Facebook Stories Video Ads Arrive In The US And Mexico

Facebook Stories, the social network's version of Instagram Stories, have been available for a little over a year. During that time, Facebook slowly amassed users, ultimately hitting the 150 million active user milestone. Now that the user base is there in sufficient enough quantities, the company will begin testing advertisements in it, with the first batch of ads arriving for some users in the US and elsewhere.

Facebook Stories is essentially a clone of Snapchat Stories, a version of the feature that first popped up on Instagram before going live on Facebook. Content posted in Stories is only visible during that day, after which point it disappears. Photos and videos posted within the Stories don't clutter up followers' feeds.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook will begin testing advertisements in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico starting today. The advertisements come in the form of videos spanning from 5-seconds to 15-seconds in length. Users can skip the ads, but for now there's no way to click through on them. That ability will come at a later date.

Advertisements within Stories will target users who primarily share content through the ephemeral feature rather than the traditional news feed. One early advertiser in the tests is Oculus, though the company is offering attractive features for other brands, including insights into how the advertisements are performing on the platform.

SOURCE: TechCrunch