Facebook Changing their Ads – Could this Lead to Higher Engagement and Ad Spend?
Social Media Marketing

Facebook Changing their Ads – Could this Lead to Higher Engagement and Ad Spend?

11th April 2014

Change in Facebook Ads - State of Digital

Not sure if many have seen them already, but this week saw Facebook roll out a new set of sidebar ads. The ads are a lot more prominent and give images and video links a much stronger prominence in the side bar, but what does this mean for marketers?

Facebook New Ad Size 2014 - State of DigitalThe click rates from ads within Facebook has continued to under perform over the last few years, taking this on face value, brands and business have invested less time and budget into this channel, as the ROI is so small. Facebook has rolled out newsfeed ads and made small changes in the way we can now get in front of new “fans” and advertise, but again the click through rates are marginal in comparison to other channels of advertising.

With the new sized ads in the sidebar, it does mean that there will be less space and perhaps less ads being shown at anyone time, so hopefully driving the click through a little higher. As yet, I haven’t seen an increase in cost to run that advert with the new dimensions, but time will tell I suppose.

Opportunities of the new ads

Personally I think there is an opportunity for marketers to jump on quickly and make best use of this feature, if Facebook are offering a “bigger space” to advertise in and social ads are already part of your budget, then its a good opportunity all round.

Step 1

  • Make sure the images you use are highly engaging for your brand – not stock photography
  • Add in video where you can – it attracts a higher engagement and click through

Step 2

  • Test the ads and images as you go along – optmising as you can along the way

Step 3

  • Add a little more budget from the outset – see if you can drive more traffic/CTR
  • Own the space – if only one ad is being shown, thats your opportunity to own it!
  • Do it quickly before it changes or your competitors jump in

Don’t worry if you haven’t see the ad option yet, its being rolled out slowly and I can not for the life of me get it to show across different devices or desk top machines.

Is it a good change?

I think this will be a welcomed change, what with Facebook new overall layout structure and perhaps bring us to start investing a  little more into Facebook for advertising. Having trialed the advert myself this week, there have been slight increases in click through rate, but I suppose only time will tell if these ads can become ever more prominent and bring marketers and brands alike to invest more.

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Written By
Russell O’Sullivan is an all-round Senior Digital Marketing Manager. With over 15 years of experience in the digital environment, he has worked across varied disciplines such Content Strategy/Marketing, PPC, SEO, Ecommerce, Social Media/Marketing, Web Design and UX.
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