Video and Carousel Ads

You can easily create, measure, and optimize video and carousel ads on Facebook through the API. See Facebook for Business, Carousel Ads. For supported video formats for ads, see Advertiser Help Center, Videos.

Limitations

• The video_id must be associated with the ad account.

Video Ads

To create a video ad in a VIDEO_VIEWS objective and optimize the bid for reach, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Provide ad creatives
• Step 2: Create ad campaign
• Step 3: Create an ad set
• Step 4: Create an ad

Step 1: Provide ad creatives

Create a video ad using an existing video ID and a video uploaded to Facebook.

You will need:

• pages_read_engagement and ads_management permissions
• a video uploaded to either the act_{ad-account-id}/advideos endpoint

curl \
  -F 'name=Sample Creative' \
  -F 'object_story_spec={ 
  "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>", 
  "video_data": {"image_url":"<THUMBNAIL_URL>","video_id":"<VIDEO_ID>"} 
  }' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives

Step 2: Create ad campaign

Set objective to VIDEO_VIEWS:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="Video Views campaign"' \
  -F 'objective="OUTCOME_ENGAGEMENT"' \
  -F 'status="PAUSED"' \
  -F 'special_ad_categories=[]' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns

See Reference: Campaign, AdObjectives in PHP and AdObjectives in Python

Step 3: Create an ad set

If your goal is lowest cost-per-view possible, you should pair the video view campaign objective with an ad set's optimization_goal=THRUPLAY. You can set bidding_event to IMPRESSIONS or THRUPLAY, to pay per impression or per video view. See CPV bidding.

curl \
  -F 'name=A CPV Ad Set' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'daily_budget=500' \
  -F 'start_time=2024-05-06T04:45:29+0000' \
  -F 'end_time=2024-06-06T04:45:29+0000' \
  -F 'billing_event=THRUPLAY' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=THRUPLAY' \
  -F 'bid_amount=100' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
  "device_platforms": ["mobile"], 
  "geo_locations": {"countries":["US"]}, 
  "publisher_platforms": ["facebook"] 
  }' \
  -F 'status=PAUSED' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

Cost-per-view rates are lower for ad sets with optimization_goal=THRUPLAY compared to CPVs from Reach and Frequency buying optimized for video views.The end date must be in the future. See Reference: Ad Set.

Step 4: Create an ad

Use the existing ad set and ad creative:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="My Ad"' \
  -F 'adset_id="<AD_SET_ID>"' \
  -F 'creative={
  "creative_id": "<CREATIVE_ID>"
  }' \
  -F 'status="PAUSED"' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/ads

When a campaign objective is VIDEO_VIEWS, by default the ad gets the right tracking specs which define actions tracked for an ad. For example, video views:

{'action.type':'video_view','post':'POST_ID','post.wall':'PAGE_ID'}
    

See Ads Manager: My Campaigns and Reference: Ad.

Example Brand Awareness

To create a video ad for brand awareness, see brand awareness blog.

Example Reach and Frequency

To extend the reach of a video to more people, use the video view campaign objective with Reach and Frequency. You will need to create a prediction, reserve it, and assign it to your ad set.

Follow the video view creation, but apply Reach and Frequency to your ad set. Specify these additional parameters:

-F "rf_prediction_id=<RESERVATION_ID>" \

Video for Direct Response

To encourage people to move from awareness to action, see Video Creative in the Carousel Format.

• Reach people who watched a video. From awareness to affinity and consideration. See remarketing.
• Engage with brand and products. Add a call-to-action to visit a specific page on your website. See call to action.

Remarketing

Video ads remarketing provides support for advertisers to target certain custom audiences from organic or paid videos on both Facebook and Instagram. Use this feature to move people from awareness to deeper funnel objectives such as affinity and consideration. See Research: Creative Combinations that Work.

You need advertiser permission for the page containing a video to create an audience for that video.

