These 8 great Facebook ad examples prove that there’s no shame in learning from those before you.
Just as every artist looks to former greats for inspiration and every budding musician picks up an instrument to learn their favourite songs, Facebook advertisers can look to others for inspiration and direction.
I’ve trawled through newsfeeds (for hours) and picked out some of the most eye-catching, results focussed and targeted Facebook ad examples to inform and inspire your marketing campaigns.
There were originally 12, but I’ve narrowed the results to 8 Facebook ad examples that reveal the most valuable lessons for advertisers.
Let’s get into our top Facebook ad examples, discover what you can learn and analyse the best features of each social media ad…
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Adobe Photoshop
Facebook ad Creative: Video
The first of our Facebook ad examples is this video ad from Adobe for their design software, Photoshop.
Adobe are a well-known brand, and its product has the benefit of being the leader in its space – this is represented by its simple one-line ad copy and ad headline that reads ‘Adobe Photoshop’.
The reason that I selected this Facebook ad example is for the ad creative.
The video for this product perfectly targets a very specific market.
This is the video used:
Whilst demonstrating how Photoshop works, this Adobe video ad is saturated with young, creative looking people who would be deemed as relatable and aspirational to Adobe’s obvious target audience.
In addition to this, the journey of the ad demonstrates the possibilities and features of Photoshop as a computer mouse scans around the screen making visual edits.
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Google Ads
Facebook Ad Creative: Single Image
Similarly to Adobe, Google is massive and its advertising platform is one of the biggest in the world.
This means that they haven’t had to work hard with their ad copy or ad headline.
However, they have done a few other things that prove their Facebook advertising skills.
Firstly, their image is relatable. It features a person working from home, being hassled by their dog.
This may be an attempt at trying to overcome (or allay) a commonly held objection to digital advertising – lack of skill or technical ability.
The image also includes a button style design, that includes the text ‘Learn more’. This simple addition can drive action and encourage people to click on the image (which is linked to their landing page).
But this isn’t the most powerful thing about their ad – this lies in their offer.
‘Start now with £75 free ad credit’ includes a few super-powerful advertising tricks:
- £: Currency symbols are known to immediately grab attention. Consumers scan shelves intentionally looking for them.
- 75: The use of a high number, particularly in conjunction with the ‘£’ adds even more power to the eye-catching ability of this in-image ad copy.
- Free: This is the most powerful term in the world of advertising. Free means zero risk and all rewards to consumers.
This text, which is included in the centre of this Facebook ad example’s image, sits above their fake ‘Learn more’ button, grabbing attention and encouraging users to click through.
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SEMRush
Facebook Ad Creative: Video
The previous Facebook ad examples were both products focussed, driving users to a landing page – this Facebook ad from SEMrush is a little different.
The video for this ad doesn’t compete with the creatives of either Adobe or Google and the ad copy isn’t the most compelling piece of text.
A clue for the reason that I selected this ad lies in the ad headline: ’27 of the Biggest SEO Mistakes in 2020’.
This Facebook ad example is content focussed.
It isn’t trying to generate leads, drive traffic to a landing page or get sales. It’s showing their content to relevant people.
This is one of my favourite awareness and audience building ad tactics in Content Marketing.
By backing themselves with an ad budget, SEMrush aims to draw new audience members into their content marketing funnel, prove their content’s worth, position themselves as experts and inform the new audience about problems that their product can solve.
If you’re creating targeted content that fits into a content marketing strategy, use Facebook ads to increase your impact and results!
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Spotify
Facebook ad creative: Single image
Have you ever found yourself scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed and an ad has made you stop dead in your tracks?
The creativity in this Facebook ad example is what really wins the day for it.
The pink background, alongside the intriguing line: ‘Video never sounded so good’ captures attention and imagination.
Spotify has also used a fake button design with the text ‘Create Ad’ inside their linked ad creative – making visitors want to click the image!
This is a great example of how a combination of media (photo and design), a clever psychological technique (the fake button) and an intriguing line of ad copy can produce a high-performing Facebook ad creative.
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Huel
Facebook ad creative: Single image
Our next Facebook ad example again proves the pull of mixed media within a single image.
This ad from Huel uses a photo of their product, alongside some simply designed text additions.
The Huel Facebook ad is our first example of slightly longer ad copy, and a much punchier ad headline, however, this isn’t what I’d like to focus on.
The main pull of this ad, and the reason that it made this list is because it’s the first real example of a benefit-based Facebook ad.
