Catching Up With New Possibilities of Facebook Ads

The world of social media marketing never stops. In the last few months alone, Facebook has been the perfect example of the ever-moving world of social media, announcing and rolling out a variety of new ad variations. These variations could seriously influence your B2B digital marketing strategy, which is why we figured we'd give you a comprehensive update on what's been going on in the world of Facebook advertising. Here are the developments you should be aware of:

1) FACEBOOK ROLLS OUT MULTI-PRODUCT ADS

This particular piece of news broke in February, when Facebook's long-awaited multi-product ads (announced all the way back in June 2014) finally became available via the Power Editor to advertisers worldwide. E-commerce advertisers should be particularly interested in this feature, as it allows you to show and promote multiple products within a single ad.

The functionality goes beyond physical products. In the months since its rollout, content providers have used the feature to highlight their most recent blog posts, webinars, and more. Multi-product ads allow marketers the option to choose their preferred order in which the individual items are shown, or let Facebook dynamically adjust the order so that the most interacted-with items move to the front.

2) CALLS TO ACTION LAND ON FACEBOOK

In December 2014, a few months even before rolling out multi-product ads,Facebook added calls to action as an option for business pages. Administrators could choose from options such as "shop now," "sign up," or "watch video" for these buttons, which are now placed conveniently at the bottom of the sign-up page.

Until recently, the call-to-action buttons were a neat but little-used feature. That's until Facebook quietly added the possibility to promote them directly, resulting in ads similar to the popular "page like ads," but more targeted with the chosen call to action. Targeting options are identical to the rest of Facebook's ads.

3) FACEBOOK TESTS LEAD-GENERATING ADS

While both calls to action and multi-product ads are now readily available, Facebook announced another feature late last month that, while not ready, could be a game changer in the advertising strategies of many B2B marketers. We're talking, of course, about lead-generating ads.

Twitter marketers might already be familiar with the concept. In essence, the network is attempting to stop being the middle-man and start being the focal point of your inbound marketing and lead-generating strategy. Lead-generating ads on Twitter allow businesses to promote items such as newsletters to their audience, who can sign up (and automatically send the email addresses associated with their Twitter account) with a single click.

Facebook's lead-generating ads promise to go one step further: marketers will be able to add various fields as they would on a traditional lead-generating form, with Facebook automatically filling out fields, like contact information. If the concept is implemented as planned, look for inbound marketers to rejoice at this new possibility.

4) FACEBOOK VIDEO ADS ARE ABOUT TO COMPETE WITH YOUTUBE

Facebook's continued emphasis on video has made it a major force in the digital video industry, surpassing YouTube in terms of total branded video posts this year. Still, advertising in the medium has remained difficult.

That may change soon, with Facebook rolling out a new way to pay for video. By taking a page out of its biggest competitor's book, the network will allow marketers to pay only if their video has been seen for at least 10 seconds. If you're as concerned as most marketers about whether your Facebook video views are actually accurate or just a byproduct of by-scrolling, you'll enjoy this update.