Facebook and Instagram Ads placements determine where your ads appear on Meta: they include manual options and Advantage+ to show ads in the feed, Stories, Reels, and other areas of the platform, optimizing for every marketing objective.
Today I want to talk to you about Facebook and Instagram placements, which are the positions where your ads appear on Meta.
In this guide, we’ll discover all the available opportunities based on marketing objectives. We’ll also look at Advantage+ placements, formerly known as automatic placements, and manual placements. Let’s begin.
What placements are available on Meta
First, let’s clarify that not all placements are available for all types of ads, and the more placements you use for your ads, the broader the audience you can reach.
So be careful not to make overly restrictive choices, especially since the costs don’t increase and remain the same whether you choose one, two, three, or four placements. But let’s look in more detail at the placements offered by Meta in 2024.
Feed placements for Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads
1. Facebook Feed: certainly among the most popular placements. Ads are displayed in users’ news feeds, among posts from friends and followed pages. This placement is ideal for capturing attention naturally and engagingly.
2. Instagram Feed: very similar to the Facebook feed, with ads presented alongside viewed content.
3. Instagram Profile Feed: ads are shown when users visit other users’ profiles.
4. Facebook Marketplace: ads appear on the marketplace home or in the app when someone accesses it (currently not available in Italy).
5. Facebook Video Feed: ads are shown in Facebook video feeds, where users watch various types of videos. It’s a powerful option for campaigns targeting a highly engaged audience.
6. Facebook Right Column: these ads are cheaper because they’re less visible, but can be useful for remarketing campaigns, for example. Keep in mind that they are only shown to people browsing Facebook on computers.
7. Facebook Business Explore Section: your ads appear in Facebook’s Business Explore section when a user clicks on a business post header or on comments in the Facebook mobile feed.
8. Instagram Explore: ads are displayed during browsing when a user clicks on a photo or video.
9. Instagram Explore Home: your ads are shown as tiles in the Explore grid, along with other recommended content.
10. Messenger Inbox: ads appear in the Messenger home.
Placements in stories and reels
1. Facebook Stories: ads appear between users’ stories and, thanks to short and impactful content, are very engaging.
2. Instagram Stories: like Facebook Story ads, they are excellent for creating a sense of urgency through brief but meaningful images and videos.
3. Instagram Profile Reels: here ads are shown in users’ reels and take advantage of their greater reach and engagement.
4. Messenger Stories: this is a more private placement, as ads are inserted between users’ stories on Facebook Messenger.
5. Instagram Reels: ads in Instagram Reels appear in the short vertical videos that users can scroll through in the Reels section.
6. Facebook Reels: they work like ads on Instagram reels.
Other placements: in-stream ads for video and search
1. Facebook in-stream videos: Facebook in-stream video ads are shown during longer video playbacks on Facebook. These ads appear as short commercial breaks and are ideal for capturing the attention of users already engaged in watching video content.
2. Facebook and Instagram search results: ads appear in search results on Facebook and Instagram when users search for specific keywords or phrases.
How to choose the right placement based on the objective: better Advantage+ automatic placements or manual?
To optimize your advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, access Ads Manager, choose the “objective of your campaign (Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App” Promotion, Sales) and click on Continue. Remember that not all objectives support all placements!
At the ad set level, go to the Placements section. As you’ll see, Advantage+ placements are selected by default, as they are automatically optimized by Facebook to get the best results, based on the selected objective. It’s the choice recommended by Meta and by me too, if you want simplified and optimized campaign management.
If instead you want to control the placements yourself, and most marketers still prefer to do so for specific strategic choices, then choose the Manual Placements option and deselect the boxes next to the placements you want to remove.
Is a box not visible? It means that placement is not available for the selected ad type or objective. For example, if you choose Mobile placement, you won’t have the right column placement among the choices, which is only available for those browsing from a PC.
You can also decide whether to limit placements to Mobile or Computer and deactivate placements by unchecking the boxes for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, or Audience Network.
Finally, you can decide whether to show your ads in partners’ live streams in Ads Manager or in Brand Safety Controls.
