Logging in to my Facebook advertising account this morning I found a new message:

“New: We’ve updated how you create ads and sponsored stories. Learn more.”

Whoa! A changed Facebook advertisement creation interface. Instead of placing me immediately into the configuration of a new ad, Facebook is now asking for an ad destination before anything else is visible. For destination it appears that you can enter a page, app, or external URL and the drop down box will automatically select the best option. From here, Facebook makes some determinations as to what you see next based on the destination you select.

Here’s a quick list of the most important changes that I’ve noticed right away in the new ad creation interface:

• The ad creation process is now more of a step-by-step process and series of questions
• You have more flexibility when assigning app URLs to ad copy and page posts
• You can add optional URL tags to new ads
• Pricing is completely changed, you can no longer set CPM manually

The biggest change I see deals with pricing. Before you can set pricing, you’re first asked an objective. What would you like people to do, like the page or click on your ad? Changing that selection automatically converts your ad between CPM and CPC.

I was surprised to see that CPM no longer allows us to set a bid price! After creating a new CPM ad the status of the ad in the main dashboard shows up as Optimized CPM.

Overall, I think the recent changes are helpful to people who are new with advertising on Facebook. The step by step questions will allow them to make better advertising choices. For those of us with more experience and especially people who are creating multiple ads on a daily basis, the new process does seem to make the ad creation process slower. It’s going to take me a little while to get used to this.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

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