Mobile has reshaped how people discover, learn and ultimately buy from businesses. Around 45 percent of all shopping journeys now contain a mobile action, but most mobile shopping experiences are not necessarily great. Long load times on mobile websites can lead to friction and drop-offs along the path to purchase.
People are also watching more videos on mobile, and shoppers want to see products as they exist in the real world but they also expect fast loading, seamless experiences when they discover and buy on mobile. Marketers want better ways to visually inspire mobile shoppers. With all this in the backdrop, Facebook has introduced a new ad format – Collection.
A Visual Product Story
According to Facebook, Collection increases the likelihood of discovery and a purchase by featuring a primary video or image above relevant product images. Clicking on the ad leads a person to an immersive shopping experience on Facebook that can showcase up to 50 products at a time. Tapping on a product will take the most interested people to a product detail page on a business’ website or app to purchase.
Three in four consumers say that watching videos on social media influences their purchasing decisions. Brands like Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger are already using Collection to drive sales with compelling video.
Global sports brand, Adidas, used collection to drive sales for its new Road Trip hoodie and complementary products, and saw a 5.3 times return on ad spend.
“This new ad format has everything we need to introduce a new product and drive sales. We used collection to showcase a video highlighting the technical features of the Z.N.E. Road Trip Hoodie. People who tapped on the ad were instantly taken to a full-screen shopping experience that included complementary adidas products to complete the look. Collection has outstanding cross-selling capabilities, and we’ll certainly explore this new format again to inspire and increase sales,” said Rebecca Watts, Performance Marketing Senior Specialist, Adidas.
To provide more insight into performance for marketers using ad formats, such as Collection and Canvas, that open into full-screen experiences, Facebook will start a test of a new outbound clicks metric over the coming weeks. In this test, outbound clicks will show the number of clicks leading people off of Facebook.
Marketers with ads that appear on Instagram will also see outbound clicks reported. At the beginning of this test, if an Instagram ad directs to a destination on Facebook such as a Page, marketers will see these clicks reported as outbound clicks.
