Meta introduces time-reserved ad campaigns and tests first-position Facebook ads – Tech Edition

Meta is rolling out Ads Super Burst for short, reserved campaigns, testing first-position Facebook ads and new measures of attention across short-form videos.
Meta is introducing Ads Super Burst, an advertising format that lets brands reserve campaign windows lasting three to 24 hours, alongside a US test that gives advertisers the first advertising position in Facebook Feed. The company is also expanding advertising options around trending Reels on Facebook and Instagram.
Announced at the Meta Brand Building Summit on 15 October, the updates arrive alongside trials of Aggregated View Time. The measurement product is designed to combine the time people spend with a brand across multiple short-video encounters within a week.
Ads Super Burst allows advertisers and agencies to concentrate campaigns within a reserved period of three to 24 hours. Designed for time-sensitive advertising around occasions such as product launches, awards ceremonies or the opening weekend of a sports season, the format allows marketers to book their preferred window, with category exclusivity available to prevent other advertisers in the same category from reserving that period. Campaigns can be planned through Meta’s Reach Planner, which provides estimated reach and pricing for selected dates and allows advertisers to secure inventory with delivery guarantees tied to those estimates.
According to Meta, advertisers testing Ads Super Burst over recent months recorded a median 2.9-point lift in ad recall and a 0.6-point lift in intent. Campaigns reached a median of 34 million people per flight, which the company equated to 14% of the online US adult population in a single day.
Demonstrating its practical deployment, Kathryn Quart, VP Planning at Spark Foundry, described how the agency had used a 12-hour Ads Super Burst campaign to provide guaranteed visibility for a client’s time-sensitive message. The activation delivered the expected reach among its target audience, prompting the agency to recommend using the format again during the holiday season with a more concentrated messaging window. Following these initial advertiser tests, Ads Super Burst is moving to general availability through a phased rollout during October 2026.
In the United States, Meta is testing First Impression Ads following years of advertiser requests for the first advertising position in Feed. The placement gives participating advertisers the first ad people encounter when opening their Facebook Feed, with the early test restricted to one brand per day.
The company is also expanding Reels Trending Ads, an existing format that places advertisements immediately after the most-watched and most culturally relevant Reels on Facebook and Instagram. Having extended access to all advertisers the previous year, Meta is now providing more options for selecting the topics alongside which advertisements appear. There are now 15 standard topics available throughout the year, including new categories covering Home & Garden and Spanish-language content, alongside seasonal collections associated with occasions such as holidays and the beginning of football and basketball seasons.
Further targeting changes are planned for later in 2026, including custom audience exclusions that will allow advertisers to exclude selected audiences from campaigns using Reels Trending Ads, providing more control over who receives their advertisements. According to Meta, campaigns incorporating Reels Trending Ads recorded an increase of more than five percentage points in action intent compared with unexposed control groups, while the format delivered an incremental five-percentage-point lift in unaided brand awareness.
Aggregated View Time is designed to measure and optimise the total time someone spends with a brand across a week, combining viewing time across separate encounters with brand content instead of measuring each video impression individually. For example, someone might encounter a brand for two seconds on one day, another second the following day and two more seconds later in the week. Aggregated View Time would combine those interactions into five seconds of accumulated exposure, allowing advertisers to assess engagement across repeated encounters.
The measurement approach accounts for viewing behaviour in which people encounter brand content through several short videos across different days. Meta noted that Reels now accounts for more than half of all time spent on Instagram, making repeated short-video exposure an area of interest for advertisers assessing brand performance.
Meta reported that its research found five seconds of attention accumulated over a week drove 32% more offline sales than a single continuous five-second view. The company also cited independent industry research suggesting that accumulated viewing time could predict advertising outcomes more effectively than focusing on one extended view. Aggregated View Time remains in alpha testing, with Meta aiming to help advertisers measure and optimise repeated short-form exposure when assessing campaign performance.
Nurin Sofia is a Senior Editor at Tech Edition. Her interest is in technology and startups, occasionally crunching news for gaming. Sofia enjoys playing video games, going on bike rides, and gardening when she isn't behind a keyboard.
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