Dive Brief:
- A little over a month after Facebook began testing mid-roll video ads it is expanding the format to eligible outside publishers, per Ad Age.
- The ads will be served through the Facebook Audience Network platform. According to the company, expanding the scope of the mid-roll format will help its publisher partners monetize premium content both on Facebook and the publishers’ own websites and apps.
- Like other ads, publishers get 55% of the revenue for ads served on Facebook properties, but the split for mid-roll ads served on the publishers’ own properties wasn’t disclosed.
Dive Insight:
News that Facebook was testing mid-roll video ads arrived in January, with the platform allowing the ads to start no sooner than 20 seconds into the beginning of a video. Around the same time, the company also began testing mid-roll video pop-up ads in the Instagram Stories feature. Facebook tested mid-roll ads during Facebook Live video streams last August.
Mid-roll ads provide viewers with an experience more akin to linear TV where the ad interrupts the video content. Although disruptive, the mid-roll format has proven to be successful with the Ooyala Video Index from last August finding it had a 90% completion rate compared 78% for pre-roll ads. The report speculated that the format worked because it allows viewers to become involved and invested in video content before having to view an ad.
The news arrives as other digital platforms continue to fine-tune their ad assortment with an eye towards driving engagement for brands while minimizing the potential to annoy users. For example, YouTube is reportedly planning to eliminate its unskippable pre-roll 30-second ad unit by next year, according to UK ad industry publication Campaign. The platform will continue to offer unskippable pre-roll ads of 20-seconds and the 6-second bumper format.