Now with 2.5M advertisers, Facebook targets TV budgets with new ad-buy offering

Facebook is gearing up to release four updates designed to give brands better tools and create what it hopes will be a great ad experience for viewers. These changes include offering mobile polling, supporting videos in the carousel format, adding a new way to optimize brand awareness, and making the process of buying ads across Facebook and TV more efficient.

The company also revealed that it now has 2.5 million active advertisers on its platform, a 25 percent increase since February. And ahead of Advertising Week in New York City, Facebook wants to show these brands new ways to utilize its service because, after all, they helped bring in $3.82 billion in revenue for the company in Q2 2015 — definitely not a small haul by any measure.

Carrying TV over to Facebook

One of the new tools that Facebook will introduce is called TRP (Target Rating Points) Buying, which lets advertisers buy video ads on the social network using TRP as the metric. The company states that complementing TV campaigns with Facebook video ads helps extend reach, efficiency, and effectiveness — in other words, more people see the ad and click to watch, which converts to actual sales.

This is where TRP Buying is supposed to come in. Marketers will plan their entire commercial strategy with a total TRP target and will be able to buy a portion of that right from Facebook. Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings system will provide the third-party verification of delivery and will also measure that the total TRP is provided across Facebook and TV.

“The role of marketing fundamentally changes in the digital economy and the discipline of media is becoming more central to brand and business success,” said Nigel Morris, chief executive of Dentsu Aegis Network Americas and EMEA. “Mobile video is a key point of disruption and the way we are innovating with Facebook to test and launch TRP Buying in the market is key to being able to pivot at speed to match dramatically changing consumer behavior.”

What exactly are Target Rating Points? Simply put, they’re the percentage of your target audience that will see your commercial or advertisement. And by syncing Facebook and TV campaigns, TRP Buying could help advertisers maximize their spend, extending their reach from your TV screen to your laptop, tablet, and mobile device.

Optimizing brand awareness

Another tool Facebook is getting ready to roll out is aimed at increasing brand awareness — how many people actually remember that ad you produced. Starting in October (in limited release), advertisers will be able to tweak their campaign’s reach and attention in order to maximize exposure within their Facebook campaigns. A full rollout of this capability is expected in “the coming months.”

Expansion of mobile polling

To help advertisers better measure their campaigns, Facebook is expanding its mobile polling, thanks to its partnership with Millward Brown Digital. Originally launched earlier this year with Nielsen, mobile polling lets advertisers measure campaign effectiveness.

Video ads on the carousel

Lastly, Facebook is giving marketers a new video ad type. Rolling out this week in its Power Editor, videos will now be available in the carousel format. Facebook believes that by utilizing this format, marketers will be able to create compelling stories within a user’s News Feed.

Carousels were first introduced to Facebook last year and enable advertisers to showcase multiple images and links in one ad, saving them the cost of having to do another campaign. It was billed as being more effective too, driving 30 to 50 percent lower cost-per conversion and 20 to 30 percent lower cost-per-click than traditional ads.

Now it’s likely that you can include any combination of media in a carousel to help tell your story.