Facebook is selling new types of ads on Instagram and Messenger as revenue declines
Facebook parent Meta is opening up new avenues for advertising on Instagram and Messenger as the company seeks to reverse a downward trend in revenue that recently pushed the stock price to its lowest since early 2019.
In an event for advertisers on Monday, Meta introduced a new way for advertisers to display ads on Instagram’s explore page, which shows content to users based on their preferences and routines, and on the profile pages of all public, non-teen Instagram users. As part of a new test of the ad format, select influencers will be able to allow ads to appear on their feeds as a potential source of revenue.
On the Messenger messaging service, Facebook is launching a tool that uses machine learning software to show ads intended to “reach people who are most likely to make a purchase,” said Maz Sharafi, Meta’s vice president of marketing and growth for business messaging. Sharafi noted that “the important thing here is that we do not use message content for ads,” implying that the company will not analyze Messenger messages to determine which ads get placed.
The announcements come just three weeks before Meta is scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings report, which is expected to show a second straight period of declining revenue. The company gets substantially all of its sales from mobile ads, a business that’s been hammered this year because of Apple’s privacy updates to its operating system as well as a sputtering economy and rising competition from TikTok. Meta’s stock has lost close to 60% of its value this year.
As Meta looks to the future, the company is banking on the emergence of virtual reality and the metaverse to drive growth. It’s now starting to experiment with how advertisers will exist in that world.
Meta said it’s testing augmented reality ads within Instagram’s main feed and stories feature, said Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta’s vice president of the global business group, at the ad event. Most consumers experience AR today when they interact with the digital filters that decorate the photos and videos they see on social media services like Facebook and Snapchat. Read More...