Facebook has confirmed that they are testing a new type of mobile ad on their platform. The ad does not yet have an official name, but it is generally being referred to as ‘immersive ads’ by those who have been talking about it. The ads are currently being beta tested by major advertisers like Gatorade, Mr. Porter and Michael Kores.
These ads will be completely hosted by Facebook, which grants marketers some additional options in how users can interact with the ads themselves. It also minimizes the amount of external data that a Facebook user will need to retrieve so users should have a faster overall load time.
The ads will be fully-branded and feature a variety of elements including menus, full-screen video, product information, custom content and just about anything else that marketers want their users to see. It is generally expected that the ads will be very interactive to create more of an ‘experience’ than just an ad that people want to get rid of.
Facebook’s director of ads product marketing, Kelly Graziadei, said, “We recently began testing this product through campaigns from leading marketers such as Gatorade, Michael Kores and Mr. Porter. We look forward to seeing how marketers use this surface to create compelling experiences for people and drive key objectives, including brand affinity and direct response.”
The feature is still under development and there is no word yet on what type of timeline we can expect for it being rolled out to all marketers. Users could experience these types of ads anytime now on their Facebook mobile apps.
The Beta marketers and Facebook are also collecting data on how the ads perform to see whether they will have a future.
