They’re here: premium video ads launch on Facebook
Facebook has today announced, after months of waiting, that its premium video ads are being introduced for a ‘select’ group of advertisers.
Each 15-second video ad will start playing without sound as it appears on screen and stop if people scroll past. If people tap the video, it will expand into a full-screen view and sound will start.
That the Facebook ad would do this – and not require a click to begin playing – was announced by the social media company in December.
Susan Buckner, product marketing manager at Facebook, explained: “Premium Video Ads are bought and measured in a way that’s similar to how advertisers already buy and measure ads on TV.
“To make sure Premium Video Ads are as good as other content people see in their News Feeds, we’re working with a company called Ace Metrix to help us review and assess how engaging the creative is for each ad — before it appears on Facebook. Ace Metrix will allow us to objectively measure the creative quality of the video in the Facebook environment, and highlight performance indicators for advertisers such as watchability, meaningfulness and emotional resonance.”
The ad format is set to roll out slowly, with Facebook citing that this will help monitor interactions.
The gradual introduction, Buckner said, “allows us to concentrate our efforts on a smaller number of advertisers with high-quality campaigns to create the best possible experience on Facebook.”