Autoplay Video Ads: Intrusive or Immersive?

July 28, 2018

Video Transcript

Kaan Güde

So Brett, we’re talking about a new advertising feature that was released in Facebook in the last couple of weeks, autoplay video ads in Messenger. Do you want to tell us a bit about it?

Brett de Leijer

Yeah, that’s right. So since about July last year they’ve had static images as ads in Facebook Messenger. But from about last week, they’ve introduced video ads that will autoplay as you’re scrolling through your Facebook Messenger app.

Kaan

Yeah, awesome. So why do you think Facebook would release a new feature like this?

Brett

Well they have 1.2 billion users worldwide. And advertisers are going to pay more for video advertising over static imagery so it’s a bit of a revenue grab from Facebook. Not sure how it’s going to affect user experience.

Kaan

Yeah, it’s interesting you say that actually, Brett. So I’ve read a few articles already that suggest that advertisers think that this new feature might be a little bit intrusive or borderline annoying for the end user. So how do you think we can change our campaigns to make sure the experience is not harmed?

Brett

To combat this we really need to focus on relevancy and authenticity. Delivering the right ad to the right person at the right time is absolutely critical. Facebook have come out and said that they don’t think video ads are going to affect user experience any more than static image ads already do.

The conspiracy theory behind that though is that a detrimental user experience on Facebook Messenger is most likely going to send consumers to Instagram message or Whatsapp which are both already within the Facebook family. So to Zuckerberg, what’s the loss?