Facebook announced today that over 2 billion peoplei watch Facebook In-Stream eligible videos every month and, globally, 70% of In-Stream standalone video ads views are completed.ii
It also announced the launch of a global test of In-Stream Video Topics, testing of Instagram Reels Ads, and other ad experiences in Facebook Stories to increase opportunities for brands to better engage with relevant audiences.
The Next Era of In-Stream
Video Topics let advertisers place ads in certain video topics through Ads Manager —allowing advertisers to align their brand messaging within contextually relevant content.
Powered by machine learning, Video Topics will be available when advertisers select the In Stream Only placement and brand objectives for their campaign. It will include over 20 Video Topics, like Sports, and over 700 sub-topics such as Basketball, Golf, or Swimming. This test gives advertisers more choice in the content they want their ads to appear in,and reach engaged video viewer audiences. For example, a basketball company can now place ads in content that would be of interest to their customers, such as “Basketball.”
Discovery at the intersection of Creators and Short Form Video
Instagram Reels Ads
Instagram will also begin testing Reels ads in India, Brazil, Germany and Australia with tests expanding to more countries in the coming months. 90% of people follow a business on Instagramiii and people are already embracing Reels to discover new creators and businesses. This discovery mindset makes it a natural place for businesses to express themselves creatively and find deeper connections with the audiences that matter to them.
The ads will be full-screen and immersive, similar to ads in Stories. As with organic Reels content, ads can be up to 30 seconds and people can comment, like, view, save, share and skip Reels ads.
Instagram will learn from how people and businesses engage with this new format to bring the best possible experience to the community.
Sticker Ads for Facebook Stories
In the coming weeks, the company will also be testing custom Sticker Ads for Facebook Stories, announced in March, with select advertisers and creators in the United States. These ads allow creators to monetize their Facebook Stories with ads that look like stickers and receive a portion of the resulting revenue. Brands will create bespoke stickers and creators can proactively place these Sticker Ads in their Facebook Stories.
This is part of Facebook’s efforts to develop new advertising that helps more business and creators build an audience and attract customers, while also providing a revenue stream for creators. For example, since launching in-stream ads, Facebook expanded the format to include pre, mid, post-roll and image ads, and formats specific to Live. These efforts are having an impact – in-stream ad payouts grew over 55% from 2019 to 2020 — with video partners of all sizes earning meaningful revenue.
According to an Ipsos study from last November, video viewers cited Instagram and Facebook as the most popular video platforms for connecting with brands.iv In addition, insights from 10 Facebook studies show adding In-Stream to Feed and Stories led to a median 1.5x increase in ad recall and a median 20% decrease in cost per incremental recaller.v
“Given the popularity of digital video in Asia Pacific, we’re thrilled by the growth and development of video across our apps as well. We will continue to invest in this part of our business for years to come. We want to enable creators to monetize more types of content on Facebook and help brands make relevant connections where people are viewing video online,” said Sumit Sharma, Product Marketing Lead, Apps and Services at Facebook Asia Pacific.
Video experiences on Facebook and Instagram exist in diverse formats across its family of apps, each offering distinct viewer and ad experiences. People can discover new ideas with short-form video—like News Feed, Stories and Reels—and spend more time with topics they care about with long-form video—like Facebook Watch, IGTV and Live.
Case Studies
Nivea, Vietnam
Tylenol, Thailand
Olay, Thailand
Nissan, Philippines
i Source: Facebook Internal Data, March 2021
ii Source: Facebook Internal Data January 2021 for In-Stream Only Mid-Roll Ads. Based on mid-roll inventory that is ~90% of ads served
iii Instagram Internal Data, Oct 2019
iv Source: Global Media Study, Video by Ipsos. (Facebook-Commissioned online study of over 25,000 people ages 18-64; internet population monthly users of mobile internet & monthly video viewers in AU, BR, CA, DE, FR, IN, JP, KR, UK and US), Oct-Nov 2020. v Source: Internal Facebook Brand Lift studies, 2019 – 2020, from Auto, CPG, eCom, FinServ, Tech, Telco, Travel, run in TH (n=4), US (n= 3), ID (n = 1), KR (n=2). Clients bought Feed & Stories with Placement Optimization with the Reach and Brand Awareness objective and share-shifted online video budgets to In-Stream Standalone
