Facebook Canvas is Now Instant Experience to Highly Engaging Ads


Back in 2016, Facebook introduced an entirely new ad type that gets people to talk, tilt, swipe, and engage with advertising brands on their mobile devices. Facebook Canvas Ads (now known as Instant Experience) are taking customer engagement to a whole new level with interactive ads.

What are Facebook Canvas Ads?

Simply put,

A Canvas Ad is like bringing your landing page directly into the Facebook app. Your landing page is in people’s hands with the Instant Experience. These were rolled out as a format only for the Facebook ad platform, but because they quickly gained a lot of popularity, Facebook had to allow pages to create and show Canvas ads/posts organically.What are Facebook Canvas Ads

When a user taps on the Canvas ad, it opens up in full-screen on mobile devices and provides a very interactive experience to the users. It not only encourages the people to watch the ad but also engage with it. It works seamlessly for both the end-users and brands that create the ads.

Canvas ads take out the pain of sending people to your loading page where videos, images, and other content might take a lot of time to load instead it lets you deliver lightning fast, interactive ads directly in the Facebook app.

These ads are straightforward and easy to create through the Facebook ad manager and Facebook power editor.

Why Use Facebook Canvas Ads or Instant Experience?

Theoretically, Canvas Ads can be used for any types of goals. However, it’s better to use these experiences for certain objectives, like:

Conversions: You can heavily promote your products and services through canvas ads and get a lot of sales.

Brand Building: You can tell the users about your story, behind the scenes experience, etc. to increase your brand authority and connect on a personal level with your audience.

Lead Generation: Since these Instant Experiences let you show users a lead generation form directly in the ad, you can get a heap of solid leads through it.Why Use Facebook Canvas Ads or Instant Experience

Facebook makes it quite easy to create a Canvas ad. If you are not very good at building a Canvas ad from scratch, then they provide you with multiple templates based on your objective for the ad.

The templates are entirely customizable so you can develop the ad as you see fit.

Instant Storefront:

Facebook provides you with a template where you can create an ad to showcase all your products in a beautiful grid layout. This way people can explore all your products directly from their mobile device.

Instant Form:

This is a great template to generate leads. Your canvas provides a simple way for users to share their contact information through an integrated form. If your goal is lead generation then this is the way to create your ad.

Instant Customer Acquisition:

If you ever wanted to show your beautiful landing page directly within the Facebook app then this is the way to go. It lets you show your landing page through the ad so people can easily purchase your products. It makes the conversion process quite easy for you.

Instant Storytelling:

It’s a great way to create an experience that tells people about your brand’s story. You can create a behind the scenes experience where people can take a look at all the things happening in your brand. It’s a great way to build brand authority and awareness.

Instant Lookbook:

Feature your products in photos so your audience can check out all the products featured in each photo. This is a great way to emulate lookbook style through your canvas ads which provide the customers with an interactive experience.

How businesses are using Facebook Canvas Ads?

Businesses are already in love with Facebook’s Instant experiences. They are trying to create the most interactive ads to engage with their audience and for most of them, it’s working perfectly. Here are a few businesses that have been able to build a successful canvas ad for their brand.

1. Wendy’s Cheeseburger Adbusinesses are using Facebook Canvas Ads

Wendy’s ad is all about creating your own cheeseburger. Every time you swipe, you get to select and customize a whole new layer of the burger. This is a great way to get the audience to interact with the ad while at the same time giving them a glimpse of the story.

2. Mr.Porter

Check out this ad by Mr.Porter as they showcase their range of sports products. Their canvas starts off with a video of different athletes running, training, golfing, etc. and then it breaks down into different products. The whole canvas is aesthetically pleasing and gives off a professional vibe.

3. American Express

Videos are not the only way to create a beautiful instant experience as shown clearly in American Express’ ad. They use multiple images to send people on a beautiful journey which ends at a simple call-to-action for their credit cards. No fancy gimmicks!

4. Target’s Cat & Jack

Target’s new clothing line, Cat & Jack shows of their family-friendly style in its canvas. This beautiful ad takes people on a light-hearted journey where users can mix and match different outfits using the carousel feature.

5. Starbucks

Starbucks shows of their Paradise drinks on a beautiful canvas. They let you choose either one of the drinks to get a glimpse into the adventure. You can swipe through the different carousels to create a whole new scene for your drink. It’s simple and straightforward, but very creative.

6. Gatorade

Gatorade put together a beautiful canvas ad to celebrate Serena William’s 21 championships. The video showcases her work and lets users scroll through Serena’s story over the years. Her matches, achievements, stories, photos, facts, and more. It is a great way to use these experiences to tell a story.

Many businesses are using Facebook audience insights to make a greater impact on Facebook and be visible to target niche on this platform

Best Practices to create the best Instant Experience

You can clearly see that each brand created something attractive through their canvas, but how can you replicate their style.

It shouldn’t be a problem to dissect these ads and figure out what are the best practices when creating your own instant experience.

Here are a few tips to create an appealing canvas ad.

1. Add Different Components

Facebook allows you to add different items to the canvas which include, but not limited to buttons, arrows, icons, images, videos, and more. So, try to mix things up and utilize multiple different elements to create an interactive ad.

2. The first component will make or break the ad

Yes, users won’t be able to see your entire canvas at first. They have to tap on the ad to actually experience it. So, you need to make sure that your first component is attractive enough that users tap on it and check out the full ad.

3. Visual is better

Make sure that your experiences are focused on visuals. People don’t want to read a ton of text so make sure that you keep the text to a minimum while using beautiful imagery and videos to capture your audience’s attention.

4. Always add a CTA (Call to Action)

Yeah, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your ad is, no matter how many people experience your ad, but if nobody takes a specific action,

What’s the point?

Make sure that your ad has a strong CTA in it. If you want them to buy something then add a button that asks them to go ahead and buy it. Keep it simple and to the point.

5. Focus on a single niche

It’s simple. Don’t put in products and items from different categories in a single ad. Don’t use training gear and kids’ items together to create a canvas because that just looks kinda off. Keep your focus on a single niche and promote it.

Hopefully, these tips will get you started with your very first canvas ad. These are not holy commandments, so don’t just stick to it. Try to be a bit more creative when creating your ads and experiment a little.

Conclusion

There is no denying that canvas ads are a great way to grab users’ attention quickly. We are always poking around in the Instant Experience to see what we can come up with, and we think you should be experimenting with these ads as well. You never know what might work out for you.

Also, let us know what you think of Facebook canvas ads? Have you used Facebook Canvas before? What tips would you like to share regarding Canvas campaigns?

Leave us a comment below!

Dilawar Hussain

Dilawar Hussain is a professional blogger who loves gaming, technology, and ecommerce. He spends his time testing new strategies, hacks, and tricks to help the ecommerce community.

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