A lot's changed since the pandemic hit. But there's one thing that remains the same: Facebook is still the most popular social media platform in the world.
The number of monthly active users hit an all-time high of 2.85 billion at the start of the year—many of them spending about an hour per day on the platform. This comes together to create the perfect storm for advertising.
eCommerce brands are rapidly upping their ad spend on the platform. And for good reason: Facebook ads have the potential to reach over 2.1 billion people; several of which are your target audience using the platform to research and buy new products.
However, advertising on Facebook is a double-edged sword. While advertising connects eCommerce brands with their target audience, the low-cost nature of Facebook advertising also comes with fierce competition.
Browsing through a library of Facebook ad examples is a great way to get up to speed.
Before we dive into the examples, let’s be clear on one thing: Every Facebook advertising campaign has a unique goal to accomplish.
eCommerce brands choose to advertise on the platform for many reasons—from building brand awareness to generating leads and conversions. This campaign goal has a knock-on effect on the ad format and copy you should use.
Facebook users at the top of the funnel, for example, want to see carousels and video ads that make them aware of the product and how it can benefit them. Maybe they haven’t heard about your brand before and need to see the types of products on offer.
As customers get more acquainted with your brand, they reach the middle of the funnel. It’s the stage where a person is seriously considering purchasing something to solve a problem. Here, you can prioritise retargeting ads—those that drive website visitors or previous ad audiences back to your landing page.
Finally, we reach the bottom of the funnel. At this point, the ultimate goal of your Facebook ad campaign is to turn a lead into a paying customer. This audience wants more intensive advertising content such as product catalogue ads.
Now we have a solid understanding of the way Facebook ad campaigns are structured, you might be wondering what each ad format looks like. After all, a single advertising format can look dramatically different depending on the industry, target audience, and product being advertised.
In this guide, we’ll share 20+ of the best Facebook ad examples, each targeting a specific stage of the sales funnel and using various types of creative.
Carousel ads feed into your need to swipe, click, and slide your finger (or mouse) across a screen. When done right, it can catch your audience’s interest enough to make them engage.
Carousel ads consist of two or more images or videos that showcase product photos, a video demo, or a mix of the two. You'll find carousel ads are popular among fitness, fashion, and eCommerce brands.
Looking for inspiration on how to create carousels for your eCommerce brand? Take Circular & Co’s carousel ad for example.
The retailer uses a collection of images to highlight its range of products available to buy. Beneath each image in the carousel is a description of the product, its price, and a call-to-action telling them to “Shop now”.
The carousel ad format is a superb way to show off customers already using (and loving!) the products you’re promoting. Take this example from SnackSurprise, a subscription snack box brand using Facebook to drive revenue.
Each slide in the carousel shows real customers opening the goody box. Combined with a description highlighting the brand’s USPs, SnackSurprise managed to get a 3.24 Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for its Facebook campaigns. The result? More than 25,000 new subscribers.
Sometimes, you have something important you want to share with the world. Something beyond your products and services.
Taking a stance on an important matter is a great way to connect with your audience. Consumers are 4 to 6 times more likely to buy from brands that support a purpose or mission.
Earth's Shoes Facebook ad, for example, talks about a specific product that appeals to people who care about the earth. It also offers a way to help those in need: A percentage of every purchase will go towards supporting the reforestation in Haiti.
Then at the bottom, it points out several selling points: The shoes are made in Haiti, which creates jobs there. Then they'll also plant a tree in your honour for becoming a customer. How can you say no?
If you're trying to build brand (or product) awareness, video ads are the scroll-stopping solution. With a video ad campaign, you can extend your reach and potentially boost traffic to your website.
It’s estimated that more than four billion video views happen on Facebook every day, with users watching more than 100 hours of video content.
The topic of your Facebook video ad depends on your objectives and the content of your advertisement. Whatever your goals are, make sure the videos are high-quality, short, and convey your brand message.
Let’s take a look at how brands do that with their Facebook video ads across each stage of the advertising funnel.
London Basin Co. does an excellent job with its Facebook video ads. The vertical video demands more space in a mobile user’s screen—important considering 65% of all Facebook video views happen on mobile.
The video itself shows off a series of eye-catching bathroom basins. The backdrop is all black, so no distractions—all eyes on the product.
It's a simple yet effective video to attract homeowners looking to spice up their bathroom. There's also a “swipe up to shop” feature at the end, so potential customers can learn more about the product without leaving the Facebook app.
Here’s another great example of how eCommerce brands can use vertical videos for their Facebook ads. Yet instead of taking the hard sell approach to its target audience, the retailer opts for an educational video instead.
