Facebook mobile app users can see the site’s first video ads in their Newsfeed, although for now those videos will be limited to advertisements for other apps.
The company announced this week that its Facebook's Mobile App Ads for Installs program is ready for prime time. The program is designed for developers who want to advertise their apps on Apple's App Store or Android's Google Play store from within Facebook.
Facebook already has advertisements for mobile apps placed in the user’s Newsfeed, but now developers have the option of including a video of their app in the ad. The video ads appear in the Newsfeed of Facebook’s mobile apps, where potential customers can click play to watch a video featuring a mobile app before installing it.
The rollout follows testing by Facebook and one of its partners, DoubleDown Casino. "In our early tests, we found that using video in our mobile app ads resulted in increased install rates and decreased costs per install," said John Clelland, vice president, interactive marketing for DoubleDown Casino. "We've seen tremendous success with mobile app ads and are looking forward to using video to make them even more engaging with rich media like video."
"Potential customers will be able to click play to watch a video featuring your mobile app before installing the app," explained Facebook in a post on its Developers blog. "Video creative has proven to be an effective way to drive engagement in News Feed, and we look forward to helping developers use their video creative to find new app installs."
Facebook also altered the payment scheme for video advertising, moving to a cost per action (CPA) basis, where advertisers only pay when a customer downloads and installs their app from an ad. Previously, companies paid on a cost per click (CPC) or optimized cost per impression (oCPM) basis.
"Based on internal Facebook tests, buying on CPA drives, on average, 20 percent lower cost per install than buying on CPC," according to Facebook's blog post.
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson 
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