Facebook’s premium video ads are rolling out in the US and will soon start playing in seven other countries, too.

If you haven’t heard about them, these premium video ads:

• are 15-seconds long
• will automatically play without sound in your newsfeed
• are only available to big brands, so far
• will be individually reviewed by Facebook

Response to these ads by advertising industry insiders has been mixed. Some see the value for Facebook in the revenue it can create. Some see it as something that Facebook’s billion plus users will hate.

At Shakr, we feel that this is a great opportunity for advertisers and for Facebook. Here are the key points to making these ads successful:

• Keep the quality high: People will get annoyed by ads if they look like they were made by amateurs.
• Keep individual impressions limited: While some experts see video ads driving people away from Facebook, we disagree. As long as people aren’t constantly bombarded by video ads, they won’t be bothered.
• Make sure the ads are relevant: Similar to our previous point, people don’t tend to mind ads that aren’t annoying. Relevance, entertainment value and frequency determine whether or not ads become annoying.
• Open them up to small businesses: Facebook tends to test new ad formats with big advertisers first, and then roll them out to it’s larger customer base. Once that happens, advertising spending increases hugely.

While Facebook video ads aren’t available to small businesses now, small business owners can still advertise on a wide variety of other ad networks, and, of course, can create high quality, affordable video ads at Shakr.