Last week Facebook rocked the world of biddable media with the announcement of its new ‘product ads’. The product ads, which aim to rival Google’s successful PLA campaigns, are believed to be the first of many updates by the social media giant to break into the world of ecommerce, competing head to head with Google.Facebook referred to the new ad format as ‘a solution designed to help businesses promote multiple products or their entire product catalog, across all the devices their customers use’. Looking at the two products side-by-side, Google's Shopping ads are typically triggered based on a user’s search query, whereas Facebook's product ads give advertisers the opportunity to create a personalised customer journey based upon what customers viewed on their website or app. Alternatively, advertisers are still able to target ads based upon specific interests, locations, demographics etc.If the opportunity to create personalised customer journeys wasn’t enough, Facebook also gives advertisers the power to upload a business’s product catalogue to the interface. If opted into to automatic delivery, Facebook affinity will then manually deliver product ads to the most relevant people and those most likely to make a purchase.
If that wasn't enough, as well as being super targeted the new product ads also offer marketers an improved ad buying experience with the option to advertise multiple products in a single carousel. Facebook have also said that when advertisers opt into the automatic delivery of product ads, they'll turn off ads for specific products when their out of stock and update ads if prices change – a big thumbs up for conversion rates!With this new ad channel stealing all of the limelight from Google for the time being, it will be interesting to see how the results fare between Facebook Product ads compared to the standard shopping ads on Google. At Search Star we are in the process of getting our first clients up and running on this new channel, watch this space for the first sets of results!If you’d be interested in finding out more about Facebook advertising and how we can help you sell your product directly to your audience – get in touch!
