Did you know that around 1.65 billion shoppers globally purchase products using their mobile devices? This number highlights that today, creating mobile-first shopping experiences is no longer optional but the need of the hour for success in the e-commerce domain.
This shift presents a unique challenge for online sellers: how to market products in a way that is both engaging and convenient for mobile users.
This is where innovative advertising solutions like Meta collection ads come in. They help you present multiple items from your catalogue in an engaging, scrollable format on mobile devices. Using these ads, you can easily capture the attention of your potential customers and guide them toward confident purchasing decisions.
If you haven’t heard of these ads before or don’t know how to set them up, don’t worry. That’s why we have come up with this blog. Through it, we will discuss:
- What Meta Collection ads are
- Their benefits
- How to set them up for different advertising objectives
- Best practices along with some common pitfalls to avoid
So, are you ready? Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What are Meta Collection Ads?
Meta collection ads refer to an interactive ad format designed for mobile devices that helps customers seamlessly move from discovery to the purchase phase. Under this format, ads feature a main cover image or video supported by a group of three or more other small product images right below in a layout that appears like a grid.
This format of collection ads creates a visually rich and useful browsing experience. Here’s why:
- Whenever shoppers click on an ad’s cover image or video, they reach a fast-loading, immersive Instant Experience without leaving Facebook or Instagram. This Instant Experience allows them to browse your products effectively, view their details, and make quick purchase decisions without leaving the apps.
- On the other hand, if they click on the smaller product images, they are directed to the product landing page on your site.
| Note: The exact user journey may vary depending on the ad placement. |
In short, these ads make browsing more engaging and also offer a direct path to purchase an item!
Where do Meta Collection Ads Appear?
Currently, Meta collection ads appear across the following placements:
- Facebook Feed
- Facebook video feed ads
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Stories
- Facebook Reels
- Instagram Feed
- Instagram Stories
- Instagram Reels
- Instagram Explore
| Note: The number of products that appear under the main cover image or video varies as per the specific placement. |
What’s the Cost of Creating Meta Collection Ads?
Creating Meta Collection ads and the Instant Experiences that those ads load to is free. You only pay the usual ad auction costs like CPM, CPC, or CPA, similar to other Meta ad formats.
How to Set Up Meta Collection Ads?
Let’s now discuss how to create Meta Collection Ads.
But before we dive into the step-by-step process, let’s look at the prerequisites for creating these ads.
Prerequisites for Creating Meta Collection Ads
- You must have a cover image or video prepared in advance for the Collection ad.
- You should have at least four product images or catalogue items. These will be helpful for running ads across different placements.
| Note: Meta allows you to use items from an existing catalogue in your Commerce Manager account. However, if you don’t have one, then you can also manually upload products. |
Step-by-Step Process to Create Collection Ads
- In your Ads Manager account, go to ‘Campaigns’ from the left-hand side menu. Click on the ‘+ Create’ button.
- Under ‘Create new campaign,’ choose a buying type and select a campaign objective. For demonstration purposes, we will go ahead with ‘Sales’ and create a Meta Advantage+ Sales campaign.
- Configure all the campaign-level settings properly. This means:
- Add a campaign name
- Review and edit campaign details if required
- Turn on Advantage+ catalogue ads (recommended for e-commerce merchants)
- Choose between the ‘Campaign budget’ or ‘Ad set budget’ strategy.
- Turn on A/B testing if required
- Declare if special ad categories are applicable for this campaign
- Click on ‘Next’ to go to the ad set level settings.
- Add an ad set name.
- In the ‘Conversion’ section, you will have to select a conversion location or performance goal.
But remember, the conversion location you choose for one advertising objective may not be applicable to other objectives when creating collection ads. This simply means that the conversion location you choose for a campaign with a sales objective might not work for campaigns with awareness or traffic objectives.
Meta has shared some guidelines regarding which location applies to which campaign objective, which you can find below:
- Sales: You can choose from ‘Website and shop’, ‘Website and app’, or ‘Website or App.’
- Leads: Select ‘Website’ or ‘App.’
- Awareness: Either select ‘Maximize reach of ads’ conversion location or enable store location features if applicable.
- Traffic or engagement: Choose from ‘Website’ or ‘App’ as the conversion location.
| Pro tip: If you choose ‘App’ as the location for ‘Traffic’ or ‘Engagement’ objectives, Meta recommends linking shoppers directly to product pages within your app. |
- Once done, you should review and configure other settings at the ad set level. These settings will include, but are not limited to:
- Adding a dataset, such as a Facebook pixel
- Selecting the campaign’s start and end dates
- Setting up audience controls
- Click on ‘Next’ to go to the ad level settings.
