Facebook just took one step closer to running autoplay video ads in the News Feed. This is either great news (if you're an advertiser) or not-so-great news (if you're a user).
On Thursday, Facebook began testing autoplay videos on mobile News Feeds to a small group of random users. The company has been inching towards running such ads all year. Originally, the move was reportedly planned for April at the latest, but Facebook has pushed back the date to the fall or later. The latest report pegs the timeframe at October. (As the company often points out, advertisers already run video ads on Facebook; they are just not set to play automatically.)
See also: Can Facebook Put Video Ads in News Feed Without Angering Users?
That timing is plausible in light of Thursday's announcement. Now, it is technically possible for a brand to load a video onto Facebook directly or via Instagram. The only thing that bars them from doing so is Facebook.
According to Ad Age, the company is trying to persuade advertisers to create original content for the News Feed rather than simply re-running their TV ads (albeit at 15 seconds rather than the standard 30.)
At $1 million to $2.4 million, depending on the placement, creating original content makes sense. With so many eyes on Facebook's move, featuring run-of-the-mill ads in its first round would drain a lot of enthusiasm. Since Facebook is making such a big play to be part of real-time and second-screen discussions, the company may be wise to follow Twitter's lead, as it has experimented with ESPN-sponsored sports replay clips and other forms of non-traditional video advertising.
Such brand-sponsored content marketing might go over better with users than a reconstituted TV ad, especially if it's well targeted. That doesn't mean users will necessarily love the ads, though.
Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media, says Facebook can't hew to a middle course that will please both advertisers and users.
"Autoplay ads are typically an irritating distraction for users," he says. "Most media buyers prefer click to play video ads and relegate autoplay ads to cheap reach strategies. To be effective, video ads need to be memorable and leave a lasting imprint — autoplay ads with no sound are unlikely to do that."
Another intriguing possibility in light of Thursday's announcement is that Facebook will allow for GIF-based ads. Facebook's platform doesn't support GIFs, and a recent workaround from Giphy was not autoplay in the old format. Even with Thursday's update, GIFs are still not supported, according to Facebook, which does not seen to keen on the idea.
However, that now seems like a short step away. For all advertisers unwilling to pay $1 million and up, this might be an interesting development.
Image: Getty/Manjunath Kiran
Back in the days when The Facebook was only available to select networks, the News Feed didn't exist. Users hopped between profiles like this one.
With the September 2006 launch of Facebook's News Feed, user profiles contained mini-feeds that displayed user activity.
While not a huge year for profile redesign, users began to interact more with each other's profiles -- remember Facebook Gifts?
Users were able to add application tabs to their profiles (e.g. Bumper Stickers). Facebook also introduced the Publisher tool bar, which allowed a user to publish a status update, photo or link to his profile.
A new kind of user profile, Pages launched in 2009. Users could "become a fan" of a Page (until 2010, when they could "like" a page) to see that individual's or business' updates in their news feed.
Late in 2010, Facebook launched a new profile that, up until this week, remained pretty much unaltered. Users took advantage by getting creative with the new photo banner at the top of the page. Also, Facebook told you what friends/fans you had in common in the upper right-hand corner of each page.
As of Sept. 20, Facebook's new ticker has the ability to follow a user around to every page, including profiles. The company also introduced a "View As" widget in the upper right-hand corner that allows a user to preview how others see her page.
Announced Thursday at Facebook's f8 conference, the new profile will act like a virtual scrapbook, featuring important milestones that have occurred since your time on Facebook. Compared to the evolution of the social network's profile thus far, this redesign appears the most significant.