Facebook to push more videos via pre-roll ads for 'Watch'

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SME Times News Bureau | 15 Dec, 2017
In a move that will push more videos to users, Facebook has announced it will introduce pre-roll advertisements on its video-on-demand service "Watch".

"Today, the majority of video discovery and watch time happens in News Feed. It provides a great opportunity for publishers and creators to reach their audience, drive discovery, and start to build deeper connections for their content," Maria Angelidou-Smith, Product Management Director and Abhishek Bapna, Product Manager, Facebook, wrote in a blog post late on Thursday.

The social media giant is also updating News Feed ranking to improve distribution of videos from publishers and creators that users actively want to watch.

"With this update, we will show more videos in News Feed that people seek out or return to watch from the same publisher or creator week after week -- for example, shows or videos that are part of a series, or from partners who are creating active communities," Facebook added.

Facebook said it will start formally testing the format next year, according to Ad Age.

However, this does not mean the entire News Feed is going to be full of video ads for users.

The social media major has long resisted the format because of its reputation for annoying viewers who are trying to view their desired content.

For years, CEO Mark Zuckerberg even banned "pre-roll" from Facebook's advertising platform.

"We don't need to do pre-roll because our model is not one where you come to Facebook to watch one piece of content, you come to look at a feed," Zuckerberg had earlier said in July.