Facebook has been pitching video ads to brands and advertisers for over a year. Many advertisers however, are afraid to break out their cheque books for the pricey 15 seconds segments. Although some advertisers have already committed to an October launch while others are wary and waiting to see how users respond to these new ads. How will the ads work? Here’s a quote from Social Barrel:
Ads will be 15-seconds long and will be targeted to Facebook users based on their demographics. A video ad, slotted for a particular day, can appear on a Facebook user’s news feed a maximum of three times. As a user scrolls over a video ad, that video will start playing without sound. If the user wants to listen to the video ad, he or she can click it, prompting the video to restart and smear across the left and right rails of the Facebook page. This enlarged interface allows users to play two more video ads.
Facebook’s goal is to tap into the big budget of TV advertising, and big it is. eMarketer’s latest projection predicts advertisers will spend $4.1 billion on video ads this year and $5.7 billion in 2014! But it’s not all about money, Facebook plans to implement an “internal creative review process” that ensures not only high quality ads but ones that are more social in nature and specific to the platform.
We’ve already heard a slew of complaints about how intrusive promoted posts and sponsored stories are so what do you think, one step too far in the intrusive direction? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: Pentagon Post
