But after reaching near ubiquity and acclimating users to video ads, today the company tells me it’s relaxing its standards and starting to allow businesses to post GIFs as ads and Page posts. The CEO Mark Zuckerberg believed that these will interrup the user experience and could curtail growth. Wendy’s and Kuat, Coca-Cola’s Brazilian brand, are pilot-testing the ability to include GIFs in both regular and “boosted” Page posts, TechCrunch reports.
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These are not going to be available in sidebar ads, only boosted Page posts at this time.
After resisting for years, Facebook is finally allowing users to post animated GIF images on the social network. They would analyze whether it provides a great experience for people before offering it to more Pages. How long that takes to happen remains to be seen. Facebook is technically testing the two mentioned companies with the new advertisement feature. Here is an example of Wendy’s utilizing an animated GIF. If users claim that their experience was disrupted or made less convenient due to the GIF ads, Facebook will most likely terminate the new strategy. (Just think about how much you already hate autoplay video ads, although it’s undeniably better when there’s no sound.) Regardless, so many GIFs, so little attention span.
The company will scrap them if users don’t like them or they could not perform well. The Facebook CEO may have been right in the past, but GIFs are very popular now.
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For those who don’t like the idea of animated GIFs cluttering up ads on Facebook, there is hope.