Benefits can be an advertiser’s most powerful tool, especially when they’re done well.
What you’ll notice about this Huel ad is that it targets a few user-specific benefits, as well as listing that it has ‘175 Health benefits’.
The benefits are NOT product orientated. They’re user-focussed, e.g. ‘Reduce tiredness and fatigue’.
By implementing benefits like this in their Facebook ads, Huel can split-test targeted user-focussed benefits amongst different audiences and see what works best.
For instance, an older audience might be more interested in their claims to ‘Support the immune system’, whilst a younger audience might be more likely to convert when reading about the ‘skin’ benefits.
If you have a product that has user-targeted benefits, test them in your Facebook ads for different audience demographics.
Discover how to make super-targeted Facebook ads in our guide to Facebook Events Manager.
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BigCommerce
Facebook ad creative: Single image
On the face of it, this is a pretty boring Facebook ad example. It uses what looks like a standard stock image, covered by a translucent purple colour grade.
However, there are a few things that work in this BigCommerce Facebook ad.
For starters, their use of a large number in the centre of their ad creative is a great draw.
When seeing a statistic or percentage like this, a user’s first instinct is to read more to find out what it relates to.
This is a well-used advertising trick, as is the ad headline, ‘Download Guide Today’, which encourages immediate action alongside their ‘Download’ CTA.
But the thing that really tipped the balance was BigCommerce’s use of language.
Within the two sentences in this ad (1x in the ad copy, 1x in the ad creative) the following words are used:
- Brand studio
- Content strategies
- CAC
- Content
- Increased revenue
Copy like this speaks in their target audience’s language.
To any marketers reading this, it might sound crazy to hear, but not everyone knows what the word ‘content’ means, let alone that CAC stands for Customer Acquisition Costs.
Abbreviations and industry-relevant words like this are an awesome way to relate and appeal to your target audience.
If you’re unsure what your target market sounds like, have more conversations with existing clients and leads.
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Clearbanc
Facebook ad creative: Video
Before we get into the positives of this Facebook ad example from Clearbanc, I need to explain the biggest problem with this ad.
The video, which uses a voice-over narrator, fails to include subtitles!
All videos on Facebook auto-play on mute meaning that users have to hit the unmute button themselves if they want to hear anything.
However, this ad does have a few very good things going for it.
For starters, their ad protagonists appear to represent their target audience – young e-com entrepreneurs.
Their video also demonstrates how easily their customers are able to use their application.
But it’s the use of those big green ticks in the ad copy that got this ad the nod into our Facebook ad examples.
Emojis are an amazing way to capture attention in a busy newsfeed, and green ticks are a particularly useful tool in advertising copy.
They list features or benefits in a bullet-point style list, allowing their prospects to immediately get to the point.
Try creating an appealing list for your next Facebook ad or learn more about how I’ve used this to boost our Facebook ad engagement by 400%+.
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Einstein Marketer
Facebook ad creative: Single Image
Last but not least, we have one of our own ads.
We spend millions (every year) on Facebook ads for ourselves and our clients, which gave me plenty of ads to choose from.
In the end, I picked one of our simplest.
The real appeal of this ad, and the reason that it beat out many others in split tests, is the image.
This creative has an immediate shock and stop factor that draws viewers into the ad copy and headline.
The image has been linked to our ad copy and ad headline: ‘Your Competitors Are Going To Crush You’ to capitalise and relate the image to the ad.
This Facebook ad is a great example of simplicity.
It’s easy to overthink or overwork ideas that don’t need it.
If your ad is targeted at the right audience (i.e. a custom or qualified lookalike audience) all it needs to do is capture attention, and let the message do the hard work.
Facebook Ad Examples: Conclusion
These 8 Facebook ad examples were picked to demonstrate a variety of factors that could positively impact your next Facebook ad campaign.
By testing the creative and copy ideas in these Facebook ad examples, you should further optimise your performance.
Remember to use these Facebook ads as inspiration, not replication – tailor their strengths to your audience’s needs!
Want more Facebook ad strategies? Check out one of our most popular articles:
- The Facebook Ad Campaign Objectives Guide
- How to Get 1000s of Facebook Page Likes
- The Facebook Ad Algorithm: Maximise Your Advertising Spend
- 12 Facebook Ad Mistakes Killing Your Campaigns
- Facebook Ad Scaling Basics: 2 Ways Anybody Can Scale Up
