At last, Facebook will begin testing auto play video ads on the newsfeeds of a select group of users. This is a step, albeit a baby one, to bring Facebook video ads onto our newsfeeds. Our guess is that within the next 6 months video ads will become a part of every Facebook user’s newsfeed, just as sponsored updates and text ads have. This is a follow on from Instagram videos which were announced in June which signaled video ads could be on the horizon.
How will they look?
From the rumor mill and our own predictions, the video ads will feature much the same as sponsored updates do in the newsfeed (below), but will incorporate automatic playing like Vine. Users will see the ad the second they scroll to its position. For now, users are required to press the play button to view a page’s ad.
Surprisingly, Zuckerberg didn’t mention video ads in his interview at Disrupt 2013, he may be holding off on announcements until user testing is completed.
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