Facebook Ad Examples: 9 Real Campaigns and What They Teach (2026)

The best Facebook ad examples in 2026 have three things in common: one clear idea, creative made for the feed (usually short vertical video or a simple, bold image), and a reason to act. Below are nine real campaigns, from Australian brands like Who Gives A Crap, Princess Polly and Salt Lab to global names like Liquid Death, each with a public source and the lesson you can copy this week.

When I first wrote this post in 2021 it was a gallery of ad screenshots. Ads change every week, and Meta's delivery system has changed a lot since then, so this version focuses on what each brand did and why it worked. If you want to see the actual ads running today, I'll show you how to look them up yourself in a minute.

How to see any brand's Facebook ads right now

Every active ad on Facebook and Instagram is public in the Meta Ad Library. You don't need an account for a basic search. As Shopify's 2026 guide explains, the process is simple:

1. Go to the Ad Library and choose your country (Australia, or "All").
2. Choose "All ads" as the category.
3. Type a brand name or a keyword, such as "electrician Melbourne" or "skincare".
4. Filter by platform, media type (image or video) and active status.
5. Click "See ad details" to read the full copy, watch the video and open the landing page.

One useful habit: look at how long an ad has been running. A brand rarely keeps paying for an ad that isn't working, so an ad that has run for months is usually a winner worth studying.

9 Facebook ad examples worth learning from

1. Graza: one product, one line, bright colours

Graza sells olive oil and olive oil mayo. In the Shopify guide above, one of its ads is used as an example of creative inspiration: a simple photo of three squeeze bottles, bright yellow and green colours, a casual caption and a short tagline, "Mayo made with only the good stuff."

What you can learn: you don't need a film crew. A clean product photo, colours that stop the scroll and a single benefit in a few words can carry an ad. If you sell a physical product, start here.

2. Chamberlain Coffee: video as the default format

The same Shopify analysis found Chamberlain Coffee mainly runs shoppable video ads, with only a few single-image ads in the mix. That format mix tells you where the brand is putting its money.

What you can learn: filter a competitor's ads by media type in the Ad Library. If most of their ads are video, that's a strong hint about what's working in your category. Short vertical video that shows the product being used is the format I test first for most clients.

3. Who Gives A Crap: humour that travels to Australia

Who Gives A Crap, the toilet paper brand founded in Melbourne in 2012, ran its first global brand campaign, "Uncrap The World", across the UK and Australia. According to its media agency PMG, cut-downs of the TV ad ran on Facebook and Instagram alongside YouTube, TV, outdoor and creator content. The campaign was built around a playful "call to arms for bums" and reported an 11-point brand awareness lift in Australia and a 3% lift in consideration. It was named Adweek's Media Plan of the Year in 2024.

What you can learn: a boring category doesn't need boring ads. If you already have a longer video, cut it into 6 to 15 second versions for the feed and Reels. The same idea gets far more mileage.

4. Princess Polly: build demand first, then convert it

Gold Coast fashion retailer Princess Polly told Mediaweek in 2025 that it uses Advantage+ campaigns to optimise budget, creative and placement for sales, and Reach campaigns for awareness and consideration. Those Reach campaigns delivered 86% lower CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) and more net new reach.

What you can learn: not every campaign has to be a sales campaign. A small, cheap awareness campaign to your local area keeps your brand familiar, so your conversion ads have warmer people to work with.

5. Salt Lab: a founder story people wanted to back

Salt Lab makes Australian-made topical magnesium oil. In 2023 an arson attack on its storage facility destroyed its stock. Founder Clementine Boshevski told Mediaweek that a "bring us back" campaign, run organically through its Instagram and Facebook community, helped restore production. The brand then used brand awareness and Advantage+ campaigns to grow, including into the US, and reported 300% year-on-year growth.

What you can learn: your story is an asset. Real setbacks, behind-the-scenes moments and the founder talking to camera often outperform polished brand ads, because they feel like a post from a person, not an ad.

