Facebook is catching up to YouTube’s video ads

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By Larry Banks

It seems that Facebook is steadily catching Google’s YouTube as a medium for companies to market their products via online videos, which is the fastest growing category of Internet advertising, a just-published report claims.

Facebook catching up with YouTube

There’s a new battle in the fight between the two web companies that already compete in other types of advertising, and given their appeal to young and international customers, Ampere Analysis said in its study.

UK-based Ampere says that there will be a new advertising arms race between the two rivals, who are pretty much equal in terms of audience sizes with 1.4 billion and 1.3 billion active monthly users respectively for Facebook and YouTube. Consumers will inevitably have to watch more ads, but also have access to a wider range of video programming as a result, it says.

The Internet will soon overtake TV advertising in 12 markets, which is 28% of global ad spending, by 2017, separate research from ZenithOptimedia revealed on Monday. Overall, ad spending is expected to reach $531 billion this year.

Online video is growing faster than any other digital category, rising 33% this year, and forecast to grow 29% a year through to 2017, said Zenith.

Ampere says that Facebook is changing from a platform used for building brand awareness to one that can deliver ads that marketing companies prefer, to ensure their messages are viewed. YouTube, which is arguably a more flexible platform, provides advertisers with a full range of video ads which run before, during or after a video is shown.

“If the social network’s own video ambitions are to be realized, and if it is to convince content owners it is a viable alternative to YouTube, it must deliver comparable returns”, Ampere Research Director Richard Broughton said.

While YouTube charges advertisers when an ad has been viewed, Facebook offers the less friendly model of charging once three seconds of the video have been delivered. Many content providers use Facebook for branding purposes, but trial revenue-share deals with the National Football League and Fox Sports in the USA are becoming a serious challenge to YouTube’s lead, says Ampere.

SOURCE: Reuters.

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