Why Facebook Presents A Great Opportunity for Marketers

Facebook currently has over 2 billion monthly users. Instagram has had a meteoric rise to 1 billion monthly users across the world. Based on the statistics available for these sites, their users are primarily on mobile devices, and they love video. In fact, according to Wyzowl in its 2017 State of Video Marketing Report, 79% of consumers prefer to watch a product’s video ad rather than reading the text. In America, there are over 80 million people already using AR monthly.

Together, these statistics paint an intriguing picture for a lucrative match. Seeing this potential, Facebook decided to enhance their marketer’s advertising potential by releasing new AR-based functionalities for video marketing and a video creation kit to make it easier for users and business owners, just like you, to make engaging ads.

Feature 1. Facebook Augmented Reality for Mobile Advertising

With the holiday shopping period just a few months away, it’s important that you start your marketing as early as possible. You can start doing that now with these AR video ads from Facebook. They give you a chance to offer your customers vibrant advertising much like they see for themselves at storefronts.

Facebook has been testing AR Ads since July 2018 with Michael Kors being one of the first brands to use it. The Michael Kors AR ads showed up in their target market newsfeed and allowed people to try on different types of sunglasses. They could then choose which ones to buy right there from the ad. Similarly, Sephora Collection used AR ads for lipsticks, so clients could try on different shades right from the ad.

The AR ad technology makes it easy for potential customers to interact with your product. When they find one that suits them, they can go straight to buy or install an app. You can incorporate call-to-actions in the video ad to encourage viewers to take advantage of whatever it is they are “trying out”.

Now, in addition to providing AR ads on mobile, Facebook also gives marketers the tools to easily create these ads on a mobile-first platform.

Feature 2. Facebook Video Creation Kit

To make it easier to create video ads, Facebook has rolled out its Video Creation Kit for advertisers. According to Facebook in a company blog post, “mobile-first creative has a 27% higher likelihood of driving brand lift and 23% higher likelihood of driving message association compared to video ads that are not optimized for mobile.”

The design of the video creation kit allows advertisers to quickly create mobile-first video ads. With the kit, you can upload existing images – similar to what Michael Kors did – add overlays, your logo, and use those to build your mobile-first video ads.

The Video Creation Kit also provides templates to add motion to your image assets. These templates are designed to align with different marketing goals – whether you’re promoting a product, or you want to tell a brand story. The templates in the Video Creation Kit can be customized from an advertiser’s Facebook Page or in the Ads Manager. The FB Video Creation Kit is now available for video ad creation for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network.

Feature 3. Store Collections for Instagram Stories

Facebook has also enhanced its advertising capabilities on Instagram. Brands can now add collections to their ads to allow users to browse through the product collection while still in the app. You can tag products you want to feature and add filters or captions to each. Your shop tab allows viewers to access product and pricing details in the app. Once they find what they want, they can click through to your mobile site to make a purchase.

So, if you have shopping enabled for your store on Instagram, it’s time to take a quick look at this new feature to improve your engagement and conversion rates like Netshoes did.

So, what product do you sell that can be promoted using augmented reality and video ads? Are you taking advantage of the Instagram store collection feature? It’s time to put these 3 features to the test, engage and convert more people to customers.