Facebook AR ads: how to get started creating your own
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Capable of engaging more than ten times as many people as traditional search engine ads, Facebook ads are already a powerful tool for attracting customers. Similarly, with the ability to increase conversion rates by over 30%, augmented reality (AR) ad campaigns have also demonstrated tremendous success across multiple industries. With the option to combine Facebook ads with AR technology, brands have access to a powerful mechanism for boosting engagement.
What types of AR ads are available on Facebook?
Because AR’s interactive nature makes online shopping more engaging and fun, the technology’s inclusion in the Facebook News Feed creates a new standard for capturing and retaining customer attention. However, rather than just a single use case, there are multiple ways brands can leverage Facebook AR ads, including:
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1. Product try-on
Many companies are already taking advantage of AR face filters to promote new products. For example, Fenty Beauty created a try-on filter to help bring customers’ attention to their then-newly released Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter. With a stunning AR effect for consumers to play around with, this product immediately became the second most engaging Fenty product on Sephora’s online store — contributing to the increased interest in highlighters overall.
2. Product visualisation
Product visualisation is another important category of Facebook AR ads and can help users see what a product will look like in their own space using their phone camera. This Facebook AR ad type is especially useful for interior design or furniture companies who wish to empower customers to visualise their products in their homes.
However, there are other fun ways to use this particular Facebook AR ad outside of home styling. For example, at Poplar Studio, we worked with Purina, the UK’s #1 pet food brand, to develop a visualisation experience for Facebook where users could interact with FELIX®, Purina’s animated feline brand ambassador. Launched during the first COVID-19 lockdown, the Purina #uptomischief campaign featuring FELIX® was a lighthearted way to provide people with a bit of companionship while improving brand perception.
3. Immersive portals
If your business sells an experience (like a video game or another form of visual media), you may want to consider inviting social media users into that world with a portal.
Portals are AR ads that engross the user in an alternate world of your design. At Poplar Studio, we helped produce a portal effect to promote the famous West End musical Aladdin. This effect worked by recreating the opulent Cave of Wonders in a visually extravagant AR filter for Facebook. The portal transformed the users’ world into a bejewelled golden cave. Users could conjure up the genie by rubbing his magic lamp, which then took them into the adventures of the musical.
How to set up your Facebook AR ad campaign
Regardless of what type of Facebook AR ad you choose, you’ll need to create your effect within Facebook’s Spark AR studio. To help you get started, Facebook has produced an excellent step-by-step guide. That said, while publishing your first Facebook AR ad is deceptively simple, actually creating the AR experience requires AR development expertise.
An easy option is to pair with a specialised studio such as Poplar Studio. Having worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, we routinely collaborate with unique and reliable creators. Regardless of your industry or brand goals, we can connect you with the creative who will help you achieve your product goals.
How to measure the success of your Facebook AR ad campaign
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Once you have designed and published a Facebook AR ad experience, you’ll need a way to track how your users interact with it, to quantify areas of success and areas for potential improvement. Some available data you might want to consider monitoring includes:
- The number of outbound clicks: How often users click on your Facebook AR ad, navigating away from Facebook.
- View percentage: What percentage of your Facebook AR ad users view.
- View times: How many seconds of your Facebook AR ad users view, on average.
These metrics will reveal how engaged users are with your effect, how many viewers you are reaching, and how effective your Facebook AR ad is in producing interest.
As well as ad metrics, you will also be able to measure the success of your AR experience by looking at the AR-specific metrics on the Spark AR hub. These will tell you how many times your AR experience has been viewed (impressions), how many times a user has captured a photo or video using the experience (captures) and how many times they have shared it with their followers (shares).
Benefits of AR ads on Facebook
Whatever your product, business model, or brand identity, Facebook AR ads allow you to leverage significant benefits.
Retail Perceptions reports that, in a study of 1,062 people, 71% said they would shop more often at a retailer offering augmented reality, and 40% would be willing to pay more for a product they could experience through AR.
As AR technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, AR ads are set to become a necessary marketing tool for competitive brands, rather than just a cutting-edge option. Facebook’s 2.8 billion users make it the perfect platform to reach a large market.
The next steps towards an engaging Facebook AR ad campaign
To gain maximum benefit from Facebook’s powerful AR advertising feature, partner with Poplar Studio and receive our expert guidance to create your most optimally successful AR experience, regardless of whether it’s your first or most recent campaign.
