Facebook’s short-form play

Facebook is opening up its video monetization program to shorter videos. The move may help the platform to attract more content from individual video creators and publishers as well as to keep pace with a rising Snapchat.

The key hits:

• Facebook is lowering the minimum length required for a video to carry ads and its maker to receive a cut of the revenue.
• The platform is also raising its video monetization eligibility requirements.
• Allowing creators and publishers to make money from shorter videos could help Facebook to become a more reliable revenue stream.
• Snapchat’s consistency is leading some media companies to prioritize it over other platforms like Facebook.

After previously limiting ads to videos that were at least three minutes long, Facebook is lowering the video length threshold so that creators and publishers can receive a cut of ad revenue for videos as short as one minute long, the company announced on March 11.

The update reverses a change that Facebook made in January 2018 when it raised the minimum length requirement for a video maker to make money from a video from 90 seconds to three minutes. However, while Facebook may appear to be lowering its standards, the company seems to be more accurately trying to raise its standing among creators and publishers as well as advertisers.

“We knew by putting the line on three minutes that’s naturally going to create some constraint for creators, and we’re excited that we can be at a place where we can remove those constraints. I definitely think there’s more creators that will actually both create more because they know there is livelihood associated with it, but also create things that should be less than minutes because that’s what fits the creative idea,” said Yoav Arnstein, Facebook’s director of Facebook app monetization.

Expanding its video ad revenue-sharing program to shorter videos could help Facebook to not only attract more creators and publishers but also more videos from those already posting to the platform but may be prioritizing other platforms like YouTube and Snapchat that have been more reliable revenue sources. “It expands the library we can use and makes life easier and more time-efficient…. It will be easier to funnel more [videos to Facebook] week to week,” said one media executive.

Taking down the video length requirement risks dropping the quality of videos posted to Facebook. However, Facebook appears to have taken that into consideration.

At the same time as the company lowered the length requirement for an individual video to carry ads, it has raised the requirement for a creator or publisher to be eligible to receive a share of ad revenue from the videos they post to the platform. Previously a video maker was eligible …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron