Facebook Call Ads

Unlike messaging, connecting with people over the phone offers a great opportunity to build strong relationships with potential customers. It also provides them with more detailed information about your products, services, and brand. Facebook call ads are a perfect way to attract and encourage target customers to reach out to your business and take desired actions to boost conversion rates. If you’re unsure how to harness the power of this type of ad, don’t miss the article below from Ad Support!

Introduction to Facebook Call Ads

Facebook call ads, including lead generation ads with a call feature and call extensions, provide customers with an easy way to contact your business via phone. Customers can learn more about your products, and services, book appointments, or place orders directly. Meta offers various ways to utilize calls for lead generation, such as direct calls from ads, website navigation post-ad clicks, or giving customers the option to request a callback.

Call Ads

Call ads allow customers to call your business directly without leaving the Facebook app. By clicking the Call Now button on the lead generation ad, users can immediately connect with your business. These ads are designed to maximize call volume, encouraging appointments, quotes, or inquiries while enhancing customer experience and providing valuable information.

When setting up a new lead generation ad featuring calls, you can choose a Call conversion placement or set Calls as the destination, depending on your goals. Call ads can attract potential customers by prompting them to call for more details about your products or services, to book an appointment, or to place an order. Both mobile and landline numbers, including toll-free 1-800 numbers, can be used as the destination when configuring your ad.

In addition to allowing direct calls, you can utilize the callback feature, letting customers see your ad and provide specific dates and times for you to contact them. This feature is particularly useful for reaching out to interested leads who indicate a preference for connecting via phone at their convenience.

You can choose between the Single Image/Video or Carousel ad format and include a Call Now button. When someone clicks on your call ad or the Call Now button, your business’s phone number appears on their device. They can then make a call immediately or close the screen.

To create a call ad, you can select one of the following objectives: Traffic, Engagement, Leads, Sales. 

Benefits of using call ads on Facebook

Using call ads, businesses can instantly connect with potential customers to learn more about products and services over time when connecting to the phone.

In addition, this type of advertising is also very flexible when you can run it only when the business can open and receive calls. This creates convenience and increases the effectiveness of the advertising campaign while saving costs.

In addition, businesses can redirect calls to the most appropriate phone number. By setting up the phone number you want to redirect calls to the desired location.

Call Extensions

Call extensions appear in your ads to direct people to your website and encourage them to call you to learn about your products or services. They include a website URL, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons like Learn More and Contact Us.

When someone taps on a call extension or call-to-action button, they are taken to your website from their in-app browser with a Call Now button at the bottom. People then take specific actions: book an appointment or purchase on your website or by calling you directly.

To create a call extension for your ad, choose the advertising objective of traffic, leads, or sales. Placements where call ads will appear include: Facebook Feed, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Reels, Facebook video feeds, Instagram Feed, and Instagram Stories.

If you create a call extension that appears on your website when someone taps an ad from Facebook Feed, Facebook video feeds, Instagram feed, and Instagram Stories, they’ll be taken to your website without the call extension.

Features of Call Ads and Call Extensions

Facebook Call Ads have the following standout features:

With the ability to schedule call ads and call extensions to run during listed business hours to ensure you’re available to take the call.

Allow people to call you back if you’re not available to take their call. You can enable or disable this callback request feature during ad creation and while your ad is live.

View reporting metrics: Estimated Call Confirmation Clicks, Calls Placed, 20-second Calls, 60-second Calls, and Callback Requests Sent. Reporting metrics are only available to advertisers based in the United States or its territories.

When you create a call ad in Ads Manager Meta, select a conversion window at the ad set level.

Facebook call ads placements and objectives

For lead generation ads with call features, including call ads and call extensions, people can call you as soon as they click on your ad. Call ads allow you to find potential customers, encourage them to learn more about your products and services, place orders, schedule appointments, and more. You can also run call ads with multiple objectives on Facebook and Instagram.

Call ads objectives

Awareness: Optimize your performance objective with call ad metrics including estimated clicks on the confirmation button, calls placed, calls lasting at least 20 seconds, calls lasting at least 60 seconds, and callback requests.

The Traffic objective optimizes for calls lasting at least 60 seconds, including call ad metrics such as estimated clicks on the confirmation button, calls made, and calls lasting at least 20 seconds and 60 seconds, along with callback requests. The other objectives are similar, including engagement, leads, and sales.

Note that call ad metrics are estimates and may differ from the actual number of people who call you. Estimates are calculated in part by a model rather than a direct count, so they are useful for measuring actions or events when data is missing or unavailable.

