Meet Slideshows, Facebook's new ad format for emerging markets with poor connectivity

Lately, Facebook has been focusing on videos. Most recently, we saw it roll out video autoplay and also test a video profile picture instead of a static one. But videos take up a lot of bandwidth which is a hindrance to its revenue and growth. So, the company has decided to introduce a new ad format in the form of Slideshows. Slideshow will be Facebook’s new ad format that will auto-play three to seven photos. So, it will look like a normal video and also load quickly on devices with slower connection. The length of the slide show can be from 5 to 15 seconds. Slideshow will also reduce the need for video production time and resources. The smaller file size will mean, it will be easier for people on basic devices or with poor connectivity. “In early testing, we found that a 15-second slideshow can be up to 5x smaller in file size than a video of the same length. Slideshow uses video-like motion and no sound, giving advertisers a new way to tell brand stories to people everywhere,” Facebook explains in a post. The reason for all this simple – reaching out to more people in emerging markets like India and Africa. Facebook is almost reaching user saturation in most of its popular developed markets, and that’s one reason why Mark Zuckerberg is very much interested in India and getting the rest of the population online. Internet.org planned for emerging markets like Africa and India will give a further boost to its user count. An addition like Slideshow will ensure that advertisers can reach their target audiences without any hassle. That’s not all, a video ad is more lucrative to Facebook than static advertisement.