Two recent articles on the ClickZ website look at some of the recent developments and trends with advertising on Facebook. The first looks at the way some large US and Canadian companies are beginning to use Facebook for advertising by incorporating the web version of their weekly newspaper circulars into their Facebook pages.

For example, ShopLocal serves Facebook users the a 'virtual circular' for the nearest branded store based on the current city in their profile. Users can enlarge and print barcode-enabled coupons, as well as author comments underneath each of the specials. They can also click a "share" button for each individual coupon/special to include in their newsfeeds. Examples from other retailers are also included in the article.

The second piece reports that Facebook is currently testing ratings and reviews within adverts on the site, including the use of Facebook's thumbs-up "Like" icon, a user rating between 1 and 5 stars, a short comment, and then the user's name. At this stage it's not clear how long the ratings and reviews ads have been tested or whether they will be rolled out in the future.

However, if these 'socially-enhanced' ads do eventually become a core component on the site, it would certainly draw the interest of marketers since the inclusion of a friend's rating and review of a product or service could in theory increase click-through rates and conversions.