Facebook to Launch Video Ads

It looks like Facebook is gearing up to cash in on their massive video audience by taking a leaf out of YouTube’s book.

According to Recode, Facebook are planning to put ‘mid-roll’ advertisements within videos uploaded to the social network which will enable publishers (as well as Facebook) to start making money out of videos.

However, unlike YouTube where the adverts run before the videos start, Facebook video ads can be inserted 20 seconds into any video and can last up to 90 seconds.

It comes as no surprise that Facebook will start testing ads within their videos as they have already began test ads within their live videos.

The ‘mid-roll’ advertising system is the same format that Facebook have already tested for live videos.

Although, Facebook hasn’t shared any of the revenue from the ads during the testing within live videos, it is now reported that Facebook will give 55% to the publisher and keep 45% (which is the same as YouTube).

Facebook reportedly receives over 8 billion video views a day by their 1.79 billion active monthly members, and considering this it is quite surprising that Facebook hasn’t already cashed in on their video viewing power.

The testing is supposedly set to roll out early this year but Facebook have yet to comment on the matter, although they have mentioned the success of their live video ads and that they will continue to invest in this in the future.

We expect that video ads will first appear in Facebook videos that are created by professional publishers before being released on a wider scale.