Facebook now lets brands use video ads in Audience Network to raise awareness

Facebook’s interest in videos is well known at this point, so it’s not surprising that the social networking company has added support for video in its Audience Network platform. Starting today, but rolling out over the coming weeks, advertisers will be able to employ video ads to drive brand recall and awareness. And for the first time, these ads will also be available not only on mobile apps and sites, but also on the desktop.

“For advertisers, this is exciting because with a single checkbox, they’re extending campaigns beyond the walls of Facebook, meaning more audience, more scale, and more reach,” explained Brett Vogel, the lead product marketing manager for Facebook Audience Network.

The addition of video ads is intended to appeal to brands interested in moving beyond direct response to ads where the objective is to get the consumer to watch the movie. These ads will be displayed in-stream, meaning before, during, or after video content on third-party apps and sites. They will also be seen in-article, meaning that ads will appear within Facebook’s Instant Articles and on publishers’ mobile pages. While these two options are available, advertisers won’t be able to choose which they prefer.

Facebook revealed that Jack in the Box is the first advertiser to leverage this ad type, while USA Today’s Sports Media Group, Daily Mail, and Mashable are among the first publishers that support video ads on their sites and apps. Those interested in supporting video ads on their properties will need to implement a JavaScript ad tag on their page, but Facebook said publishers must be whitelisted on the beta program first.

Vogel described the new Audience Network process, saying that within Facebook’s ad manager, advertisers can select the objective (“video views”) and then check the box to distribute the video ads off of the social network properties. These videos will also be available on non-mobile properties. In the future, there’s a likelihood that other ad formats will be available on desktop, as well.

Launched in 2014, Facebook’s Audience Network gives brands the ability to leverage the social network’s targeting and personalization data to reach people across mobile properties. “What you’re doing is taking unique characteristics of Facebook and applying it to the rest of the Internet,” Vogel explained. “It’s very different from what a traditional ad network does.” The company claims that advertisers who opt into the Audience Network will be able to generate about 10 percent more incremental reach than they would by using the mobile News Feed alone.

Video ads on Audience Network build on the fact that people watch videos on Facebook — 100 million hours are consumed every day, and this is just on the social network. The company hopes that these numbers entice advertisers and publishers, because there’s a good chance that this will translate well offline, too, based on the platform’s power in targeting users.