Facebook’s most visual form of advertisement is about to get even easier to create.

The social media giant announced recently that changes are coming to its canvas ad format that will make it easier for marketers to take advantage of the new concept and tell a more compelling story about their brand.

Launched in February of this year, canvas ads were designed to answer a challenge seen by many social media marketers: how to tell compelling brand and product stories on mobile devices that will be enjoyable for users and effective for businesses at the same time.

Canvas ads are full-screen, post-click advertisements that are optimized for mobile devices. They can feature a combination of images, videos, text and links. They open from Facebook ads and load almost instantly. They are more than just advertisements—they’re more like digital stories.

“We made the creative community a priority when we designed and built Canvas, said Chris Jones, Head of Creative Technology, Facebook Creative Shop. “It’s a product that represents our commitment to creative craft and delivering the best mobile experience for businesses and people.”

As such, they can be very effective in:

  • Creating and improving brand awareness
  • Increasing engagement
  • Promoting your pages
  • Sending people to your website
  • Converting the curious into customers

Here’s an example:

You can currently  create a Canvas with the Canvas Builder in Power Editor or Ads Manager, the Publishing Tools section of your Page and your Page composer.

Soon, however, Facebook plans to simplify the process by creating templates for marketers so they don’t always have to create them from scratch. They will also add 360 video and add the ability to link buttons and images to other Canvas ads, providing a more complete experience and enabling marketers to tell an even greater story.

So far, viewers have watched the equivalent of 150 years’ worth of Canvas ads—in just more than eight months. With these changes, look for this form to be even more popular in the future. Have you created a canvas ad yet? Let us know in the comments!