Facebook plans to advance its video efforts further by offering personalized video ads to advertisers
Facebook plans to up its video growth efforts by creating personalized video advertising, according to a report from the Financial Times by Hannah Kuchler. The world’s largest social networking company is trying to establish that it can do what television cannot even think of.
Facebook does what television can’t
Facebook will make use of the massive data it has on its users, such as their likes, dislikes, friends and much more. Fidji Simo, director of product at Facebook, believes personalization will narrow down the audience for video ads. According to Simo, brands will get a chance to show different videos to people who have already watched the first one.
Simo said the ads of broad campaigns such as the Super Bowl can be dropped into users’ News Feeds to attract the U.S. population, and then “you could see smaller audiences, and smaller audiences, more personalized messages, and refining even more.”
Videos are becoming popular on Facebook with 75% more videos posts per person in 2014 than the previous year. Further, people watched 3.6 times more video content. The increase in video watching was largely contributed by the success of the Ice Bucket challenge, in which celebrities and users made their videos while dousing themselves in chilled water to raise money for a charity.
Videos offer huge potential
According to analysts, video advertising will contribute $700 million to $1 billion to Facebook’s revenue in 2015. According to Jason Helfstein from Oppenheimer, the numbers could further increase with the launch of premium video advertising, which are 15-second high-definition spots.
The potential of personalized video is estimated to be huge, with marketers increasingly opting for video ads online. According to an estimate, advertisers will spend $7.8 billion on video in the U.S. in 2015, which is almost a third more than they spent in 2014, according to research firm eMarketer. Only recently, luxury retailer Kate Spade published a Facebook video that allowed audiences to check the product they like and then buy.
Against such a backdrop, the social networking company’s earnings report on Wednesday becomes all the more interesting as many will be interested in knowing the company’s plan to topple Google’s YouTube and attract a bigger share of advertisers’ TV budget.
