Facebook launches Canvas to bring life into mobile ads

The social media giant Facebook on Friday launched Canvas -- a new full-screen, immersive mobile ad experience that loads nearly instantaneously when someone taps on a news feed ad -- for advertisers across the world.

The new feature allows advertisers to use a mix of video, still images, text and call-to-action buttons to build beautiful and effective brand and product experiences on mobile, the company announced in a blog post on Friday.

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

Canvas uses the same technology that makes photos and videos load quickly on Facebook, so it loads as much as 10 times faster than the standard mobile web.

"We're committed to building great mobile experiences for people and doing so also opens up new creative possibilities for advertisers. We've invested in engaging experiences like video and the carousel format to empower advertisers with more creative space to share their brand and products on mobile," read the blog post.

Any advertiser can start building a Canvas as it is easy to build with no code or software required.

Canvas is designed with input from the creative community at every step and is designed to help businesses tell stories and show products on mobile devices in a beautiful way.

"It helps advertisers achieve any objective by giving businesses a fully customizable digital space on which to build multimedia stories," the post added.

The feature works on both Android and iOS platforms.

Within a Canvas, people enjoy moving through digital stories easily.

They can swipe through a carousel of images, tilt to view panoramic images and zoom in to view images in detail, making the Canvas experience immersive and engaging.