The best part? The topic of the ad—how to make barista-style coffee at home—directly plays to its target audience’s pain point. The person most likely to buy Grind coffee is someone who grabs coffee from a big chain like Starbucks or Costa. By educating people on how to do that at home (for cheaper!), it subtly pushes people towards purchasing its product.
Here’s another Facebook video ad example from Treaty Jewellery. In this case, the brand takes a different approach to tell customers about its products; focusing on the brand story instead of the products themselves.
This approach works because 64% of customers find brands more attractive when they actively communicate their purpose.
When someone watches Treaty Jewellery’s video in their Facebook feed, the mission they support is clear. Free shipping is a strong pull that incentivises them to make the next step.
In fact, these Facebook ads worked so well that Treaty Jewellery achieved a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 4.3x. The retailer saw a 2,500% increase in average monthly orders off the back of these brand messaging ads.
Find Treaty Jewellery's video ads here.
Did you know that 95% of people rely on customer reviews when deciding whether to buy something? A Facebook video ad is the perfect place to put those front and centre; it prevents shoppers from exiting the site in search of a review… and forgetting to come back.
Love Leggings does this with the Facebook ad example below. It shows a customer wearing its products. A 5* and “Excellent” rating gives its target audience the confidence to learn more. If other people love it, surely they will, too.
As a result, Love Leggings saw a 598% YoY increase in revenue from paid social. The average ROAS for the campaign was a whopping 8.2.
Bite is an example of a brand that does this type of Facebook ad extremely well.
According to Matt Lally, founder of TheGiftYak: "Bite uses two strategies with this short GIF ad. Their hook is in the product itself. It evokes curiosity and intrigue from the user.”
“The second strategy is the use of social proof. After you see the product, your eyes shift upward and see the testimonials. Testimonials are great at displaying value. They also expertly include star ratings for those who don't read, but only skim."
Facebook video ads and coupon codes are a match made in heaven. For 35% of DTC brand customers, a discount code is the final nudge that convinces them to make a purchase—even if they didn’t originally intend on doing so.
This Facebook ad example from Sweet Packs demonstrates exactly how to do that. It uses a short video to display the contents of one of its mystery boxes. A 10% discount on top of its flash sale is enough to convince its target audience to click through.
As a direct result of the Facebook campaigns, Sweet Packs increased subscriptions by 500% and drove 10,000 new customers. It beat its original 2.75x ROAS goal, achieving a 3.2x return on every pound spent.
eCommerce sellers with more than a handful of products will find collection ads helpful. It’s an advertising format that helps businesses promote a collection of products using a single ad.
Just don't go overboard—keep the items relevant to the viewer. Maybe opt to show off a selection of boots in one ad and then a group of dresses in another, based on your ad set’s audience interests.
Here are three Facebook collection ad examples to inspire you.
The goal of a collection ad is to get users scrolling through the items you’ve featured. Maybe they’ll see themselves owning one (or even all) of the products in the collection.
Here's an example from 001 Skincare London that does exactly that. In this collection ad, you see a video founder talking about the product—making it the perfect place to zone in on your messaging, brand story, and/or value proposition.
Beneath the video, Facebook users see a selection of products they can immediately browse through and purchase.
Customers at the top of the marketing funnel might not be aware of the products you sell just yet. As demonstrated in this example from Next Home, collection ads can be used to get people up-to-speed quickly—especially when your best-selling items take centre stage.
What’s interesting about this ad, though, is the messaging it uses. “Get them before they’re gone” creates a sense of urgency. The limited-time offer convinces its audience to purchase the products sooner rather than later.
Certain products lend themselves to high-quality image ages. Doughnut Time UK is one example. It uses its ads to highlight its delicious selection of doughnuts. It’s almost impossible to scroll past them in a Facebook news feed.
Here’s another great example of how eCommerce brands can use vertical videos for their Facebook ads. Yet instead of taking the hard sell approach to its target audience, the retailer opts for an educational video instead.
The best part? The topic of the ad—how to make barista-style coffee at home—directly plays to its target audience’s pain point. The person most likely to buy Grind coffee is someone who grabs coffee from a big chain like Starbucks or Costa. By educating people on how to do that at home (for cheaper!), it subtly pushes people towards purchasing its product.
Here’s another Facebook video ad example from Treaty Jewellery. In this case, the brand takes a different approach to tell customers about its products; focusing on the brand story instead of the products themselves.
This approach works because 64% of customers find brands more attractive when they actively communicate their purpose.
