Facebook Strengthens Its Video Ad Tech With Acquisition Of LiveRail

In a move to bolster its position in the lucrative video advertising space, Facebook today announced the acquisition of video ad tech startup LiveRail.

LiveRail’s automated platform helps publishers, such as Major League Baseball, ABC, A&E Networks, Gannet and Daily Motion, serve ads on the videos that play on their sites and apps.

“LiveRail also helps marketers by providing them with access to premium video inventory and the information that they need in order to decide where to show their ads,” Facebook said in a blog post. “What LiveRail ultimately offers is a complete advertising solution for video publishers.”

By bringing LiveRail into the fold, Facebook stands to gain significant revenue from video advertising on the desktop and mobile web; LiveRail said it serves 7 billion video ads a month. Facebook also will gain LiveRail’s technical knowhow and be able to use its data to improve targeting and relevancy of video advertising on the Facebook platform.

“We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month,” Facebook said. “More relevant ads will be more interesting and engaging to people watching online video, and more effective for marketers too. Publishers will benefit as well because more relevant ads will help them make the most out of every opportunity they have to show an ad.”

Facebook has been taking measured steps with video ads on its network with both Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg both stressing their commitment to making sure such ads are as well liked by users as organic content. Facebook’s Premium Video Ad program, which places 15-second auto-playing video spots in users’ News Feeds, was rolled out in March.