Facebook Video Autoplay Goes Mobile; AppNexus Reorganizes

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

App Install Ads, Now In Video

Facebook added some features to help developers manage and promote their apps. There are three core changes: Facebook is extending autoplay video to its mobile app install ad units, supporting reach and frequency targeting for those formats in mobile and adding support for Amazon Fire tablets. “With more and more people uploading, sharing and discovering videos on Facebook, marketers are finding video to be an important asset to drive key business metrics,” the company said in a post on its developer blog. But marketers will have to be “eligible” for autoplay videos. More. Related reading: TechCrunch’s Josh Constine on the rise of the app install ad.

AppNexus Reorg

A reorg at AppNexus creates four new units to keep up with the evolving programmatic ecosystem, MediaPost reports. Those divisions will focus on publishers, programmatic media companies, agencies and advertisers and marketplaces. “We’re creating companies within the company, essentially,” AppNexus President Michael Rubenstein told Real-Time Daily. The reorg has already begun, Rubenstein added, and is expected to finalize by the end of the year. Read it.

Viewer Rewards

Viggle and HGTV paired up to lift audience engagement with HGTV programming by rewarding viewers for watching certain shows. The companies are incentivizing HGTV viewers with points and rewards when fans engage with HGTV content by “checking in” with shows on Viggle’s apps. The companies are clear about what they’ll do with that data: “HGTV will leverage check-in data to gain insights around viewing behavior and engagement.” Read the press release.

Inventory Everywhere

In a similar pairing, BlackArrow and Virgin Media joined forces to up engagement on Virgin Media’s on-demand TV platform and Virgin TV Anywhere. The partnership extends BlackArrow’s tech to Virgin’s streaming systems, and includes features common to ad servers, such as frequency capping, real-time performance metrics and audience segmentation, which will improve yield, according to BlackArrow President Nick Troiano. “The use of on-demand inventory for precise audience targeting will deliver more effective and measurable results,” he said. Press release.

Tapping Into Data Accuracy

Tapad wants you to know that it’s not just another probabilistic cross-device provider. The company, whose technology uses a core of deterministic data to build out statistical cross-device matches, announced that Nielsen has verified its data – to the tune of 91.2% accuracy. It’s a healthy number, considering cross-device recognition methods are still in their relative infancy. Experts with whom AdExchanger spoke previously estimated cross-device accuracy rates as low as 50% or 75%. In other news, Tapad said Tuesday that it’s received certification from the Network Advertising Initiative, a self-regulatory association focused on responsible data collection. Read more on that.