A Complete Guide To Facebook Marketplace Ads

Boasting more than 2.8 billion active monthly users, Facebook is one of the fastest-growing online channels to advertise your products to your targeted audience. To enhance buying and selling, Facebook created Marketplace, where users can capitalize on an audience interested in their products and convert them into customers. This means that you can sell on Marketplace and even build an eCommerce business just by having an active Facebook account. In this guide, you will learn about Facebook Marketplace and how to leverage Facebook Marketplace ads to sell even more. 

What is Facebook Marketplace? 

Facebook launched its Marketplace in 2016 as a way for users to buy and sell pre-owned items publicly within Facebook and connect directly with potential customers in their area instead of posting in a single group. Users can browse through different categories and subcategories, check-in on groups or go directly to stores they like. 

Marketplace is Facebook's equivalent to eBay and Craigslist, but its advantage is its growing community of users itching to make a purchase. At the moment, more than 1 billion people from 90 countries use the platform. Combine that with built-in interest targeting and easy-to-use product categorization, and you have a tool that's tailor-made for increasing business sales. 

Furthermore, Marketplace operates as a peer-to-peer platform in that users can reach out to each other to purchase products while payments take place off the app either in person or at the time of exchange. While anyone can list their products on the channel, Marketplace ads are also a great idea for entrepreneurs and eCommerce businesses looking to generate more sales. 

What are Facebook Marketplace ads? 

Facebook Marketplace ads are essentially paid ads shown between regular product listing to help sellers reach a wider audience of users who are scrolling and ready to buy. Facebook displays these ads when customers are shopping with purchasing intent, thus making them an attractive tool for advertisers. 

If you're not familiar yet with Marketplace ads, you can easily identify them as they are displayed like a new placement option (like News Feed ads or stories ads), unlike the ordinary ads format. In other words, they are different from the other regular postings due to their larger size and sponsored label. 

What items can you advertise on Facebook Marketplace? 

You can advertise items that fall under the following categories:

• Classifieds 

• Clothing & accessories 

• Deals 

• Electronics

• Entertainment 

• Family 

• Hobbies 

• Home & Garden 

• Housing

• Vehicles

According to Facebook rules, anything listed on the Marketplace and that can be advertised must be a physical product, meaning you cannot list "in search of" posts like you would on other marketplaces. Therefore, you might want to familiarize yourself with Facebook's commerce policies before you proceed. 

Why use Facebook Marketplace ads? 

With so many options of marketplaces to advertise your products, deciding where to spend your marketing. Here are reasons to use Facebook Marketplace ads:

1. Reach customers when they're shopping 

Although Facebook offers different ad placement options, Marketplace ads are unique, especially since there's a good chance that anyone browsing through the listings is already in a buying mood. Anyone scrolling through their News Feed is probably looking for their content from their friends, but anyone browsing the Marketplace is looking to buy something. Since they are shopping to make a purchase, they are likely to click on advertised products when looking for the items they wish to buy. 

2. Suitable for mobile users 

Another reason to leverage Facebook Marketplace ads is that the ads are shown only to mobile users. While this might seem like a disadvantage, not every user browsing the Marketplace will see it, it is not an issue. A report from Statista states that 98.3% of Facebook users access the platform from a mobile device, meaning you can still reach almost every Facebook user. 

3. Large user base 

A year after Facebook Marketplace was launched, it recorded 700 million unique users. Today, more than 1 billion people use Facebook Marketplace, making it one of the most densely populated marketplaces in existence. Interestingly, a survey carried out by Bizrate Insights found out that 17% of the respondents belonged to the category that only used Facebook for just shopping. That's 170 million users who only visit Facebook when they either want to buy or sell. 

4. Build personal connections 

When you an ad on Facebook Marketplace and someone wants to purchase, it's typically done directly through Messenger or clicking through to a post-click page. This means that you can form personal connections with buyers and turn them into repeat customers, especially if your ad takes them out of the Facebook app. 

5. Scale ads with automatic placements

Advertisers can easily scale ads across all Facebook, leveraging the same creative, targeting options, and optimization. In other words, your ads will be able to reach your potential customers wherever they may be spending their time in the Facebook app, including News Feed, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network.

