TLDR
Meta's Ads Super Burst lets one brand reserve Facebook and Instagram feeds for 3 to 24 hours, with optional category exclusivity blocking rivals. Early test flights reached a median 34 million people per campaign. Super Burst has no confirmed Australian timing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
How the burst window works
Meta announced its new brand advertising formats at its Brand Building Summit on 15 October, and the most consequential is Ads Super Burst. A brand books a window of 3 to 24 hours on Facebook and Instagram through Meta's Reach Planner, as a reservation buy with guaranteed delivery rather than through the auction.[1] As an optional add-on it can buy category exclusivity, which stops other advertisers in the same category booking that window.[1]
Meta has not said how it defines a category, what exclusivity costs, or whether it also keeps rivals' auction-bought ads out.[1] It has not disclosed pricing at all.[1]
The mechanic will be familiar to anyone who has bought television: the category-exclusive sponsorship or roadblock, where a carmaker or insurer pays to keep rivals out of the same break. In Meta's test flights, a single burst reached a median of 34 million people, about 14% of US adults online in a day.[1]
Kathryn Quart, VP planning at Publicis agency Spark Foundry, ran a 12-hour activation for a client she did not name. "Our 12-hour activation was seamless to execute," she said, adding that it "performed exactly as expected".[1]
A companion product, First Impression Ads, gives one advertiser per day the first ad people see when they open their Facebook Feed. It is a limited test in the US only.[2]
The numbers, and whose numbers they are
Early Super Burst advertisers saw a median 2.9-point lift in ad recall and a 0.6-point lift in intent, according to Meta, which has not published the underlying research.[1]
Meta is also testing Aggregated View Time, an early alpha measure that adds up the time people spend viewing a brand's content across a week instead of scoring each view on its own. Meta says its research found accumulated attention across several exposures can be worth more than a single five-second view, with 32% higher offline sales in the study it cites.[2]
Reels Trending Ads, the third change, places ads straight after popular Reels on Facebook and Instagram across 15 always-on content topics, now including Home & Garden and Spanish-language, plus seasonal themes for holidays and sport.[2]
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ads Super Burst | One brand books 3 to 24 hours of guaranteed reach; optional category exclusivity | Phased general availability from October; markets not named |
| First Impression Ads | One advertiser a day gets the first ad in the Facebook Feed | US-only test |
| Reels Trending Ads | Ads straight after popular Reels, 15 always-on topics | Expanded; B&T ties it to Australian advertisers |
| Aggregated View Time | Weekly total of time spent viewing a brand's content | Early alpha test |
What reaches Australia, and when
B&T ties only one of the changes to Australia: the expanded Reels Trending Ads, which give Australian advertisers more chances to appear after popular Reels.[3] Meta has given no Australian timing for Ads Super Burst or First Impression Ads.[3] Super Burst is moving to general availability from October in phases, without a list of markets, while First Impression Ads and Aggregated View Time remain tests.[2]
For local brands in crowded categories, such as insurance, telcos and cars, category exclusivity is the part to watch. Until Meta says whether it applies here and what it costs, it is a feature to ask Meta's local team about rather than one to plan around.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
