Facebook Launches Video Ads On Its Newsfeed

Since September, Facebook been testing a way to make videos more engaging, and as a result views, likes, shares and comments increase more than 10 percent.

Next Facebook will  begin testing a similar video viewing format for advertisers. Marketers will be able to use this new format to tell their stories to a large number of people on Facebook in a short amount of time - with high-quality sight, sound and motion.

This week, a small number of people will see video ads for the new film 'Divergent' begin playing as they come into view in News Feed on mobile and desktop. Here’s how it will work:

• Rather than having to click or tap to play, videos will begin to play as they appear onscreen - without sound - similar to how they behave when shared by friends or verified Pages. If you don’t want to watch the video, you can simply scroll or swipe past it.
• If the video is clicked or tapped and played in full screen, the sound for that video will play as well.
• At the end of the video a carousel of two additional videos will appear, making it easy to continue to discover content from the same marketers.
• On mobile devices, all videos that begin playing as they appear on the screen will have been downloaded in advance when the device was connected to Wi-Fi – meaning this content will not consume data plans, even if you're not connected to Wi-Fi at the time of playback.

Facebook says it will continue to refine this new way for brands to tell stories on Facebook to ensure the best experience for people and marketers.