Facebook on Friday has unveiled a new type of shopping ad format called ‘collection’ to help marketers showcase their products in more visually appealing ways.
The format incorporates video as its main element along with product images, and even Canvas-style elements, within a single post.
Advertisers will now get the choice of either choosing the products to be showcased, or allowing Facebook decide which products to feature, depending upon the brand’s current product catalog – Facebook will optimize the exhibit based on what it thinks will best speak to the every individual viewer.
Ahead of its full launch, the collection promotions have been tested by Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger. Adidas reported a 5.3x return on ad spend from the format, which it used to drive sales of its ZNE Road Trip range, while Tommy Hilfiger claims a 220 per cent increase in ROI when promoting the launch of its Autumn 2016 line.
When a customer clicks on any of the images, they’ll be taken to a catalog of up to 50 products which Facebook will again pull from the advertisers’ product listing. The display is hosted on Facebook and works like a mini-website, a similar way their Canvas ads do.
Tap on any specific item and you’ll get a full-screen profile; you won’t be able to buy products through Facebook at this juncture; however that seems like a logical future development.
Facebook also reported proposed testing of a new outbound clicks metric for both Facebook and Instagram, screening the number of clicks that lead to third-party sites or apps, trying to give advertisers with ‘a clearer picture of people’s paths through the entire ads experience’.
These tests will start in ‘the coming weeks’.
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