Facebook Expanding Video Ads To Seven More Countries, Including Canada

Starting next month, Facebook is set to expand its new video advertising service to seven countries outside the U.S., including Canada, France, Britain, Australia, Germany, Brazil, and Japan. 

Up until now Facebook’s video ads were only being used in the U.S. The new video ads are 15 seconds in length and will appear in the user’s newsfeed. The video will start playing automatically, however the sound will remain muted until the user clicks on the video. A Facebook spokesman told Reuters:

“Most of the commercials in international markets will not appear on Facebook’s website until September, as the Internet company spends several months working closely with marketers to ensure that the spots meet its quality standards.”

Facebook could use the video ads to boost their ad revenue in international markets, where ad revenue is lower on average per user. The company said:

“Roughly 84 percent of Facebook’s 1.28 billion monthly users are outside of the United States and Canada, with 87 million monthly users in Brazil and 34 million monthly users in the UK at the end of the first quarter, according to the company. Daily mobile users in Brazil increased 75 percent to 35 million in the nine-month period ending in the first quarter.”

The social networking giant will begin working with a limited group of advertisers in the additional seven countries. Do you like the idea of video ads (that start playing automatically) appearing in your Facebook newsfeed? Let us know in the comments below. 

[via Reuters]