Facebook's New 'Comments' Let Users Interact With Ads

Facebook doesn't just want you to look at its ads, it wants you to talk to them.

According to AdAge, the social network is launching a new ad unit called "Comments," the brainchild of ad agency Leo Burnett. The unit will use comments from users to appear as sponsored stories. Brands will be able to ask questions on their Facebook pages, and the questions will appear as a display ad on the right side of the screen. Once a user comments, the resulting discussion will appear on that user's news feed so that friends can jump in.

AdAge reports that Hallmark will ask, "How do you make summertime a special occasion?" Other participating brands include Buick, Samsung and Allstate.

"Unlike in other advertising, we're not telling people how to think about the brand," Leo Burnett's chief innovation officer, Mark Renshaw told AdAge. "We're just asking them to participate in the conversation."

The new ad feature will be offered to premium accounts only. Other types of ad units include Like, Poll, Event, Video Comment, Application, to name a few.

Facebook previously launched Facebook Studio, a community where ad execs, PR people and others can meet to brainstorm ideas. The company is also creating a 12-person client council made up of reps from the biggest ad agencies that will meet four times each year and rotate membership year to year. The group will help develop Facebook's approach to ads, with Facebook showing ad products to the council to receive feedback on how the ads can be improved.

The appetite for Facebook marketing is high: A recent study found that one fan on Facebook is equal to about twenty more visits to the brand's website each year. Facebook is also currently primed to overtake Yahoo as the number one online display-ad company in the country, with revenue expected to grow 80 percent to $2.19 billion, and market share rising to 17.7 percent. According to Facebook VP of Global Marketing, there are 50 million likes per day for Facebook pages, though another report indicated that the majority of user engagement for pages with over one million likes happens in the news feed and not on the page itself.

Inside Facebook also reports that the site is testing a version of the homepage that will let the news feed scroll independently of ads, so that the ads are always visible.

A Facebook representative was not immediately available to comment on the new feature.

Visit AdAge to check what the new ad engagement will look like.

Quick Poll

Would you comment on a Facebook ad?

Yes

No

Depends (explain below)

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[sharingnews]

12:01 PM on 07/12/2011

So happy I deactivated years ago. Everytime a story like this comes out it's vindication for me. Yay privacy!

[Elizabeth Platt]

03:50 PM on 06/27/2011

I would likely only comment on an ad if I thought the ad was misleading or presented a message that was in some way inaccurate. Or, perhaps, if it was a particularly creative ad.

[Pembrokelib]

09:55 AM on 06/27/2011

FB and Google track everyone. I get ads all the time pertaining to things I have looked up. So does your supermarket. This is how they make a profit. If you care, get off the Internet. I ignore most ads and mute them on TV. Just don't post anything you don't want the world to see!

[David Balboa]

09:06 AM on 06/27/2011

My only comment on a Facebook ad will be

"STOP SPAMMING ME! GET RID OF THESE ADS!"

[MissFrijole]

08:32 AM on 06/27/2011

Whatever happened to just communicating with friends and relatives who live far away? Why do corporations have to turn everything into a marketing tool?! If it weren't for the connections I have with certain people, I would dump Facebook in a hearbeat.

[mrfnk]

05:34 AM on 06/27/2011

yeah, but I probably wouldn't be nice.

[loudneighbor]

11:42 AM on 06/27/2011

Exactly. I'd try to undermine their ads, but I doubt they'd use that stuff so mission accomplished, Ad Agencies.

[JohnnyAce Okeke]

04:42 AM on 06/27/2011

No. {{-_-}}

[Nik Davis]

02:13 AM on 06/27/2011

People are going to have fun with this, the same people who write those funny product reviews on sites like Amazon.

[JohnnyUh]

09:54 AM on 06/27/2011

Yep, only exception being that Facebook caters to the brands... and will remove any negative mention of a brand or that brands product.

"Aww, everybody just LOVES this product, not a single bad review! AMAZING!"

[Nik Davis]

02:38 AM on 06/28/2011

Just wait, they'll find a way. Things will slip through.

[sigmaroa]

12:47 AM on 06/27/2011

i want this crap off my page

[hiriskz71]

11:30 PM on 06/26/2011

I am getting ready to dump facebook for invading my privacy on AOL. You cant look at anything that all of sudden a facebook popup doesn't appears. Not for long tho for me...bye bye facebook...and with it...all my regards and concerns regarding facebook to my friends.

[JohnnyUh]

09:56 AM on 06/27/2011

There you go!

This is just the beginning though. Creep factor is going to rise exponentially in the near future.

[baddunion]

10:55 PM on 06/26/2011

Facebook now has rigid ties to Obamas' re-election as his former press secretary has a huge contract with them, the conversion to socialism is almost complete.

[Raymond Rees]

01:07 AM on 06/27/2011

Proof?

[cmcdonough]

08:34 AM on 06/27/2011

Their tin-foil lined hat told 'em so

[maxben]

09:19 AM on 06/27/2011

What is more capitalist than advertisements?

[Pembrokelib]

09:51 AM on 06/27/2011

We live in a capitalistic country. What would you replace this with? The FB owners have to make a profit somehow. So do all of us!

[jabailo]

10:37 PM on 06/26/2011

I was waiting to read where they would give me part of the revenue stream for my comments...

[baddunion]

10:58 PM on 06/26/2011

I make 12 bucks per thread,?what do you make compadre.

[jabailo]

11:27 PM on 06/26/2011

Are you jacking my stack, amigo?

How do I sign up?

[hiriskz71]

11:31 PM on 06/26/2011

its not a revenue stream you will be getting...its really called....getting screwed!

[jabailo]

11:53 PM on 06/26/2011

Getting screwed would be better than this...writing my heart out for a lousy on screen Webolo activity badge.

[Melissa Wolfle]

10:17 PM on 06/26/2011

I noticed the other day when I posted to MY wall suddenly on the right hand side all the ads had something to do with my post...I don't know how much I like that

[MissFrijole]

08:30 AM on 06/27/2011

I have noticed this as well! I can write about cat barf and it will advertise cat food, or a pet store.

[yorkpamale]

09:39 PM on 06/26/2011

It's a shame Facebook can't help their members out a little. I have some problems but their help center is totally worthless and there is no way to get an actual person for help. For example I can't play many music videos through them. It's says that they were removed from YouTube when I try to play them but when I put the same songs into my internet search they play just fine on YouTube. This is just one of my problems.

[koos458]

09:12 PM on 06/26/2011

I saw an "and" and a "the" that I swear wear mine.

[baddunion]

11:04 PM on 06/26/2011

AND I'm sure they are not yours, THE subject has been obuscated.