Facebook's AR Ads Available to All Marketers through Ad Manager

Augmented reality ads are now available to all marketers on Facebook through its ad manager. This means that the advertisers can now create and incorporate AR effects into their campaigns through Facebook's Spark AR engine and deploy the advertisements through the platform's ad targeting system.

Spark AR platform is available to consumers on Facebook and Instagram since late 2018, but merely a few select brands were able to use the tech in their ads so far. New format was first tested about a year ago with a feature that enabled users to try on different real world products from News Feed with the help of AR.

Facebook's AR engine will most likely be used to boost social commerce on its Instagram app. A similar feature was already tested on Instagram last year. Addition of AR advertisements adds another incentive for brands looking to Instagram to drive sales. According to a forecast by eMarketer, 68.7 million people will use AR at least once a month this year, and that number could grow to 77.7 million by 2020.

This will be the first time AR features are broadly deployed on a platform that has a significantly older user base and can be viewed as an experiment in older generations' receptiveness. Snapchat and Instagram have been leading the way in AR for a few years now, but these platforms are primarily used by young people, with 62% and 67% of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US using the platforms. That's compared with just 25% of 50- to 64-year-olds or 9% of those 65 and older for Snapchat, for instance. Facebook, on the other hand, is popular across a range of age groups, with 68% of 50- to 64-year-olds and more than 50% of those 65 and older saying they use the site.

Early signals suggest that young people are more receptive to immersive reality than older generations. Facebook's broad rollout of the ad feature could provide brands with a useful gauge on AR's potential when targeting older consumers. The rollout also gives brands an opportunity to stand out on a platform that is critical for driving referrals.