Facebook has plenty of ad types to choose from depending on your marketing goals. Image ads…carousel ads…video ads…well most of us advertising on Facebook have probably utilized these types. But have you used canvas ads? If not you probably should test these out. They are an engaging and immersive ad type perfect for capturing and retaining users’ attention. Let us take a look at four reasons why you should test canvas ads. For all data presented I am using a 30-day window where canvas ads ran against video ads.
Mobile Traffic
In today’s marketing world, we must understand that mobile traffic is not only growing but it will soon dominate overall online traffic in a few years. Here are a few facts to wrap your head around according to Facebook.
- More than 2 billion people are visiting Facebook every month
- People spend around 3 hours per day on mobile devices with 58% of that time being spent in apps
- 74% of millennials take action after being inspired by a post seen on mobile
- 33% of shoppers research on mobile before buying on desktop or offline
Knowing this, wouldn’t you want to make sure your advertising efforts are geared towards mobile consumption? That is exactly what canvas ads work to achieve. They are a full screen, immersive experience built for mobile users on Facebook. When users click on a canvas ad they are given a microsite-like experience that allows them to watch, click, scroll, swipe and tap to engage with brands right on the Facebook platform. You can utilize this to grab users attention, tell your story, and entice further action from users.
Higher Reach
One of the most important aspects of social advertising is making sure your message is seen by people on Facebook. As an advertiser, you should want the maximum reach possible with a given budget. So utilizing ad types that Facebook algorithms and users prefer will help to achieve that goal. Its common knowledge that Facebook has really been pushing for content that is video focused. So why not make content that is not only video focused but mobile specific. In the below table you can see that given the same budget and runtime, canvas ads achieved a higher overall reach than regular video ads.
More Engagement
A good indicator if people are engaging with your content is, well, looking at your engagement metrics! These metrics aren’t an end-all measurement of success but can be a good measure if you are putting out the right content. In the below graph we can see that in the given 30-day window, canvas ads achieved more clicks and generated more post reactions from users. More engagement from users on your ads could help to achieve not only more clicks but more likes, comments, and shares which equates to social proof.
More Conversions
At the end of the day, we want our advertising efforts to equate to something right? Whether that be sales, leads, sign-ups, etc… we need to see results from our ads. So we want to make sure we are running the most effective ads for not only capturing attention but also pushing people towards that end goal. For this particular case, canvas again proved more valuable than just a normal video ad. Canvas provided more conversions, more revenue, and a lower cost/conv compared to video ads given relatively same spend.
Conclusion
This is just one data set for one advertiser and not meant to claim canvas ads are the greatest thing ever. However, they proved worthwhile in this instance and could work for you too. It never hurts to test out new content to try and achieve better results. Plus Facebook makes creating these ad types pretty easy with the use of their templates. So give canvas ads a try!
