Facebook Set to Introduce Autoplay Video Ads in News Feeds in the First Half of 2013
For users and brands that are already getting frustrated with the cluttered and opaque nature of Facebook’s site and overall user experience, get ready to roll your eyes once more: According to AdAge, Facebook is set to unleash hell video ads into users’ news feeds no later than April of 2013. While specific features are still being discussed within company walls, industry executives who have been briefed on the company’s plans say these video ads will give advertisers the chance to target video ads to Facebook users via their news feeds, on the desktop version of the site first, then on mobile apps as well. The company is leaning toward capping the length of these video ads at 15 seconds, which could make this duration more common for video ads across the Web.
Oh, one more thing: the visual element of these video ads will be of the “autoplay” variety, meaning they will start playing automatically. Facebook is still debating whether to have the audio component automatically play too. Users will probably hate both, but will especially despise the audio autoplay feature.
“All of the executives interviewed view the new video ad product as a blatant attempt on Facebook’s part to wrest big ad dollars from TV budgets,” writes Jason Del Rey at AdAge. “Ad agencies have plenty of TV spots and increasingly want to extend their reach on the web. But TV-like inventory on the web is scarce, which is why ad rates at places such as Hulu are so high.”