When someone watches Treaty Jewellery’s video in their Facebook feed, the mission they support is clear. Free shipping is a strong pull that incentivises them to make the next step.
In fact, these Facebook ads worked so well that Treaty Jewellery achieved a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 4.3x. The retailer saw a 2,500% increase in average monthly orders off the back of these brand messaging ads.
Increasing the visibility of your brand and its products is key to staying top of mind. This is what makes retargeting ads effective.
When a visitor shows interest in a product on your site and then leaves, the Facebook Pixel will collect that data and map it to a user profile. Your retargeting ad campaign then kicks in and reminds a potential customer of the products they’ve already viewed.
Research shows that retargeting potential customers can increase conversion rates by up to 150%. Not only that, but the click-through rate for this type of Facebook ad is 10x greater than other display ads.
It’s clear that retargeting ads are a quick and easy way to scale your Facebook ad campaigns. But “Come back to our site!” isn’t always the most effective messaging as these examples demonstrate.
After visiting Olaplex’s website and purchasing three items, the following retargeting ad appeared in my Facebook feed. It recommends a new product—one I haven’t yet bought but complements the items I have.
This ad works because it highlights the product’s USP using a simple tagline. The haircare industry is saturated with products that are rarely different from one another. Olaplex, however, pushed us back to its website with the promise that this shampoo gives “3x brighter hair compared to top purple shampoos”.
When you’re creating a new Facebook ad, you’ll see an option to create Dynamic Product ads—a format that uses website information to personalise the ads a visitor sees in their Facebook feed.
Etsy is a great example of what these ads can look like when done well. It uses the carousel format to show products we’ve already shown an interest in. These personalised recommendations were enough to drive us back to the site and complete our purchase.
If you’re selling products across various websites (like your own site, a retail partner, or marketplace), you likely want to push people towards your own eCommerce site. It’s the sales channel where your profit margins are highest.
Brands can use retargeting campaigns to push people there instead of a third-party channel. Take this example from London North Eastern Railway. It’s clear this is a retargeting campaign since the first part of the ad copy starts with: “Thinking of taking a trip?”
Yet instead of purchasing my ticket through a platform like Trainline, the brand pushes me back to its own website—promising that if I book direct, I get the best price.
For this ad, we targeted both MOFU and BOFU audiences. As it was focused around last minute availability, we wanted to focus all the budget on audiences who already knew Waterside Holiday Group. These include individuals who visited the sites within 30 - 180 Days, Social Engagers who have interacted with any social posts and pages in the past 365 days, and anyone who has viewed Waterside Videos in the past 180 days. We also used custom lists using their CRM.
Although video seems to dominate the content and advertising world, static images still have a place. Not every product needs movement to sell its quality, fun, or exclusivity. With the right ad copy and graphics, you can capture attention and provoke the right emotions (and actions).
So, what makes a good photo? The short answer is: Anything but stock imagery. These stick out like a sore thumb and can make your ad feel inauthentic. Instead, go with branded imagery with models holding your product or simple flat lay images of the product itself.
Let’s take a look at how brands do this in their Facebook single image ads.
Earlier, we touched on the fact that not all Facebook ad campaigns have to go for the hard sell. Butternut Box is the perfect example of how to reach top-of-funnel audiences effectively.
The ad uses a simple meme to get its target audience engaged. It’s bound to make them laugh and share it with a friend. As a result, Butternut Box builds brand recognition. Potential customers know who they are through the funny Facebook ad—without feeling like they’re being sold to.
"One of the best ways to create successful ads on Facebook is by leveraging user-generated content,” says Andrea Bosoni, Founder of Zero to Marketing. “In my experience, this type of creative shot on phones regularly performs better than overproduced and heavily branded content.”
Bosoni adds: “A company that does this well is Printy Pets, a website that gets your pet printed on custom socks, blankets and apparel. One of their most successful ads is a slideshow of happy customers showing off their new products."
Bosoni continued: “It works well because it incorporates some of the best practices that make product ads effective on social media:
It looks native and blends with the organic feed (similar to a boosted post)
If you're in their target audience, it makes you stop the scroll
It’s immediately apparent what the product is
It clearly explains how the service works in a few sentences
It doesn’t need sound to be effective”
You can also get creative by making the entire ad the photo with very little copy. Sometimes, the images are what sells the most. Here's an example from BURGA:
"This ad was one of the best we launched last spring and performs well up to this day,” says Burga’s media buying strategist, Jonas Brazys.
