Facebook Just Became the Gateway to Hispanic E-Commerce

Last month, we opined on Amazon’s rollout of their Spanish-language e-commerce site, and the massive opportunity it represents for brands trying to reach Hispanic consumers. A recent announcement by Facebook opens yet another opportunity for marketers to sell directly to the nation’s largest minority via e-commerce.

Enter Facebook’s Collection Ad

Facebook quietly began unveiling a new immersive ad unit called Collection in late March, to the delight of marketers focused on e-commerce. The mobile-only ad unit pairs a video, image, or slideshow with up to four products that are prominently featured below the ad. When a consumer clicks on the products they’re taken to an instantly loaded full-screen catalog of up to 50 products without ever leaving Facebook. If a product is clicked on from the catalog, the consumer is redirected to the corresponding product page on the brand’s website or app.

The Collection ad unit provides marketers with an immersive way to show products in action, or build a story around a category of products, while also providing a seamless way to buy via mobile.

Marketers Can Use Collection Ads To Sell to Millions of Hispanic Digital Shoppers

We know Hispanics shop, we know they shop online, and we know that they love to use Facebook on their mobile phones. A 2016 study by IRI stated, “Hispanic shoppers are disproportionately prominent in two of the most active online shopping segments, e-shopping enthusiasts, and review seekers.” Pair this with the fact that there are nearly 30 million Hispanics on Facebook, of which 74% browse exclusively on their mobile phones, and a clear opportunity arises for marketers to sell directly to Hispanics in an efficient and immersive way.

Collection provides brands with a prime testing ground for e-commerce targeting Hispanics. By leveraging Facebook’s robust affinity targeting and combining that with a scaled down e-commerce product offering, brands can explore the merits of deeper Hispanic e-commerce strategy regardless of language. Plus, Collection ads can be integrated into a brand’s existing social strategy, providing an even closer tie-in between social and e-commerce.

Smart marketers must be strategic when it comes to leveraging Collection ads and create a long-term, measurable plan that hinges on culturally relevant product stories and a seamless mobile experience. By establishing key performance indicators and tracking them via Facebook Insights, marketers can compare their Hispanic campaigns to similar general market campaigns.

I bet marketers will be pleasantly surprised with what they find.