Meta has announced updates to its advertising products, including time-based ad placements, a test of first-ad placement in Feed, expanded targeting options for Reels Trending Ads and a new video-view measurement tool.
The announcements were made at the Meta Brand Building Summit, where the company outlined changes aimed at helping advertisers manage campaign visibility, reach audiences around cultural moments and measure engagement across short-form video.
Meta is moving Ads Super Burst to general availability this month through a phased rollout. The product allows advertisers to reserve a three- to 24-hour window to reach audiences at scale, with category exclusivity available. Campaigns can be planned through Reach Planner, which provides estimated reach and pricing, with guaranteed delivery tied to those estimates.
According to Meta, advertisers testing Ads Super Burst recorded a median 2.9 percentage-point lift in ad recall and a 0.6 percentage-point increase in intent. Each campaign reached a median of 34 million people, equivalent to 14% of the US adult online audience in a single day.
Kathryn Quart, vice-president of planning at Spark Foundry, said, "Ads super burst helped us solve a challenge for our client: how to ensure a priority, time-sensitive message had guaranteed visibility with our target audience within a short window. Our 12-hour activation was seamless to execute, delivered strong reach among our target audience, and performed exactly as expected. Based on that success, we’ve recommended leveraging ads super burst again during the busy and competitive Holiday season, with an even more concentrated messaging window to maximize impact within a priority timeframe."
Amanda Schneider, associate director of media and partnerships at Unilever, added, “Ads Super Burst helped Dove's message stand out during the Women's Final of a major US tennis tournament, allowing our creative to cut through the noise and reinforce Dove's position as a primary advocate of women in sports.”
Meta is also testing First Impression Ads in the US. The format places an advertiser’s ad as the first advertisement users see when opening Feed, with the initial test limited to one brand per day.
Reels advertising gets expanded targeting options
Meta is expanding the selection options available for Reels Trending Ads, which place advertisements immediately after popular and culturally relevant Reels on Facebook and Instagram.
Advertisers can now select from 15 always-on standard topics, including Home & Garden and Spanish-language content. Seasonal options are also available around events such as holidays and the start of football and basketball seasons.
Meta plans to introduce further targeting controls later this year, including custom audience exclusions. The company said campaigns using Reels Trending Ads recorded an incremental lift of more than five percentage points in action intent compared with control groups that had not been exposed to the campaigns. It also reported a five percentage-point increase in unaided brand awareness.
Meta tests aggregated video-view measurement
Meta is in the early stages of testing Aggregated View Time, a measurement tool designed to track and optimise the total time people spend with a brand over a week, rather than assessing each ad impression separately. The product is currently in alpha.
The company cited research suggesting that five seconds of attention accumulated over a week drove 32% more offline sales than a single, continuous five-second view. It also referenced independent industry research indicating that accumulated viewing time could be a stronger predictor of outcomes than a single long view.
The proposed tool is intended to reflect how audiences encounter brand messages through multiple short interactions over time.
Meta also said Reels accounts for more than half of the time users spend on Instagram. Separately, a study of more than 1,000 global campaigns cited by the company found that Meta built awareness 18% better than the average brand channel and drove a 73% lift in consideration.