“A key part of the performance is the simplicity and colour palette. We see three cases matching similar designs. Therefore the ad seems chic and elegant, resonating with our audience. It also has a one-liner, "Protection with style".”
Brazys adds: “These two are the most important features for our target audience when choosing a phone case. In the bottom part of the ad, we also have our Buy 2 Get 2 offer, which creates more intent to buy. So does the direct call to action to swipe up to shop."
We’ve briefly touched on the fact social proof can make Facebook ads more effective. This example from BestSelf Co does exactly that, placing a glowing review from a New York Times contributing writer at the forefront of the ad image:
Did you know that 95% of people rely on customer reviews when deciding whether to buy something? A Facebook video ad is the perfect place to put those front and centre; it prevents shoppers from exiting the site in search of a review… and forgetting to come back.
Love Leggings does this with the Facebook ad example below. It shows a customer wearing its products. A 5* and “Excellent” rating gives its target audience the confidence to learn more. If other people love it, surely they will, too.
As a result, Love Leggings saw a 598% YoY increase in revenue from paid social. The average ROAS for the campaign was a whopping 8.2.
Bite is an example of a brand that does this type of Facebook ad extremely well.
According to Matt Lally, founder of TheGiftYak: "Bite uses two strategies with this short GIF ad. Their hook is in the product itself. It evokes curiosity and intrigue from the user.”
“The second strategy is the use of social proof. After you see the product, your eyes shift upward and see the testimonials. Testimonials are great at displaying value. They also expertly include star ratings for those who don't read, but only skim."
Facebook video ads and coupon codes are a match made in heaven. For 35% of DTC brand customers, a discount code is the final nudge that convinces them to make a purchase—even if they didn’t originally intend on doing so.
This Facebook ad example from Sweet Packs demonstrates exactly how to do that. It uses a short video to display the contents of one of its mystery boxes. A 10% discount on top of its flash sale is enough to convince its target audience to click through.
As a direct result of the Facebook campaigns, Sweet Packs increased subscriptions by 500% and drove 10,000 new customers. It beat its original 2.75x ROAS goal, achieving a 3.2x return on every pound spent.
Videos. Images. Carousels. Although these are great for capturing attention, it's the copywriting in your ad that keeps it and converts it into action.
For that reason, it's critical to spend just as much time crafting your advertising message as you do selecting your imagery.
Remember: The sole purpose of a Facebook ad is to sell on a concept of ownership. You want to make your audience visualise owning and using your product. Using visual phrases that help them to depict this is key.
Here's an example from Corston Architectural Detail, which does a great job of optimising its Facebook ad for conversions.
The power words are stylish, timeless, and sophisticated—three traits you want to have in any piece of furniture you purchase. It signals quality and longevity, which translates to a solid investment, no matter the pricing.
Then to seal the deal, the Facebook ad example follows up with a bullet list that proves why you should trust its products. It achieves this by using words like “quality”, “engineered in the UK”, and “fast delivery”.
The best Facebook ad copy mimics the natural language of the audience it's trying to reach. Take Punchy Drinks for example. The brand uses fun, relaxed copywriting—replicating how its target audience speaks in their everyday lives.
The words “Don’t just take our word for it” also implies other people also think their drinks taste great. That’s something hard to prove when Facebook users can’t taste it themselves.
Here’s a perfect example of how eCommerce brands can use emojis in their Facebook ads copy. Data shows that these graphics can increase interactions by as much as 57%—yet they need to be done tastefully. Too many emojis can be distracting.
eCommerce retailer Dusk.com uses emojis instead of bullet points. Each emoji is also on-brand, using colours and symbols that reflect the products it sells.
A few of the Facebook ad examples we’ve shared so far have one thing in common: They have ad copy that appeals to the exact type of Facebook user they’re trying to reach.
This example from Beco is no different. Yet instead of pulling out personality traits in its messaging, the brand goes all-in on aggravating a pain point its target customers have: Contributing to plastic waste.
Beco’s commitment to reducing waste is at the core of its ad copy. It’s the type of mission that customers want to see before purchasing from a new brand.
There’s no doubt that advertising on Facebook helps eCommerce brands meet their target audience on the platform. But with competition becoming fiercer, it’s smart to have a sense of what your competitors are doing with their own campaigns to build on yours.
So, draw some inspiration from these Facebook ad examples. Test different ad creatives, messaging, and formats. Remember that a Facebook ad agency can lend their experience on what does (and doesn’t) work for other eCommerce brands in your space.
You’ll soon start to see the uplift in results once you test what your audience responds to best.
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