Facebook is now preparing a grand launch of its new advertising approach next week in New York. According to leaked documents which was posted on Scribd via GigaOM, Facebook plans to make an upgrade of premium ad units on February 29. The documents also reveals that Facebook will leveraging on a few core principles such as making new ads social by default which means they'll show users what brands or advertisers that their contacts have Liked already. But the most notable aspect of this new ad format is that it won't use a customized ad copy, the new format will include content from posts on brands' Facebook pages. What does this mean? Facebook is now ushering the rise of true social advertising using every brand's most valuable asset: user-generated content (UGC).
How The Premium Ads Will Appear
The new premium ad units will include comment spaces and the Like button. Whenever a user's friend throws a comment or Likes the ad, it automatically appears on the user's friends' news feeds and will also show on the brand's Facebook page. The great thing about these new ad units is that Facebook is customizing each unit according to the content a marketer or a brand intends to share on the page. The six new units are labelled: Video, Photo, Question, Event, Status, and Link (Facebook driving traffic to your website).
What It Means to Brands and Marketers
Facebook will make brands realize that advertising is evolving, and will make marketers assess their budgets. This new advertising approach is actually not advertising per se, Facebook is teaching brands to improve on user engagement through an ad platform. In this age of social business, users want to be part of a conversation with a brand and this is how brands can turn users into consumers. The more you engage with users, the more they learn about they learn about what you're selling. For marketers, it's about time to shrug the salesman approach, marketers should learn to be thought leaders and community managers. Brands who listen to their customers get good PR, and arguably that's better than traditional advertising. As one of the documents said ""Everything starts with great content from the Page. Paid, owned, and earned work seamlessly together."
Enter The Age of Social Advertising
Facebook is a destination-location for social collaboration. Brands know that. Marketers are aware of that. But do users have an idea what that means? Facebook's new ad units will enable them to engage more with their favorite brands through sharing content. Ideas aren't limited to text, Internet-friendly content like photos and videos are easily shared on mobile devices nowadays. This tells us that social advertising will continue to improve as brands embrace mobile strategies as well. The synergy of mobile marketing and Facebook's new ad units will also bring social advertising more real-time and viral. It hits two birds with one stone: Allowing users to interact with brands while brands share more user-generated content.
Do you think Facebook's new premium ads will make a difference? Will it really improve user engagement for brands? What's your take?