Facebook's new feature helps creators share their audience with advertisers

Facebook has introduced a new range of tools to help content creators engage with their fans, manage their presence and build a business.

Facebook has rolled out the ability for creators to share their audience with the advertiser for ad targeting, enabling the business partner to target ads featuring that particular post to the creator’s followers in addition to boosting it to broad relevant audiences. This will provide creators with a more secure way to share their audience with business partners

Last year,  Facebook announced Brand Collabs Manager, which lets advertisers find creators for branded content partnerships based on real insights.

Goldman said, “Our vision is for Brand Collabs Manager to be a one-stop-shop for branded content on Facebook, and we continue to enhance the platform with new features as we move towards this vision. For example, we’re bringing performance insights into Brand Collabs Manager so that creators and brands can now see exactly how their branded content posts are performing and the engagement they are getting directly within the platform.”

Facebook also unveiled a new feature that gives creators more choice in their ad placement. To better support videos that may not have a natural break for ads, the platform is now providing the ability to only show non-interruptive ad formats like pre-roll or image ads in a video.

Ad breaks are open to eligible creators in more than 40 countries supporting 17 languages, and it has seen incredible momentum — Pages using ad breaks have increased by more than 3X over the past year.

Ad breaks come in three formats: mid-roll shown during the video; pre-roll before the video, in places where people go to watch a particular video like Search or Watchlist; and a non-interruptive image ad that shows below the video without stopping it. The best ad break format is automatically chosen based on the viewer and type of content.

The platform has rolled out the ability for creators to offer supporter-only groups as a fan subscriptions benefit so that supporters can interact with the creator and each other in a private space. Creators also now have access to more insights, including a view of their supporters’ status—new, active, and churned—over time.

Fan subscriptions let fans support their favourite creators with a monthly recurring payment, in exchange for special rewards like exclusive content, merchandise discount codes and closer access to the creator through tools like Live or polls. Creators keep the majority of the revenue they earn from fan subscriptions.

Facebook is also testing more ways for creators to earn revenue directly from fans. Facebook Stars is a feature for gaming creators that allows viewers to send Stars while watching live gaming streams on Facebook. Building on that success, they are adapting the functionality for video creators, allowing viewers to send Stars during live and on-demand videos as a way of providing one-time support.

Creator Studio brings together all the tools creators need to effectively post, monetise, track performance and interact with fans in one single place. Facebook has unveiled a range of requested enhancements that will help creators better manage their presence. These updates are global and rolling out now.

- New Monetisation Overview Section: To enable creators to see and manage all of their monetisation products in one place—including monthly earnings and monetisation product eligibility—Facebook has rolled out a dedicated Monetisation Overview section in Creator Studio. From here, creators can also easily onboard to other monetisation products.

- Bringing Instagram and IGTV to Creator Studio: The platform has integrated Instagram insights, content management, and publishing tools for both Instagram feed posts and IGTV into Creator Studio. This gives creators a one-stop-shop to manage their presence and content across both Facebook and Instagram, all from an easy-to-use desktop surface.

- New Audience and Retention Insights: Facebook launched new insights to help video creators better understand the demographics, viewing behaviours, and interests of their audience, as well as how long people are watching their videos.

Sibyl Goldman, VP, Global Entertainment Partnerships and Maria Smith, Director, Facebook App Monetisation, said, “Monetisation offerings for creators need to be diverse, sustainable, and also provide value to people and advertisers. With this philosophy in mind, Facebook has built a suite of monetisation products to help creators earn money in ways they are already familiar with: through ad revenue, brand collaborations, and support from fans. With these options, creators can grow their passion into a business, making money with any combination of monetisation products that makes sense for their content and audience.”