Facebook’s Video Ads Are Going to Annoy You, Zuck Knows This, and He’s Working on Making Them Less Intrusive

Facebook is going to launch video ads in your news feed before the end of the year – that’s pretty much inevitable. And it seems that the main thing preventing the company from launching t...
Facebook’s Video Ads Are Going to Annoy You, Zuck Knows This, and He’s Working on Making Them Less Intrusive
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Facebook is going to launch video ads in your news feed before the end of the year – that’s pretty much inevitable. And it seems that the main thing preventing the company from launching them right now is the fear that they will piss everyone off.

    The Wall Street Journal quotes sources familiar with the new ads, who claim that Mark Zuckerberg and his team of engineers are “toiling” over how to make the video ads less distracting – or at least tolerable to the vast majority of Facebook users. Of course, the ads need to make an impact and need to be seen by users, but Facebook has to balance that with the fact that they could drive some people away if the new video ads are too annoying.

    And it’s not that Facebook is simple taking their time. The WSJ indicates that there has actually been a real delay. Sources claim that some advertisers had already created video ads, thinking that they would be able to run this summer, only to be forced to “find alternative marketing plans for time-sensitive products after delays.”

    Part of the delay is so that Facebook can upgrade their video technology so that the ads can load quickly.

    When the ads finally debut, they won’t dominate your news feed. Ad executives briefed on Facebook’s plans said that the video ads will autoplay – but without sound. Users will only see ads from one advertiser per day, but could see up to three from that one advertiser.

    Advertisers will reportedly pay between $1 and $2.5 million per day to run the ads.

    Although the ads haven’t even surfaced yet, some analysts project that they could generate up to a billion dollars in revenue for Facebook in 2014.

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