Facebook overhauls, and simplifies, its ad tools

Now businesses choose an "objective" and Facebook will choose the right ad for them

Back in June, Facebook made a promise: that it  would simplify its ad product offering. That meant getting rid of redundant services and letting the advertiser tell them what they needed so that the tools could automatically give them suggestions.

Now Facebook is making good on that pledge by introducing a new set of tools, which it is calling " objective-based ad buying and reporting."

Once a company answers, "our tools will recommend an appropriate ad based on that objective, and then help determine how your ads performed against your objective," the company wrote.

The idea behind this movie came directly from businesses, who told Facebook outright that they no longer wanted to choose an ad unit; instead they wanted to meet an "objective". 

So these are the eight objectives that Facebook is now offering them: Clicks to Website, Website Conversions, Page Post Engagement, Page Likes, App Installs, App Engagement, In-store Offer claims and Event Responses.

Facebook is also giving advertisers more freedom as to where they can place their ads. While Facebook will still be putting ads where it bests sees fit, marketers also now have the option to do the same. \

"This means businesses can better tailor ad experiences based on where people will see their message," said Facebook. 

And, finally, Facebook has also updated its Ads Manager tool, which will now show the objective, the number of times the objective was met, and the cost per stated objective.

The new tools are available via all ad creation tools, including the Ads Create Tool, Power Editor and the API.

Advertising on Facebook

The importance of ad revenue to Facebook simply cannot be overstated. 

In its latest quarterly earnings report, Facebook's advertising revenue was $1.60 billion, or 88% of total revenue. It increased 61% from the same quarter last year. Mobile accounted for 41% of that revenue.

Ad revenue on mobile is even more important. Facebook's stock struggled over its first year as it tried to get a handle on mobile advertising. Since its last quarterly report, which showed that its mobile ad business was booming, the company's stock has doubled.

And its number will no doubt go even higher by the end of this year. 

Facebook is set to see its mobile ad revenue shoot up over 333% this year, from $470 million to 2.04 billion, according to a report from eMarketer released in June.

Want to be even more impressed by how well Facebook is going to do in 2013? In 2011, the company's mobile ad revenue was zero. The company went from making zero dollars to over $3 billion in two years.

Facebook needs as many adverting dollars as it can get its hands on, so making advertising as simple, and easy, as possible is key to future growth.