Facebook to Roll Out Video Advertising
You may have noticed videos on your newsfeed acting a little different recently. Since September, Facebook has been testing a new feature that plays users videos automatically as you scroll or swipe past them. They report seeing an increase in views, likes, shares and comments by more than 10%.
With every update to the social giant we wait to see how it will change things for advertisers. On December 17, they made the not so surprising announcement that this feature will soon be available to marketers. Many view this as an opportunity for Facebook to have a stake in video content advertising. But, how will Facebook’s 1.19 billion users react to these ads? Facebook has been cautious with the rollout and it is believed it won’t be complete until early next year. No pricing for this feature is available at this time.
How will it work?
- Similar to what we’ve already seen with videos shared by users friends, the video will begin to play as it appears on the users screen, without sound. When clicked the video will enlarge and play with sound.
- The feature allows for two additional videos to appear at the end of the video on a carousel, providing marketers the opportunity for additional content to be discovered.
- When the device is connected to Wi-Fi all content will be downloaded in advance, not consuming data plans, even if the users is not connected at the time the video plays.
This feature is only currently available on individual users profiles, verified Pages, select pages of entertainers and sports organizations, and Summit Entertainment's ‘Divergent.’
