Facebook expands TV-style video ads to UK, France Germany

Facebook is expanding its premium video ads outside of the US to seven new international markets – including the European countries the UK, France and Germany.

Facebook said it will introduce the 15 second on-site video-ad spots with a limited group of advertisers in the new countries – which also include Australia, Brazil, Canada and Japan.

The social network introduced the TV-style ads in the US in March and they are designed for advertisers that want to reach “a large audience with high-quality sight, sound and motion”.

The ads start playing without sound as soon as they appear on-screen and expand into a full-screen view with sound if a user taps on the video.

“Premium Video Ads, brands now have another way of engaging people on Facebook with compelling video experiences. We’ll roll out Premium Video Ads slowly and monitor how people interact with them. This limited introduction allows us to concentrate our efforts on a smaller number of advertisers with high-quality campaigns to create the best possible experience on Facebook,” the firm said.

Facebook accounted for a 5.8% share of the US$119.84 billion global digital ad market in 2013, according to eMarketer. The research firm projects that Facebook will increase its market share again this year to 7.8%, when the total digital ad spending market worldwide will reach US$137.53 billion.