Digital Marketing Spotlight: Facebook Instant Experience
Earlier this month, we featured a blog by our very own Digital Engagement Coordinator, Caitlin Ammendolia, on the Top Social Trends in 2022. This week, we want to highlight a digital marketing trend that is sometimes overlooked, and often underplayed: the Facebook Instant Experience.
Time seems to be moving at warp speed these days. In 2008, a prediction was made that mobile phones would overtake fixed internet access within five years. At the time, this was considered a bold statement. That same year, Eric Schmidt of Google looked to the future by imploring businesses to shift their website design approach to be “mobile first.” He was surely onto something: in 2008, 39.9 million smartphones were shipped globally in the third quarter of the year alone, according to the market research firm Canalys. Now, in 2022, with mobile phone usage skyrocketing across all age groups and with more than half of all web traffic occurring on phones, it is more vital than ever to use mobile marketing to your advantage as it’s likely where most of your digital audience lies.
This trend will not stop, either: Ericsson’s Mobility Report predicts a 25% increase in mobile traffic by 2025. If you are looking for more ways to engage with your audience online, be sure to catch the wave before it crests with Instant Experience.
What is an Instant Experience?
Facebook Instant Experiences are full-screen mobile ads that load instantly and bring your brand to life with one purpose in mind: to capture the complete attention of your audience. Within one single Instant Experience ad, targeted users can watch videos and photos, swipe through carousels, tilt to pan, and explore tagged products. It’s one mega ad that does it all.
Within Ads Manager, you can use a pre-made template or build a custom one of your own. Facebook makes it easy to use this feature, and it can be used for anything from acquiring conversions to amplifying brand awareness.
What are the Benefits?
Depending on your campaign objective, Instant Experiences offer a variety of benefits.
Besides capturing attention immediately, these ads are able to display an instant storefront that showcases products in a pleasing grid layout so people can browse all in one place (the algorithm is also uniquely placed to know their preferences based on search history and previous purchases, so it can pull products from your catalog that they’re more likely to engage with–bonus!)
Not only that, but it allows for the ability to instantly tell a visual story: this could be the story of your brand, product or service. If you’re a travel agency or tourism destination, this could be the attractive story of your target audiences’ next trip or adventure, in full colour on their HD screen. Sounds like a surefire way to drive interest and intent, right?
Another benefit to using Instant Experiences is the ability to show your product or service in action by featuring photos from your audience (e.g., a “fan favourites” experience with real customers enjoying your products.) By including a connection to your website or app, interested users can be integrated into your Custom Audiences and retargeted later for further desired action.
Take a look at the Recommended Specs for Instant Experiences before diving in. There’s so much room for creativity with this digital marketing feature, so use your imagination and dream big!
Until next time,
Petra Nyhuis, Digital Marketing Specialist