We are constantly looking to improve and better the work we do for both ourselves and our clients. Social media ads are no exception. Although it is easy to create a few ads and leave them to run and do their job. It’s beneficial to stay on top of ever-emerging trends and experiment with new formats to allow you to make the most of this marketing technique. That is why when we heard about the new Facebook Instant Experience ad format we had to check it out.

What are Facebook Instant Experience ads?

Facebook Instant Experience or Canvas ads are a full-screen ad experience that brings brand and products to life with mobile content. On first glance, these ads look like your standard single image/carousel ads. But once clicked on they open a full-width page within the mobile app almost like a microsite. This allows users to interact with your brand or product without having to leave Facebook!

When creating these ads you get the choice to use one of the templates Facebook has already created. Or you can build your own by adding in the prebuilt sections in whichever order best suits your advertising needs. What’s even better, is that we can prove how effective these new ads can be! At the start of August, we launched a whole new set of Facebook Instant Experience ads for our clients Martin Grant Homes. The results from the first month alone are outstanding!

We have increased traffic to the website by 1,379.65%

Last month (July) was the last month of running the old format ads. We ran all 9 campaigns and reached a total of 53146 Facebook users. 2,182 of these users clicked on the lead form adverts and out of the users, 112 people filled out their information ready for the sales advisors to make contact. Only 84 then clicked through to the website.

In comparison in August, the first month of running the new Instant Experience ads, we reached 202,847 Facebook users. Of which 10,388 clicked through the carousel ad and 9,933 opened the Instant Experience ‘landing page’. 1/3 of these users then clicked through to the website and 26 lead forms were filled in.

Here is an example of a Facebook Instant Experience ad that we created for Martin Grant Homes. We know carousel format works well when showcasing new homes as it allows the user to see the homes and get the headline information. When we came to create the Instant Experience we used video to capture the audience’s attention straight away. This is followed by further copy and imagery about the houses and location. Big CTA buttons take users to the website while the bottom of the ad gives users the chance to fill in a lead form.

Not only do we have the proof that users are noticing and clicking on these new ads. But we can also prove they hold users retention! The average view percentage of the 9 ads we have running is 88.45%. With the highest ad at 92%. The average view time for the ads is 20 seconds with the highest view time 25 seconds.