How to Create a Clickable Facebook Carousel Post

Most Facebook posts are a combination of text and an image that gets some message across. Posts like that enrich your Page and make it more attractive to users, and more credible in Facebook’s eyes.

There is a way, though, to give a Facebook post an extra function: taking the reader to a specific web page.

To create a post like that, go to your company’s Facebook Page.

Once the Page is open, go to the URL bar and add this to the end of the Page’s address:

/publishing_tools/

…and press Enter.

After that, you should see the page shown above.

The next step is to click Create Post.

There is a chance the new version of the composer will load by default, and it is missing certain features. The new composer looks like this:

To bring back the old version, open the settings marked with the icon and choose Classic post composer.

The composer view should now change to this:

The next step is to open Photo/Video and pick the second-to-last option, Create a photo carousel.

In the next window, in the Destination URL field, add the link to the web page your potential customers should land on:

Keep in mind that the URL you enter here will be attached to all of the images, and unfortunately, at the moment, there is no way to enter more than one URL.

After filling in that field with your URL, click the arrow icon on the same line, on the right.

This is where building the actual creative begins. We recommend starting with the images: click the field in the Available images section in the middle of the composer window.

Note that the first image is pulled automatically from the destination page, and to keep it from showing in the ad you need to add at least two other images.

For example:

With the carousel set up like this, only 3 of the 4 images visible in the Available images section are shown, in the order marked in the selection. If you need to change the order, just click the yellow image and drag it in front of the green one, which is currently first. The change appears immediately in the preview.

The recommended image format is a 1080 x 1080 pixel square.

Once you have added at least 2 images, you can also edit the headlines shown directly under each image. To open the editor, click the headline.

The default headline is pulled automatically from the page, just like the first image.

When the images are added and in the right order, and the headlines are changed, it is time to add the ad copy.

The essential elements of that copy are:

Benefit-driven language: tell readers what the product offers them, what they can achieve with it and what they gain by using it.

A link to the site: even though it is in the image, include it in the text as well, as high as possible, ideally in the first three lines.

Emojis: they make the text visually richer, easier to read and more appealing to the reader.

A call to action: a direct prompt asking the user to take the action you want, for example “Shop now…”, “Sign up…” or “Visit our site and learn more…”.

Remember that most Facebook users look at the image first; only if it seems interesting do they move on to the copy, and if they do, the first 3 lines may decide everything, because that is all that shows when the ad is displayed on a phone. The rest is hidden behind See more.

When you have done all of the above, click the Share now button at the very bottom of the composer window.

From that moment the carousel is visible on your Facebook Page, and anyone who clicks an image goes straight to the web page whose URL you pasted earlier. The published carousel should look like this:

A carousel works especially well when you have several services or products and want to see which one attracts clicks. It is good starting material for creative tests in the campaigns we run as part of our Facebook and Instagram Ads service.