Who will benefit from updates to Facebook’s dynamic ads?

E-commerce brands, small or big, should watch out for the new changes that Facebook is introducing to dynamic ads.

In a nutshell, this update allows some advertisers to show dynamic ads to users who have browsed multiple websites or engaged with content on Facebook looking for a similar product.

Dynamic Ads

Dynamic Ads allow advertisers to show ads from their catalogues to prospective customers who have interacted with their website or apps. It has three primary purposes:

1. It can be used for remarketing – Remarketing is when you can show a specific group of audience a related ad based on the action they made in your website or page. Remarketing is doable without dynamic ads; however, running dynamic ads is not possible without remarketing.
2. It can be used for product catalogue – Dynamic ads are, well, dynamic. Advertisers can upload a static product catalogue file or provide Facebook with log-in credentials so it can access product catalogues as they are updated. This allows Facebook to know which products you need to push and the details needed to promote said products.
3. Ad template – Instead of committing to a specific product, ad template allows advertisers to reference variables within ad creation.  (insert photo)

Given the advantages dynamic ads bring, there are downsides to it. Truth be told, they are useful only for big e-commerce companies who have considerable website traffic. Smaller e-commerce sites don’t benefit that much. They can only reach people who have visited their website.

If they don’t have that much traffic in the first place, they can only reach so much. This is bad for Facebook as well because it limits potential ad revenue.

The Update

Facebook has started rolling out an update that will enable advertisers to widen their reach beyond those who have engaged with their website or app.

Advertisers can now reach those who engaged with content in Facebook or browsed several websites in search for a similar product – yes, not just their website but any website for that matter.

To quote Facebook:

Now, if someone has been browsing for furniture across multiple websites, Facebook may infer that this person is interested in buying a couch, and they may be a good candidate to serve a dynamic ad for furniture. The broader point here is that dynamic ads – which as primarily only been used for remarketing – are now become much better at predicting intent by allowing advertisers to use multiple signals for targeting, including activity on Facebook such as Likes and ad clicks, and also activity off Facebook such as website visits.”

You see, users’ activity in and outside of Facebook can provide Facebook with signals as to what their interests are. Can you imagine the power that this knowledge can give you?

It’s not clear yet how this will be done but suffice it to say that there will be unhappy campers around because this update may mean that if someone visits your website and look at your products, Facebook will show ads that features your competitor’s product.

Hold your horses – because, according to Facebook, advertisers will not be able to narrow down the users looking at your website; instead, they can just read the signals when forming a Broad Audience.

Who benefits from the Update?

This update is beneficial to the following:

1. Users – They will see ads they are actually interested in.
2. Small e-commerce brands – Will now have the opportunity to show relevant ads to prospective customers.
3. Facebook – With this update, small e-commerce companies will be enticed to spend.

Roll-out Schedule

A small group of advertisers in North America using Power Editor and the ads API is the test group for this update. They will provide feedback and, based on that feedback, a moreextensive roll-out will happen in the near future. Watch out for it.

Joe Brown is the owner and CEO at Media Junkies

topics Advertising dynamic advertising Facebook joe brown media junkies

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