Facebook Full-Screen Video Ads Coming To Mobile: Report

Those giant ads you see taking up your entire cell phone screen? Get ready to see more of them, as the spots are coming to your Facebook News Feed.

The social network is building new ad formats specialized for mobile, the Wall Street Journal reports. These new offerings are said to include full-screen video, carousels of featured content (as currently seen in advertising for selected apps or suggested news articles) and other interactive experiences that can be built natively within Facebook.

“We’re trying to give marketers a canvas that’s more engaging,” Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox told the Journal.

The Journal describes the new formats as a play to brands that typically use television advertising. Snapchat has taken a similar approach in its ad targeting and offerings.

Snapchat, which is valued at $16 billion and attracts 2 billion video views a day, has reported that vertical videos via its network are nine times more likely to be fully viewed versus horizontal ones. The company also cites an increase in vertical screen viewing -- with 150 minutes each day spent staring at a mobile device in vertical versus 450 minutes looking at a television, computer or other horizontal device, eMarketer reports. It is unclear what orientation Facebook's new ads will take.

While Facebook may be taking some hints from Snapchat’s growth, the company has witnessed its own users -- 1.25 billion of the 1.44 billion total users are on smartphones and tablets -- focusing more on mobile. Mobile accounted for 73 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2015.

Facebook's Cox will explain more of the company's ad offerings on Tuesday at the Cannes Lions International Festival, the Journal said.