Facebook’s ability to monetize their platform and to stay at the forefront of new trends. Business owners, content producers and marketers can see these traits in action in Facebook’s new program for video content. Facebook’s new plans include a better deal for video advertisers and revenue sharing for content producers.
Facebook announced a plan where some video content publishers would receive a cut of the revenue generated from the content they post on Facebook. Facebook is offering a 55/45 split of the revenue, with the larger share going to the content producer. The revenue split matches YouTube’s policy. Unlike YouTube, this monetization isn’t available to everyone. According to media reports, the video monetization program will start with a few dozen partners including big names like Tastemade, the NBA, Hearst, Funny or Die, and Fox Sports.
“Partners say they’d publish a lot more if they could get benefit of distribution but also make money,” said Dan Rose, vide president of partnerships at Facebook according to Fortune.
Another report found that Facebook will increase the threshold for clicks to 10 seconds. In other words, advertisers won’t be charged for video ads that users have scrolled past as they came into view or viewed very briefly on their newsfeed. Another thing that Facebook will consider is whether or not users unmute a video. These changes to the metrics will make ad view counts more accurate and useful to business owners.
These new plans from Facebook can dramatically change the landscape for online publishing and advertising. Video has taken off recently on Facebook and allowing content creators to monetize their channel will help Facebook increase their video offerings.
Prior to this, YouTube was the pretty much the only game in town for video makers who wanted to make money from their content by getting it seen by a very large audience. While it remains to be seen whether or not people will treat Facebook like YouTube, it’s easy to see the potential. In five years, there may be a new crop of Facebook video stars to rival the fame of the biggest names on YouTube.
Facebook’s test of a video PPC with a higher threshold for clicks could send ripples down the industry. Saying a video only counts as viewed when watched for at least 10 seconds works well for advertisers who now know they aren’t paying for the times when people are rushing to close the video instead of watch it. This will reduce the cost for advertisers and ensure they see a greater ROI when they use Facebook advertising to promote their video.
Facebook is already a juggernaut in online advertising, so smaller platforms will probably have to change their view count metrics as well, eventually. To illustrate, say that Ad Platform X is charging advertisers for every time their video is viewed for at least a second, but Facebook only charges when the video is viewed for 10 seconds. Business owners and advertisers will gravitate toward Facebook who has a larger audience, more name recognition and a better deal for the advertiser.
While Facebook has yet to make official announcements about these plans, the media reports so far suggest these changes are coming and will have a significant impact on Facebook and the industries involved.
For more news about Facebook, read this article on recent changes Facebook made to the News Feed.