With the Call Add-on, the objectives include Traffic, Leads, and Sales.

Selectable placements for call ads and call extensions

You can choose the Advantage+ placement or any placement including Facebook or Instagram for call ads.

How to create Facebook call ads using Ads Manager

In this method, you will create a fully functional call ad. By creating a new call ad in Ads Manager on Meta to use the product features including ad scheduling.

Create and set up a new campaign

Go to Ads Manager on Meta and click +Create to create a new campaign. When the new campaign creation interface appears, you will need to choose the advertising campaign objective including Traffic, Engagement, Leads, or Sales, and click Continue.

On the next screen, you set up a new advertising campaign by naming the campaign. Next, add campaign details, A/B testing, and information about the Advantage campaign budget (if needed) and click Next.

Set up an ad group

In the ad group settings, name the ad group. In the Conversion section, select Calls as the conversion location. Next, select the Fanpage running the ad and other settings information. Then, complete the information about the budget & schedule, target audience and select the ad display location, and click Next.

For Budget & Schedule, you have 2 options: daily budget or lifetime budget. If you choose a lifetime budget, you will need to choose a start date and an end date.

For audience targeting, you can create audiences based on factors: demographics, behavior, and gender, … Or choose Advantage+ audience to save time and improve the performance of the advertising campaign. Targeting options will be limited to audiences including people under 18 years old in most countries.

For ad placement, you can choose Advantage+ placement or manual placement. To optimize the performance of your ad campaign, choose Advantage+ placement. If you want your ads to appear in the desired locations, choose custom placement.

Create Facebook Call Ads

After setting up your ad group, move on to creating a call ad. First, you need to name your ad, then in the Name section, you can choose a Facebook Page or connect to an Instagram account (if you have one). You can click Connect Account to add a new Instagram account.

Next, set up your ad by selecting Single Image/Video or Carousel. In the Ad Content section, add your image, video, title, description, and other details for your ad.

In the Destination section, select the country code from the drop-down menu, then enter the phone number and the request box. You can also check the box Get callback offers via Messenger so people can request a call back if you are unable to answer the call.

In the tracking section, click Set up to set up CRM events, website events, and in-app events to track event data sets (if needed). Once you’re done, click Publish to run your lead generation ads.

Once your ad starts running, you can review your call ad metrics.

If you select traffic, engagement, leads, or sales as your ad objective, your ad will be optimized for calls lasting at least 60 seconds.

Your ads reports will show you estimated call confirmation clicks. This is an estimate of how many people clicked to confirm the call on the phone dialer. Call ad metrics are estimates and may differ from the actual number of people who called you.

The new call ad updates include calls placed, calls lasting at least 20 seconds, and calls lasting at least 60 seconds, and are not available to campaigns created before June 15, 2023. Estimated call confirmation clicks will no longer be available to advertisers in the United States when the new metrics are released.

How to create a call extension for Facebook ads

Lead ads with call features like call extensions give people more time to learn about your product or service on your website before calling you. In the call extension, you can add a website link and a call-to-action button like Learn More or Contact Us.

When users click on this extension, they will be redirected to the website in the app browser with a Call Now button at the bottom. They will then be asked to confirm the call and prompted to call, but can still exit the screen. To create a call extension, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a new campaign

Go to Ads Manager on Meta and click +Create to create a new campaign. Next, select the campaign objective including Traffic, Leads, or Sales, and click Continue. In the next interface, name your campaign and complete the campaign details.

Select the advertising category if the products and services you sell and run ads for fall into special categories. Next, complete the campaign information such as A/B testing and Advantage campaign budget (if needed), and click Continue to move to the next step. 

Step 2: Ad group settings

At the ad group level, name the ad group and select the conversion location as the website in the Conversion section. Then, select the performance goal in the drop-down menu. To support the conversion tracking process on the ad, you need to install Pixel.

If you have created a Pixel and installed it on the website, share the Pixel from BM to the advertising account. Here, select Pixel to easily track the effectiveness of the Facebook Ads campaign. After selecting, select the conversion event that matches the selected campaign goal. Next, enter the result goal on the cost and complete the other settings. 

You can choose to create dynamic content if you want by activating the Dynamic creative status bar. Next, set up a suitable budget and schedule for running ads and choose a target audience based on factors: demographics, behavior, and interests, or choose an Advantage+ audience.

Finally, choose the ad display location including Advantage+ location and manual location. You should choose the Advantage+ location to optimize the visibility and performance of the advertising campaign. If you want to choose a display location to optimize bidding, choose a manual location to choose a custom location.

