The 4 New Updates to Facebook Ads, and What You Need to Know About Them

It seems that Facebook changes everyday. Whether it’s a new button for posts, a different way to communicate with friends, or an algorithm update for pages, it can be challenging to stay on top of all the updates, especially the changes that matter most to businesses and our Pages.

If you have advertised on Facebook before, have thought about advertising on Facebook, or need to know about Facebook Ads for anything you do, there are four, new important updates that the social networking juggernaut recently announced. Here’s the scoop:

1. Brand Awareness Optimization

Facebook believes that ads fall into two buckets: brand awareness and direct response (DR). For DR campaigns (think of ads that promote app downloads, newsletter signups, or product purchases), advertisers not only have a very specific goal with those ads, but the metrics to measure that success is built into the platform via Insights and conversion. Facebook recognized the other bucket, brand awareness, was lacking similar capabilities.

That’s why Facebook introduced “brand awareness optimization bidding” to help advertisers (starting to roll out in October) identify, reach, and attract individuals who are more likely to re-engage with your Page and your posts. The phrase “quality over quantity” is at play here, and Facebook agrees with this statement. If you’re a business that specializes in B2B services, client relationships, and other brand-building goals, you’ll want to consider bidding on Facebook Ads determined by a soon-to-be-official measuring how long someone engages with your previous ads.

“Brand awareness optimization will be available when buying in the Ads auction, as well as through the Reach and Frequency tool in Power Editor. It will be available on Facebook and Instagram this October as a limited release, with full availability in the coming months.” – Facebook for Business

2. Video Ads in side-by-side carousel layout

The carousel format for Facebook Ads is nothing new, but including videos in that swipe-to-view layout was impossible until now. This means that your video content can be promoted alongside your other content. For example, you can place the video demo of your product next to a couple of photos, and finally end the carousel with an image linking to a landing or download page.

3. Target Rating Points (TRP): The Same Method as TV Ad Buying

This is for the big-time spenders on Facebook, especially for global brands, agencies, and companies that have a stake in television advertising. Facebook reported their “custom research conducted by Nielsen shows that boosting TV campaigns with Facebook video ads drives incremental reach, increases efficiency and improves effectiveness.”

TRP, or “target rating point” is a TV-industry metric referring to a particular audience under a larger campaign driven by impressions. With this update, Nielsen will now incorporate Facebook video ads into their digital ad ratings, allowing advertisers to better plan their campaign strategy using a clever mix of Facebook and TV assets and dollars.

Across nearly 50 campaigns, Facebook impressions were two times more likely to reach the target audience than that of TV impressions, and when paid Facebook ads were placed alongside TV ads, there was a 19% increase in targeted reach compared to advertisements on TV alone. There was also a slight increase in ad memorability, brand linkage, and, likeability linkage when coupling Facebook Ads with TV ads.

4. Mobile Polls Match The LooK and Feel of Campaigns

If you’re keen to poll Facebook and Instagram users, you’re in luck. Facebook announced it will now allow advertisers the opportunity to launch mobile polling campaigns. This is to allow advertisers the ability to measure success in the same place they ran campaigns, which should represent more authentic and accurate results.

If you’re interested in launching a mobile poll advertisement, Facebook encourages contacting your Facebook sales rep, and if you don’t have one, you can learn more about them here. You can also read more on these four Facebook updates on the Facebook for Business blog.