Facebook Collection puts focus on speed, transparency

Internet Retailing

28th Mar 2017

Global brands including Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger are among the first to use Facebook’s new ad format, Collection, which launched globally last week.

Designed to make the most of today’s mobile, video-hungry consumers, the format features a primary video or image above relevant product images.

By clicking on the ad, mobile users are immersed in a seamless shopping experience on Facebook, showcasing up to 50 products. By tapping on a product, users are taken to the product page on the company’s website or mobile app.

Revenue from mobile video ads represents a massive growth category for Facebook, so continued investment in this space is to be expected.

With Collection, the social media giant has tweaked the user experience to minimise video load time and remove friction.

In a blog post introducing the new ad format, Facebook noted that three in four consumers say watching videos on social media influences their purchasing decisions, but most mobile shopping experiences still have room for improvement.

Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger say the new ad format is helping them tap into new sales opportunities on mobile.

“Collection has outstanding cross-selling capabilities, and we’ll certainly explore this new format again to inspire and increase sales,” said Rebecca Watts, performance marketing senior specialist at Adidas, which used Collection to drive sales for its new Z.N.E Road Trip hoodie and complementary products.

Adidas says its return was 5.3 times the amount it spent on the ad. Tommy Hilfiger, which used Collection to launch its Fall 2016 range saw a 2.2 times higher return on ad spend.

“Collection creates a consumer experience that reflects how current generations of digital natives interact with their favorite brands. The results exceeded expectations, generating an ROI increase of over 200 per cent,” said Avery Baker, Tommy Hilfiger’s chief brand officer.

Facebook’s foray into mobile video ads hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Last year, it copped criticism for miscalculating a key metric about average view time. But it seems the social media company has learned its lesson.

In a blog post about the launch of Collection, Facebook included details about its method of measuring traffic: “To provide more insight into performance for marketers using ad formats, such as Collection and Canvas, that open into full-screen experiences, we’ll start a test of a new outbound clicks metric over the coming weeks,” the company wrote.

“In this test, outbound clicks will show the number of clicks leading people off of Facebook. We hope this offers marketers a clearer picture of people’s paths through the entire ads experience.

“Marketers with ads that appear on Instagram will also see outbound clicks reported. At the beginning of this test, if an Instagram ad directs to a destination on Facebook such as a Page, marketers will see these clicks reported as outbound clicks.

“As we develop outbound clicks over the coming weeks, we’ll apply the same filtering on Instagram that we do on Facebook to show outbound clicks only for clicks off Facebook-owned properties.”