How to Advertise in Facebook Marketplace: What Marketers Need to Know

Have you heard of Facebook's Marketplace ad placement?

Want to know how to place your Facebook ad campaigns in Marketplace?

In this article, you'll learn how to advertise your products and services in Facebook Marketplace.

Why Consider Facebook Marketplace for Ad Placement?

Marketplace is Facebook's equivalent to eBay and Craigslist. The major advantage it has over the competition is the existing Facebook user base. Marketplace now has over 800 million monthly users. Additionally, it now occupies the central tab on the mobile app's menu bar.

When you advertise using the Marketplace placement, you're not promoting a product that you're looking to sell via Marketplace. Instead, you're advertising in the same way you would in the news feed or the other placement options.

While Facebook offers multiple ad placement options, Marketplace is unique in that users who browse (at least a large proportion of them) have buyer's intent. They're actively looking for products to buy.

Similar intent-based advertising platforms such as Google AdWords have commanded a premium online. In most markets, it costs a lot more to reach 1,000 people through Google's search network than it does on Facebook, which makes sense. Targeting people who are actively looking for something is more effective than targeting people who might be interested in something.

Most of the products listed in Marketplace are bought and sold locally. And for businesses looking to succeed with the Marketplace ad placement, a local focus is likely to be key.

Users expect to see certain types of products listed for sale. Businesses that offer similar products to those listed are likely to see the best results. Home & Garden, for example, is one of the most popular categories and furniture is among the most commonly offered items.

There are also a lot of vehicles listed for sale, and many people offer rental properties.

3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW

If your company offers products that are similar to those commonly listed, there's a good chance Marketplace will work for you. Here's how to get started.

#1: Create a Facebook Ad Campaign With an Applicable Campaign Objective

Marketplace is available as a placement option only for certain campaign objectives. Right now, it can be used with the Reach, Traffic, Conversions, Catalog Sales, and Video Views objectives.

If you have an existing Facebook ad campaign that uses one of these objectives, you can skip this step. Otherwise, head to Ads Manager and click Create.

Next, select one of the applicable campaign objectives.

Then give your new campaign a name and click Continue.

Now you're taken to the Ad Set Creation page, and you can move on to the next step.

#2: Choose the Marketplace Ad Placement

Facebook's Marketplace is currently rolling out as a new ad placement. It's now available in most U.S. ad accounts but not yet worldwide. However, this functionality is likely to be available to other countries very soon.

To check that Marketplace is available in your Facebook ad account and use it in this campaign, scroll down to the Placements section. Facebook's default setting is to advertise on all placements. To check that Marketplace is available, select Edit Placements.

Looking for something to make your life easier?

Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL

Currently, Marketplace is available only as a mobile placement option, but it's likely to become an option on desktop soon as well.

For ad accounts that have this functionality, Marketplace is included when Automatic Placements is selected. This means that many Facebook advertisers will be advertising in Marketplace without realizing it.

It's not currently possible to advertise exclusively in Marketplace. You need to also have Facebook Feeds selected to use Marketplace as a placement option. Otherwise, you'll see this warning message.

Make sure that Marketplace is selected and then enter the rest of your targeting details at the ad set level.

#3: Create a Facebook Marketplace Video Ad

Now you're ready to move on to the Ad Creation section. The recommended ad specs for Marketplace are the same as for news feed ads and it's not possible to alter ad creative between those two placements. Facebook recommends that single images are 1,200 x 628 pixels and carousel images are 600 x 600 pixels.

While the ads may look the same on both placements, the context they're in is very different, so certain things are likely to work well on Marketplace and others aren't.

Videos

Half of the challenge with interruption advertising is grabbing users' attention. Unlike the news feed, Marketplace is dominated by static images, so videos (particularly product demonstrations) will stand out a lot more. Videos usually outperform static images across Facebook and I expect that to be exaggerated in Marketplace.

Finding video ads in Marketplace is next to impossible at the moment. But this video ad taken from the news feed is just the sort of ad that's likely to deliver fantastic results in Marketplace.

The ad is promoting the right type of product to the right audience when it's in the right mindset. And the product demonstration in video format grabs users' attention.

Not Content

It's too early to make definitive conclusions, but I don't expect content ads to perform well in Marketplace. Expert Facebook advertisers often advocate using content to warm up cold audiences, and rightly so. But in Marketplace, ads that promote blog posts or other forms of content will look out of place and probably be ignored as a result. Of course, this is something that you can try out.

#4: Analyze Marketplace Ad Placement Results

As with all things Facebook advertising, I strongly recommend that you test the Marketplace placement. Its uniqueness means it's likely to deliver great results for certain businesses, products, and ad formats.

To see how Marketplace is performing in comparison to other placements, you can filter your ad reports. Simply select By Delivery > Placement from the Breakdown drop-down menu.

If you're in the U.S. and using Automatic Placements with your Facebook campaigns, there's a good chance you've been advertising in Marketplace without realizing it. This means you may already have data you can use to assess Marketplace's effectiveness for your offers.

Watch Out for False Positives

When new Facebook advertising features are released, advertisers often see false negatives or false positives. A false negative refers to something that doesn't work initially but does in the long run. A false positive is the opposite.

False negatives with Facebook advertising most often occur because users are unfamiliar with something new and therefore avoid it initially. False positives, on the other hand, are often the result of an initial lack of competition.

With Marketplace, you may see a bit of a false positive. Because it's very new, few advertisers are using it and competition is a major factor in determining the cost of Facebook ads. Lack of advertiser competition early on will most likely lead to a lower cost than other placements initially, making it a great short-term opportunity.

But as other Facebook advertisers start using the placement, this early advantage is likely to disappear. This doesn't mean that Marketplace won't deliver great results over the long run. It's just important to be aware of the market forces at play and not get too excited early on.

Want more like this? Explore Facebook Ads for Business!

What do you think? What has your experience with the Marketplace placement been so far? Has it performed better or worse than other placement options? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.

CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS