Its 2015, the dawn of a new year, folks all over the world have, by now, made themselves a list of resolutions that they will like to fulfil. Some may want to trim their waste lines, others quit a bad habit, Facebook wants to bulk up their video marketing offering, for both, viewer and advertiser.
With the impact of mobile and broadband technology, video sharing and viewing has become more accessible. Facebook’s recent progress report stated that in 2014, video posts within a user’s news feed had increased more than 3 times versus the previous year. Director of Product (in charge of Video), Fidji Simo, has been given the great responsibility of capitalizing on this move.
Simo and Facebook Target $7.8bn Market
Simo will be looking to help Facebook tap into the estimated $7.8bn that has been budgeted for digital marketing in 2015. A sector of marketing that is growing substantially every year. As recent as December 2014, Facebook had already begun testing a new way to offer video ads albeit amongst a select group of advertisers. You may have noticed that video ads in your Facebook news feed play automatically, but are halted if you keep scrolling. This method has already seen a 10% increase (as claimed by Facebook) in viewers’ interaction with video ads whether it be watching, liking, sharing or commenting.
Fidji Simo, a former employee of EBay, also hopes to educate marketers on how they can analyse the success of their video ads. Facebook offers some more flexibility as compared to other advertising media, like targeting certain demographics at certain times of the day and unlike other social networks, Facebook ads runs as a standalone and not a forced intro before you view your intended video.
Facebook put’s Pressure on YouTube
These factors bring about a unique analytical need. Combine that with their largest clients thirst to know how the video effected sales and the reporting requirements becomes greater. Step in a server tool called Atlas. Atlas will allow marketers to monitor numerous attributes which will allow them to extract valuable data during/after the campaign so as to tap into this powerful advertising method. Emarketer’s evaluation of Facebook’s video ads is quite strong going as far as to say they have the potential to put pressure on Youtube.
Combining its static Facebook Ads feature and now with even more powerful video advertising, the company is lining itself up to offer customers the potential of over a billion possible customers. Last year we reported the rising force that is digital advertising, which is now greatly evidenced by Facebook’s latest intentions.