
Facebook is giving brands assurances that their commercials will only run in a thoroughly vetted video environment as part of a new program that focuses on premium content. The new ad offering is also coming down in price since Facebook first started testing the program earlier this year.
Facebook is asking brands for $100,000, down from at least $250,000, to participate in the tightly controlled, guaranteed quality video marketplace, according to advertisers familiar with the program. The commercials appear in Facebook Watch, the year-old video service that features shows like “Ball in the Family,” a reality show about the basketball-playing Ball brothers. There are also shows from publishers and TV studios, and Facebook splits ad revenue with them.
Now, advertisers can buy ad space directly from Facebook, not through the programmatic, automated self-service platform, and that way it can place ads in videos it has reviewed. Facebook calls the new offering “in-stream reserve buying,” and it’s a rival ad product to Google Preferred, a similar program that commits to only run ads in the top videos on Google and YouTube. Facebook also now allows brands to buy ads in individual Watch shows, and pick categories of videos to sponsor like sports, .
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