Facebook Canvas
Research shows that the number one way people discover new content, brands and products is through a mobile device. Specifically social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. So of course marketers are constantly looking for innovative ways to get their message into user’s news feeds. But think about the last time you clicked on a link in a mobile ad. What happened? It’s likely the page took too long to load and you either bailed on the webpage or shutdown the app all together. Unfortunately this happens more often than marketers would like to admit. And it’s not because there is something wrong with the site, the reason is usually because the website contains large photos and/or videos that take a long time to load on a mobile device. Not to mention the fact that the webpage is loading through a third party application. However Facebook has come up with a solution to this problem – Facebook Canvas.
What’s Facebook Canvas?
Facebook Canvas is the social media giant’s newest advertising platform. Through Facebook Ad Manger, designers can create a full-screen, post-and-click immersive ad experience that acts similar to a website or landing page. The process is relatively easy and requires no knowledge of html or CSS coding. However like a website, great content is still necessary to make your Canvas ad engaging.
Once an ad is created with Facebook Canvas, users can swipe (horizontally and vertically) through a carousel of slides with pictures, animations and/or text. Or there is another option that turns your phone into a full panoramic photo experience. With this option, rather than swiping, users can twist and rotate their phone to view different parts of a large panoramic photo.
Why advertise using Facebook Canvas?
As I mentioned earlier a big reason that users bail on links embedded in social media is because they take too long to load. However Canvas has found away around this problem. Rather than loading a website or landing page in a web-browser, Canvas uses the same technology that loads Facebook photos. Have you ever had a problem loading a Facebook photo? Not unless you have a bad internet connection or poor reception.
There is another reason to start using Facebook Canvas. While they won’t come right out and admit it, Facebook gives and extra push to advertisers that use their new formats first. Take Facebook Live as an example. Facebook sends out a notification to your entire friend list letting them know that you are broadcasting live. They don’t do this for any other posts. Why? Because it’s a new product that they are pushing and that they want people to know about it and use it. The same concept applies to Canvas. Because Facebook wants to showcase their new products, they give early adopters more exposure than they would give users of a proven feature. Therefore the earlier you start investing in a new advertising format on Facebook the more exposure you ad will get.
If you would like more information on social media advertising can help your business contact Milk Street Marketing today!