Step 3: Create an ad with the call add-on

On the next screen, create an ad by naming it. In the Identity section, select your Facebook Page and Instagram account (if you have one). You can click Connect Account to add a new Instagram account.

In the ad setup section, select the ad creation source as Manual Upload and choose the appropriate ad format from the options including Single Image/Video, Carousel, or Collection. In the Create ad content section, complete the setup by selecting the Url source, add-on, add image/video file with title and description and select the call-to-action button in the drop-down menu.

In the Destination section, enter the website URL and the display link. For the Browser Extensions section, select Calls and enter the phone number by country. In the Tracking section, click Setup to set up CRM events, website events, and in-app events and track the event data set.

Once you have finished creating your ad, click Publish to publish your lead generation ad with the call extension. The ad will go through an approval process before being shown to your target audience.

 How to create a Facebook call ads Page

If you want to simplify the process of creating calls on Facebook with a simple function, create an ad from your Facebook page. By creating new content or promoting an existing post or selecting the Increase Calls objective in the Meta Business Suite application.

Create Facebook call ads with an existing post

Log in to your Facebook account and go to the Facebook page where you want to create an ad. Next, find the post you want to promote and click Boost Post on the post. Next, select the Ad Objective and click Change. Now select Increase Calls and click Save.

If the post you want to promote has a call-to-action button like Send Message or does not contain any image or video files, you will not be able to select Increase Calls. In the Button section, enter the phone number you want people to call. In the Ad Preview section, click All Previews and scroll to see how the ad will appear in different locations. When you’re done, click Close.

If your ad is related to a Special Ad Category, turn on the toggle button under Special Ad Category. In the Audience section, select the audience for your ad. Use some suggestions including: People you select through targeting and People who like your Page. Or you can click Create New to create a new audience. In the pop-up window, name the audience by selecting criteria such as age, interests, gender, etc. Finally, click Save Audience to use this new audience when creating ads.

In the Duration section, select the number of days you want to run the ad and the end date. For the Total budget section, click the Edit icon or select the default budget. In the Ad placement section, prioritize the Advantage+ Ad placement. If you choose a manual placement, check the boxes next to the location you want the ad to appear.

To better understand the effectiveness of your ads, click the Meta Pixel button to use the Pixel. Next, choose the appropriate payment method if this is your first time creating an ad by clicking Add to set up an ad account with the desired payment method, time zone, and currency. Once completed, click Promote Post Now.

Create a Facebook call Ads with new content

On your Facebook page, select Ads or click Create Ad in the menu. Next, select the ad type, select Create New Ad, then go to Objectives and click Change. Here, select Increase Calls and click Save. If you don’t see this objective, select Promote Local Business and click Save.

In the Ad Content section, add a description and title and use a previously uploaded image or video by clicking Select Media. When you want to add a new image or video, click Edit Options and then Select Image. Next, click the Button Label drop-down menu to select the call-to-action button for your ad and enter the phone number you want people to call in the phone number field.

Now, follow the same steps as when creating a call ad on Facebook with the current content. This way, you will have completed the creation of the call ad with the new content. When the ad is delivered and shown to the targeted audience, when people click on the call ad or the Call Now button, the phone’s keyboard with the pre-filled phone number will appear on their device. They will then be prompted to confirm the call and see a reminder to make the call or exit the screen.

How to view Facebook call ads metrics

The metrics you need to pay attention to when running call ads include estimated clicks on the call confirmation button, sent call requests, calls lasting at least 60 seconds, calls lasting at least 20 seconds, and calls made. These are estimates and may differ from the actual number of people calling you. If you want to view call ad metrics, follow these instructions:

Go to Ads Manager and click on the (+) icon in the top right corner of the columns. When the Suggested Columns pop-up window appears, click Customize Columns. Now, find and click Calls in the Interactions section in the left menu. In the Calls section, check the box next to any of the metrics you want to view, including Calls Made, Calls Lasting at least 20 seconds, and Calls Lasting at least 60 seconds.

For Messaging, check the box next to Callback Requests Sent if you want to see this metric. Once you’re done, click Apply. New columns will be added to your Ads Manager reporting table with the metrics you selected for your call ads.

We’ve now explored a type of advertisement that helps connect and build relationships with customers, ultimately increasing conversion rates. With these detailed instructions on how to create Facebook call ads, I hope you’ll be able to successfully apply these strategies to attract more potential customers and boost sales.

Frequently Asked Questions