Facebook's Premium Ads Get A Facelift

Facebook’s premium ads are getting a facelift. The company has been testing several soon-to-be-announced ad units, which leaked documents claim will produce more engagement, better recall, and a “significant increase in purchase intent.”

The new ads will reportedly be announced at a Feb. 29 media event in New York. Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, first shared the documents (embedded below) in a Gigaom post yesterday.

Among the changes they discuss:

• • larger ad formats
  • when a person seeing the ad has Facebook friends who are fans/likers of a brand’s page, the ads will expand to include social context about the friends
  • ability to change an ad’s content on a daily basis by authoring a post on the brand’s Facebook page
  • more interactivity, such as letting users comment under ads, similar to page posts
  • there will be six types of premium ads: Photo, Video, Question, Status, Event, and Link
  • reporting and metrics are not being upgraded
  • the old premium ads will be phased out, starting Feb. 29
  • Marketplace Ads/self-service ads will not be affected

Facebook’s IPO preparations haven’t slowed its Marketing Solutions team from continuing to iterate products for brands. In the last week alone, ad industry observers have learned that Sponsored Stories and self-service ad targeting options are becoming more nuanced. Facebook’s timeline-styled pages for brands are also reportedly on the way.

Meanwhile, here are the slides Facebook’s Marketing Solutions team has evidently been sharing with advertisers and agencies:

Facebook Premium Ads Overview