Two for Tuesday: The New Age of Facebook Advertising

Facebook has greatly been improving its advertising game from both the consumer’s as well as the advertiser’s perspective. Since late February, Facebook has been making appropriate modifications to its site. These recent shifts are not only meant to improve the experience of Facebook users, but they also bode well for advertisers who desire to target a specific audience or market segment.This Two for Tuesday examines the changes from both sides of the spectrum.

Advertisers and Businesses

One of the greatest enhancements from the advertising lens is the ability to create what Facebook calls, “Core Audiences” or specific parameters such as location, demographic, interests and behaviors. This tool allows business on Facebook to highlight and target specific groups of people. Not only can advertisers dish up content to specific locations, but they can reduce waste by excluding highly specific segments (zip codes and neighborhoods) that might not respond well to advertisements. It is the perfect situation for companies and consumers, thus as these ads become more targeted, businesses will reach their intended audience and users will not be inundated with irrelevant advertisements.

Facebook Users

The Facebook experience has just improved exponentially for the users, too. Not only will they receive less irrelevant ads, but users will view these ads in a larger format size with a more attractive layout. Facebook’s second adjustment revolves around the right-hand column ads. This improvement is more visually consistent with the ads that appear in the News Feed. Facebook has accomplished this by increasing the size of the ads while at the same time, reducing the number of ads featured in the right column. For businesses and advertisers, this offers a simpler way to create ads in an enhanced creative canvas on the right-hand column of Facebook.

In early July, Forbes posted an article explaining how the Facebook ad updates may result in their downfall. It has been proven that Facebook is a highly adaptive company and one that has seen many changes since its inception. As a direct result, I have full faith that they are not going anywhere. Facebook has, and always will, continue to grow, explore and push the boundaries of their site, and I believe this update is one of many that will change the way in which we interact with online ads and quite possibly the Internet forever.

Cover Photo Source: Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Our-Space-The-San-Jose-Group.png[/author_image] [author_info]Brett is an Account Services Junior Executive at SJG. An Eagle Scout, he is entering his senior year, studying Marketing at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, and Brett will graduate spring 2015 with a BS in Business Administration. When he is not working in our Chicago office, he can be found golfing, camping or skiing the backcountry of the Colorado Rockies.[/author_info] [/author]