For the audience, set subtype=ENGAGEMENT. Then write rules for the audience you want to create. Each rule has an object_id, such as video ID, and event_name. The event_name is one of:

• video_watched: the number of times your video was watched for an aggregate of at least 3 seconds, or for nearly its total length, whichever happened first.
• video_completed: the number of times your video was watched at 95% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point.
• video_view_10s: the number of times your video was watched for an aggregate of at least 10 seconds, or for nearly its total length, whichever happened first.
• video_view_15s: the number of times your video was watched for an aggregate of at least 15 seconds, or for nearly its total length, whichever happened first.
• video_view_25_percent: the number of times your video was watched at 25% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point.
• video_view_50_percent: the number of times your video was watched at 50% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point.
• video_view_75_percent: the number of times your video was watched at 75% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point.

You can combine videos to create an audience based on various videos and actions. For example, an audience could contain 3 second views from video A, and completes from video B and C.

This creates an audience from the past 14 days of 3s+ video viewers of video 1 and completed video viewers of video 2. The audience also autofills for viewers prior to audience creation with prefill=true.

curl \
  -F 'name=Video Ads Engagement Audience' \
  -F 'subtype=ENGAGEMENT' \
  -F 'description=Users who watched my video' \
  -F 'prefill=1' \
  -F 'rule=[ 
  {"object_id":"%video_id_1","event_name":"video_watched"}, 
  {"object_id":"%video_id_2","event_name":"video_completed"} 
  ]' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences

Backfill is supported for video views after October 16th, 2015.

Call to Action

Video with Call to Action (CTA) prompts people to learn more and visit a specific page on a website. Improve performance when your primary objective is driving video views or brand awareness and your secondary objective is driving offsite clicks. You should use a video link ad for the latter. How CTAs render:

• For Mobile and Desktop, shown as part of the post. When the video is paused, it displays next to the Resume option.
• For Mobile, when someone clicks a video to watch in full screen, a floating CTA appears as a video overlay.
• External video link posts do not display CTAs.

You can use video with CTAs only with the following campaign objectives:

• PAGE_LIKES
• LEAD_GENERATION
• LOCAL_AWARENESS
• LINK_CLICKS
• CONVERSIONS
• APP_INSTALLS
• VIDEO_VIEWS
• BRAND_AWARENESS
• Mobile app engagement

See Video expansion to Additional Objectives. This creates a video ad with GET_DIRECTIONS call to action:

curl \
  -F 'object_story_spec={ 
  "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>", 
  "video_data": { 
  "call_to_action": { 
  "type": "GET_DIRECTIONS", 
  "value": { 
  "link": "fbgeo:\/\/37.48327, -122.15033, \"1601 Willow Rd Menlo Park CA\"" 
  } 
  }, 
  "image_url": "<THUMBNAIL_URL>", 
  "link_description": "Come check out our new store in Menlo Park!", 
  "video_id": "<VIDEO_ID>" 
  } 
  }' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
   https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives
 

Video Metrics

Video Post Insights, Organic

Learn more about how your videos perform on Facebook and make more informed decisions about video content. Currently we only provide metrics when someone starts watching videos. This includes video views, unique video views, the average duration of the video view, and audience retention. See where people drop off in your videos and parts people may find most interesting.

Video Ad Insights, Paid

Use the Ad Insights API. The response contains various video metrics.

Video Type

Retrieve video ad stats grouped by video type such as auto-play, click-to-play. Include action_video_type in action_breakdowns. Expected values for action_video_type are total, click_to_play, and auto_play.

