Facebook is testing a new ad format – video ads that play without sound or prompting. They will play as soon as they appear onscreen, although the sound will be muted (until the viewer chooses to turn it on). The video will also play fullscreen if chosen to to so.
The new ads will show up in the News Feed and will keep playing silently as you scroll past them. For mobile users, the videos will be downloaded in the background, ensuring that users’ data plans aren’t affected by the additional data required for the video ads to load correctly.
By its very nature, video has a higher conversion rate than just picture or text ads, so it will be interesting to see how effective this new ad product is for advertisers.
“Video ads were the quickest growing type of online advertising in 2012, with U.S. ad spending rising 46 percent to $2.9 billion. Although this is still much less than traditional TV ad budgets, marketers and brands are increasingly investing in online video. Anticipate even more growth next year as audience insights improve and financial returns become clearer.” – Bismark Lepe, Ooyala
Meanwhile, customized video ads are making a large impact on the web overall. Video technology company Eyeview provides personalized videos. As an example, the video ad will be localized to reflect the city or neighborhood it is seen in. In studies by the company, consumers who watch personalized video ads have a 73% higher chance of recommending the product or service, and a 37% increase in the likelihood the customer would visit the business again.