Facebook, PointRoll Bring Rich Media Ads to Mobile

More engaging, immersive ads coming to world’s largest social network

NEW YORK – The ads on your Facebook mobile News Feed are about to get even richer and more engaging, thanks to Facebook, and rich-media leader PointRoll. The move reinforces Facebook’s position as the single best place to engage consumers on the go with interactive, rich, relevant creative — at scale. Mobile revenue accounted for 41 percent of Facebook’s ad revenue in the second quarter, and Facebook recently simplified its ads to enable the best possible creative to run on mobile. Having served the first-ever rich media ads on the iPhone in 2008 for Ford and Focus Features Films, PointRoll is pleased that its innovation complements Facebook’s mobile-first strategy.

“Consumers respond to rich, relevant ad experiences. We’re pleased to have been one of the first companies to join Facebook in reaching consumers in this innovative way.”

PointRoll recently tested the new Facebook format, Rich Media Page Post Link Ad, with several large consumer brands and the campaigns outperformed previous rich-media campaigns that had run across mobile. The combination of premium placement on Facebook and the interactive ad post resulted in higher video completion rates, including more than 30 seconds of time spent with the Rich Media Page Post Link Ad on mobile devices.

“Facebook is building the best mobile product, so it wants the best mobile ads,” said PointRoll CEO Mario Diez. “This user-centric, native ad format creates an experience as interactive as Facebook itself, creating value for brands without disrupting the user experience.”

This story appeared first in MediaPost.

Among the methods now open within the rich ads: Dynamic content, surveys and polls, sweepstakes and promotions, and video games. The interactive creative campaign PointRoll ran for a major CPG conglomerate — more than eight million paid and viral page posts within a two-month campaign run — resulted in:

  • 76,871 total actions*
  • 20,704 new brand page likes
  • 29,966 likes
  • 585 Comments
  • 39% CTR lift in mobile News Feed over the PointRoll mobile benchmark of 0.15% that includes both mobile web and in-app
  • More than 33 seconds of time spent on the rich-media portion of the Page Post Link Ad on mobile News Feed

* “Actions” include Page Likes, app installs, conversions, and event responses. For example, two Page Likes and two comments will count as four actions.

“Brands want to reach people where they are, and they’re on Facebook on their phones,” said Todd Pasternack, VP of Social Media and Video strategy at PointRoll. “Consumers respond to rich, relevant ad experiences. We’re pleased to have been one of the first companies to join Facebook in reaching consumers in this innovative way.”

About Facebook

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

About PointRoll

Since 2001, PointRoll, a Gannett Company (NYSE: GCI), has transformed the way advertisers, agencies and publishers create, manage and deliver the most effective interactive advertising. Today, PointRoll provides display advertising products including video, mobile, rich media, social, standard display and emerging formats, across all digital screens. With OnPoint, a next generation ad design, delivery and analytics platform, PointRoll enables advertisers to manage and create compelling campaigns more efficiently – connecting with consumers, driving engagement and generating quantifiable results. For more information, visithttp://www.pointroll.com or follow us @pointroll.