Facebook has added video advertisements that automatically play in users’ News Feed.
It has been months since the social networking site has started planning on ways to significantly incorporate videos on the social networking site and now, they finally did.
According to a blog post, since they have seen a 10 percent increase in users liking, sharing, and viewing in videos during their trials; they have finally decided to roll out video ads in the News Feed.
As of press time, a number of random users will be able to see video ads on their News Feeds for both mobile and desktop sites. The first video ad is a promotion for the upcoming sci-fi movie based on a novel titled Divergent.
The video ad will automatically play, but users will not hear any sound. Those who don’t like to watch it may simply scroll down to pass. However, if users are interested with the advertisement, they may tap the video and play in full screen to unmute the clip.
This addition in Facebook aims to empower marketers “to use this new format to tell their stories to a large number of people on Facebook in a short amount of time - with high-quality sight, sound and motion.”
A spokesperson for Facebook told Wired.com that the company will also offer a pause button in the videos.
“We’re seeing really strong results,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg pointing out to a precursor to the video ads in a phone interview with Wired on May. “Because of that, and because of marketers inherently liking video as a format, we continue to explore new things.”
She added in a phone interview on July, “We see a lot of marketers using that [precursor] product and seeing good results, so the demand to do more in video on Facebook is there.”
At the end of the news report, it said that the company will “continue to refine this new way for brands to tell stories on Facebook to ensure the best experience for people and marketers.”
