Dive Brief:
- Although Facebook is currently on track to serve 66% of YouTube's video total, it’s gaining on its rival.
- A key marketing advantage for Facebook is every video viewer is a logged-in and registered viewer providing a deeper data dive than Google can offer from YouTube user metrics.
- Despite differences in ad delivery reach and billing mechanics, Facebook and Google charge similar rates to deliver video ads.
Dive Insight:
Research by Ampere Analysis found Facebook is expected to serve about two thirds of the video ads Google’s YouTube will deliver -- two trillion as compared to YouTube’s three trillion. At the same time the social media platform has a built-in advantage over YouTube in terms of metrics because every viewer of a video ad on Facebook is a logged-in user with all the built-in data associated with that user.
The Ampere Analysis survey also found that 15% of respondents from the U.S. and Europe watched video on Facebook in the previous month, and almost 17% of those people had not watched video on YouTube in the previous month.
The video advertising marketplace is growing, and right now even though YouTube is clearly in the lead, Facebook has been making inroads quarter-to-quarter in total video views, and actually holds a lead in global monthly active users with 1.4 billion as compared to YouTube’s 1.3 billion. Facebook also offers marketers a benefit in more detailed viewer data on every video ad it serves.