6. Produce more efficient outcomes

Since Facebook Marketplace ads allow you to reach the entire Facebook family of apps and services, there is an excellent chance that you will sell a lot of products. A Facebook IQ study found that advertisers who took advantage of placement optimization campaigns saw 4.1% more reach and a 5.2% lower cost impression, which led to a lower cost per reach of 5.8%. For the average campaign, this translated into an additional half a million people reached for the same budget compared to the Facebook-only ads. 

What you need before creating ads in Facebook Marketplace 

If you're looking to start your first ad campaign in Marketplace, there are two things you need to first put in place:

A. Create a Facebook business manager account 

This account provides you with all the tools to successfully run your ads campaign. From this account, you will be able to carry out various functions, including posting ads, measuring their performance and analyzing outcomes for future optimizations. 

When you create an account, you will have access to the following tools:

• Ads manager 

• Analytics 

• Attribution 

• Events manager 

B. Set up Facebook pixel and Facebook pixel events 

A Facebook pixel code is vital as it allows you to see who clicks your ads, when and how often. By adding the code to your website or mobile app, you will be able to determine whether or not you're reaching the right people. You will also be able to effectively target custom audiences and lookalike audiences. 

How to create ads in Facebook marketplace ads

Now that you have created an ad account in Facebook business manager and installed Facebook ad tracking software, you can now go-ahead to create your first marketplace ad by following these tips

1. Launch ads manager and start a new campaign 

2. Choose your Facebook objective. You will be asked to choose from the following:

• Brand awareness 

• Reach 

• Traffic 

• Video views

• Lead generation 

• Messages

• Conversions 

• Catalogue sales 

• Store traffic 

Choose any of the above and click Continue. 

3. Pick your destination 

4. Choose your audience and define your targeting 

5. Pick automatic placements or edit placements. Automatic placements let Facebook choose placements for you, but if you're u choose to edit placements, keep in mind that Marketplace isn't available as a single ad placement, and your ad campaign must include News Feed. However, automatic placements are recommended for beginners who need time to discover which placements meet their needs. 

6. Set up budget and schedule. Click Next when you are done. 

7. Choose your ad's creative format and be sure to adhere to the following specs. 

Specifications for marketplace ads on Facebook

Marketplace ad specifications depend on the ad format you choose: single image, video, or carousel.

Image Design recommendations

·       File type: jpg or png

·       Image ratio: 9:16 to 16:9

·       Recommended resolution: Upload to the highest resolution image available

·       Images that consist of more than 20% text may experience reduced delivery

·       Text: 125 characters

With Link

·       Images may be cropped to 1:1

·       Recommended resolution: At least 1,200 x 1,200px

·       Headline: 25 characters

·       Link description: 30 characters

Video Design recommendations

·       File type: Most files are supported. However, H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+ are recommended.

·       Recommended resolution: Upload to the highest resolution source video available without letter or pillar boxing (No black bars) and that that meets file size or ratio limits

·       Video ratio: 9:16 to 16:9

·       Video file size: 4GB Max

·       Video length minimum: 1 second

·       Video length maximum: 240 minutes

·       Video captions: Not supported

·       Video sound: Optional but recommended

·       Text: 125 characters

·       Video thumbnail images that consist of more than 20% text may experience reduced delivery.

·       Vertical videos (with aspect ratio taller than 2:3) may be masked to 2:3

With Link

·       Headline: 25 characters

·       Link description: 30 characters

Technical requirements

·       Minimum aspect ratio: 200 x 300

Carousel Design recommendations

·       Minimum number of cards: 2 (each with its link)

·       Maximum number of cards: 10 (each with its link)

·       Image file type: jpg or png

·       Video file type: Supported file formats

·       Video maximum file size: 4GB

·       Video length: Up to 240 minutes

·       Image maximum file size: 30MB

·       Recommended resolution: At least 1080 x 1080px

·       Recommended ratio: 1:1

·       Text:125 characters

·       Headline: 25 characters

·       Link description: 20 characters

·       Images that consist of more than 20% text may experience reduced delivery.

Technical requirements

·       Aspect ratio tolerance: 3%

8. When you've finished setting up your ad, click Done and then Place Order.

Wrap-up 

A lot has changed on how eCommerce businesses run today, with many people operating stores without managing inventory themselves. This practice is known as dropshipping, and you can join in on this approach to retail business by signing up at Doba. Doba is a leading dropshipping website since 2002, dedicated to providing high-quality dropshipping suppliers and products for online sellers to dropship. Doba provides integrations with top marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and more allowing sellers to add products to their stores and sync orders to the suppliers to fulfil efficiently.