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Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has rolled out a new ad unit for advertisers and marketers to enable them to create 15-second advertisements, which can be viewed on smart-phones with struggling 2G connections, for users in developing countries.
Chris Marra, Emerging Markets Product Manager, stated in a global FB press roundtable, “About a billion of us are connected on Facebook“. She called slideshow a “lightweight, responsive ad format that reaches users across all devices and connectivity, as well as a creative tool for brands looking to create videos“, and she said Facebook has been testing the product with “several close partners”.
One, it signals Facebook’s growing ambitions to become the default social network of the entire world. It’s found small improvements like loading the news feed in increments, and pre-loading the content below the viewable part of the screen can help.
The new ad type is available on Facebook starting today. Expect to see new features added to it in the near future. The solution it offers is Slideshow, but unfortunately it’s really a solution only for advertisers, to allow them to inundate users with ads regardless of their current bandwidth speed.
Facebook is looking to tap into the popularity of video ads in emerging markets.
Facebook’s Free Basics campaign, aimed at providing developing regions with slow Internet connections free access to basic Internet services, is now getting monetized.
Slideshow will also reduce the need for video production time and resources.
What’s more, Facebook users are watching at least 1 video on the social network, so there’s good reason for businesses to tap into this media. Netflix has used it to introduce new characters on its original content, and a makeup brand is giving tutorials on applying eyeliner.
At the event, Facebook said that more than half of its revenue comes from non-North American markets and that the next two billion users will come from places where the dominant form of internet access is mobile but on slow connections. And the results were encouraging: “they reached 2 million people-twice their goal-and raised ad awareness by 10 points in Kenya”. Namely, people in emerging markets where Wi-Fi is crummy. Small businesses, on the other hand, can advertise at a much cheaper rate; ad buyers simply have to take a few photos for Facebook to make smooth, yet catchy presentations.
Coca-Cola company already tested the new ads in Nigeria to promote a show with images taken from a previous edition.
