If you’ve ever ran a Facebook video campaign, you know it is a challenge. You have 3 seconds to grab attention with a video that starts playing with no sound as people are scrolling through their News Feed. Often times, completion rates are low and it becomes hard to justify those ad dollars to executives. Luckily, Facebook is breaking into the market of longer videos and has already adjusted their News Feed algorithm to boost 90-second videos that retain their audience. Facebook may soon start playing ads after someone has watched 20 seconds of a publisher’s video. Similar to YouTube, Facebook would share the ad revenue with the publishers. As Facebook runs out of space within the News Feed, it needs to be proactive in ways to continue making ad dollars.

Advertisers spend $70 billion annually on television ads and Facebook wants a piece of the pie. Facebook will be making a big push to create a new way for people to enjoy their videos on a bigger screen. A new Facebook video app will be available soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV that will focus on letting users access all videos on Facebook. The app will include videos shared by friends or pages, live videos from around the world and videos based on interests. Facebook is also considering collaborating with TV studios and other video producers on licensing shows. While the new video app will not serve ads once launched, it is obvious that Facebook is trying to grab ad dollars from television.

Sources:

http://www.recode.net/2017/1/26/14399934/facebook-video-engagement-news-feed-change
http://www.recode.net/2017/1/9/14211466/facebook-video-advertising-midroll
http://www.recode.net/2016/12/14/13955348/facebook-original-video