Facebook tunes up ads with enhanced tracking, more transparent placement

Dive Brief:

Facebook announced in a blog post that it is adding new features, including publisher lists and publisher delivery reports, across in-stream videos, Instant Articles and audience network. Facebook is expanding the sharing of full lists of publishers monetizing their sites and apps so that advertisers can see where their ads are being delivered before starting a campaign. Advertisers will also be able to see a list of publisher sites where their ads appear by downloading a publisher delivery report.
The company also announced in a separate post that it is renaming its Canvas ads "Instant Experience" and adding new capabilities, including a new template, Instant Forms, which aims to make it easier for people to share contact information with businesses. The number of Instant Experience campaigns has more than doubled over the past year and are now 15 times faster than standard mobile sites.
Facebook said it will also allow advertisers to integrate Facebook Pixel and third-party pixels into their Instant Experience campaigns. Pixel will automatically be added to Instant Experiences for those using the tool on their websites to help them re-engage with consumers who interacted with the campaign. Advertisers can also embed third-party pixels to track engagement and compare campaign performance.

Dive Insight:

Facebook’s new tools aim to address a number of issues that marketers have raised about transparency around their campaigns and the ability to measure ROI. Lack of transparency and inaccurate or false digital media reporting have prompted 21% of marketers to reduce their digital advertising spend, and several high profile brand safety and data privacy breaches have led marketers to place more scrutiny on platforms like Google and Facebook, according to the CMO Council.

Facebook continues to roll out new advertising features to create more transparency on the platform, as the company tries to ease marketers’ concerns about the platform’s commitment to privacy and brand safety. Facebook is likely hoping to attract new advertisers and convince existing ones to increase their spend to boost revenue. The company posted $13.2 billion in revenue for Q2 2018, a 42% year-over-year increase, but its growth is decelerating.

As marketers continue to invest more in digital media, marketers are growing to expect better insights on the effectiveness of their campaigns. Nielsen’s new CMO Report 2018 revealed that only 26% of marketers felt confident in their ability to measure ROI on their digital spend. The new Instant Experience features could help marketers better track their campaigns’ performance.

Giving advertisers the chance to review lists of sites and apps where their ads appear and review and update block lists will give marketers more control over their campaigns and where they appear. The new tools will help marketers address brand safety, which affects 75% of brands, but only 26% have taken an action to combat the problem, a GumGum and Custom survey found.