Facebook is rolling out two significant video-related changes for both users and advertisers. Its news feed algorithm will be adjusted according to interactions with videos, and the company is going to change the way it charges advertisers for video views.
Starting today, and over the coming weeks, an update to Facebook’s news feed algorithm will take into consideration actions taken on videos.
In addition to considering likes, comments, and shares on a video, Facebook will now take into account things like whether a video was unmuted and/or viewed in full screen.
Facebook believes these are good signs that a user wanted to see a video, and will use these actions to rank videos in peoples’ news feeds going forward.
As a result of this change, people who tend to watch a lot of videos posted to Facebook will now start to see more of them. Conversely, those who tend not to engage with videos will see fewer in their news feed.
The company says it does not expect Pages to notice significant changes in reach as a result of this update.
Changes For Advertisers
The above changes affect videos published organically to Facebook. In addition, there are changes to promoted videos that advertisers need to know about.
As of today, advertisers will only be charged for video views if that video was watched for 10 seconds or longer. By comparison, views on videos published organically to Facebook are counted after only 3 seconds.
Previously, Facebook charged advertisers based on video impressions. Meaning advertisers were charged for video views the second the video started playing.
Advertisers who preferred it the old way will still have the option to be charged based on impressions, if that’s what they want to do, but starting now they will have the alternative option of being charged after 10 seconds.
Considering the fact that videos autoplay on Facebook, advertisers complained of being charged for video views that were only seen as people scrolled past them.
This change is seen as being more fair to advertisers — after 10 seconds it’s more likely a person has at least seen some part of the ad.
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