Facebook is rolling out its new Premium ad product and the content of the Facebook ad is now pulled directly from the brand’s Facebook page. Facebook wants ads to be more about storytelling so that brands can grow their relationship with consumers.

Sponsored Story Ads
The content of Sponsored Story ads is what brands are already posting in their Timelines. The ads can be a status message, a poll, a link, an image or a video. The ad will first show consumers which friends like the brand page and then the ad will show the content of a recent status. Fans of the brand page can comment, share and like the ad unit.

Also, advertisers can still run Facebook campaigns that drive to third-party tab applications, even though pages lost the ability to designate a default-landing tab in the latest redesign. So if a brand is running Facebook ads to announce a contest or other promotion, the ads can still direct people to the app highlighting the promotion.

Facebook hopes these new ads will discourage brands who were not providing engaging content on their pages, or who are simply using Facebook as an advertising vehicle, from advertising on the platform. Facebook is focused on the user experience and it feels advertising should mesh with that philosophy. A study from Nielsen showed that, on average, people are 68 percent more likely to remember seeing an ad with social context than without, twice as likely to remember the ad’s message and four times as likely to purchase.

Types of Facebook Ads
Premium ads: require a $25,000 per month ad buy and will provide privileged access to certain aspects of the Facebook marketing experience.

Premium ads will be located in four places on the platform:

• Right hand side of the page.
• Inside the news feed where a brand’s fans and friends of fans will see the posts. These will appear higher in the newsfeed and will remain in the newsfeed longer.
• Mobile ads will also be featured in a news feeds for fans and friends of fans.
• Log out ads will be shown when users log out of Facebook.

Facebook is also offering a new product called Reach Generator for Premium Ads. Reach Generator broadens the scope of an ad’s message by increasing the overall percentage of a brand’s fan base who will see the Sponsored Story.

Marketplace ads: (also known as self-service ads) can also created Sponsored Story ads. Marketplace ads do not have the $25,000 minimum ad spend and will only be located on the right side of the Facebook page/newsfeed.

Finding the right Facebook ad for your brand can be tricky. Have you used a certain Facebook ad that worked well for your brand, or do you still have questions on all the elements available to you? Leave us a comment here.

This blog post is the third in a three-part series. The first and second blog posts can be viewed here:

Facebook Timeline for Brands: Creativity Above the Fold.

Facebook Timeline for Brands: Organic Content and Engagement.