Facebook is Testing a New Way to Show Ads on their Videos

Facebook is Testing a New Way to Show Ads on their Videos

We’ve talked about websites going Mobile-First for a while now and I think that’s a good thing. Mobile is essentially the primary way for people to access the internet as well as their social media accounts – and Facebook is one of the best examples for this.

The Rise of Video Content

Facebook apparently has the goal of making “videos” the primary source of content for their website. It seems as though they are working hard at this endeavor with the not too recent release of their feature “live videos” which allows people to stream whatever they want – primarily with their mobile phones.

The social media giant is of course planning a version of “live” for desktop devices but their primary target are of course, mobile devices. The reason for this is simple: Everyone is using mobile to access the internet and this happens more so than people using their desktop computers.

Try asking the people around you: How do you check your emails or your social media accounts outside of work? I bet you that most of them will answer their phone or tablet. Mobile has become so big that Google is actually releasing rhe majority of their algorithm updates geared towards optimizing web browsing via mobile devices.

Facebook’s Live Feature is Great

Anyway, I digress; What I’m trying to say is that Facebook is now riddled with videos of people showing other people whatever they want. I once came across a Facebook live-stream of a popular mixed-martial arts tournament.

It was literally a cellphone pointed towards a television screen, streaming the pay-per-view event in all of it’s pixelated glory courtesy of the portable camera. What’s surprising is that it had at least a hundred viewers despite it being so low-def.

Of course, I thought it was brilliant but then it really hit me. Facebook should do something about letting content creators monetize their content ala YouTube since a lot of people use Facebook anyways.

Facebook did just that – which is great for people who are looking to become content creators themselves!

According to Marketing Land, Facebook is now giving content creators incentive to upload videos that can attract views and viewers. Facebook is the middle of testing out a new feature for ads which will run in the middle of videos.

These ads are triggered after 20 seconds of watching a video so long as the video is at least 90 seconds long. What this means is that if your video is at least 1:30 (one minute and thirty seconds long), after 20 seconds of watching your viewer will then see an ad run seamlessly.

Facebook is going the same route YouTube did by offering 55% of ad sales to the content creator – and I think that’s very attractive. Furthermore, Facebook is calling this new feature “In-Stream Videos” and these mid-roll ads will run for a limited of 15 seconds (or less).

The great thing about this new feature is that Facebook is also allowing advertisers to choose the categories of the videos that they want their ads to appear; this is also the same with categories that they want to avoid.

What this means is that if my ad is SEO-centric, then I can choose to only show it to people who are interested in SEO or Internet Marketing. The possibilities are endless but in the meantime, learn how to create a killer video by re-reading one of our best pieces about YouTube  SEO.

Key Takeaway

Yes, videos are definitely a great way to monetize your content but the more important fact that you should remember is that these are also a great way to build a connection with your viewers. Making money is good but quality should never be compromised in favor of making a quick buck.

In the long run, it is wiser to please your readers or customers with quality content that they find compelling or great enough to share with their friends, family or co-workers.

Do you have any experience with content creation that you want to share with us? Feel free to talk to about them in the comments section below!

 

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. He’s also the founder of Sigil Digital Marketing. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.