At a Glance
This 2017 article looks ahead to Facebook advertising in 2018. It examines the growing role of video, a wider range of ad formats and in-app experiences, alongside the pressure on businesses to support organic activity with paid reach.
TL;DR
- Video was becoming a larger part of Facebook advertising.
- Carousel, slideshow, collection and other formats offered different creative options.
- In-app lead forms aimed to reduce friction for mobile prospects.
- Declining organic reach increased the importance of paid distribution.
- Treat platform names, features and figures as historical context for 2018.
Facebook has come a long way since its debut in 2004, especially when it comes to the Facebook Advertising platform. It has almost single-handedly turned paid social media marketing into a cornerstone of modern digital marketing tactics.
In the next year to come, we can all expect Facebook to evolve in deeper ways. These evolutions include both new features and shifts in the way businesses will be able to use Facebook ads to reach prospects.
Let’s explore the most important Facebook advertising trends for 2018. With them, you can improve your marketing funnel and hopefully find more leads than ever in the coming year.
The Importance of Facebook Video Ads
Mobile audiences eat up video more hungrily than ever. Altogether, Facebook users watch over 100 million hours of video a day.
As a result of their demand and improvements in video players, we have seen an explosion in both paid and organic video content.
On average, videos on Facebook get 135% more organic reach than photos.
Your business can potentially improve both its organic reach and engagement on paid posts by creating more promotional assets as videos. Making the switch does not have to be expensive or painful either.
With just a few Facebook video ads, you can improve engagement and prospecting. You also help people remember your messaging since people remember video almost seven-times better than they do text.
More Diverse Ad Types
In addition to video ads, Facebook has been quietly diversifying their ad inventory. Marketers and small business owners can use these ad formats to accomplish specific business goals.
- Carousel ads can use multiple images, multiple offers, or multiple USPs in one go, providing a richer experience and a more compelling CTA.
- Slideshow ads use lightweight video to load faster and intrude less on the browsing experience. They can be a great transition for small businesses looking to create more video.
- Collection ads allow users to browse through multiple products or informational pages in-app. This grows awareness while generating less friction compared to an outbound link.
- Canvas mobile Facebook ad formats transform your ad from a single video or image into a full screen, scrolling experience. Use them to showcase high-quality assets or nurture prospects further along in the buying cycle.
- Dynamic ads can use a single ad template to promote several products or create customized pitches for different segments. These ads maximize relevance and returns while helping you A/B test more quickly.
- Link ads include a prominent, customizable CTA button to direct prospects to a landing page or offer. They encourage action, increasing conversions.
- Lead ads incorporate a lead capture form directly in the app! We’ll explain the significance of this ad type and similar formats below.
Understanding and taking advantage of these Ad Types will be a large key to success.
Facebook Likes To Keep People On The Facebook Platform
Ad formats like lead ads and collection ads keep audiences in-app as they interact with your brand.
For instance, Lead ads pull up a lead capture form in-app and autopopulates it with information from the users Facebook user profile. This feature dramatically reduces friction in your marketing funnel, encouraging more prospects to convert thanks to the simpler process. You also reduce the number of needed assets by getting rid of certain landing pages.
Because of these abilities, Hubspot asserts that Lead ads can “skyrocket conversion rates and make mobile ads more effective for B2B marketers.”
Understanding Facebook's goals for their user experience will enable you to get the most out of your Facebook advertising budget.
Paid Advertising Increases (As Organic Reach Nosedives)
Facebook made waves when they announced that they were experimenting with a newsfeed that contained zero organic branded posts. All of this content would be moved to a separate “Explore” feed.
If Facebook implements this change globally, then all branded Facebook Pages will see their organic reach tank.
Even if that doesn’t happen, though, these Pages have already seen dramatic drops in reach over the past few years. With fewer people seeing their content appear on its own, these Pages must now resort to funding paid Facebook advertising campaigns in order to generate impressions.
Truth be told: this has been the situation for years. Businesses simply cannot rely on the Facebook algorithm to serendipitously show their content to meet their reach goals. By funding a paid ad or promoted post campaign, you guarantee yourself a sizeable audience.
Even better, you can fine-tune the targeting for your ads to maximize relevance and ROI. Facebook has gotten much more granular with its targeting features.
You can use these features to weed out audiences who are unlikely to buy your product, increasing your conversion rate and your overall returns.
Ultimately you must embrace paid advertising if you want to continue to reach your target audiences on the platform.
Take Advantage of Facebook Advertising Trends in 2018 and Beyond
By looking to the above Facebook Advertising trends your business can find greater successes in reaching your ideal prospects to grow in 2018.
Make sure you combine your Facebook Advertising strategy with other digital marketing practices for maximum gains.