Facebook Collection Ads for eCommerce: Everything You Need to Know to Boost Sales and ROAS [+ Examples]

If you don’t have Facebook collection ads in your eCommerce marketing arsenal, you’re missing out in a big way. 

This dynamic, mobile-only ad format features an image, slideshow, or video above a carousel — or collection — of product images. And if you are already familiar with setting up Facebook dynamic ads, getting started with collection ads will be a breeze.

The trick is knowing just how to create, manage, and optimize this Facebook ad type to reap the best rewards, which is what this post will lay out.

What Are Facebook Collection Ads

The short of it: Facebook collection ads for eCommerce are Facebook dynamic ads with flair, and are designed to showcase eCommerce brands while encouraging more engagement.

When a potential shopper clicks your collection ad, they are then taken to the full-screen version. Here they can scroll through the product line and be directed to specific product pages, which can boost engagement in a big way.

Here’s a great Facebook collection ad example from one of our top Traffic Booster merchants, Bonita.

Facebook Collection Ads vs. Instant Experience Ads 

A Facebook collection ad is a format that includes either a product video or image and a selection of three products. These ads appear in a user’s Facebook newsfeed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Marketplace, and Instagram Stories. 

A Facebook collection ad format can be used with the following Facebook advertising objectives: 

• Website traffic 
• Store traffic 
• Conversions 
• Catalog sales 
• Reach 

On the other hand, the Facebook Instant Experience ad appears as a full-screen landing page or homepage. Available placements will depend on which Instant Experience ad format and component you have chosen. Objective options include: 

• Awareness 
• Traffic
• Engagement 
• Leads 
• Sales 

Formally known as Canvas, the Instant Experience ad format enables brands to reach potential customers with highly engaging video ads, swipeable carousels, and explorable lifestyle images with tagged products — all in a single ad. 

With this ad format, you have four easy-to-use templates, including: 

1. Instant Storefront
2. Instant customer acquisition
3. Instant Storytelling
4. Instant Lookbook

The Benefits of Facebook Collection Ads

Collection ads aren’t just selling a product; they are selling your store. This means they are great for brand authority, while using video and images to draw potential customers in. 

Because collection ads enable you to showcase a collection (or line) of products without swamping your shopper’s Facebook newsfeed, they maximize the mobile experience for the least amount of real estate. 

Meta’s Dollar Shave Club study found that the eCommerce subscription brand was able to increase subscriptions by 1.5% and reach 1.6 million potential customers while decreasing their cost per subscription by 30% with their collection and Instant Experience (Canvas ads).

Another study revealed that retail giant Sephora enjoyed a 32% ROAS after introducing ads using the collection ad format, while FabFitFun enjoyed an increase of 80% in their Facebook ad CTRs.

More recently, RIMOWA was able to boost ROAS by 2X while improving brand awareness and ad recall with the Facebook ads for eCommerce — which included collection ad format with video content.

How to Set Up Facebook Collection Ads for eCommerce in Two Steps

To get the ball rolling with Facebook collection ads, you first need to set up your Facebook product feed and catalog as you would with Facebook dynamic ads. Once that is done, you can create a collection ad from your Meta account. 

Here are those two steps in more detail. 

Step #1: Creating Your Product Catalogs and Feed

Before you can launch a Facebook collection ad, you need to have set up a dynamic product feed or a static file catalog of the products you sell. To do this, you will want to select the “Catalogs” option from your Meta Ads Manager (formally Facebook Ads Manager) tools list, or through Meta’s Commerce Manager. 

After selecting “Create New Catalog,” you will then be prompted to select the type of product catalog you want to create, followed by the store site and name of your catalog.

Next, you will be taken to the catalog dashboard, where you will have access to the following: 

• Product catalog diagnostics
• Products
• Product sets
• Product data sources
• Events data sources 
• Settings

Within your catalog you will be able to either input products manually, create a product feed that can also be used for other ads such as dynamic ads, or connect to Facebook pixels.

If you have more than 50 products, then data feeds, or pixels, are the best way to go in creating your product catalog. 

For fewer products, you can upload each individually or use Facebook pixels to allow for automatic product updates and reduce a lot of admin as you grow your product lines.