IMPORTANT: an Instagram profile is not necessarily required for Instagram placement, as your Facebook Page will be used.
How to create effective ads for each placement
Why you absolutely must customize assets based on placements
To maximize campaign effectiveness and optimize ROI, you need to learn to customize assets for Facebook or Instagram, adapting content to audience habits and best practices for each placement.
For example, on Facebook you might publish an image or video related to the product, while on Instagram you might tell the brand’s story with attractive and engaging images and videos.
Best practices for customizing ads
Each placement requires different proportions. For stories, use the vertical format (9:16) to fully cover the mobile screen and capture the “user’s” attention and add concise and prominent text. Diversify titles and links across various placements, to attract without creating chaos, especially in the Facebook feed.
Create short videos from 1 to 15 seconds for placement in Stories and use Ad Manager tools to edit videos, add subtitles, and customize thumbnails.
Crop the image to highlight the most important part of the message, so you’ll keep attention high on the key element of your ad.
NOTE: be aware that Apple is introducing regulatory changes for iOS 14, which could affect the visibility of your ads. Learn about the new requirements to ensure your campaigns remain compliant and optimized.
Make way for customization with creative tools
To create a custom ad and use asset customization tools, follow these steps:
1. Ad creation:“access Meta’s”Ad Manager and choose an objective for your campaign. Set the budget and define the target audience. Proceed to the Configuration of the ad.
2. Choosing the ad type: you can choose between Create ad and from here select Add media and then Add image. For the Use existing post option, choose Select a placement to modify. Finally, Use Creative Hub mock ad, go to Edit and then Edit media.
3. Adding media: upload your media in the Add media section and click on Next.
4. Editing content: choose Crop, then modify the image aspect ratio to fit various placements. Or select Replace and change the media for each placement group, if necessary.
5. Optimization: in the Optimize screen, you can activate All optimizations or choose from different optimization options to automatically transform your content into the best version for your audience.
Select Finish to save the changes.
Editing single or multiple placements
For Multiple editing, hover over the placement groups and select the appropriate icon. You can edit placements such as feeds, in-stream videos, stories and reels, apps and sites, right column, and search results.
If you want to do a Single edit, select the icon in the placement group to make specific changes.
Creative tools to customize ads
1. Templates: transform your images into videos.
2. Media: edit existing images or videos, crop (or crop and resize for videos) to adjust image or video proportions and edit the video. With Preview image (videos only) you can choose an image visible before the start and after the end of the video.
3. Text: add or edit subtitles (videos only), main text, titles and web or app destinations.
4. Video tools: add polls (videos only), text overlays (videos only), overlaid logos (videos only) and background colors (stories and reels only).
Select Save to confirm the changes. Use Cancel if you want to undo changes at any time.
After verifying the Facebook and Instagram ad placements, select Publish. The ad will display customized images or videos in different placements, ensuring greater impact and engagement.
How to customize an existing post for various placements
If you have already published a post on Facebook or Instagram platforms, you can transform it into a customized ad for various placements. Here’s how you should proceed:
1. Access Ads Manager and choose the objective of your campaign.
2. Set the budget.
3. Define the target audience.
4. In the dropdown menu, select the option Use existing post. You can choose from posts published in the Facebook News Feed, Instagram feed, and Stories. If you collaborate with a creator, you can also choose branded content.
5. Select the post you want to use as an ad, click on Continue to view all your existing posts in the various available locations and choose the placement you want to modify. A pop-up window will appear with different customization options.
6. Adapt the content for each selected placement, such as Facebook feed, Instagram stories, etc. Save the changes and finally, you can publish the ad on social networks!
Conclusions
I hope I’ve clarified your ideas about Facebook and Instagram placements because if there’s one word that should always be on your mind when dealing with advertising campaigns, it’s optimization.
Working with ads only makes sense if you can maximize the return on investment and make the most of the money allocated for various ads.
Otherwise, you won’t achieve the business objectives you’ve set for yourself and you’ll make a spectacular flop.
If you need professional advice, contact us. We’ll have a fifteen-minute chat with no obligation and no cost. We’re waiting for you!
