​Facebook plans to refine and unify its ad units to create stronger offerings for its clients.

​Brands stuck at the chalkboard, unable to design the ideal social media marketing campaign, can let out a sigh of relief – Facebook plans to simplify its ad offerings. According to the Facebook Newsroom blog, over the next six months, Facebook will cut its 27 ad units by more than half. The company emphasizes its primary objective is to map out strategies ​for its clients to achieve defined business goals, and by simplifying its ad options, Facebook will create stronger opportunities for brands.

Facebook’s Fidji Simo writes that the company has a few revisions to make to its current ad offerings. The social media network’s first goal is to eliminate redundancy across the site. Simo says many of Facebook’s ad units accomplish the same objectives, so it plans to cut out those duplicates.

For example, Facebook will remove the Questions product for Pages because marketers can ask questions in free posts and often generate similar answers. The company will also delete the online Offer ad unit because brands can publish persuasive social media content to their Pages and elicit the same types of responses, driving web traffic back to sites to take advantage of deals. These changes will go into effect in July 2013.

Perhaps the most interesting update to Facebook’s new social advertising approach is its​ ​sponsored stories. The company will now automatically add social context to a Page post photo ad to boost performance and remove the extra and costly step of creating sponsored stories.

Simo writes, “We know social enhances ad resonance; people are influenced by this type of word-of-mouth marketing. Research…shows that social context can drive awareness and return on ad spend…”

Companies can take advantage of Facebook’s unified advertising options to gauge customer sentiment. Brafton reported on how Volvo uses social media networks to test new campaigns that will affect all other outreach programs. With new Facebook ad units, and clearer guidelines, brands may find social feedback more accurate than ever before.

Ted Karczewski is an Executive Communications Associate at Brafton. He works to develop his own voice and apply his passions to the evolving world of SEO and content marketing, but he doesn't shy away from writing for fun. After graduating from Suffolk University, Ted used his Communications degree to test out Sports Journalism before Marketing at Brafton.