We are currently in limited testing for the action_video_type option. To identify clients with the breakdown, check CAN_USE_VIDEO_METRICS_BREAKDOWN for the ad account.

curl -G \
  -d 'action_breakdowns=action_video_type' \
  -d 'date_preset=last_30_days' \
  -d 'fields=actions,video_avg_pct_watched_actions,video_complete_watched_actions' \
  -d 'access_token= <ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/insights
 

The response includes objects with action_type as video_view and contain a key action_video_type:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "actions": [
        ...
        {
          "action_type": "video_play", 
          "value": 9898
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "total", 
          "value": 921129
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "auto_play", 
          "value": 915971
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "click_to_play", 
          "value": 5158
        }
      ], 
      "video_avg_pct_watched_actions": [
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "total", 
          "value": 60.59
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "auto_play", 
          "value": 60.47
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "click_to_play", 
          "value": 80.63
        }
      ], 
      "video_complete_watched_actions": [
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "total", 
          "value": 156372
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "auto_play", 
          "value": 154015
        }, 
        {
          "action_type": "video_view", 
          "action_video_type": "click_to_play", 
          "value": 2357
        }
      ], 
      "date_start": "2014-12-26", 
      "date_stop": "2015-03-25"
    }
  ], 
  "paging": {
    "cursors": {
      "before": "MA==", 
      "after": "MA=="
    }
  }
}

See Ad Insights API

Carousel Ads

Get more creative real-estate in Feed and drive people to your website or mobile app to convert. Create a carousel ad two ways:

• Create an ad and unpublished page post in one call: ad creative API.
• Create an unpublished Page post then create an ad creative using the post (not available for video carousel).

Carousel ads is not supported for Facebook Stories.

Create Inline

Create a carousel ad page post while creating an ad creative. Specify the page post content in object_story_spec, which creates an unpublished page post from adcreatives. See ad creatives. For example:

curl \
  -F 'name=Sample Creative' \
  -F 'object_story_spec={ 
    "link_data": { 
      "child_attachments": [ 
        { 
          "description": "$8.99", 
          "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>", 
          "link": "https:\/\/www.link.com\/product1", 
          "name": "Product 1", 
          "video_id": "<VIDEO_ID>" 
        }, 
        { 
          "description": "$9.99", 
          "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>", 
          "link": "https:\/\/www.link.com\/product2", 
          "name": "Product 2", 
          "video_id": "<VIDEO_ID>" 
        }, 
        { 
          "description": "$10.99", 
          "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>", 
          "link": "https:\/\/www.link.com\/product3", 
          "name": "Product 3" 
        } 
      ], 
      "link": "<URL>" 
    }, 
    "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>" 
  }' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives

The response is a creative ID:

{"id":"<CREATIVE_ID>"}

Create Post, then Ad

Create an unpublished Page post. child_attachments is an array of link objects. On each link object, picture, name and description are optional. You can post these as by the Page only with a Page access token.

curl -X GET \
  -d 'message="Browse our latest products"' \
  -d 'published=0' \
  -d 'child_attachments=[
       {
         "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>",
         "name": "Product 1",
         "description": "$4.99",
         "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>"
       },
       {
         "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>",
         "name": "Product 2",
         "description": "$4.99",
         "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>"
       },
       {
         "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>",
         "name": "Product 3",
         "description": "$4.99",
         "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>"
       },
       {
         "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>",
         "name": "Product 4",
         "description": "$4.99",
         "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>"
       }
     ]' \
  -d 'caption="WWW.EXAMPLE.COM"' \
  -d 'link="http://www.example.com/products"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/<PAGE_ID>/posts

Then, provide ad creative with the unpublished Page post. Use the id for the object_story_id in your ad creative.

curl -X POST \
  -F 'object_story_id="<PAGE_ID>_<POST_ID>"' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives

Open In Graph API Explorer

Create Video Carousel Ad

Video carousel ads can have 'caption' in the child attachment to customize the display URL on the end screen:

"child_attachments": [
 {
   "link": "https://www.facebookmarketingdevelopers.com/",
   "name": "Facebook Marketing Developers",
   "description": "Facebook Marketing Developers",
   "call_to_action": {
     "type": "APPLY_NOW",
     "value": {
      "link_title": "Facebook Marketing Developers"
     }
   },
   "video_id": "123",
   "caption": "mycustomlinkcaption.com"
  },
]

To get child attachments details, use ID and call Graph API, Video, Reference.

