Facebook launches Sponsored Stories ad format
Facebook has launched an ad format that shows users the interactions, such as likes or check-ins, which their friends have made with a brand.
The social network claims the link to friends and their interactions with brands makes ads more effective and relevant to users. Brands will be able to show information such as Places check-ins, page likes and posts within the ad units.
A spokeswoman for Facebook says: “The best form of recommendation you can get is from your friends.
“On Facebook, brands are already seeing the benefits of marketing that includes people and their friends through the core Ads product. Sponsored Stories provides another way to do predictable and scalable word-of-mouth marketing on the site.”
The Sponsored Stories ads aim to draw a user’s attention to information that would have already appeared in their news feed about friends’ interactions with brands but which they may have missed.
For example, an ad from Starbucks could now show a user that his friend checked in at a branch using Facebook Places that day.
The ad format will initially be available for the premium ad spot on a user’s home page and is to be extended to marketplace ads over the coming weeks.
The privacy settings for the ads follow the settings a user has already chosen, such as ’friends only’.
This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk
