We Are Social reports that Facebook is still one of the most visited sites of all time. That said, it’s a gold mine for businesses. You can drive traffic, especially potential customers, and make them aware of your business. In addition to helping them make a final decision about a purchase.

Here are the trends to look out for in 2022.

1. Video is Still Number One

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Video still reigns supreme across all platforms. With everyone going on Tiktok, Instagram, and Snapchat, you might lose your audience on these platforms. You should use video advertising to attract your Facebook target audience.

Video is great for a marketing strategy, whether to make them aware of your business or help them make decisions. Coordinating your marketing efforts to relevant trends to reach a specific group will help decrease marketing pain points.

Some video ad examples to try are:

  • Put your product front and center (ideal for groups of people who have yet to be introduced to your business)
  • Let a current customer voice speak for your business. This uses a marketing message that presents brand reliability (use testimonials or reviews with their consent)
  • Advertise your current sales or discounts (great during holiday sales)

Other than that, many experts believe that shorter videos are better. It’s not because of a short attention span. After all, most ads don’t usually go past a two or three-minute mark.

You can start by making 20 to 30-second videos. This is great for all ad budgets as well!

2. Ad Personalization

You can find your target audience on Facebook when you lead them through a funnel. And for them to engage with you, you need to personalize the ads they see on their feed. Personalization options are integrated into Facebook’s ad manager. Interests and locations are two ways you can personalize your ads.

Plus, if you want to personalize your ad sets further, you will have to set up Meta Pixel from your website, collecting first-party data. This can help you target your audience better, especially for those who have control over their data.

3. A/B Testing

An ongoing Facebook ad campaign trend is A/B testing. In fact, it should be a best practice. With A/B testing, you’ll get insights about which ads work and which don’t.

You shouldn’t rely on one type of Facebook ad design, headlines, emojis, CTA, or video. Plus, you always want to make different versions of it to see where your audience will engage with more. For instance, you can tweak even the tiniest of design details or change the ad copy in one design.

4. Rising Facebook Ad Costs

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Unfortunately, while Facebook is one of the best options for you to reach your audience, the platform will raise its ad costs. Since more businesses are on the platform to reach their advertising goals, you have a lot of competition and expect it to rise. If you want to stay on Facebook for your advertising efforts, you need to set aside a budget to make your Facebook advertising strategy work.

5. Focus on Mobile

Statista reports that over 98.5% of Facebook users are on mobile. And it’s important that you recognize that your advertising efforts should be optimized for mobile too. That said, you should take note that mobile ads appear differently than on desktops or tablets. Make sure to prepare and create different Facebook ad designs or videos for your advertising campaigns.

Instant Experiences is one example of a Facebook ad you can use on mobile, considering they have optimized templates. You have four Instant template options:

  • Storefront
  • Customer Acquisition
  • Storytelling
  • Lookbook

6. Native Advertising, Sponsored Content, and Boost Post

One of the best Facebook advertising trends that are still hot in 2022 is native advertising. This one applies primarily to those with apps. This is when you integrate sponsored content or ads on your app. Even Facebook says that native advertising has higher engagement and effective cost per mille.

You can use their native ad tools to help you get started with native advertising.

On the other hand, another form of native advertising that applies to Facebook is “Sponsored Content.” It’s one that’s integrated seamlessly into the user’s feed. Or you can boost your Facebook post too, which costs less than most Facebook ads.

7. Facebook Augmented Reality Ads

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Facebook is no stranger to augmented reality (AR). Although Snapchat is their primary competitor in this field, Facebook has been pushing to become a leader in AR and virtual reality. That said, expect to see more AR ads on Facebook. This way, you’ll get a better chance at more engagement with these ads as these allow the users to test your products, in a way.  

And if you’re not sure where to start, fortunately, Facebook has tools to help you create AR ads. In addition, you can talk to one of their AR producers and partner with them through the Spark AR Partner Network.

