Facebook Marketplace has 1 billion users to date.
That’s a huge jump from the 800 million monthly users they claimed in 2018.
So needless to say, Facebook Marketplace is growing.
It’s a great place to put your brand in front of a large audience – and even get some organic leads!
But if you want to tap into a targeted audience there, you’re going to need to run Facebook Marketplace ads.
So we’re going to show you how to create Facebook Marketplace ads along with a few best practices in this post.
Let’s get started!
Takeaways
- You can go to Facebook Marketplace either by tapping the grid button, scrolling down and clicking Marketplace, or just clicking the Marketplace button.
- You currently cannot advertise on the Marketplace online, you can only advertise there if you also advertise on the newsfeed.
- Your image needs to catch their attention, address a need or goal they have, and provide a solution for it, all in one creative.
What Is Facebook Marketplace?
Facebook says, “Marketplace is an e-commerce platform that connects sellers and buyers through meaningful interactions and unique goods.”
The 3 biggest reasons people love and use Marketplace to date is because:
- “It’s free to use. Anybody with an active Facebook account can list or buy items with no fees.”
- “It’s local and nationwide, meaning you can buy and sell items to other Facebook users in your area or across the country.”
- “Whether you’re buying or selling, you can connect with people via Facebook Messenger.”
It has essentially become the new Craigslist.
If you want to learn more about Facebook Marketplace in general or any of the organic strategies you can leverage there, read this post next.
But for this post, we want to get into Facebook Marketplace ads.
How To Create Facebook Marketplace Ads
Make sure you’re signed into Facebook and then go to www.facebook.com/marketplace.
A couple of other ways you can get there from anywhere on Facebook is:
- to tap the grid button, and scroll down and click Marketplace, or
- just click the Marketplace button.
Now as we’re scrolling down, we can see all the organic listings being suggested to us, and then in the midst of them are sponsored ads.
The sponsored Facebook Marketplace ads on a desktop stand out a little bit more in our opinion.
But if we look at Marketplace on the mobile app, you can see the sponsored ads blend in a little bit more, which is good.
How To Create Marketplace Ads So They Appear On Pages For People
Step 1: Head to your Facebook Ads Manager at business.facebook.com/adsmanager/.
Make sure you have the right ad account selected and click the green Create button.
Step 2: You’ll want to choose the ad objective that makes the most sense for your goal with these ads.
These are the objectives that are compatible with Facebook Marketplace ads.
Step 3: You’re going to set your campaign settings, ad set targeting, and budget options the way you normally would.
If you need more guidance on these sections…
…we highly recommend that you read our how to create Facebook ads post next as it breaks down everything in those sections in detail
But for this post, we want to push on to the Marketplace specific parts.
Step 4: When you’re on the ad set screen, scroll down to Placements, and uncheck everything except Facebook newsfeed and Facebook Marketplace.
You currently cannot advertise on the Marketplace online, you can only advertise there if you also advertise on the newsfeed.
But we expect this will likely change in the future the longer the Marketplace placement exists.
Then click Next to the ad level screen.
step 5: On this screen, make sure your Facebook page is selected.
Choose the ad creative you want to utilize.
And then, add your headline, primary text, call to action button, and the URL of where you want to send people with this ad.
It’s important to pay attention to the window screen on the right, as it will update in real-time…
…to show you what your ad will look like in the Marketplace placement vs. the newsfeed.
If you click the three dots on the right and click Expand, you can see what your ad will look like on the:
- mobile Marketplace feed,
- desktop Marketplace feed, and
- desktop Marketplace details page.
And you’ll notice, none of these placements are showing our primary text. It only has room for our headline.
So you’ll need to really use your creative and headline together effectively to get your point across.
Step 6: Once you’ve got everything looking the way you want it, you can hit the green Publish button.
So that’s how you set up your Facebook Marketplace ads!
Before we wrap up, we want to leave you with some best practices…
…but first, we just want to quickly check-in, have you already seen our new social media ads training course?
If you haven’t yet, then the perfect time to do so is after reading this post.
3 Tips To Remember When It Comes To Running Marketplace Ads
Tip #1: Keep the general purpose of Marketplace in mind.
Earlier, we said it was like the new Craigslist because while people are actively shopping on this tab and in a buying mindset…
…the majority of people are coming on here:
- to find a piece of furniture for cheap,
- to thrift some clothes,
- find some car parts, pet supplies, toys, electronics, you name it.
Or some people even use Marketplace to find vehicles and property rentals.
So when people run into your ad here, they may not necessarily be in the mindset to spend a lot of money.
They also may be very mission-driven in that moment to sift through all the listings and find what they’re looking for.
That being said, there have been a lot of people who have seen success with Facebook Marketplace ads.
For instance, if you sell furniture, and your ad shows up when people are searching for furniture…
…you’ll probably get some qualified traffic or even direct sales from that.
So our advice here would be to test Facebook Marketplace ads out for your business.
And then, see if they are a good fit given the nature of your product or service and the price point.
Tip #2: You need to be smart in selecting your creatives for Marketplace ads.
That’s because the only text you can utilize is in your headline, with limited visible character space at that.
Your image needs to catch their attention, address a need or goal they have, and provide a solution for it, all in one creative.
Here’s a great tutorial on how to make powerful and quality business graphics for free with programs like Canva.
So you may want to check it out if you’re thinking about testing Facebook Marketplace ads.
Tip #3: Have your Facebook page completely filled out and optimized to receive new visitors.
A lot of times when people are scrolling through Marketplace…
…and they find something they like, they will click on the seller’s profile icon to check them out a little bit.
The same habit will sometimes follow when they see an ad on Marketplace.
They might click on your Facebook page before clicking to your website.
So if they do that on your ad, you want your business page to be ready.
If they see anything sketchy or outdated on your page, you’re probably going to lose out on their click.
So if you feel like your business page could use some work…
…check out our post on Facebook business page for everything you need to know to set yours up correctly and optimize it.
So what do you think? Think you’ll give Facebook Marketplace ads a try?
Remember, if you need help with your Facebook marketing, our Facebook marketing company is just a call away!
Get in touch with us at 404-596-7925.