Social ad publishers rejoice!

Interactive roll-over video ads are coming to Instagram and Facebook.

Deeper content, better engagement

Publishers have long been fans of the interactive video format for ads because of the added depth of content they can include on the spot.

Rather than having to click through to access extra information, users merely have to roll over the ad in order to access interactive features.

For example, they might reveal more detail, allow users to purchase products or sign up for emails.

Even more importantly, however, research shows that interactive video drives higher user engagement than standard video ads (see here and here).

The evolution of social video

There’s no doubt that video has become increasingly dominant in the social space—perhaps nowhere more so than on Facebook, where more than 100 million hours of video are now watched everyday.

In the face of video’s evolving importance, it’s understandable that Facebook and Instagram have been pursuing new ways to exploit the format.

In that context, the move for Facebook and the Facebook-owned Instagram to roll out interactive video ads shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Nonetheless, it’s a development that many advertisers will have be thrilled to see coming down the pipeline.