- Configure all the settings, such as naming your ad, enabling partnership ads (if required), etc., till the ad set-up stage.
- In the Ad setup section, you should select ‘Collection’ as the ad format.
- In the ‘Destination’ section, you can either search for an existing Instant Experience or create a new one. If you wish to create a new Instant Experience, then you can select any one of the following templates:
- Digital Circular
- Lookbook
- Storefront
- Customer acquisition
- Custom Instant Experience
You can read more about what each of these Instant Experience templates means and offers on this Facebook page.
- Click on ‘Done’ when you finish creating the Instant Experience.
- Set up your ad creatives (primary text and headlines) and other settings, such as creative testing, tracking, etc.
- We also recommend that you preview your ads across different placements in the ‘Ad preview’ section. Also, you must note that:
- Product images under the cover may be automatically adjusted to 1:1 or 4:5 aspect ratios.
- For Stories and Reels, layouts change depending on whether your cover is 1:1 or 16:9.
- Once you are done configuring all settings, you can publish your Collection ad.
Meta Collection Ad Example (Along with Anatomy)
Now we will be breaking down Feroldi’s collection ad and understanding some of its good points:
- The primary text at the top, ‘Check out our best quality locally sourced products,’ is 53 characters long. This is in accordance with Meta’s guidelines of 150 characters at max.
- Then, there’s a high-resolution cover image at the top.
- Underneath that, there are three more product images in a grid-like layout. We see three because this ad appeared across our Facebook feed, and Meta supports only three across that placement.
- When we click on the main product image, we reach a fast-loading instant storefront. It is a type of Instant Experience that loads within seconds.
- Moreover, on the Instant Experience, Feroldi has added many other products that the customer can easily explore and purchase. This is a strategic and good initiative as it can help drive additional purchases and more revenue for their brand.
- Once we click on any product within the experience, we reach Feroldi’s website. Over there, a person can successfully purchase the item.
Overall, this collection ad from Feroldi is eye-catching and prompts shoppers to stop by and take a look at the advertisement. Plus, its high-quality graphics and crisp primary text ensure that shoppers definitely click on an item and explore it further on the Instant Experience.
The fast and fluid instant storefront loads quickly while also showcasing other items from the brand. A shopper can easily click on the item, visit Feroldi’s website, and make a purchase. This smooth transition from the discovery phase of the buying journey to checkout creates a seamless shopping experience. It helps to keep shoppers engaged and also significantly increases the chances of conversion.
Benefits of Meta Collection Ads
Let’s now understand why you should run collection ads on Meta by going through their benefits.
Drive Product Discovery
Collection ads are very helpful for boosting product discovery. Whenever potential customers are scrolling through their Facebook or Instagram feeds, these ads and their strategic layout can help capture their attention. The cover image or video can spark interest, whereas the product tiles underneath can provide context and items to explore.
Thus, introducing new products to potential customers naturally becomes much easier even if they aren’t actively searching for them.
Display Multiple Products At Once
Through one collection ad, you can display and market multiple products. This can be useful if you are a retailer with large catalogues and diverse product ranges. Instead of running separate ads for each product, you can promote an entire range with one single collection.
So, for example, let’s assume you sell winterwear such as jackets, shoes, and accessories. By creating a collection ad, you can promote all of them in a single ad. This will help you increase the exposure of a wide variety of products. Moreover, you will also end up encouraging shoppers to explore and purchase complementary products.
High Engagement and Conversion Rates
Due to their interactive and immersive nature, collection ads often drive stronger campaign results compared to other ad formats.
As per a PPC case study by Scandiweb, businesses using Meta collection ads saw some impressive results across key performance metrics. Their campaigns noticed a +62% lift in RoAS and a +35% increase in average order value compared to other standard ad formats. Moreover, collection ads successfully achieved a 32% higher CTR and a -34% lower CPC.
These results highlight that collection ads help you kill two birds with one stone: engage users properly and also maximize the value of your ad budget.
Easily Convert Interest Into Sales
With Collection ads, you can easily guide interested shoppers toward purchasing a product without any complex processes involved. Such a streamlined flow can be beneficial to boost conversions and drive revenue for your e-commerce business.
Broad Applicability
You can create collection ads for a variety of advertising objectives, such as leads, awareness, sales, etc.
