Report: Facebook to test mid-roll video ads

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook is reportedly due to start testing mid-roll video ads so that publishers can monetise the videos they upload to the social network.

Tech site Recode, which reported the news first, said that the trial will allow publishers to place ads into video clips once a viewer has watched at least 20 seconds.

Facebook will reportedly sell the ads and will give publishers a 55% split of the resulting revenues.

During a Facebook earnings call last July, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the social network aimed to become a “video first” business as it moved towards a world where “video is at the heart of all our services”.

Since then Facebook has added new publishing and analytics tools to boost its 360° video offering along with a new analytics tool for Facebook Live and a raft of other video metrics tools.

Last month it also launched live 360° video streaming, with National Geographic to be the first publisher to use the new functionality.