Mark Zuckerberg Has Tried to Make a Less Terrible Auto-Play Ad

Auto-play video ads are coming to Facebook "later this year" and not even CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks they're a good idea.

Auto-play video ads are coming to Facebook "later this year" and not even CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks they're a good idea. The CEO has delayed the project in the attempts of creating something that won't turn-off users, report The Wall Street Journal's Evelyn Rusli and Suzanne Vranica. "Since earlier this year, Mr. Zuckerberg and his engineers have toiled over how to make the ads not so distracting and slow that they alienate users," they write. Zuckerberg "set an especially high bar for the team," another source added.

In other words, he gave them the impossible task of making autoplay ads that pop up right in the News Feed more than tolerable. So far, that effort has resulted in: fast-loading video ads, autoplay without sound, and Facebookers will only have to see one of these things a day. "Time will tell if this is viewed as intrusive or highly relevant and welcomed by Facebook users," one ad-guy told the Journal. But even with all of those "improvements," we're betting on "intrusive." No matter how much you dress up an autoplay video ad, it's still unwelcome.

But, despite delays and the impending hatred that will accompany them, they're still coming because they will make the social network so much money, which is something Zuckerberg has to care about. Earlier reports said that Facebook could charge between $1 and $2.5 million. Sources now say that they will cost $2 million per day to reach a full Facebook audience of people 18-54. And who knows: Maybe like all the other Facebook user uproars, this one will result in zero action.