Facebook has announced that it will roll out video ads for users in 7 new countries – Australia, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Britain and Canada, starting next month.
The 15-second video ads will start playing without sound and when clicked, the ad will zoom to fill the screen, turning on the sound automatically. Facebook first initiated video ads in the US in March, after testing in last December.
“With Premium Video Ads, brands now have another way of engaging people on Facebook with compelling video experiences,” Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Advertisers with at least $1 million to burn can have their ads played for users at determined intervals for a single day. Facebook has reportedly limited the number of ads for initial release, promising more ads to be rolled out in future.
In Australia, Facebook is handling the rapidly rising demand for premium video ads with the help of Ace Metrix, a video analytics company that would administer a quality test for the video ads before they show up in Facebook.
Will Easton, MD of Facebook Australia and New Zealand said, “There is huge demand for premium video advertising in Australia.”
“We’ll be working closely with advertisers to deliver high quality video campaigns that create the best possible advertising experience.”
Facebook has also made a metrics tool available for marketers which shows them how long the videos were watched for and the number of times they were viewed. All paid and organic video views will get the video metrics service and will be rolled out alongside the advertisements.
Companies whose ads are acceptable will be released in June, right in time for the football world cup season and the others have to wait until September while Facebook would approve the ads with the help of Ace Metrix.
