Changing The General Definition of Facebook. Perhaps soon, people would find it hard to believe that Mark Zuckerberg initially set up Facebook for college kids. It has now become larger than any social networking site that exists!
What makes it unique is that people can communicate and share something with their friends, and because of its success, other sites have had no choice but to integrate with Facebook.
It makes life simpler for consumers and also for business owners. Why did I mention the entrepreneurs? You have to read this article for that.
Social networking advertising that relies on social network services has become a crucial part of the industry. There is a concept called ‘Social Media Targeting’ which is essentially a tool that uses the profile data of target groups of individuals to distribute advertising.
The most powerful and popular network Facebook has also pioneered targeting technology that allows ads to reach a target group of users.
It has changed the general meaning of Facebook and has become a blessing, yet a kind of issue for users. I will talk about it in another article.
The Evolution of Facebook Ads
2007: The Beginning
The Facebook Social Advertising Platform was released on 6 November 2007 with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talking about Facebook ads in front of 250 New York corporate execs. He highlighted about 60 premium brands and clarified how the Facebook Ad works.
He mentioned mega-companies like Microsoft, Blockbuster, Coca-Cola, etc.
Microsoft Corporation was the first organization to buy 1.6 percent of the shares of this social network for 240 million US dollars.
They have been the exclusive supplier of funded connections, which was an integral part of the contract.
After Facebook Ads were introduced, many businesses were able to buy ads on this site, and many are still doing so.
Many companies and even small businesses could create a page like an individual profile and post content like that.
They started to post pictures and content and connect with customers, or you might tell Facebook users.
Business owners might decorate their pages to build the same experience that users wanted to see.
After the initial launch of Facebook ads, the company also developed a new program called ‘Social Ads’. This software does extraordinary work, which is evaluating users who buy or like Facebook business pages.
This has allowed marketers to consider the particular category of customers who like their goods and, most importantly, the specific desires of consumers.
At the same time, it is a blessing and a curse. I’m going to talk about it at the end.
2008 – 2009: The Charitable Act & Rise of Facebook Pages
In 2008, during the global financial crisis, Facebook allowed all businesses to create a free page on their website.
It was a charitable act, and many companies created a page on Facebook. They changed the role of their ‘Social Advertising’ program in 2009.
They gave businesses an even more sophisticated consumer targeting system.
It’s natural to think that now. But ten years ago, it was a truly magnificent formula.
Users were targeted according to their geographical data and language. Companies were able to administer their websites.
2011: Sponsored Stories
In 2011, Facebook initiated a project called ‘Sponsored Stories.
If businesses choose the paid advertisement option, their advertisements would go directly to the news feeds of users.
Suppose you’re a customer and your friend liked the business page. Even if you didn’t like that page, you would see the paying ads on your news feed.
It’s a big win for companies and a headache for many users.
2012: The Launch of Mobile Ads
As people were social networking on mobile more than on their desktop, Facebook decided to launch ‘mobile ads’ in 2012.
The users weren’t excited about this initiative as the ads took space on their mobile feeds but eventually, it became successful.
They also improved their re-targeting user process. They also launched a cookie-based choosing application.
2013: Video Ads & Launch of Lookalike Users
In 2013, Facebook developed a system called “video ads” for businesses, which turned out to be a massive thing for advertisers.
Facebook has also successfully introduced a ‘look-like user’ framework that has helped advertisers attract users who have similar features to their current users.
There are pros and cons to this matter, and I’ll mention that in another article. The ‘mobile ads’ campaign was so effective that more than 40 percent of advertising sales came from mobile ads, seven years ago!
2014: Carousel Ads & 3 Volume Ads Structure
There were a few new updates that came in 2014. The video ads on Facebook went premium, which meant that the video started playing from the moment it appeared on the user’s news feed.
They also launched ‘Carousel Ads’, which allows the users to see more pictures for viewing pleasure. It is also known as ‘Static Multi-Product Advertisement’.