Create Mobile App Ad

Limitations:

• Carousel mobile app ads support only one app
• Minimum of 3 images compared to 2 on non-app ad carousel ads
• Carousel mobile app ads must have a call to action
• The end card which typically displays the page's profile photo will not display for carousel mobile app ads. Note that you should specify the same app store link in each child_attachment. You do not have to specify the link again in the call_to_action:{'value':{'link':... }}}

For example, to create a carousel ad for mobile app installs:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'name="Carousel app ad"' \
  -F 'object_story_spec={
       "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>",
       "link_data": {
         "message": "My message",
         "link": "http://www.example.com/appstoreurl",
         "caption": "WWW.ITUNES.COM",
         "name": "The link name",
         "description": "The link description",
         "child_attachments": [
           {
             "link": "http://www.example.com/appstoreurl",
             "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>",
             "call_to_action": {
               "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP",
               "value": {
                 "app_link": "<DEEP_LINK>"
               }
             }
           },
           {
             "link": "http://www.example.com/appstoreurl",
             "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>",
             "call_to_action": {
               "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP",
               "value": {
                 "app_link": "<DEEP_LINK>"
               }
             }
           },
           {
             "link": "http://www.example.com/appstoreurl",
             "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>",
             "call_to_action": {
               "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP",
               "value": {
                 "app_link": "<DEEP_LINK>"
               }
             }
           },
           {
             "link": "http://www.example.com/appstoreurl",
             "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>",
             "call_to_action": {
               "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP",
               "value": {
                 "app_link": "<DEEP_LINK>"
               }
             }
           }
         ],
         "multi_share_optimized": true
       }
     }' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives

You can only publish your post as the Facebook Page associated with the mobile app. And you must use a Page access token.

curl \
  -F 'message=My description' \
  -F 'link=<APP_STORE_URL>' \
  -F 'caption=WWW.ITUNES.COM' \
  -F 'child_attachments=[ 
    { 
      "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>", 
      "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH_I>", 
      "call_to_action": { 
        "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP", 
        "value": {"app_link":"<DEEP_LINK_I>","link_title":"<LINK_TITLE_I>"} 
      } 
    }, 
    { 
      "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>", 
      "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH_I>", 
      "call_to_action": { 
        "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP", 
        "value": {"app_link":"<DEEP_LINK_I>","link_title":"<LINK_TITLE_I>"} 
      } 
    }, 
    { 
      "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>", 
      "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH_I>", 
      "call_to_action": { 
        "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP", 
        "value": {"app_link":"<DEEP_LINK_I>","link_title":"<LINK_TITLE_I>"} 
      } 
    }, 
    { 
      "link": "<APP_STORE_URL>", 
      "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH_I>", 
      "call_to_action": { 
        "type": "USE_MOBILE_APP", 
        "value": {"app_link":"<DEEP_LINK_I>","link_title":"<LINK_TITLE_I>"} 
      } 
    } 
  ]' \
  -F 'multi_share_optimized=1' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/<PAGE_ID>/feed

Use the id from the response to create the AdCreative:

curl -X POST \
  -F 'object_story_id="<PAGE_ID>_<POST_ID>"' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives

Open In Graph API Explorer

Field Specification

This is a Carousel Ad on iOS, showing how fields described are used.

Per-Product Ad Statistics

Group actions for Carousel ads by each product with actions_breakdown=['action_carousel_card_id', 'action_carousel_card_name']. Each child_attachment has a different card ID. action_carousel_card_id and action_carousel_card_name is only for Carousel ads.

