Facebook has decided to expand its video ad break service to 21 new countries. Up until now, ad break functioned in United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. With this latest update, ad break will be available in a slew of additional in Europe, Latin and South America and Asia. With this rollout it would appear that the service which first came to light around a year ago, is finally ready for the globe.
Facebook says that these ads will be used only with advertisements of longer lengths — 3 minutes and up. Which sort of makes sense, since large ads within shorter ads would be a massive turn off. Interestingly enough, Facebook has also rolled out a feature wherein the ad break will automatically detect the best place to insert these ads. However, video publishers will still have the option to use their best judgement and insert ads if they should so choose.
As per Maria Smith, Facebook’s director of product for the news feed and media monetization,
As you watch a video, there are points in this video where the pause or Ad Break feels natural to the viewer. For example, between scenes, or where it doesn’t interrupt speech where the story line feels good to take a break — those are all signals.
Now, there are some conditions involved before publishers get to use ad breaks. Pages that get to use ad breaks need to check two buckets, besides the geographical availability. One, at least 10,000 followers and two, at least 30,000 one-minute views on videos that are at least one minute long. There is a simple way to check though, simply visit the ad breaks sign-up page, and you will find out if you are eligible.
Meanwhile, here is the complete list of countries where publishers will be able to have access to ad breaks: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Thailand.
