Latest Trends in Facebook Advertising for 2016
Facebook has been spot on with its advertising product, earning impressive earnings for both themselves and advertisers. Like most other services and features on the web, Facebook advertising formats and targeting options continue to evolve and it’s up to brand and direct response advertisers to stay updated on the latest offerings in order to fully optimize their ad campaigns. Here’s what marketers can expect from Facebook advertising this year:
Facebook is the Place to Advertise
Social media marketing has come a long way, but it’s getting more precise than it’s even been, thanks to Facebook. In 2015, it was reported that Facebook click-through rate for ads more than doubled due to those factors:
- Ad quality is better
- Facebook ad targeting is more selective and targeted
- Users are willing to click and view Facebook ads
What’s more, the CTR increased while the cost per click decreased, which made is a no brainer for advertisers to hop on the advertising bandwagon.
Higher Competition Coming Soon
According to AdWeek, there were 1.59 billion users and advertisers spent $17.08 billion on Facebook in 2015. This means the competition is heating up, and bid prices are likely to rise with the growing number of advertisers. While Google is still the biggest online advertising platform by revenue, Facebook’s revenue grew faster (+46.6 percent) compared to Google (+13.0 percent) in 2015.
Carousel Ads are Getting Popular
Carousel ads are now one of the more popular ad formats offered on Facebook. According to Marketing Land, carousel ad link units receive 55% more spend between the second and third quarter of 2015. That’s the highest increase by any ad type. Carousel ads have been more popular for 2 reasons: carousel ad performance is usually better than traditional Facebook ads and carousel ads provide advertisers with opportunities to promote more than one product to entice (and even up sell) the potential customer.
The Rise of Social Video
In 2015, social video was one of the fastest growing mediums online, and Facebook quickly picked up on this trend. According to Facebook, there were nearly 8 billion daily video videos on the platform in 2015, over a 100% growth rate within a seven month time span. The growth of video is the reason why Facebook is investing so heavily on providing advertisers with video ad formats. The future looks bright for more video ads in 2016.
Local Ads are Getting More Precise
Wanting to target the locals in your area? Thanks to the rise of mobile users, geo-targeted ads were big hit in 2015 and will continue to to be in 2016. That is thanks to the precision and effectiveness of this Facebook ad format. Hyper-local ad targeting has allowed businesses to target customers within a mile of their storefront. Call-to-action buttons such as “shop now,” “learn more,” “click for directions,” and “cal now” make it easier for a customer to exactly what they need to do to get your product and service right away.
Mobile Ad Spend Will Surpass Desktop
We all know the overall mobile trend is ascending, but what many marketers may not know is that the number of mobile-only users is growing and Google recently implemented a ranking penalty for non-mobile friendly websites. Given these two factors, Facebook ads will be even more attractive this year as most ad formats are automatically optimized for mobile; Instagram ads only work on mobile. Advertisers must ensure that ads click to a website that is mobile friendly or else conversion rates may suffer.