Each product will need an image (600 x 600 px to fit Facebook ad sizes for collections), name, description, product ID or SKU, product page link to website, and price. 

You can also create product sets that divide your catalog products into categories such as brand name, product type, price, or other conditions.

Easy, no? Now it’s time to create your Facebook collection ad for your eCommerce brand!

Step #2: Creating Your Facebook Collection Ads

You can either create a collection ad straight from your Facebook product catalog dashboard…

…Or you can choose traffic, catalog sales, store visits, or conversion objectives from your Meta Ad Manager and then select “Collections” as your ad format.

But remember, collections ads are only available on mobile. If you want to create something for the desktop, then Facebook carousel ads are a great alternative.

The most important elements of your collection ads will be your main slideshow, image, or product video — followed by your full-screen design, which you can either create yourself, or use one of Facebook’s built-in templates, using either a grid layout or lifestyle layout. 

Below is an example of the lifestyle layout template.

For a step-by-step guide to creating a Facebook collection ad for eCommerce, visit Facebook’s Create a Collection Ad to Sell Products help guide or watch this video: 

Now that you’ve caught up on the basics, it’s time to get into the good stuff! Here’s the nitty-gritty on how you can optimize Facebook collection ads for eCommerce.

How to Get the Best Results from Facebook Collection Ads for eCommerce

1. Harness the Power of Automation 

The first thing you will want to do is look into social media management and optimization. With the right ad automation, eCommerce marketers are able to streamline marketing across various channels while automatically optimizing for peak performance. 

Of course, you will want to ensure that you use a robust service and tool like Traffic Booster, which offers advanced Facebook ad types and other enterprise options.

Automate Your Facebook Ads

2. A/B Test Your Facebook Collection Ads

Another way to ensure you get the best results from your Facebook collection ads is by A/B testing on a smaller budget — getting your toes wet before diving in with a big budget. 

This includes testing headlines and your main image or video to ensure the combination brings in the highest number of clicks for your spend. Next, you’ll want to test your full-page design and products to ensure you’re getting the best traffic or conversions for your spend.

3. Optimize Your Cover Image or Video for Facebook Collection Ads for Clicks

Collection ads are visual and tell a story, making your cover image or video the most crucial element. First, make sure you follow the guidelines. If you’re using an image, it should be 1200 x 528 px. For video, you should be using 1:1 or 16:9 ratios. Remember, you can also add a 360 video as your collection ad cover image. However, you won’t be able to preview it before publishing.

As we mentioned in the point above, you should be A/B testing your images to find the one that yields the best results. If you’re stumped for ideas, try testing these image/video creative ideas:

1. Design and use images that are relatable to the market segment you’re targeting
2. Use images/videos of people using your products
3. Show off your products’ benefits — show how your products solve a pain point

4. Ensure Your Facebook Collections Are Cohesive

Remember, your collection ads have a lot of moving parts, so you want them to be cohesive from beginning to end. 

To ensure this, make sure the product collections in your ads seem like they are part of a set — grouped by either category, look, or feel. It’s also important that the product images themselves have the same look and feel, i.e., shot in a similar way or in a way that signifies they are all from your store.

5. Use Facebook Collection Ads for Remarketing

Using Facebook collection ads is a great way to take your Facebook remarketing campaigns to the next level. Using conversion or traffic-objective ads that target custom audiences who have already engaged with specific products, pages, or ads, you can use collection ads to enhance branding and bring potential shoppers back to your store.

Final Thoughts: Make Sure Your Collection Ads Fit into Your eCommerce Marketing Strategy as a Whole 

You now have everything you need to kick Facebook collection ads eCommerce in the butt! But you want to ensure that your collection ads work together with all your eCommerce ad marketing to seamlessly move potential customers and shoppers through your entire eCommerce sales funnel. 

It should go without saying, but don’t forget to ensure that your product pages linked to the ads are perfectly optimized for mobile to encourage the best results. 

Here are some of the top Facebook guides you can use to optimize and fine-tune your social media and PPC marketing: 

1. Facebook Ads for eCommerce
2. Google Ads for eCommerce
3. Microsoft Ads for eCommerce
4. Instagram Ads Guide and Marketing Tips
5. TikTok Ads for eCommerce

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