Moreover, although this blog primarily focuses on collection ads from an e-commerce perspective, you can also use them to promote your services. So, if you run a service business and want to highlight complementary offerings, you can present them together in one engaging ad.
For example, using a single collection ad, a digital marketing agency can promote its SEO, PPC, and content marketing services.
Offer Fast Mobile-Optimized Shopping Experiences
As we discussed earlier, collection ads load into an Instant Experience. The key benefit for shoppers is that these Instant Experiences are well-optimized for mobile devices. On top of that, they load within seconds and are much faster compared to typical mobile website pages. So, shoppers can quickly view and explore products without frustrating delays.
Thus, by offering fast and smooth shopping experiences, collection ads allow you to keep shoppers engaged and reduce bounce rates. This helps to ensure that you don’t lose sales due to slow loading times and offers an enjoyable and straightforward path to purchase.
| Also read: How to Connect Shopify to Facebook in 2025? Facebook XML Product Feed Example: Step-by-Step Guide Facebook Product Feed Specifications 2025: A Complete Guide |
Best Practices for Meta Collection Ads
When creating collection ads, we recommend following these best practices:
Create High-Quality Cover Images or Videos
We recommend you create high-quality cover images and videos for your collection ads. Eye-catching visuals always help your products stand out and spark curiosity within the shopper’s mind.
Additionally, when creating images or videos, do refer to Meta’s recommended guidelines for aspect ratios and design requirements. These guidelines will help you understand what type of visuals are required and will perform best when you are targeting a particular placement across Facebook or Instagram. Based on that, you can provide seamless mobile-first experiences to shoppers.
Example: If you want to target the Facebook feed placement for your collection ads with sales objectives, then your cover image or video should follow these specs:
- The images should be in JPG or PNG format.
- Videos should be in MP4, MOV, or GIF format.
- The resolution should be at least 1080 X 1080 pixels.
- Ratio should be 1:1 or 9:16.
Let the System Select Products Dynamically
When you create an Instant Experience for your collection ad, enable ‘Order dynamically.’ Using that, Meta’s ad delivery systems will automatically choose the best combination of 2-4 products to display in your ads.
| Note: The priority of which products are selected for display is based on their popularity, relevance, or likelihood of purchase. |
Select a Large Product Set With More than 50 Items
When you pair your catalogue with your collection ad, ensure that there are more than 50 items in it. This is because more items will provide a wide array of options to select from for Meta’s ad delivery systems. Based on that, they can showcase the most relevant and engaging products to the shopper.
Also, a larger product catalogue will also help ensure that if certain items are unavailable or have errors, Meta’s systems have plenty of alternatives to select from. Thus, your ads will never have downtime and will keep performing well.
Send People to Multi-Product Destinations
Your ad should lead people to a website or app that shows more products than the ad itself. This will help ensure that customers have a broader range of products to explore and increase the chances of them making multiple purchases.
Install Meta Pixel on Your Website
You should also add a Meta pixel on your website. That will help you track what actions customers take on your site after interacting with your Collection Ads. Using that data, you can optimize campaigns, retarget visitors, and improve conversion performance.
Add URL Parameters
Meta recommends adding URL parameters to better understand your ads’ effectiveness. These parameters can help you easily determine where your traffic is coming from and which ads are helping drive conversions for your store.
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Difference Between Meta Collection Ads and Other Ad Formats
We will now understand how Collection ads differ from other Meta ad formats.
| Ad Format | What this format includes | Strengths | Best Use Cases |
| Collection Ads | A large cover image or video. Underneath that, there is a product tile that includes 3 or more images. | These ads: 1. Are well-optimized for Mobile devices 2. Offer engaging and immersive shopping experiences 3. Enable customers to move from discovery to purchase seamlessly | 1. Promoting a wide range of products from your catalogue 2. Marketing complementary products or services 3. Sell those products where storytelling can play a huge role |
| Carousel Ads | Carousel Ads include multiple cards that allow you to display 2 or more images and videos in a single ad. Each of these cards can have its own headlines, descriptions, links, etc. | 1. Work well for both mobile and desktop devices 2. Can include multiple CTAs 3. Help to fit multiple products into one single ad, delivering more value for the same budget. | 1. Promoting collections (for example, a summer collection where you advertise floral shirts, casual sneakers, etc.) 2. Marketing those products that require you to share detailed step-by-step usage instructions 3. Displaying multiple features or benefits of a single product, with each card focusing on one key highlight. |
| Single Image Ads | One image, along with text, CTAs, optional footers, etc. | 1. Works well on all devices 2. Can also appear across Audience Network 3. Don’t require much effort to set up | 1. Best for promoting single items 2. Running flash sales 3. Retargeting cart abandoners |
| Video Ads | One video + text + optional CTAs. | 1. Great for demonstrations, emotionally engaging, and appealing to users 2. Can appear across additional placements such as Instagram Shop, Facebook Groups feed, etc. 3. Can help showcase your products in use | 1. Helpful when you want to educate users with step-by-step instructions about using your product 2. For product launches (short teaser videos) 3. Sharing customer testimonials or powerful, emotional messages |
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Meta Collection Ads enable merchants to provide immersive mobile-first shopping experiences to their customers.
