LinkedIn is the latest social network to begin selling autoplaying video ads. These ads will look just like other video posts, and will play without sound unless clicked on.
Microsoft, parent company of LinkedIn, only began letting users upload their own videos to the professional network in August.
Since then, the company reports video posts are already being shared 20 times more than other posts — making them highest performing content type.
When you couple that with the fact that video ads are typically more expensive more expensive to buy, you can begin to understand why LinkedIn is jumping into video advertising so quickly after introducing videos.
There is no doubt that LinkedIn is late to the party when it comes to offering video ads, but judging by the success of organic videos it’s conceivable that video ads will find similar success.
Only 18% of LinkedIn’s business comes from advertising, as of October 2016. The company also relies on selling subscriptions and advanced recruiting features as a form of revenue.
If initiatives like video ads are any indication, LinkedIn may begin to see more of its revenue coming from advertising now that it’s owned by Microsoft.
LinkedIn will begin to sell video ads to a test group of marketers at first, with the long term plan being to make them available to all advertisers.
In order to create video ads, advertisers can start a sponsored content campaign out of video uploaded through campaign manager, their company page, or showcase page. Existing ad targeting options can also be applied to video ads.