Introducing New Ways to Inspire Holiday Shoppers with Video

Facebook Business

July 10, 2018

Each year, nearly half of consumers begin their holiday shopping before the end of October. NRF 2017 Holiday Shopping Behavior Survey, National Retail Federation, 2017 For marketers, this means planning for the busiest shopping season of the year long before people start making their shopping lists. That’s why we’re introducing new tools to help marketers capture people’s attention on mobile, where they expect to find the same rich, visual inspiration as they would see in a store window. We’re adding new ways to help you engage with customers on mobile, encourage product discovery and drive sales online and in stores this holiday shopping season.

Build more engaging mobile ad experiences with augmented reality

Use of augmented reality (AR) is growing among people and businesses. In fact, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that more than 80 million people in the US engage with AR on a monthly basis and BCG expects this number to grow to more than 120 million by 2021. “Augmented Reality: Is the Camera the Next Big Thing in Advertising?”, BCG, Apr 2018 From try-on product experiences to immersive filters for games and movies, AR enables people to connect with your business and products in new ways. Now, with the introduction of AR ads in Facebook News Feed, people can experiment with your brand’s AR camera effects in just one click from your ad. And by incorporating calls-to-action within the camera experience, people can seamlessly go from engaging with your product—such as trying on a lipstick shade or exploring a new game—to making a purchase or installing an app.

Michael Kors was the first brand to test AR ads in News Feed, enabling people to try on a pair of sunglasses and make a purchase based on their experience. Later this summer, we will begin testing AR ads with some additional advertisers such as Sephora and others in fashion accessories, cosmetics, furniture, gaming and entertainment, and we plan to roll out AR ads more broadly to other industries over the course of the year.

Michael Kors Facebook AR ads in News Feed

Easily create mobile videos using Video Creation Kit

79% of consumers would rather watch a video to learn about a product than read text on a page, “The State of Video Marketing 2017,” Wyzowl, 2017 and ads created specifically for the way people watch on mobile perform better across a range of metrics. Metrixlab data, Facebook–commissioned study of 759 video ads distributed across 25 countries: Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, US, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, India, Greater China (Hong Kong), Korea, Australia, Vietnam, New Zealand, UK ,Italy, Poland, France, Germany, Romania, Turkey, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and The Netherlands, 2017 But we know it can be challenging for advertisers to create mobile-optimized videos quickly. That’s why we’re launching Video Creation Kit to make it easier for all advertisers to create mobile-first video ads. Video Creation Kit helps advertisers create eye-catching, effective mobile video ads using existing images. The tool will enable advertisers to upload images, add overlays and logos to quickly build mobile-first video ads.

Video Creation Kit is currently in testing and will start rolling out to all advertisers in August for ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.

Reach shoppers seamlessly on Instagram

Shopping on Instagram offers an engaging way for businesses to showcase products and provides more opportunities for people to explore their passions and buy from brands they love. Last month, we expanded the shopping capability to Instagram Stories for select brands including Gap and Old Navy. Now, we’re excited to bring the shopping experience in stories to all brands that have shopping on Instagram enabled during the holiday season.

To build a seamless shopping experience on Instagram, we’ve also introduced solutions such as collection, an ad format that allows people to browse additional products with one tap from the Instagram feed, while staying in the app. We’ve been testing this solution with brands such as Netshoes, which saw a 6.3% lift in conversions and 42% lower conversion cost when using collection compared with other ad formats. Today, we’re rolling out the collection format in Instagram to all advertisers around the world.

Make heads spin

Visit Facebook IQ for more insights on how to build effective holiday campaigns.

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