Facebook Releases In-Stream Video Advertising Placement

If you’re constantly elbows deep in the Power Editor, you may have, just like me, started squealing in excitement about a new placement feature within the Power Editor.

At first, our Facebook guru, Mike Opera and I were debating about where exactly this in-stream video placement would appear within the Facebook platform.

We concluded that it may appear between the suggested videos that play automatically (especially on mobile) when you really only wanted to watch that ONE really cute cat video.

However, here are the exact words from Facebook’s release about the new in-stream video advertising placement:

“In-Stream videos offer another opportunity to reach audiences by allowing advertisers to insert short video ads into native videos on Facebook.”

This means that Facebook will now be placing video advertisements BETWEEN native (or in other words, organic videos), forcing a 100% Video View if the user intends to finish watching the entire video of Corgis playing in the snow (as I know I would).

Related: Is Facebook’s Audience Network Wasting Your Ad Dollars on Bot Traffic?

The next question would be, WHO would be seeing these videos? Facebook’s answer:

“Because in-stream video targeting is audience-based, viewers of the same broadcast will see different ads depending on their interests.”

Essentially, this means that viewers of your in-stream video ad will be based on interest targeting that you choose, and your video ad will not appear in the in-stream of the same native videos.

A workaround around this would be narrowing down your targeting to a retargeting audience, so that you have more control over who will see the in-stream video ad.

But wait, there’s more.

What Requirements Must Be Met To Launch An In-Stream Ad?

You must select the Campaign Objective to Optimize for Video Views only:

Must be used in combination with Facebook “News Feed” placement:

Videos must be between 10-15 seconds long, cannot be a slideshow video, and must have sound:

What Does This Mean For You?

• This is great for brand awareness. However, is not good for direct response, as there will be no link clicks from this type of advertisement.
• Also great for getting cheaper video views, considering that in-stream ads are likely not skippable.
• Since you have to opt-in to News Feed as well, you would have to drill down in the Ads Manager to differentiate between the effectiveness of the two video ad placements.
• Facebook is clearly placing an importance on engaging video content, but one thing to consider is the disruption of the viewer’s experience having to deal with a brand’s ad while watching videos.

TIP:

Now, I must admit that I haven’t seen any in-stream ads myself just yet.

Related: Best Practices for Video Advertising on Facebook

However, I’m curious as to how the in-stream videos will appear within a native video, and if they will be intrusive to the user experience when watching videos on Facebook. Or if this new update could potentially sabotage the brand. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Have you seen any in-stream video advertising yet? Let us know in the comments below!

*For information provided by Facebook, visit this link.*