8. Go for Authenticity

Marketing Charts reveals that Gen Z and Millenials are likely to engage with genuine or authentic content. That said, you need to add that layer of authenticity to your advertising materials. Based on the example raised by Marketing Charts, if a business dabbles in beauty, make sure that you’re transparent when someone uses a filter on top of the products they use.

9. Facebook Ads Stories

Ephemeral content, also known as stories, is still trendy in 2022. You want to try putting ads on stories too. Across all Meta brands, over 500 million people use Stories.

Plus, there are more than four million advertisers that use Stories for their campaigns. This trend is not going anytime soon. In fact, it has helped users learn more about a business.

Stories are great for instant results. According to Facebook, here are some statistics for Stories ads:

  • After seeing a Story about a specific brand, almost 60% of their survey participants said they browsed and learned more about a brand on their website.
  • Half of their study revealed that they go on Stories to find out about new products.
  • 52% have said that Stories should be understandable and easy to read.

10. Facebook Live

Facebook Live is another opportunity for your audience to get to know your business more. You don’t have to spend time openly advertising your product or service. For example, you can show your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your business. You can broadcast how people use your products or service or perhaps show the people behind the business too.

11. Emojis are Still In

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Make your ads a little fun with emojis. Whether you’re adding it to your copy, design, or video, emojis may attract your audience to view your ad. But don’t overdo it OR use inappropriate ones.

For example, you can use a wink or heart eyes emoji if you’re promoting a sale. Let’s say you are a sustainable brand, you can use the 100 emoji to show that you use sustainable products or the earth emoji.

12. Short is Always Sweet

Similar to video ads, when it comes to copy and headline, you want to keep it short and sweet. Shorter is always better, whether you’re adding this copy to your ad design or video ad. After all, Facebook users are likely busy scrolling content on their feed.

You want to get their attention instantly. Why not integrate the emojis for this trend too? So long as you keep your ads concise, you’re likely to get more people to pause their scroll by engaging with your ad. Plus, this also works with the A/B testing trend that you should try. 

Other Key Statistics About Facebook Advertising

  • Almost 70% of survey participants in a Facebook IQ study confirm that they have visited a business page once a week. (Facebook IQ)
  • Facebook’s monthly active users in December 2021 was 2.91 billion, which was a 4% year-over-year increase (Facebook Earnings Report).
  • Ad impressions rose to 10% year-over-year in the last quarter of 2021. This is across Meta’s Family of Apps. (Facebook Earnings Report)
  • Over 2 billion users can be reached via advertising on the platform. (We Are Social)
  • Most people spend 19.6 hours on Facebook worldwide. (We Are Social)
  • The 25 to 34 demographic make up the largest advertising audience on the platform. (We Are Social)
  • Facebook users click 16 ads on average per month. (We Are Social)
  • If you plan to run ads outside the Facebook feed, like the Marketplace, your ad audience is 44.9% female and 55.1% male. (We Are Social)
  • Cost-per-click (CPC) varies, but data shows that an average monthly CPC for 2021 was $0.44. (AdEspresso)
  • Meanwhile, the recent CPC for campaign objectives are $1.85 [Impressions]; $1.40 [Reach]; $0.43 [Lead Generation]; $0.87 [Conversions]; and $0.21 [Link Clicks], (AdEspresso)
  • It’s estimated that Facebook will earn an ad revenue of $58.11 billion in 2022. (eMarketer)
  • Marketplace (2.7%) and in-stream video ads (1.0%) are the top 2 non-feed placements for ads. (Marketing Charts)

Final Thoughts

If you want to execute a social media advertising strategy, Facebook should be your go-to platform. The social media site has a wide audience reach and customizable options to help you target the right people to see your ads and interact with your business. Even if trends come and go, eventually, you’ll have to find out which advertising strategies work well for your business. And if you need help in designing your Facebook ads, why not try Penji for 15 days 100% risk-free and see the difference!