Autoplay video ads are coming to LinkedIn!

Autoplay videos seem to be popping up in the news slightly more often than they used to, with LinkedIn, the professional social network, now being reported to be rolling out autoplay video ads on their platform.

The new autoplay video ads will have the sound turned off by default, and will clearly disclose the words Promoted to signify paid content. The company is said to be testing it only on mobile for now, per Marketing Land.

Video on the platform is said to be the most high performing type of content, with “LinkedIn saying video posts are shared 20 times more frequently than other types of posts", which means there exists a rich vein of monetary gains that the company expects to hit with autoplay video ads.

Video on LinkedIn too has arrived later as compared to other platforms, and the need to look for more profitable ways of revenue has been viewed as a necessity since the Microsoft acquisition was finalized. Costing $26Billion to Microsoft, LinkedIn has begun to view autoplay video ads as a prospect for compensation.

“Advertising was just 18 percent of LinkedIn’s business before it was acquired by Microsoft.” per Recode.

Sudeep Cherian, LinkedIn's head of product marketing for ads, told Engadget that video advertising is a "must-have" for the professional networking service.

They are currently testing the product with a small group of marketers, but will expand the option to anyone who purchases advertising on the platform eventually.

Facebook has been known to employ autoplay videos on their platform, not only for sponsored content but for all, and YouTube too was said to be experimenting with autoplay videos on their mobile home page.