These particular ads can display a maximum of 10 images. It was good, but due to the limited number of displayable pictures, it was replaced by Dynamic Ads later.
This year Facebook also took the initiative of 3 level advertising structure. This structure was offering the advertisers more than their plain-old ad system. They offered ‘ad sets’ and ‘campaigns’, which made the life of advertisers easier.
It did not matter if the corporations were big or small. Every advertiser could not only measure but also optimize their ads.
2015: Back-to-back launched!
In 2015, Facebook presented Dynamic Product Ads (DPA).
It is also known as Dynamic ads.
They came up with a better idea to solve the issues of carousel ads. So, they designed this solution that can show the company’s whole product catalog.
If marketers have to promote more than ten products, then this will be the ad system for them.
But Facebook did not entirely remove the carousel ads. So, in 2021, if you are starting as a small business owner to promote less than 10 products, then it will be better to keep it simple by using carousel ads.
This year, Facebook also launched ‘Canvas Ads’ and ‘Leads Ads’. Leads Ads help marketers to gather the contact information of users without leaving the platform.
Canvas Ads is another updated form of Facebook Ads which delivers completely interactive and immersive ads.
At this point, Facebook Ads had become hard to understand, but they started becoming more and more effective.
You may think Facebook might have done with 2015, but they didn’t; In Fact, they launched ‘Facebook Pixel’ which helped marketers to create a targeted audience, see performance data, and optimize ads.
These were only one click away!
2016: Sponsored & Click-To-Messenger Ads
In 2016, Facebook launched a new Messenger platform, and it went live.
Chatbots and Facebook ads became day-to-day parts of users’ Facebook Messenger experience. Facebook allowed marketers to install a ‘Messenger Chatbot’ on their business page. There were two ways corporations could use bot incorporation.
I. Sponsored texts: These ads appear straight in users’ inboxes on Messenger. These are the ads that allow consumers to connect with the business automatically with a chatbot.
All they have to do is click them.
II. Click-to-Messenger ads: Sponsored ads do not appear on the regular Instagram feed or Facebook news feed. It is the function of these click-to-messenger ads.
These ads take the help of CTA (Call-To-Action) to put the ads in the inboxes of users’ Messenger.
Just like the previous updates, these two ads system made the marketers’ life easier.
2017: Delivery Insights & Split-Testing Tools
One of the latest updates came in 2017, which was ‘Delivery Insights’. It gave marketers a look into where ad spending was going and which users could see those ads.
Facebook also launched split-testing tools. It allowed marketers to create two or more ad sets and analyzed them against each other.
It helped them to see which methods of advertising produced the best results. Though it had some issues, it was still a useful tool for advertisers.
2018-2020: A new era, expanded the ad formats
I hope you noticed by reading so far that, Facebook tried to expand its ad formats as much as possible.
Their goal was to make sure users are getting the best experience.
Last year, Facebook offered eight unique advertising formats, and they will continue to do so.
Artificial intelligence also arrived two years ago before the expansion of ad formats.
Now, marketers don’t have to work too hard to gather data because of these updates.
What’s in the future?
There is a recent study from ‘Statista’ that said Facebook has an overall 2.7 billion users.
They are from all over the world, and they are monthly active users.
No other social networks have dominated like Facebook in the last decade.
People are already using Facebook as a search engine for finding works and businesses.
In the future, it will change the core definition of Facebook just like Facebook ads did in 2007.
There will be more apps that will integrate with Facebook.
It will update Facebook ads as well.
There will be many algorithms Facebook will change shortly.
Most importantly, there will be a lot of competition, and the reach of many businesses will decline.
One thing we have learned from seeing the evolution of Facebook ads is that they are constant.
The formats and new programs on the Facebook Ads platform will continue to appear fast.
As marketers are getting happy with the evolution, the users are getting scared because of using too much personal information.
Hopefully, Facebook will come up with a solution shortly, and marketers need to work ethically.
Let us wish for a better future.