Omolola
SMM specialist
Did someone say placement? Yes, we are talking about advertising and not financials, but they have a similarity! It’s a matter of choosing where you want your ads to appear on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. SMM (social media marketing) can be quite tricky.
There are a variety of placements to do this through which you can ensure strategic visibility that directly contributes to your ad performance, without the slightest effort. The relevance of placements is often underestimated when putting ads online, and yet, this part of the strategy is also very important. It allows you to influence or even direct the algorithm, isn’t that great?
Before diving into the details of the “how”, let’s validate together the steps required to access the placements section of the Business Manager (or more precisely of the Ads Manager, the platform for designing, managing and optimizing your Facebook advertisements).
- Have you created your campaign, assigning it the relevant objective?
- Have you created your ad sets?
- Have you added your budgets, your programmed launch dates, your audiences and your geolocation parameters?
If the answer to all of these questions is yes, we can now get to the heart of the subject!
If you have even one no to the previous questions, I invite you to read our articles (How to build a Facebook ads campaign or Manage Facebook and Instagram campaigns) to make sure you have validated the foundations of a Facebook ad campaign:
Introduction to Facebook Ads ad placements
In the placements section of your ad group, you can manage your placements as you see fit, for either Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or the Facebook Audience Network, and this, automatically or manually. This segment will be discussed in detail below.
As a reminder, here are the different types of placements per platform with the dimensions authorized by the ad manager.
Facebook ad placements
There are 8 placements assigned to Facebook displayed by placement type.
Placement type > Facebook news feed:
- What are they for? To showcase your ads on the Facebook news feed. This placement is the most used because it is the placement that generates the most impressions (so that users view it the most).
- What are the required advertising dimensions? Square format (1:1) for images and vertical format for videos (4:5) for all, EXCEPT for the placement “right column”, which suggests a horizontal format (1.91:1).
News feed – Available on Facebook.
Facebook Marketplace – Available on Facebook.
*This placement may be interesting for certain types of products.
Facebook Video Feeds – Available on Facebook.
*This placement is dedicated to video format only.
Facebook Right Column – Available on Facebook.
*This placement is the only one that recommends a horizontal aspect ratio (1.91:1) for images and videos.
Facebook Groups News Feed* – Available on Facebook.
*This placement is only available on mobile.
Placement type > Facebook Story:
- What is it used for? Show your ads on the Facebook Story of the whom you want.
- The dimensions required? The format to respect is vertical (9:16) for images and videos.
Facebook Story – Available on Facebook.
Placement type > Facebook Embedded Videos:
- What is it used for? Unlike standard video formats, embedded videos makes it possible to integrate promotional offers thanks to a monetization option. It is very similar to how Youtube works.
You can also find these videos in the Facebook Watch section.
- The dimensions required? The format to respect is vertical (9:16) for images and videos.
Facebook in-stream videos – Available Facebook.
Placement type > Search:
- What are they for? Show your ads when people search on Facebook.
- The dimensions required? The required aspect ratio is horizontal (1.91:1) for images and for videos, square format (1:1).
Facebook search results – Available on Facebook.
Placement type > In-Articles:
- What are they for? This placement is dedicated to news articles in general, to allow readers to read content directly on the Facebook app with optimized content load times.
- The dimensions required? The required formats are horizontal (1.91: 1) for images and videos.
Facebook instant articles – Available on Facebook.
- Ad placements on Messenger
There are 2 placements assigned to Messenger according to the types of placements.
Placement type > Messenger Story:
- What is it used for? Show your ads on the Facebook Story of whom you want.
- The dimensions required? The format to respect is vertical (9:16) for images and videos.
Messenger Story – Available on Facebook Messenger.
Placement type > Facebook Messenger Inbox:
- What is it used for? Show your ads on the Messenger Story to whom you want.
- The dimensions required? The format to respect is vertical (9:16) for images and videos.
Messenger Inbox – Available on Facebook Messenger in certain countries.
Instagram advertising placements
There are 3 placements assigned to Instagram offered according to the types of placements. The following placement goals are identical to those mentioned for Facebook.
Placement type > Instagram news feed:
Show your ads when people search Instagram.
- What is it used for? Show your ads on the Instagram news feed.
- The dimensions required? Square format (1:1) for images and vertical format for videos (4:5).
Instagram news feed – Available on Instagram
Placement type >Instagram Explorer:
- What are they for? Show your ads when people search Instagram.
- The dimensions required? The required formats are square (1:1) for images and vertical (4:5) for videos.
Instagram Explorer – Available on Instagram
Placement type > Instagram Story:
- What is it used for? Show your ads on the Instagram Story of whom you want. You can offer Stories with multiple screens if you wish.
- The dimensions required? The format to respect is vertical (9:16) for images and videos.
Instagram Story – Available on Instagram
To know which placement option will suit you best, you will have to rely on your campaign objective and your visuals (image and video), because according to these criteria, some placements will be available – or not. Also, it is important to question the context of the advertisements viewing. Will your ad have the same impact in the news feed as much as the pause watching two videos, for instance?
Ad placements for the Facebook Audience Network.
There are 3 placements assigned to the Facebook Audience Network ranked by placement type and campaign objective.
The Audience Network, is a placement that is managed from the Facebook Ads ad manager, but does not belong to the Facebook application as such. This placement offers ads on websites viewed on mobile and also on mobile applications. You can think of this as Display Advertising (web banners).
- The dimensions required for the three placements? The format to respect is vertical (9:16) for images and videos.
Placement type > Interstitial ad:
Placement type > Audience Network rewarded video ad:
Placement type > Audience Network in-stream video ad:
The two placement methods and the other options
To date, the Facebook ads ad manager offers two options for managing placements on Facebook and Instagram.
The placement methods
You have the automatic placement method which lets Facebook choose to optimize your ads based on placement availability relative to your campaign goal, but also in relation to placement bids and your ad performance.
- Advantage: Facebook can broadcast on placements with a lower cost than the norm.
- Disadvantage: Facebook will adapt the media format itself to the chosen placements, so it may show a square image on a placement that requires a 9:16 aspect ratio.
With automatic placement, you can also fine-tune your settings according to the content you offer, using new options in “Show more options”. Here is an article that will explain the usefulness of this adjustment: Filter its content against automatic placements.
Note that the manual placement function gives you the possibility to choose as many placements as you want according to your campaign objective.
- Disadvantage: The algorithm might not be effective based on your usual practices in making budget allocation decisions.
- Advantage: Allows you to remove or add investments based on results. Flexible management without going through a learning phase of Facebook Ads.
Once your ad has been created, you will also be able to view your selected types of placements and have previews of your ads before they go online.
A word to conclude
Now is the time for you to implement the method you want to use and the type of placement that will work best for you. Remember, to help you choose, base yourself on the objective of your campaigns and the visuals offered. If you want to go further in the campaign strategy, let us know your needs by contacting Rablab, a Facebook and Instagram Ads agency in Montreal.
Lola, Social Ads Manager (SMM)