Facebook on Thursday formally unveiled Canvas, its new full-screen mobile ad unit that offers creatives the real estate they’ve been craving in the news feed.
But the richer mobile ads will not be constrained for long to what the company internally refers to as the “big blue app.” At a Facebook press event Thursday, execs said Canvas will be syndicated to Instagram in the second half of 2016. The company will explore extending Canvas to its Audience Network as well.
Canvas provides advertisers with a full-page, immersive experience on which to build visually engaging stories using video, still images and text. Facebook users click into the experience through a native ad in their feed. Integrated calls to action minimize load times, making the user experience instantaneous.
Facebook worked closely with agency creatives in developing Canvas to be sure it can be used by everyone “from your local coffee shop to Madison Avenue,” said Facebook product manager Paresh Rajwat.
“These ads are created using a very basic self-service tool that requires no software to be downloaded or a single line of code to be written,” he explained.
Pre-launch statistics suggested 53% of users viewed more than half of Canvas, with an average view time of 31 seconds. These numbers only measure users who tapped an ad to initiate the Canvas experience.
Canvas will compete directly with other ad placements on Facebook and, eventually, within its Audience Network. From the standpoint of pricing and auction mechanics, it’s no different from any other news feed ad.
“All of the objectives and delivery that already work for ads on Facebook will continue to work here. It’s supported for clicks, conversions, ad reach and frequency,” said Facebook product manager Zach Hendlin. “Advertisers pay nothing more than they already do to create an ad on Facebook.”
