Collection is a mobile-only ad format that pairs a hero video or image with a row of four products below it to drive a user from inspiration to action within a single experience. The fourth image has a More call-to-action to encourage further consideration. Tapping on the ad—hero, product row or More button—opens an Instant Experience displaying up to 50 products. Tapping on a product in the Instant Experience takes the user to a product detail page on the advertiser’s mobile site or app.
Using collection ads in Smartly.io
See the following guides:
- Collection Ads with a Catalog
- Collection Ads from Instant Experience (Canvas)
- Dynamic Video in Collection Ads
- Collection Ads with Tabs
Potential use cases
- Drive conversions with a mobile landing page that encourages action
- Showcase products in a grid layout so people can browse more of your products in one place
- Let people explore your products in action by featuring them in photos
- Give people an engaging way to explore your brand, product or service
- Category-level image or video to show related, curated products like a gift guide, living room decorations, men's watches or women's shoes
- Highlighting a runway show or new fashion line with related products
- Featuring new product release with related products to encourage cross-selling
- Promoting a sale of discounted products
- Reimagining a television commercial with related products
- Product demos or tutorials with related products
FAQ
Why is the header of my collection ad cropped to a square in Facebook?
In July 2021 Facebook changed how Collection ads work in Facebook News Feed. The hero media (the one showing in the ad above the thumbnails) is always cropped to 1:1 square. Also there might be only three thumbnails showing instead of four.
What placements are supported?
Until October 2020, only Facebook Feed and Instagram Feed mobile were supported. From October 2020, Facebook is rolling out collection ads also in Instagram Stories. To enable it, select Instagram Stories as a placement in the ad set audience settings.
To verify, you're able to run Collection on Instagram Stories, check the ad preview for that placement:
What catalogs are supported?
As of October 2020, Product, Hotel, and Automotive catalogs are supported in collection ads.
What campaign types are supported?
The collection is available for the Conversions and Traffic objectives in regular campaigns and Dynamic Ads Product Sales campaigns. Mobile App Installs campaigns are also supported.
Additionally, note that the Instant Experience requires you to enter the correct app store link manually into the Call-To-Action link field for the iTunes or Google Play store respectively; e.g. https://itunes.apple.com/app/id284882215. The link should be the same app store link configured in the app promoted in the ad set.
Universal, deep links or other links won’t work for Instant Experience inside collection ads. Please, see the image below for an example.
Is product catalog always required to create collection ads?
No. You can create an Instant Experience in Facebook using one of the available templates and upload videos and images manually. Then, in Smartly.io you can create Collection Ads from Instant Experience (Canvas).
Do I need to create the Instant Experience?
If you are creating Collection Ads with a Catalog, we'll create the Instant Experience automatically from the Product Set and the hero image or video. You can use Dynamic Image Templates to create appealing images for your collection.
Can I direct users from collection ad to my app?
Yes, you can. Both website and app are supported as destinations.
Do GIFs work with collection ads?
Yes, it does. We have tested this and GIFs are supported in collection ads. (Updated: December 2020)
I'm trying to create a Collection ad using a product set, but I'm getting an error "Facebook error: Insufficient products in product set for collection...", what's wrong?
There are not enough unique products or product groups available to be used for the Collection ad in the selected product set. Collection ads require at least 4 unique products or product groups to be available. Please make sure there are enough unique products in the product set.