Through this blog, we learned that:
- Meta Collection ads refer to a mobile-only ad format that combines a main cover image or video with product tiles.
- When viewers tap the cover image or video, Meta Collection ads open into Instant Experiences. These load faster than normal mobile web pages.
- These ads appear across several different placements, such as Facebook and Instagram feeds, stories, reels, etc.
- Meta Collection ads differ from other ad formats (such as carousel, single-image, etc.) in terms of their mobile-only nature. They also differ in structure since they always include a large cover image or video supported by product tiles, while other formats only use single visuals, multiple cards, or standalone videos.
- The process to create Collection Ads is simple. You will just need a cover image and a video prepared in advance, along with four product images or items. After that, you can go to your Ads Manager account, create a collection ad for any advertising objective. Just be careful about selecting the right conversion location at the ad set level. That’s because the available options vary depending on the objective you choose. Picking the wrong one will not allow you to select the collection format at the ad level.
- Collection ads on Meta offer several benefits, such as promoting multiple items at once, allowing customers to purchase items without any complex long processes, and more. Moreover, these ads can also benefit service-based businesses.
- To create Collection ads that convert, we recommend using high-quality cover images and videos that comply with Facebook’s guidelines. Moreover, use large catalogues, and also add URL parameters to better understand the effectiveness of your ads.
Good luck.
FAQs
- What is the difference between Carousel Ads and Collection Ads?
Carousel Ads on Facebook or Instagram let you showcase up to 10 images or videos, each with its own link and CTA. Moreover, these ads work well across both desktop and mobile devices.
Collection Ads are a mobile-only format. They combine a large cover image or video with product tiles underneath it. Whenever shoppers tap onto the cover image or video, these ads open into an Instant Experience for immersive shopping.
- What are the specs for Meta collection ads?
The specifications for Collection Ads change depending on where the ad appears.
For instance, in the Facebook Feed, a Collection Ad includes one cover image or video followed by three product images. The cover media must be JPG or PNG for images, or MP4, MOV, or GIF for videos. Recommended aspect ratios are 1:1 or 9:16, with a resolution of at least 1080 x 1080 pixels. Text should be short, with primary text limited to 125 characters and headlines to 40 characters. Lastly, you should also always add a landing page URL, and your file sizes shouldn’t exceed 30 MB for images and 4 GB for videos.
- What should I do if my Meta Collection Ads are not performing well?
Start by reviewing your ad creatives. The cover image or video should be high-quality and engaging enough to capture attention. Next, check your catalogue size. A larger product set gives Meta more flexibility to display relevant items and improve ad delivery.
Beyond that, optimize your audience targeting and use URL parameters to track clicks and conversions. Also, ensure a Meta Pixel is installed on your website to track customer actions and gather data for improved campaign optimization. These steps together can help identify and fix performance issues.
- How to choose which products to show in a collection ad?
To select products for a Collection Ad, include them in your Instant Experience using catalogue items or manual entry. You need at least four products, and you should note that the first item will be featured on the cover, and the rest of them will appear as tiles. You can then choose to have Meta display products dynamically based on relevance or arrange them manually in your preferred order.
- What is an Instant Experience?
An Instant Experience is a full-screen, mobile-first landing page that opens instantly when someone taps your ad on Facebook or Instagram. It allows you to showcase products, tell stories, or highlight services in a fast, immersive way without taking users outside the app.
- What types of Instant Experience templates are available?
Meta offers several templates (for Instant Experiences) to suit different goals. The Storefront template displays products in a grid for easy browsing. The Lookbook uses lifestyle images to show products in context. The Customer Acquisition template helps tell brand stories and drive actions. The Digital Circular highlights offers for local stores, and the AR Experience lets people interact with products virtually.
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