In recent times we’re starting to see Facebook introduce ads in its videos, where sometimes when you watch a video halfway, an ad will appear. So far the ads only appear mid-way through the video and never at the start, but apparently this is something that Facebook wants to change as they have announced plans for pre-roll ads.What this means is that in the future, ads will begin playing at the start of the video versus in the middle. Now before you guys get too worked up over this, note that this change only applies to videos under the “Watch” tab. According to Facebook, “Next year, we will begin testing pre-roll ads in places where people proactively seek out content, like Watch.”
The reason for putting ads in the front versus the middle for videos under the “Watch” tab is because Facebook thinks our intentions are different when watching a video in our News Feed, versus going to the “Watch” tab. “While pre-roll ads don’t work well in News Feed, we think they will work well in Watch because it’s a place where people visit and come back to with the intention to watch videos.”
Basically Facebook thinks that because we purposely click the “Watch” tab, that we wouldn’t mind sitting through a pre-roll ad before the video starts, kind of like how it is in the movies where the ads play before the movie starts. Note that Facebook is only testing out the feature for now, so whether or not it’ll become an actual feature remains to be seen.
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