Report: Facebook Plans to Show Ads in Videos

[engine]

According to a report in Recode, Facebook is to start testing "mid-roll" ads in videos, and the company will be sharing revenues with the video publishers.

For now, Facebook will sell the ads and share the revenue with publishers, giving them 55 percent of all sales. That’s the same split offered by YouTube, which dominates the online video ad business. Report: Facebook Plans to Show Ads in Videos [recode.net]

This might mean an opportunity for video publishers to earn revenues, and, importantly, for Facebook to add further revenue earning opportunities.

I do wonder how this will affect users and whether they will become tired of the interruptions.

[tangor]

Depends (user engagement) on how obtrusive the ads might be. Not to open a can of worms: How difficult it is to defeat those ads.

The ads are necessary to grease the wheels. What we have seen over the years is that the search (greed?) for more revenue gums up the works with too much grease. I don't have a number for what would be a point of diminishing returns, but I know it when I see it. Here's hoping FB approaches this in a reasoned manner.

[bill]

Surely they'll let you pay not to see the ads...

As an advertiser I can see the appeal, but as a consumer ads in videos are an unwelcome interruption. I just wish all the big brains over there could come up with something to earn revenue that wasn't based on this intrusive 20th century paradigm.

[Robert Charlton]

Coordination... pacing... genre... quality...
I think it's going to take some coordination between the content publishers and the advertisers to make video content and mid-roll ads work together. Sports highlights are a natural fit.

Mid-roll ads may not work on all types of material, though. At the least, I think that the video content must be designed to be interruptible, with built in breaks made for ads, short enough to discourage viewers wandering off. Content providers wanting ad revenue and not having dedicated advertisers might include mini cliff-hangers just before the ads to make viewers want to see what comes next... with perhaps some min-recaps right after the ad breaks.

Navigation within the video will likely need to be disabled (ie, no pause, rewind, fast-forward, or repeat) which might be a problem for content that's too long.

"Meshing" ads and content...
Certain types of fast moving material (again, sports come to mind), could work very well with a bunch of very short ads designed to have a continuity among themselves. In overall structure, this would be similar, say, to parallel intercutting in music videos.

Pace ends up being a driving force here, and many ad fragments designed to work together within appropriate content might be more effective than longer ads spaced too far apart. This would be a complete break from normal broadcast-TV spot insertions, and would work best with dedicated advertisers. I'd call it "meshing".

Sensitivity in advertising...
Also, advertisers have got to make the ads good enough for viewers to actually want to see them, and to be careful about breaking the mood. It continues to amaze me that, with all the audience information advertisers and video sites have about what people like, how rare it is that anyone does a good job of matching up the ads with the videos they advertise on.