I want to run social media ads but don't know the formats — which ad types actually work for a small shop?

Forget about hiring an agency for production. In the gourmet food niche, flawless studio shots just feel fake and industrial. Prop your phone on the counter, film the olive oil pouring in natural daylight, and caption it "Fresh press arrived this week, stop by for a tasting." That kind of authenticity makes a 300 euro budget punch way above its weight.

We tested different formats in our deli-style shop: click-through rate sat at 0.8% on a single static image, but jumped to 2.4% on a swipeable carousel. On vertical short videos, CPM was nearly 40% cheaper compared to feed images. The data is clear: video gets cheap views, carousels make sales.

On the technical side, the most critical detail is aspect ratios. Prepare full-screen 9:16 assets for Stories and vertical video. For the main feed, use 1:1 square or 4:5 vertical images. If you drop a horizontal video into a vertical Story placement, you end up with black bars on the edges, which kills your click-through rate right away.

Steer clear of collection ads completely. That format was built for massive apparel catalogs; for a small deli, it's a pain to set up technically and it burns through small budgets in no time without getting results. Stick to a simple carousel.

When we first opened, we paid a photographer 250 euros for gorgeous studio shots. We ran ads and heard crickets for two weeks straight. Then one morning at the register, I shot a raw 8-second phone video prepping a cheese board and ran it as a Story ad; the next day, six people from three neighborhoods over came in specifically asking for that cheese.

edit: typed from phone, sorry for typos.

How does your delivery setup look on the site? Can you ship cold-chain items outside Madrid or are you strictly shipping dry goods? Because if you don't dial in your shipping radius properly when picking ad formats for web orders, your ad spend just goes down the drain.

vertical video shot on a phone is hands down the best. like just put the price and the nearest metro stop in big text on screen most people watch with sound off anyway so keep that in mind.

Bottom line, the playbook for a small budget is simple: phone-recorded vertical Story video to get people through the door; clear-priced carousel ads to drive online checkout. Don't waste cash on production, just start shooting on your phone.

The cheap-looking path usually ends up costing more later. Everyone rushing into social media ads gets stuck at the same point.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

The cheap-looking path usually ends up costing more later. If you get three different answers on a topic, the question was asked wrong.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

Timely topic.

Thanks, that was the answer I was looking for.

I'd appreciate it if you shared the outcome.

If I understood correctly, you're saying: When making decisions, write down the worst-case scenario too, not just the best.

I partly agree, partly disagree. Ranking is the result, search intent is the input. Look at intent first.

good call starting this thread.

You're right.

I went through the same thing.