Facebook Video Ads Will Be in Your News Feed Soon
Over the next week, social media giant Facebook will begin offering new venues of mobile advertising, namely allowing mobile app developers to advertise their products to Facebook mobile users in a bold new way: Facebook video ads.
This new (but long in development) advertising model is specifically targeted at iOS and Android app developers , at least for now. It will allow companies to show their video ads (of currently indeterminable length) in the news feeds of Facebook app users on Android and iOS.
It will work a little something like this.
“Potential customers will be able to click play to watch a video featuring your mobile app before installing the app,” Facebook’s Radu Margarint announced this morning.
“Video creative has proven to be an effective way to drive engagement in News Feed, and we look forward to helping developers use their video creative to find new app installs.”
Long story short, advertisments in your news feed will look roughly the same as they always have, but instead of a still image being displayed, you’ll see a video thumbnail with a play button layered over top. The video will not auto-play; it will only begin when you find it interesting enough to warrant a tap. If you don’t find it worthy of your time, just scroll right past it.
It apparently worked just fine for DoubleDown Casino vice president John Clelland, who tried the model out recently with his company’s digital casino app:
“In our early tests, we found that using video in our mobile app ads resulted in increased install rates and decreased costs per install. We’ve seen tremendous success with mobile app ads and are looking forward to using video to make them even more engaging with rich media like video.”
Previously, Facebook only offered advertisers the CPC (cost per click) option for ad sales, but this new CPA model (cost per action) will allow newly interested companies to “better manage their budgets while maximizing installs.”
This new method generates revenue for companies based on the download rate of their app from the Facebook ad. The company can bid on how much they’re willing to pay for every install that occurs at the start of their campaign – but they won’t have to pay for a user that chooses to ignore the ad. That seems pretty fair, right?
There’s of course one caveat, like there always is with making money online.
“In order to bid on CPA, you need to be measuring installs for your ad campaign, either by integrating with our SDK or working with a mobile measurement partner,” according to Facebook.
The company will be rolling out these new ad options to advertisers over the next few days – so look out for some fresh ads in your news feeds very soon.