Facebook delays $1 million-plus video ads again: Content control an issue?
Facebook has reportedly pushed back its long-awaited $1-million-plus video ads from their original planned launch next month.
Zuckerberg: Quality an issue
One thing at issue is said to be "the impact on user experience" which boils down to how much control Facebook has over the ads that appear.
There is no new launch timeframe, said the magazine AdAge, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.
The 15-second spots, to be targeted at segments of Facebook's userbase, will be very expensive- anywhere from $1 million to roughly $2.4 million depending on the reach.
At first they were to be unveiled in the first half of this year, then it was a summer debut, and most recently it was delayed to October. Now it looks as if they could miss the big marketing bonanza following Thanksgiving in November.
The impact on user experience is, according to AdAge, the biggest concern still delaying the launch.
Facebook will accept some made-for-TV spots as video ads, but would prefer brands to create new spots specifically for Facebook that are "more social in nature and take advantage of the platform."
Facebook also plans an internal creative review - intended to keep the quality of the ads high. How exactly that will work is not known.
Facebook has not commented.
The video ads will appear to U.S. users in their desktop and mobile news feeds up to three times on the day that they're booked. They will begin silently playing when a user scrolls over them but when a user clicks on the ad, it will restart with sound and expand in size .
The market is potentially huge. eMarketer estimates advertisers will spend $4.1 billion on video ads this year and $5.7 billion in 2014.
While Facebook had secured commitments for an October launch, said AdAge ,many brands and agencies continue to be "gun-shy " on account of the million-dollar minimums for an unproven product.