Online businesses using Facebook as their platform now have a new marketing tool.
Just recently the social media giant launched an advertising format they call Product ads. The company describes Product ads as "a solution designed to help businesses promote multiple products, or their entire catalogs, across all the devices their customers use: phones, tablets and desktop computers."
Normally, advertisers would need to brainstorm a campaign in order to match a certain product to its market base. Not only is this costly, but can also be a waste of time and effort as it is purely based on trial and error. Cataloging then might seem like a one in a million shot.
With Product ads, it takes cataloging to a different level and may up the playing field in terms of online marketing strategies. It not only showcases products through pictures, but also tailors it based on the user's likes, activities and interests. While convenient for advertisers, however, many has argued that this monitoring by Facebook constitutes spying.
Businesses just need to upload their product inventories and Facebook will match it to end users. It will read the user's information based on their likes, cookies and ad clicks. The advantage is that the product marketing would reach its intended market giving the product the needed exposure that can possibly translate to boosted sales.
Facebook further explains in their blog: "Advertisers can curate ads as they see fit. For instance, they can highlight products that were viewed on their website/mobile app or showcase best-selling products. Or they can create a multi-product ad that highlights the different benefits of a single product."
In a shadow move similar to Google's Shopping ads, Product ads stop advertising the product once the system recognizes that the product is already out of stock. This move by Facebook could certainly rival that of Google's since Shopping ads played rather well with companies using it as a marketing tool.
First testers of Product Ads are Target and Shutterfly. So far the results look promising.
