An Update on Video Monetization

We want to help our partners monetize their premium video content, both on Facebook and on their own websites and apps. Today we are sharing three updates about video monetization on Facebook and through Audience Network:

All eligible publishers can now make money from in-stream video ads on their own websites and apps through Audience Network.
On Facebook, we’re expanding our beta test of Ad Breaks in Facebook Live to additional profiles and Pages in the U.S.
We have started testing Ad Breaks in on-demand video on Facebook with a small number of partners.

AUDIENCE NETWORK IN-STREAM VIDEO ADS AVAILABLE TO ALL ELIGIBLE PUBLISHERS

Audience Network is a service that places ads from Facebook’s advertisers onto third-party websites and apps. In May we announced an Audience Network test of in-stream video ads, and today we’re making in-stream video available to all eligible Audience Network publishers who have available inventory. Now, publishers can bring relevant video ads to people all over the world, on both mobile and desktop.

Publishers have historically been wary of video ads delivered from networks or exchanges because they can load slowly and are often unreliable. With Audience Network, advertisers upload their ads and bids to Facebook in advance—allowing us to quickly run an auction and return an ad that’s a good experience for the person watching it.

During our testing, publishers like Univision and Collective Press saw the benefits of Audience Network in-stream video ads. Univision, the most-visited Spanish-language website among U.S. Hispanics, wanted to complement its direct sales business with video ads from Audience Network. Univision has successfully implemented Audience Network in-stream video across the U.S., Spain, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico. Since implementation in October, Audience Network U.S. eCPMs have been 52% higher than with other monetization partners.

If you are interested in growing your revenue through Audience Network in-stream video ads, please visit our product page to learn more or download our getting started guide here.

EXPANDING AD BREAKS TEST TO MORE LIVE VIDEO CREATORS

Over the past few months, a small group of video creators has been testing Ad Breaks to make money from their Facebook Live videos. As the name implies, Ad Breaks allow creators to take short breaks for ads during their live videos. When a broadcaster chooses to take an ad break, people watching the video will see an in-stream ad of up to 15 seconds in length. The broadcaster will earn a share of the resulting ad revenue.

Today we are making the feature available to more Live creators. Eligible Pages and profiles will have the option to use ad breaks in any live broadcast reaching 300 or more concurrent viewers.

How to Use Ad Breaks in a Live Video

Pages or profiles in the U.S. can qualify to test ad breaks if they have 2,000 or more followers and have reached 300 or more concurrent viewers in a recent live video.
You can take ad breaks during any live video reaching 300 or more concurrent viewers by tapping on the $ icon in the Live composer window.
You can take your first ad break after having been live for at least 4 minutes. You can take additional ad breaks after a minimum of 5 minutes between each break.
Each ad break lasts up to 20 seconds.

Please note that Pages or profiles with Intellectual Property or Community Standards violations may be disqualified from taking ad breaks. Ad Breaks are currently available only to U.S. broadcasters, but we hope to expand to additional countries in the future.

We welcome all eligible creators to participate in the next round of beta testing. Starting today, and rolling out over the next several days, Pages and profiles who qualify for the test will receive notifications the next time they go live.
TESTING AD BREAKS IN ON-DEMAND VIDEO

We’re starting to test the Ad Breaks feature in on-demand video, allowing publishers to insert short ad breaks into videos they upload, or into existing videos in their Facebook libraries. A handful of partners in the U.S. are participating in this test. In the coming months we’ll be working with these partners to analyze, learn, and iterate on the early version of this feature. We hope to expand the test to additional partners in the future