Facebook is announcing some changes and new features to its Slideshow Ads which was announced and launched last October, for Facebook and Instagram. Slideshow is a tool for advertisers to create “lightweight videos” using photos or videos. Since then, these Slideshow Ads have been viewed in over 200 countries.
The purpose of these Slideshow Ads was to offer an experience to markets where videos would load very slowly, because of the poor connection. This is because of one of the main benefits of Slideshow Ads, even if the video was the same length, the file size of the Slideshow Ads’ “lightweight video” would be up to 5 times smaller. Useful for small companies that want an easy, cheap way to show their products.
However, today Facebook is making some changes and adding new features to the Slideshow Ads. Previously, Slideshow Ads did not produce sound, now Facebook has changed that, you can now choose your audio from Facebook’s library of audio tracks, which Facebook claims that they will soon allow you to add in your own audio. You can also add text, templates, colors and more.
Facebook is also adding a new tool to convert your video into a Slideshow, by taking out 10 photos from the video to use in your slideshow. Which is another change as before the new features were released, Slideshow Ads only supported up to 7 photos, and now it supports up to 10.
Facebook is making Slideshow Ads more accessible by everyone by releasing it on mobile, first releasing on Android.
The company also showed how effective these Slideshow ads are, Facebook have mentioned a stock company named “Stance”, and how they wanted to have a low-cost way of grabbing customers. Stance used photo linking to create their slideshows at first, however that took too much time and they needed something quick, cheap and accessible.
Facebook compared Stance’s photo link slideshow to Facebook’s Slideshow Ads, and the results were amazing. Stance’s cost per acquisition dropped by 48%, their click through rate went up by 2.42 times, and lastly Stance’s return on ad spend also went up by 1.48 times.
These Slideshow Ads sure are going to help smaller businesses out there, as Facebook claims that Slideshow Ads will allow these small companies to create their own advertisements, in a low-cost effective way in just a few clicks.
