Since way back in the flip phone days of 2004, Facebook has been a social media innovator. Their newest change is a form of advertising, the mid roll video ad. These mid roll ads are similar to the ads that you skip as fast as you can before videos on YouTube, but instead of pf playing before the video, they are played in the middle of videos and cannot be skipped. The purpose of these ads is simple- to get your brand out there, attract attention and bring in revenue.
In order to be eligible for ad breaks, on-demand videos must be at least 90 seconds long and live videos must be at least 6 minutes long. In many instances as much as half of the audience that makes it to the ad drops off. Facebook is taking a big risk with these ads, so they are currently taking a 45% cut of the revenue businesses make from their ad.
User feedback
There has been a LOT of talk about these new Facebook mid roll ads! Many people have similar thoughts on these ads. They think that they’re annoying and disruptive because you cannot skip over them. These advertisements interrupt viewers about 20 seconds into watching a video…and who likes to be interrupted while watching a video on Facebook?! People are comparing these ads to commercials. Only 31% of internet users said they’d sit through an entire online video ad if it was targeted toward their interests. These ads have ultimately driven some people to stop watching Facebook videos all together.
Are businesses seeing success?
The feedback that mid roll ads have gotten from businesses is a little bit tricky to understand. Businesses are seeing revenue and a lot of it… but in order to make that revenue, businesses must have a large scale campaign. In other words, you have to spend money to make money. Each individual viewer won’t bring in a lot of dough, it’s the large volume of users that Facebook earns the businesses so much. Let’s just say it’s been a slow gain thus far. In order to capitalize as much as possible, businesses should put their ads in on-demand videos because they scale much better than live videos.
Facebook mid roll ads are an up-and-coming way to get your brand exposure. PMC Media Group is always keeping up with the latest advertising trends and adapting to fit all social media platforms’ unique offerings. Let us help you get your brand out there.