few seconds of your viewer, give them something unique and refreshing so they will remember your brand in a positive light.

Note: If rumors are to be believed, Facebook might get rid of mid-roll ads in the near future and replace them with pre-rolls. Until then, mid-roll ads to the rescue!

Analyze your video stats

You have put your video out there, now is the time to analyze the metrics to create better strategies in future.


Facebook vs Youtube video metrics

While Facebook is a good platform to reach out to your audience, it may not be the best platform for measuring the success of your video ad. Facebook doesn’t have any metric that can distinguish an active user from a passive one.

If a user is scrolling down their news feed and stops for at least 3 seconds, this viewer will be added as an active viewer.

To Facebook Ad or not?

The decision is entirely yours. If you want to reach out to a wider audience, Facebook is a very powerful tool. Also, with mid-roll ads, Facebook has opened doors for small level video publishers to make some revenue.

If you want your Facebook video ad campaign to yield the expected results, be sure to make them short and crisp. As for the heavy content videos, keep them for your website or put them on a different platform.

Also, if you already have a strong online presence, Youtube might be the better option for advertising. The reason lies in their basic nature. While Youtube is more search-driven, Facebook is about discovering. What we mean is that a Facebook user is most likely to scroll down his newsfeed and discover your video content while a Youtube user is going to type in the exact keywords to search.

In case you are struggling to build an online presence, Facebook video ad might be a good option. But make sure that the platform’s autoplay doesn’t affect your image negatively.


Facebook video ads, like any other advertising option, work when you focus on the optimisation. Target the right audience, focus on creating videos that engage the users even when they are muted.

Since you also have the option of Facebook mid-roll adverts, you can use it your advantage but keep this in mind: when it comes to mid-roll, timing is everything. They are going to annoy your audience (no matter what you do) but with good content, you can easily gather eyeballs for your brand. Also, humor can be a good ally.

To Facebook video ad or not? We hope you have your answer now.

If you have a Facebook video ad story to share, tell us about it in the comments.