Meet the new and improved Facebook Instant Experiences (formerly known as Canvas)

Facebook has decided to rename its Canvas ad format and along with the name change come a few new features.

If for some rare and unexplained reason you haven’t heard of Facebook Canvas, here’s a recap:

“Facebook Instant Experiences, formally known as Canvas, load instantly, they’re mobile-optimised and designed to capture the complete attention of your audience. Within an Instant Experience, people can watch engaging videos and photos, swipe through carousels, tilt to pan and explore lifestyle images with tagged products – all in a single ad.”

Facebook Canvas launched back in February 2016, but it wasn’t until September last year with the addition of templates, that the format really took off. This new format enabled brands to create full-screen ads and really go wild. The creative options within the ad format are almost endless and many brands are reaping the benefits.

What’s that? You’ve never done an Instant Experience ad? Well then, read on and see why you most certainly should!

The number of Facebook campaigns using Instant Experiences has more than doubled in the past year and the reason behind this might be quite a simple one – Instant Experiences load 15x faster than standard mobile websites.

The new template, Instant Forms, allows people to easily share their contact information to learn more about your brands offering. The additional template will be joining the existing Instant Storefront, Instant Lookbook, Instant Customer Acquisition and Instant Storytelling. Facebook also announced that the Facebook pixel will now be added to Instant Experiences automatically for any business that’s already using the pixel on its website.

Advertisers can also embed third-party pixels in the ads enabling them to really dig into the data. But ultimately, they’ll be able to retarget customers who have engaged with their Instant Experiences.

So, there you have it, if that hasn’t convinced you to try out this magic ad format then I don’t know what will.

Latest Posts

LinkedIn has been the safe B2B media choice for years. We’d argue almost too safe, in some cases! Is it time to move on? It is still the platform most B2B marketers reach for when they want to target senior decision-makers, niche job functions, or named accounts. And yes, there…
Read More
Instagram has been busy lately with their updates so far in 2026. And not just a little busy the kind where you step away to make a cup of tea and come back to find everything’s shifted slightly. New features, tweaks, tests… it’s a lot to keep…
Read More
You’re expected to drive growth from social, but the darn metrics don’t make it easy You can feel it, can’t you. Social isn’t there to look like a busy, beautiful extension to your website. It’s meant to show up in revenue, pipeline, retention. Something a commercial leader knows is moving…
Read More