Information acquisition methods have drastically changed through the years. Older approaches generally included the newspaper, radio and/or television. These were the only major sources of information a few decades back and were also limited as their target was only local. These media are alive even today but have widespread to reach out greater boundaries. Despite the expansion of these media in terms of range, the internet world has swiftly taken over almost all communication and information sources.
Among the numerous and various fascinations of the internet, social media has by far taken up a significant section in terms of user attraction and/or satisfaction. And among the list of all social media platforms active on the internet today, Facebook takes the world at-large – both in terms of user statistics and amenities. With 1.65 billion active users by the first quarter of 2016, this platform is appropriately considered as an efficient marketing platform.
Audio-visuals are known to increase traffic in marketing methods as all people in general respond quicker and better to colour and movement. Video advertisements have been showing on Facebook from quite some time now. Facebook has now taken up to a great step by enabling the automatic play – which is just the beginning of some intense push to marketing strategies.
Beforehand, any uploaded video in the Facebook news feed would be locked up behind a play button. Bearing in mind the impetuous nature of users, which seems to be exponentially shooting up, stopping a scroll, opening a video and waiting it to load is very much a big deal. This strategy will only get traffic if the tag line, description or front display is very very attractive.
Inducing the automatic play naturally generates appeal and once a video starts to play, it is again expected to be watched as it reduces all efforts of starting the play to zero. The video begins to play as soon it is on the main screen while scrolling, without the audio. If you are interested, you may enable the audio. If you continue to scroll without enabling the audio, the video automatically stops playing as well. These features increase the video traffic significantly.
Brands and advertisers are gaining progressively in terms of marketing using Facebook’s video autoplay feature. The major advantage is that it provides a relatively non-disturbing way to get customers’ attention in the social environment. The user-friendly autoplay tends to get more engagement from users in common. In order to add to the advantages, after a video is completed, the user will get options to view other videos, usually from the same brand or merchant. This feature also holds huge potential in terms of overall traffic for a particular advertisement.
Facebook proposes an enormous target inclusive of all demographics – increasing the chances of more views through likes and comments and shares. And in a nutshell, automatic play broadens the wavelength of target audiences more promptly and ominously.