Facebook Giving Animated GIF Ads A Go

Back in May, Facebook finally started supporting animated GIFs in posts, but only those from personal accounts. Word on the street has it that Facebook has started to test out new ads with a few brands, where among them include Wendy’s.

It looks like Facebook will be phasing out the small, sidebar ads that are more of an inconvenience than anything else, and animated GIF ads might be worth exploring for the social network, although reception by Facebook users remain to be seen. However, after approaching ubiquity and familiarizing users to video ads, the company has relaxed its standards today with allowing businesses to post GIFs as Page posts and ads. Until now, the company had not allowed other businesses to use GIF in their advertisements. They would analyze whether it provides a great experience for people before offering it to more Pages.

It remains to be seen whether the novel advertising plan will work or not.

But according to TechCrunch, Wendy’s and Coke-owned German soda Kuat are the first to test out actual GIFs on the social network. Facebook also has made moves to support GIFs to build on the success of autoplay video.

TechCrunch reports that Facebook is testing animated GIF ads with a couple of brands.

The company will scrap them if users don’t like them or they could not perform well. But then again, without satisfied users, there is no business, so Facebook should be very careful about what it plans to do with these GIFs.