With Reels gaining more momentum on both Facebook and Instagram, essentially becoming the most engaging option at the moment, Meta is now rolling out more new ad options to help advertisers maximize their promotion opportunities within short-form video clips.

Reels for Days

Let’s first talk about how Meta is making its Click-to-Messenger ads available within Facebook Reels, which will allow businesses to drive direct DM contact via Reels clips. Click-to-Messenger ads in Reels will include a large CTA button to drive contact via private chat, which leans into both the increasing popularity of short-form video and private message interaction.

This relates to Meta’s second new addition – Meta is also making WhatsApp conversion optimization available for Facebook Reels ads. As Meta explains:

“Typically, we show Click to Messenger ads to people who are most likely to initiate a conversation with a business on WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram. With this update, advertisers who use the Sales, Engagement, or Traffic objectives to add a “Send Message” button to their Facebook Reels ads will now give people an option to start a conversation in WhatsApp right from the ad.”

This should provide another way for brands to enhance their focus on WhatsApp as their primary contact channel, which is another step towards enabling more business opportunities in the messaging app. As noted, more Social Media users are now sharing content in DMs, as opposed to public sharing in news Feeds, which has become a major shift in general online interaction. Meta mentions that it’s also translating to brand conversation, with a recent survey showing that almost 50% of Reels viewers have made DM contact with a brand after seeing its short-form video content.

Throwing WhatsApp into the mix also aligns with Meta’s broader vision to maximize its business messaging opportunities, which is an element where it still holds a significant lead over its competitors. On another front, Meta is also making support for the Ads on Facebook Reels post engagement objective more widely available, which will provide another means to measure reactions, comments, and likes, and compare them to engagement from other ads or campaigns.

Lastly, Meta also notes that with the growth of its short-form video options, it’s winding down its In-Stream Reserve video ad offering. Meta first launched the option back in 2018, providing a means for advertisers to reach people watching video content from ‘a selection of the most engaging, highest quality publishers and creators’.

The Wrap

The offer focused on Facebook’s original Watch programming, but with users shifting away from longer-form content, Meta’s now retiring the option, in favor of new opportunities. These new updates will provide more ways for Facebook and Instagram advertisers to align with social platform usage shifts, given how Reels usage is likely to be of rising interest to brand partners.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3lPeaIb