So far, 2012 has been the year of the ad for Facebook. Just this year we’ve seen the convergence of related ads in the newsfeed, unreleated ads in the newsfeed, conversion tracking with ads, ads on mobile, ads in the search results, retargeting, even paid exposure on organic content. Whew. What does that leave for next year? AdAge is reporting that in 2013 a new video-ad product will be launched in an effort to swing TV dollars over to Facebook.
The reported launch date for video ads is “April at the latest” according to AdAge. The ad formats will allegedly be capped at 15 seconds, which could be a barrier of entry for many mainstream 30 second TV commercials and will be available for both desktop and mobile users. Additionally, the ads will reportedly ‘Autoplay’ in the news feed without requiring a user’s click. According to AdAge, a decision has not been made whether or not autoplay will include audio or not.
Video ads would likely be frowned upon by Facebook users, especially if they come in an audio-on autoplay flavor. Video ads for mobile is even trickier nut to crack with tightened mobile bandwidth restrictions that many mobile users are facing. The revenue model is a very slippery slope for Facebook as in today’s social atmosphere, folks aren’t afraid to rebel when they are perceive they are being wronged. Video ads around photo galleries and video content played within Facebook? Makes sense. Video ads autoplaying on the newsfeed with audio? Feels wrong. It will be very interesting to see how this ad implementation plays out.
We’ve reached out to Facebook for more comments. For more information see AdAge.
Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising
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