Get the following stats per card:

• website_ctr: available when specifying fields=['website_ctr']
• app_install, app_use, apps.uses, credit_spent, mobile_app_install, tab_view, link_click, mobile_app_install, app_custom_event.*, offsite_conversion.*: available when specifying fields=['actions']. Other actions are not available with a card breakdown.

curl -G \
  -d 'action_breakdowns=["action_type","action_carousel_card_id"]' \
  -d 'level=ad' \
  -d 'date_preset=last_30_days' \
  -d 'time_increment=all_days' \
  -d 'breakdowns=placement' \
  --data-urlencode 'filtering=[ 
    { 
      "field": "action_type", 
      "operator": "IN", 
      "value": ["link_click"] 
    } 
  ]' \
  -d 'fields=impressions,inline_link_clicks,actions,website_ctr' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/insights

Response:

{
...
   "website_ctr": [
      {
         "action_carousel_card_id": "1",
         "action_type": "link_click",
         "value": 51.401869158878
      },
      {
         "action_carousel_card_id": "2",
         "action_type": "link_click",
         "value": 50.980392156863
      }
   ],
   "placement": "mobile_feed",
   "date_start": "2015-05-25",
   "date_stop": "2015-05-28"
}

You can also request cost_per_action_type for a breakdown of costs by action type:

curl -G \
  -d 'action_breakdowns=["action_type","action_carousel_card_name"]' \
  -d 'level=ad' \
  -d 'breakdowns=placement' \
  -d 'fields=impressions,campaign_name,cost_per_action_type' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/insights

Sample response:

{
   "data": [
      {
         "impressions": "1862555",
         "campaign_name": "My Campaign",
         "cost_per_action_type": [
            {
               "action_carousel_card_name": "My Carousel Card 1",
               "action_type": "app_custom_event.fb_mobile_activate_app",
               "value": 0.093347346315861
            },
            {
               "action_carousel_card_name": "My Carousel Card 2",
               "action_type": "app_custom_event.fb_mobile_activate_app",
               "value": 0.38324089579301
            },
            ...
         ],
      }
   ]
}

Placements

If you only select right_hand_column as your placement, you can only use a single-video or carousel format in your ad group. We do not support the video format with a only a right_hand_column placement selected. See Advanced Targeting and Placement.

For example, create an ad set with right_hand_column as your only placement:

curl \
  -F 'name=RHS only Ad Set' \
  -F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
  -F 'daily_budget=500' \
  -F 'start_time=2017-11-21T15:41:36+0000' \
  -F 'end_time=2017-11-28T15:41:36+0000' \
  -F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
  -F 'optimization_goal=LINK_CLICKS' \
  -F 'bid_amount=100' \
  -F 'targeting={ 
    "device_platforms": ["mobile"], 
    "geo_locations": {"countries":["US"]}, 
    "publisher_platforms": ["facebook"] ,
    "facebook_positions": ["right_hand_column"] ,  
  }' \
  -F 'status=PAUSED' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets
  
Open In Graph API Explorer

Provide an ad creative with video:

curl \
  -F 'name=Sample Creative' \
  -F 'object_story_spec={ 
    "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>", 
    "video_data": {"image_url":"<THUMBNAIL_URL>","video_id":"<VIDEO_ID>"} 
  }' \
  -F 'access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives
  
Open In Graph API Explorer

Or provide a canvas ad format for ad creative:

curl \
  -F 'image_hash=<IMAGE_HASH>' \
  -F 'object_story_spec={ 
    "link_data": { 
      "call_to_action": {"type":"LEARN_MORE"}, 
      "image_hash": "<IMAGE_HASH>", 
      "link": "CANVAS_LINK", 
      "name": "Creative message" 
    }, 
    "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>" 
  }' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives
  
Open In Graph API Explorer

If you try to create an ad with the ad set and ad creative:

curl \
  -F 'name=My Ad' \
  -F 'adset_id=<AD_SET_ID>' \
  -F 'creative={"creative_id":"<CREATIVE_ID>"}' \
  -F 'status=ACTIVE' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/ads
  
Open In Graph API Explorer

In case you get an error code, you should provide a supported creative or change your targeting.

See Also

• Upload Videos to Facebook Guide
• Carousel for Mobile App Ads
• Page Feed Graph API Reference
• Unpublished Page Posts
• Ad Creatives
• Instagram Carousel Ads