Facebook today announced a new ad format for Pages looking to promote their Events on the social network. Previously ads were only shown in the right-hand column on desktop, but now brands can create ads for the desktop and mobile News Feed.
Called Event response ads, this new offering is accessible in both the Ad Create tool and Power Editor. Also, unlike most of Facebook’s advertising rollouts, this one is available immediately to all Page owners around the world.
Here’s an example of the new event ad:
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As part of the new ad rollout, Facebook is also now letting Event hosts view insights directly in the right-hand column of an event page. They can see the number of people who have seen a link to the event on Facebook, who have viewed the event, as well as the number of joins, saves and maybes the event has received.
Facebook says these insights are “the first step” to help Pages understand which event promotions are working and which aren’t, but it wouldn’t say what else it has planned.
Facebook says 400 million users around the world use Facebook Events every month. If the company can increase that number through ads, it will not only generate more revenue for itself, but it will get even more of its userbase to rely on the social network.
Much like Groups, Events are an underused feature of Facebook, in my opinion. With a little bit of effort, they can be very useful to your social life, but with various messaging apps and services popping up all over the place, they are often forgotten.
See also – Facebook starts testing Buy button on News Feed ads and Page posts, currently limited to select US businesses and Facebook launches Ads Manager for Android, iOS, and the mobile Web
Image credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
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