It’s nearing the end of the year and that means it’s time for the obligatory “trends” articles to start popping up everywhere. Join us as we take a look at what trends 2018 holds for Facebook advertising, which has become one of the most important ways you can advertise online.

Facebook Video Ads

Facebook users consume over 100 million hours of video each and every day. This demand for video along with improvements to video players means a sharp rise in video content of both the paid and organic variety.

Videos on Facebook average 135% more organic reach than static pictures. So, put down that camera and pick up that video camera instead. (Or, more likely, just switch your phone from camera to video camera.)

While it helps to have professionally shot videos, with some relatively inexpensive equipment, inexpensive editing software and some practice, you can make professional-looking videos. It’s really not that hard nowadays. Try it.

Ad Diversity

Video ads are just one type of offering from Facebook. The social media giant has been continually updating its inventory of ad types to cater to all types of marketing.

• Carousel – These ads allow you to use multiple images and offers while telling a story about what you’re advertising.  
• Slideshow – Using “lightweight” video that loads faster, these ads are meant to be less intrusive to people’s browsing experience. Small businesses that want to start using more video can start with a slideshow ad.  
• Collection – With these ads, Facebook users can browse through multiple products within the Facebook app itself, which is good because people generally like to stay on the app if they can rather than clicking an external link.
• Canvas – This mobile ad format takes a single ad and transforms it into a more immersive, full-screen experience with multiple photos and videos for people to scroll through. Use them for spotlighting big ticket items.
• Dynamic – Using a single template, you can promote numerous products. If you prefer, you can also promote customized pitches for different customer segments of your market. They’re also good for quick A/B split testing of ads.
• Link – With customizable CTA buttons that are displayed prominently, these ads are ideal if you want to direct people to a landing page.  
• Lead – These ads contain a way of capturing leads from directly in the Facebook app.  

The more you know about these various ad types, the better you’ll be able to use them for their specific strengths.

Keeping People on Facebook

Like any business, Facebook prefers if people stay on its site or app. That’s why they’ve introduced ad formats like Lead and Collection, because they give users the chance to interact with your brand without taking them away from the platform.

Lead ads contain forms that people can fill out without leaving the Facebook app and can even be automatically filled out with a user’s information straight from their Facebook profile. This simplified process means an increase in leads and even gives you the freedom of foregoing a landing page and just using the ad itself as the lead capture device.  

Hubspot says Lead ads can “skyrocket conversion rates and make mobile ads more effective for B2B marketers.”

Paid Advertising Up, Organic Reach Down

Facebook began experimenting this year with newsfeeds containing no organic branded posts, instead moving the branded content to a completely separate “Explore” feed. Right now, it’s still just contained to a handful of countries, but if this move is adopted worldwide, branded Facebook business pages would see their organic reach drop dramatically.

Even if this change doesn’t end up happening, business pages have already experienced a drop in organic reach on the platform in recent years. With organic reach having slowly dried up, business pages have to rely much more on paid advertising (which you have to think was a calculated move on Facebook’s part to make more revenue).

If you want to reach your target audience on Facebook now, you have to pay for it. The beauty of doing this is that you can get a lot more focused with your targeting, avoiding people who are unlikely to buy your product or service anyway and zeroing in on those who are more likely to buy it.

By knowing the trends in Facebook advertising for 2018, you can put your business in a better position to take advantage of Facebook’s massive reach. You should definitely be using video by now and one of the best types of video to use is animated explainer videos. Whiteboard videos are ideal for capturing attention. Click here to get started on planning and pricing your very own whiteboard animation video.