How to Make a Carousel Facebook Ad

A single image ad can feel limiting when you have a great story to tell or multiple products to show off. A Facebook carousel ad lets you break free from that constraint, using up to ten images or videos in a single, swipeable unit. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create a scroll-stopping carousel ad, from setting up the campaign to creative best practices that drive results.

What Exactly Are Facebook Carousel Ads?

Facebook carousel ads are an interactive ad format that allows you to showcase multiple images or videos - each with its own headline, description, link, and call-to-action button - within one ad. They appear in the feed on both Facebook and Instagram, and users can swipe or click through the "cards" to see all the content.

This format is incredibly versatile. Brands use it to:

• Showcase multiple products: Display a range of items from a new collection or an entire catalog.
• Highlight different features of one product: Dedicate each card to a specific benefit, angle, or use case.
• Tell a story: Use the sequence of cards to narrate a brand story or walk a user through a process.
• Explain a process: Create a step-by-step tutorial or a guide on how to use your product or service.
• Feature articles or content: Promote several blog posts or resources at once, giving users a choice of what to click.

Compared to static single-image ads, carousels are often more engaging because they encourage interaction. That user engagement can lead to higher click-through rates and a lower cost-per-click, making them a powerful tool for marketers.

Before You Start: Creative Specs and Best Practices

Putting together an effective carousel ad starts with getting the creative right. If your images are blurry or your copy is an afterthought, the ad will fall flat regardless of your audience targeting. Here's what you need to prepare.

Carousel Ad Creative Requirements

To keep things simple, Facebook streamlines the creative process. Here are the core specifications to follow for most placements (like feeds):

• Number of Cards: Minimum of 2, maximum of 10.
• Image File Type: JPG or PNG.
• Video File Type: MP4, MOV, or GIF.
• Aspect Ratio: 1:1 (square) is recommended. Facebook supports other ratios, but 1:1 is the most consistent and performs best across different placements.
• Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels.
• Video Length: Up to 240 minutes (but please, don't do this). For ad purposes, keep videos short and punchy - 15 seconds or less is ideal.

Best Practices for Compelling Carousel Ads

Beyond the technical specs, a great carousel ad needs a smart creative strategy.

• Start with a Strong First Card: The first image or video needs to stop the scroll. Use a visually striking image, a bold headline, or an intriguing question to make people curious enough to swipe.
• Create a Cohesive Look and Feel: While each card is unique, they should all feel like part of the same story. Use consistent branding, color palettes, and fonts to tie everything together.
• Guide the User's Eye: Use visual cues to encourage a swipe. Some brands creatively use lines, shapes, or even people looking or pointing across cards to create a fluid, panoramic effect that draws the user through the entire ad.
• Make Each Card Count: Don't just show ten pictures of the same product from slightly different angles. Each card is an opportunity to communicate a unique benefit, feature, or message. Think of them as individual mini-ads working together.
• Don't Forget the Last Card: Many brands use the final card as a strong call-to-action, featuring their logo, a special offer, or a clear "Shop Now" message.

How to Create a Facebook Carousel Ad: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to build your ad? Let's walk through the process inside Facebook Ads Manager. We’ll assume you’ve already configured your Facebook Pixel and set up your payment information.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective

First, head to your Ads Manager and click the green "+ Create" button to start a new campaign.

Facebook will ask you to choose a campaign objective. Carousel ads work with most objectives, but they are most effective for:

• Sales: To drive purchases, particularly if you have an e-commerce catalog.
• Leads: To collect sign-ups for a newsletter, webinar, or contact form.
• Traffic: To send users to a specific landing page, product page, or blog post.
• Engagement: To get more likes, comments, and shares on your content.

Select the objective that matches your goal and click "Continue."

Step 2: Set Up Your Ad Set

The next level is the Ad Set, where you define who you're targeting, where you'll show your ads, and how much you'll spend.

1. Audience: Define your target audience based on location, age, gender, interests, behaviors, or by creating a Custom Audience (e.g., website visitors) or a Lookalike Audience.
2. Placements: This is where your ads will appear. You can choose "Advantage+ placements" to let Facebook's algorithm optimize for you, or select "Manual placements" to pick specific spots. Carousels work best in visual platforms like Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, and Stories.
3. Budget & Schedule: Set your daily or lifetime budget and choose how long you want the campaign to run.

