Facebook introduces new ways for businesses to drive mobile sales

Facebook has announced a variety of product updates to Facebook and Instagram to help advertisers drive demand and sales of their products and services. For the first time, businesses can find interested shoppers across Instagram and Facebook to drive sales on mobile.

Currently, a single trend is completely reshaping how people discover products, information and experiences: people are spending more time on mobile and in apps.

And being on mobile has influenced how people discover, browse and purchase. In the US, for example, people are spending the majority (54 per cent) of their time on mobile in mobile apps. Sixty per cent of people on Instagram say that they discover new products on the platform, whilst 75 per cent say that they have taken action after being inspired by a post. During the 2015 festive season, nearly 1 in 5 purchases was on mobile, and it is predicted that this year, more than half of people who research travel online will do so on a mobile device.

As people discover information, products and experiences in this fashion, advertising strategies have to change to keep up. Businesses need to understand the new ways people are showing interest in a product. And, using this information, they can offer highly relevant messages to people where they are spending their time: in their favourite mobile apps.

To help businesses do just that, Facebook is announcing a variety of product updates to Facebook, Instagram and the Audience Network to give advertisers new ways to drive sales of their products in more places across mobile and desktop. It is expanding functionality for Dynamic adverts (formerly called Dynamic Product adverts) and adding new advanced capabilities to Custom Audiences from your website. These updates help advertisers identify and connect with their most valuable website visitors and mobile app users. They also reflect our commitment to make Facebook, Instagram and the Audience Network the most effective platforms for driving sales on mobile.

Sharad Thakur, Chief Business Officer, American Swan, said, “In the last two quarters, Facebook’s dynamic ads have helped increase our sales volume 3x on the platform with a 2x return on ad spending. It has helped American Swan re-market in a phenomenal way, and as a result, the spend on dynamic ads has increased three-fold in the last quarter.”

Dynamic adverts for Instagram

Relevance is key in any marketing campaign, but, as retail and e-commerce businesses look for better ways to connect with shoppers on mobile, there’s a huge opportunity to offer highly relevant messages to the people who are browsing and shopping on websites and in mobile apps. To help marketers connect with shoppers in new places, today Facebook is extending a product to Instagram that many Facebook advertisers are already using with great success: Dynamic adverts.

Dynamic adverts automate product advertising by showing people adverts featuring items that they have expressed interest in, either by viewing them or adding them to their basket, or items related to ones that they have shown interest in or purchased. And now, businesses using Dynamic adverts can easily connect with more potential customers on mobile.

To date, more than 2.5 billion unique products have been uploaded to Facebook. Now, by extending Dynamic adverts to Instagram, advertisers can promote relevant products to shoppers who have browsed their website or mobile app across two platforms where people spend much of their time: Facebook and Instagram. Whilst many advertisers already use Instagram to promote their products, manually tailoring advert creative and targeting for every product in their catalogue is time-consuming. Now, with Dynamic adverts, advertisers can showcase every one of their products automatically with dynamic creative and targeting so that they can show the right product to the right person every time.

Introducing Dynamic adverts for travel

This year, it is predicted that 73 per cent of the people in the US will research a trip on mobile. To help travel advertisers connect with people who are planning and booking trips across devices, today Facebook is also extending the power of Dynamic adverts by introducing new travel-specific dimensions, including location and time. With Dynamic adverts for travel, advertisers can show relevant messages to people who have expressed interest in travelling to specific destinations and during specific dates.

Dynamic adverts for travel empower travel advertisers to offer hotel options to people who have shown interest in taking a trip, either by browsing hotels or by searching for and purchasing a flight. For example, a travel business can connect with people who viewed a hotel on their website by showing them an advert featuring the hotel that they viewed, along with similar hotels in the area. Advertisers can now also help people complete their trips by showing relevant hotels to people who have purchased flights on their website or in their app. And to help advertisers offer people the best experience, the hotel options shown include dynamic availability and pricing, so people always see the most up-to-date information.

Dynamic adverts for travel are currently being tested with several advertisers.