Facebook today announced that it has begun testing video ads in users’ news feed. The ads will play automatically when users scroll to them.
As with other video content in the news feed, the ads will play without sound. Users who don’t want to watch the ad can just scroll past it. If the video is clicked or tapped, it will play in full-screen mode with sound. Once the video ends, users can choose to watch more marketing videos or return to their news feed. According to Facebook, all videos that begin playing on mobile devices will have been downloaded in advance when the device was connected to Wi-Fi. Facebook configured it this way in order to avoid adding to users’ monthly wireless data consumption. Once downloaded, those ads will be able to playback with or without a wireless connection.
Facebook didn’t say how large the video ad files will be that it stores on users’ devices. For now, the testing is limited, but Facebook expects to expand the program over time.