Once you've filled this out, click "Next" to move to the ad creation level.

Step 3: Build Your Carousel Ad

This is where you'll choose your creative and write your copy.

1. On the Ad level, give your ad a name and select your Facebook Page and Instagram Account.
2. Under "Ad Setup," choose "Create Ad."
3. In the "Format" section, select "Carousel."

Now you'll see the editing module for your carousel cards. This is where you bring your ad to life.

Step 4: Add Your Creative and Copy to Each Card

Scroll down to the "Ad Creative" section. You'll see a panel for Card 1, with options to add more.

1. Select Image or Video: Click "Select Image" or "Select Video" to upload your creative for the first card.
2. Write a Headline: This is the bold text that appears below your image/video. Keep it short, focused, and compelling (around 25-40 characters is ideal). It should be specific to that card. Example: "All-Day Comfort" for a shoe feature card.
3. Add a Description: This provides a bit more context under the headline. You can use this to mention price, benefits, or other details.
4. Set a Website URL: Each card can link to a different URL. This is perfect for e-commerce brands who want to link each product card directly to its product page.
5. Add More Cards: Click the "+" icon to add another card. Repeat the process until you’ve built out your carousel (up to 10 cards).

Step 5: Write the Primary Text and Call to Action

After setting up your cards, you need to add the copy that ties the whole ad together.

• Primary Text: This is the main ad copy that appears above the carousel. It's the first thing people read, so make it engaging. You can use it to introduce the collection, tell the story, or explain the overall offer.
• Call to Action (CTA): From the dropdown menu, choose the button that best fits your goal (e.g., "Shop Now," "Learn More," "Sign Up," "Download"). This CTA will appear next to your final visible card.

Step 6: Review Advanced Options and Publish

Facebook offers a few smart optimizations for carousels:

• Automatically show the best-performing cards first: This is on by default and it's a great option. Facebook’s algorithm will analyze how users interact with your ad and reorder the cards to show the most popular ones first, improving performance. You should usually leave this checked unless you are telling a sequential story that needs to be in a specific order.
• Add a card at the end with your profile picture: This automatically adds a final card that links to your Facebook Page, which can be a good way to gain new followers.

Double-check everything with the Ad Preview on the right. If it all looks good, hit the green "Publish" button. Your ad will go into review and should be live shortly!

How to Analyze Your Carousel Ad Performance

Once your ad is running, don't just "set it and forget it." To understand what's working, you need to look at the metrics.

In Ads Manager, you can see a performance breakdown by carousel card. To find it, select your ad, click the "View Charts" button, and then navigate to the "Breakdown" dropdown. Select "By Creative" and then "Carousel Card."

Here, you'll see key metrics for each individual card, such as:

• Impressions: How many times each card was seen.
• Link Clicks: How many clicks the destination URL for each card received.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked after seeing a card.
• Conversions or Purchases: If you're tracking conversions, you can see which cards are actually driving the most valuable actions.

This data is incredibly powerful. You might find that two or three of your ten cards are generating 90% of the clicks and sales. This tells you which products or messages are resonating with your audience, giving you priceless feedback to optimize future ads.

Final Thoughts

Facebook carousel ads are a fantastic way to showcase your products, tell a compelling story, and engage your audience in a way that single-image ads can't. By combining strategic creative with step-by-step setup in Ads Manager, you can launch a dynamic ad campaign that drives real results for your business.

Tracking the performance of individual cards is important, but seeing how your entire carousel campaign contributes to the big picture is what really matters. We built Graphed because we know how difficult it is to connect all your different data sources manually - from Facebook Ads and Google Analytics to Shopify or your CRM. You can connect your platforms in a few clicks, then just ask in plain English for the information you need, like, "Show me a dashboard of a complete marketing funnel comparing Facebook ad spend to Shopify sales this quarter," and get a live, automated dashboard in seconds rather than spending hours in spreadsheets.