When is an ad not an ad? When it’s branded content or pushed by an influencer.

And according to a new study, on Facebook that can be a very lucrative turn of events.

Don’t shoot the Messenger

A study from Shareablee looked at over 800 branded content ads on ten publisher Facebook Pages, and 265 standard ads on 47 brand Pages.

The analysis spanned four months between July – October 2017.

Shareablee found that, on average, branded-content ads attracted over 617,000 paid impressions and 1.2 million earned impressions.

Standard ads received on average 375,000 paid impressions, and 34,000 earned impressions.

Takeaways

Put another way, branded-content saw 7103 shares per ad, compared to 253 shares per standard ad.

The findings indicate that online users are more discerning in their viewing habits, and more likely to respond to creative content over a traditional ad. The good news for marketers: this type of content is often cheaper to produce than above-the-line ads.

Which video content works best for your brand? Let us know in the comments.