Facebook to begin selling videos

You may have noticed a difference in your news feeds – automatically playing video ads. The world’s largest social network, Facebook, took a large gallop last week when it began selling video ads in an effort to grab a handful of the “$66 billion annual U.S. TV advertising pie.” Currently, the videos are played without sound, giving the user the ability to stop the ad or whiz past it in their news feed.

According to the Wall Street Journal, while the move will give many advertisers a new stream of potential income, many will find that they are priced out of the market as Facebook is set to charge “$2 million per day for the ability to reach its 140 million U.S. users aged 18 to 54.”  In addition, Facebook’s new feature may run the risk  of alienating its users. A survey of 735 Facebook users conducted by Analytic Partners, found that 83% of users would find video ads “intrusive” and will most likely ignore them.

For now, Facebook is slowly testing the new feature to a limited amount of users.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this new Facebook functionality in the comment section below. Follow Shirley on Twitter @OhShirl.