How to Make a Facebook Slideshow Ad: A Simple Guide

With the recent introduction of a raft of new features for Facebook Slideshow, there's probably been a better time to try this easy to use video ad feature from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Slideshow ads are particularly popular right now, since they provide businesses with the opportunity to present ads in a really visual format without the need to produce a full video. And now the addition of new features like text, music and ore never possible with the original feature have only added to the appeal.

To learn more about what goes into slideshow ads and to learn how to make your own, check out the list of tips below.

How to Make a Facebook Slideshow Ad

Select a Video Objective

When creating any type of ad on Facebook, the first thing you'll need to do is to choose an objective. Your objective is basically the goal that you'd like to accomplish with your campaign. So that goal could be to get your posts in front of more people, promote your page, increase app engagement or any number of other accomplishments. To make a slideshow ad on Facebook, you'll need to choose an objective that can work with video. For example, you could choose “get video views.” And then the success of your campaign is measured by how many people view the video ad itself.

Select Your Audience

As with any ad on Facebook, you also have the ability to choose or fine tune your audience so that your ad shows up for only the most relevant Facebook users. You can specify the location, age, gender and languages of your ideal audience. And you can also choose where you'd like people to see your ad, whether it be on the desktop news feed, mobile news feed, right column, Instagram or another location.

Set Your Budget

Then you also need to set the budget and schedule for your ad. You can specify a daily budget along with start and end dates for your campaign. Or alternatively, you could just set the ad to run continuously. In addition, you can specify a name for your ad campaign so that you can easily manage multiple campaigns at once.

Upload Photos

Then it's time start actually creating your slideshow. Once you're in the video section, click “Create Slideshow” to get started. Then, you'll need to add the photos that you want to appear in your slideshow ad. You can select photos from your company's Facebook page, upload images from your computer or mobile device, or even choose from a selection of stock images. You can add anywhere from three to seven photos for a slideshow ad.

Fine Tune Your Images

From there, you'll need to determine how you actually want your images to appear within your ad. You have the ability to set how many seconds you want each image to show up on the screen before moving onto the next one. And you can set transition effects like fade as well. In addition, if your photos are not all one uniform size or aspect ratio, you can set them to all appear in a certain ratio, like square or rectangle, so that the ad looks more cohesive. Or you can just let each photo appear in its original form. You can set a thumbnail image for your video in this section as well.

Add Text and Music

And photos are not the only part of an effective slideshow. Within the slideshow creator tool, you also have the option of adding text and music to your video. For music, you can choose from a pre-selected list of styles and genres. So you can simply browse the available options to find one that might fit with the theme of your ad. For text, you can add small text box overlays to each image if you want to include a short explanation or call to action.

Upload Your Existing Videos

If you already have other video campaigns on Facebook, you can also use those to create slideshow ads. Maybe you want to test out a different format or you just think the slideshow format might appeal more to your target customers. To do this, just upload your video and the tool will automatically select 10 still images from the clip. You can then go through those images and select which ones you'd like to be part of your slideshow. And, of course, you can also add things like text and music to this type of slideshow ad as well.

Publish Your Ad

Once you're happy with your slideshow ad, you can simply publish it and monitor the results. You can pause or change your campaign if you're not happy with the results. Or you can lengthen the campaign if your slideshow ad is a huge success.

Facebook Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "How to Make a Facebook Slideshow Ad: A Simple Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends