When running ads on Facebook, you have many options on where those ads are served. The locations where your ads can be served are called “placements.”
While the placements you can use will be dependent on your campaign objective, in this blog we will give you an overview of your options across each of Facebook’s four advertising platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger.
Source: Facebook About placements
1. FACEBOOK
There are several placement options of where you can serve your ads within the Facebook interface, but the two most popular are:
- Feeds: The Feed is the main page of Facebook, where you might find yourself scrolling on a daily basis. Feed placement ads appear on Facebook’s main page within the feed itself and contain an image, supporting text, and link to your business page. Feed placements can be served on both computer and mobile Feeds.
- Right Column: Your ads can also be served on the right side of Facebook’s main page, but this placement will only appear to users on computers.
2. INSTAGRAM
By using Facebook placements, you can run your ads on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook and has over 800 million users. You don’t have to have an Instagram account to run ads on Instagram because Facebook will use your Facebook Page to serve the ads, but your business page will not be clickable.
There are two Instagram ad placements available:
- Feeds: Instagram Feeds is the main results page of Instagram, and ads served here can appear for both computer and mobile users..
- Stories: Stories are a newer Instagram feature that lets users share images and videos for 24 hours only. Stories can be accessed at the top of the Instagram app and ads appear while a user is browsing through Stories..
3. AUDIENCE NETWORK:
Audience Network is a group of third-party apps and websites where you can place your ad to reach users outside of the Facebook website or app. The publisher of the app or website controls where your ads appear.
One example of how an ad can appear is the Audience Network Native Placement, where ads are interwoven into the content of the website, app, or game.
4. MESSENGER:
Messenger is Facebook’s messaging app and has approximately 1.3 billion users. Your ads can appear within Messenger by using one of the Messenger placements:
- Home: By using Messenger Home placement, your ads will appear on the homepage of the Messenger app.
- Sponsored Messages: Your ads can also be directly messaged to people that your business has as an existing conversation with using Messenger Sponsored Messages.
Example of a Messenger ad:
Mary Clayton Shearer
Mary Clayton Shearer is a Product Marketing Specialist at Netsertive. Previously, she was on our Operations team, performance tuning all your campaigns for over a year and a half. A graduate of NC State, you can find her at local restaurants and parks or cheering on the Wolfpack outside of work.
