Facebook Now Sells Video Ads Inside Other Apps

Facebook, which has ramped up its own video advertising efforts over the past two years, is now selling autoplay video ads inside apps it doesn’t own.

Facebook had already been selling display ads this way. It has an ad network called Audience Network, which lets advertisers use your Facebook data to serve you ads inside other apps, like Candy Crush or Tango. An update to the product Tuesday included the option to buy new ad types, like video ads and carousel ads (you can swipe between multiple images).

Video advertising is no longer a rarity. Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram all offer their own video ad products. But selling video ads through Audience Network is still an important update for Facebook, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising. Video ads are more lucrative than traditional static or banner ads, which is why the social network has been pushing to sell them within its own apps.

And even though it’s creating new areas where it can sell video ads, there’s a limit to how many it can cram into your News Feed. Selling those video ads through Audience Network gives Facebook a much larger playing field and, in theory, a lot more ad dollars, too.

Facebook

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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