Adding Facebook Canvas To Your Marketing Mix

Written on 04/13/16 2:44 AM

Facebook has recently introduced Canvas, a new advertising option for brands to create a full-screen mobile-only experience. Facebook mobile-only users currently total 827 million, a number that is growing each quarter.

What is Facebook Canvas? Canvas is a mobile-only experience and works on both Android and iOS. Facebook Canvas allows interactive elements like text, animations, carousels, tilt-to-view images, and videos to be incorporated in one ad unit. Currently Canvas is only available through Facebook. However, Facebook is evaluating how to expand this functionality to other apps including Instagram.

How Does Facebook Canvas Work? Users interact with Canvas ads by clicking an arrow in the upper right hand corner of an ad. It opens a full-screen, rich media page inside of Facebook, rather than directing users to a separate mobile site. To escape Canvas ads, users need to swipe left on the arrow in the upper left hand corner. There’s no additional cost to run a Canvas ad. Advertisers also can leverage the same level of custom targeting. Advertisers can include links to product pages that will open up a mobile site.

Benefits for Advertisers Facebook sees 8 billion video views a day from 500 million users, which amounts to 100 million hours of time spent watching videos per day.

Canvas is a great solution for advertisers that don’t have a responsive website or may have a mobile site that is slow to load. Canvas is new and different so engagement tends to be higher. Canvas uses the same technology that makes photos and videos load quickly on Facebook so users tend to stay engaged longer. Canvas loads as much as 10 times faster than the standard mobile web.

RPM Advertising Recommendations: We recommend working with your Account teams to determine a test of an HTML5 display banner and a Facebook Canvas ad. We will evaluate performance based on reach, engagement, CTR and CPC and share those insights. Audience targeting and geos will remain the same for both units as will creative messaging, with Facebook Canvas allowing for video and animations if available. Flight duration should be 3-4 weeks to allow the HTML5 banner sufficient time in the marketplace.