With Reels gaining more momentum on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s rolling out some new ad options to help advertisers maximize their promotions opportunities within short-form video clips.

First off, Meta’s making its Click-to-Messenger Ads available within Facebook Reels, which will enable businesses to drive direct DM contact via Reels clips.

As you can see in this example, Click-to-Messenger ads in Reels will include a large CTA button to drive contact via private chat, which leans into both the increasing popularity of short-form video and private message interaction. 

Which also relates to the second new addition - Meta’s also making WhatsApp Conversion optimization available for Facebook Reels Ads.

As explained by Meta:

“Typically, we show Click to Messenger ads to people who are most likely to initiate a conversation with a business on WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram. With this update, advertisers who use the Sales, Engagement or Traffic objectives to add a “Send Message” button to their Facebook Reels ads will now give people an option to start a conversation in WhatsApp right from the ad.”

That’ll provide another way for brand to enhance their focus on WhatsApp as their primary contact channel, which is another step towards enabling more business opportunities in the messaging app.

As noted, more social media users are now sharing content in DMs, as opposed to public sharing in news feeds, which has become a major shift in general online interaction. Meta says that this is also translating to brand conversation, with a recent survey showing that almost 50% of Reels viewers have made DM contact with a brand after seeing its short-form video content.

Adding WhatsApp into the mix also aligns with Meta’s broader vision to maximize its business messaging opportunities - which is an element where it still holds a significant lead on over its competitors.

On another front, Meta is also making support for the Ads on Facebook Reels post engagement objective more widely available, which will provide another means to measure reactions, comments and likes, and compare them to engagement from other ads or campaigns.

“This means that advertisers who have opted in can extend the reach of their campaigns to new audiences via Overlay and Post-Loop Ads.”

Finally, Meta also notes that with the growth of its short-form video options, it’s winding down its In-Stream Reserve video ad offering.

Meta first launched its In-Stream Reserve program in 2018, providing a means for advertisers to reach people watching video content from ‘a selection of the most engaging, highest quality publishers and creators’. The offering was focused on Facebook’s original Watch programming, but with users shifting away from longer-form content, Meta’s now retiring the option, in favor of new opportunities.

The updates will provide more ways for Facebook and Instagram advertisers to align with social platform usage shifts, with Reels usage, in particular, likely to be of rising interest to brand partners.

You can learn more about the latest Meta video ad updates here.