The Evolution of Facebook and Instagram Video Advertising
People are discovering and watching video in diverse formats across our family of apps, each offering distinct viewer and ad experiences. People can be instantly entertained through shorter-form video — in environments like Feed, Stories and Reels — and spend more time with topics they care about through longer-form video in environments like Facebook Watch, IGTV and Live.
According to an Ipsos study from last November, video viewers cited Instagram and Facebook as the most popular video platforms for connecting with brands.1 Using a combination of our video products, brands can make relevant connections where people are viewing video online. Insights from 10 studies show adding a Facebook In-Stream campaign to a Feed & Stories buy led to a median 1.5x increase in ad recall and a median 20% decrease in cost per incremental recaller.2
Today, we’re announcing new topic targeting options within Facebook In-Stream video, testing of Instagram Reels Ads and other ad experiences in Facebook Stories to help increase opportunities for brands to better engage with relevant audiences.
The Next Era of In-Stream
Over 2 billion people watch Facebook In-Stream eligible videos every month3 and, globally, 70% of In-Stream standalone video ads views are completed.4 That’s why we want to provide more choice for how advertisers can utilize our In-Stream offering.
Starting today, we are launching a global test of In-Stream Video Topics that lets advertisers place ads in certain video topics through Ads Manager — allowing advertisers to align their brand messaging within content that is contextually relevant to their target consumer.
Powered by machine learning, Video Topics are available when advertisers select the In-Stream Only placement and brand objectives for their campaigns. It will include over 20 Video Topics, like Sports, and over 700 hundred sub-topics such as Baseball, Basketball, Golf or Swimming. This test gives advertisers more choice in the video content they want their ads to appear in so they can reach engaged video viewer audiences. For example, a baseball bat company can now place ads in topics that would be of interest to their customers, such as “Baseball.”
In addition to offering more control over where ads are placed, we also offer several brand safety controls for preventing ads from running alongside certain types of content within Facebook in-stream video. Advertisers can use these controls in combination or on their own. Learn more about our brand safety tools.
Discovery at the Intersection of Creators and Short Form Video
Instagram Reels Ads
Instagram will also begin testing Reels ads in India, Brazil, Germany and Australia with tests expanding to more countries in the coming months. 90% of people follow a business on Instagram, and people are already embracing Reels to discover new creators and businesses.5 This discovery mindset makes it a natural place for businesses to express themselves creatively and find deeper connections with the audiences that matter to them.
The ads will be full-screen and immersive, similar to ads in Stories. As with organic Reels content, ads can be up to 30 seconds and people can comment, like, view, save, share and skip Reels ads.
Instagram will learn from how people and businesses engage with this new format so we can bring the best possible experience to the community.
Sticker Ads for Facebook Stories
In the coming weeks, we’ll be testing custom Sticker Ads for Facebook Stories, announced in March, with select advertisers and creators. These ads allow creators to monetize their Facebook Stories with ads that look like stickers and receive a portion of the resulting revenue. Brands will create bespoke stickers and creators can proactively place these Sticker Ads in their Facebook Stories.
This is part of our efforts to develop new and innovative ads formats so that creators can monetize more types of content on Facebook, and brands can reach more audiences. For example, since launching in-stream ads, we’ve expanded the format to include pre, mid, post-roll and image ads, and formats specific to Live. And these efforts are having an impact: In-stream ad payouts grew over 55% from 2019 to 2020,6 with video partners of all sizes able to earn revenue.
We’re committed to enhancing all of our products to make Facebook and Instagram a place that helps people and advertisers build meaningful connections across our apps.
Originally published at https://www.facebook.com.
