After implementing “sponsored” posts and ads promoting apps, Facebook’s next step is to bring video ads to the News Feed on both, desktop and mobile platforms. Very interesting is that the video ads would start automatically, although it is not sure yet if the audio would “autoplay” as well.
This step clearly points to a more ad penetrated Facebook experience for its members. Until now, videos were only shown to people who like the publisher’s page or through shares of friends. It might even be very disturbing, if the videos start automatically with audio. For the user experience sake, every web designer or marketer urges to avoid autoplay with only a few exceptions.
For marketers and advertisers, this new feature is very interesting. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but a video showing around 30 pictures a second can have a much better effect on consumers. These video ads, which are limited to 15 seconds, can be effectively targeted to specific Facebook users – much more than TV ads can.
Do you think Facebook is going one step too far? Might video ads and a higher ad penetration drive away its members? I am looking forward to a discussion in the comments.
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