Your Facebook Videos Might Soon Have Ads, And Publishers Can Earn Money From Them

Following YouTube's model, Facebook may soon begin putting advertisements in between videos that its users upload. According to reports, the social networking giant is currently testing a system for putting mid-roll ads on Facebook videos as a way to generate more revenue and to share earnings with content creators.

Once the system is rolled out, ads would begin to appear on videos that are viewed after 20 seconds, AdWeek reports. The point is to earn advertising money and share it with Facebook video publishers, who will get 55 percent of ad revenue under the plan, similar to YouTube's system.

With billions of clips uploaded and viewed on Facebook every day, the revenue potential from ads is huge. According to Recode, the move will be the first opportunity for video publishers to make money out of the content they produce, especially since Facebook has refused to allow pre-roll ads for videos, which YouTube has.

Facebook users are said to watch 100 million hours of clips every day. Until now, however, there exists no system for publishers to earn money from the videos they produce even if they spent resources on them.

Recode reports that because ads will run only when a video has been viewed for at least 20 seconds, and will only appear on videos that are at least 90 seconds in length, publishers will be encouraged to upload videos that last for a while. The allowable length of mid-roll ads is said to be 15 seconds.

Joe Hyland of the ON24 webinar platform told AdWeek that Facebook's move means it sees user engagement with content as more valuable than mere clicks. He said it is also a way for Facebook to make sure the social media platform only has the most engaging content.

Facebook has not issued comments about reports that it is testing mid-roll ads. However, a company official said last year that Facebook was exploring ways to apply the "ad break model" to Facebook videos that are not live.

It remains to be seen, however, how most of Facebook's 1.8 billion users worldwide would react to ads interrupting the videos they watch. What do you think of this plan? Share your thoughts with us.