6. Liquid Death: ads people want to share

Canned water brand Liquid Death treats comedy as the priority and shareability as its "North Star" metric, according to Marketing Brew. It hires professional comedians, keeps creative in-house and makes a few high-quality pieces a month rather than a flood of content. Paid media is then used to boost the content that's already working.

What you can learn: post organically first, see what people share and comment on, then put budget behind the winners. You're using your audience as a free creative testing panel.

7. Rare Beauty: creators in the ad mix

Shopify uses Rare Beauty to show how to search the Ad Library's branded content section, where you can see a brand's sponsored creator posts. This matters because Meta's partnership ads (ads that run from a creator's handle as well as the brand's) have become one of the biggest formats on the platform. Meta's CFO said on its Q3 2026 earnings call that partnership ads passed a US$15 billion annual revenue run rate.

What you can learn: you don't need influencers with millions of followers. A local customer or micro-creator filming an honest 30-second review can run as a partnership ad, and it looks like a recommendation rather than an ad.

8. L'Oréal Luxe: brand plus creator, measured properly

In a white paper Meta released in October 2026, L'Oréal shared that across 1,150 L'Oréal Luxe campaigns in the UK and US, campaigns that combined brand content with creator content delivered 35% higher ROI in its marketing mix modelling, as reported by PPC Land. The same paper found that when at least 30% of a test's assets were partnership ads, the median cost per incremental purchase was 45% lower across 20 conversion lift studies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

What you can learn: don't choose between "brand ads" and "creator ads". Run both in the same campaign and let the results decide the split.

9. An electric bike startup: one from my own work

I'll add one result from my own client work. For an electric bike startup, social media advertising delivered a 71% increase in leads and a 37% lower cost per acquisition. The lesson I take from campaigns like this is that the ad is only half the job. The offer, the landing page and how fast someone follows up the lead matter just as much as the creative.

What the best Facebook ads have in common in 2026

Meta now relies heavily on its AI to decide who sees each ad. Its retrieval system, Andromeda, narrows tens of millions of possible ads down to a few thousand for each person, as Meta's engineering team explains. In practice, your creative does much of the targeting. A video about commuting to work will find different people from a video about weekend trail rides, even inside the same broad audience. I cover how to set this up in my guide to improving Facebook ads delivery.

Looking across the examples above, the patterns are clear:

• One idea per ad. Graza's ad says one thing. So should yours.
• Different ideas, not small tweaks. Give Meta genuinely different concepts to test: a customer review, a founder story, a product demo, an offer.
• Real people. Creators, customers and founders appear again and again in the strongest campaigns.
• Made for the format. Vertical video for Reels and Stories, captions for people watching with the sound off.
• A clear next step. The ad, the offer and the landing page should tell the same story.

Facebook ad ideas you can test this week

If you're staring at a blank Ads Manager, here are six ideas that work for most small businesses:

1. The customer review video. Ask a happy customer to film 30 seconds on their phone answering "what was the problem, and what changed?"
2. The before and after. Show the result: a renovated room, a cleaner gutter, a happier pet.
3. The founder to camera. You, explaining why you started the business and who it's for.
4. The objection buster. Pick the question every customer asks ("Is it expensive?") and answer it in the first three seconds.
5. The simple product shot. One product, one benefit, one bold colour.
6. The offer with a deadline. A genuine reason to act now, such as limited spots this month.

Write the first line like a headline. My guides to writing headlines and power words will help with the copy.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a good Facebook ad?

A good Facebook ad grabs attention in the first second, makes one clear point and gives people an easy next step. In 2026 it also needs to look native to the feed, which usually means vertical video or a bold, simple image.

Where can I see examples of Facebook ads?

The free Meta Ad Library at facebook.com/ads/library shows every active ad on Facebook and Instagram. Search any brand or keyword, filter by country and format, and click through to see the full ad and landing page.

What type of Facebook ad works best for ecommerce?

Short product videos, creator or customer reviews and catalogue ads are the formats I see work most often for online stores. Test several genuinely different concepts and let the results guide your budget.

Want Facebook and Instagram ads that bring in leads or sales, not just likes? I plan, create and manage social media advertising campaigns for small businesses. Book a free call and we'll look at what your ads could be doing.