Dive Brief:

• Vertical video ads are now live on Facebook's mobile app, according to Ad Week. 
• Digital agency Laundry Service is running a vertical video ad for electronics brand LG and found the vertical video format is outperforming CPM rates for Facebook's square ads by 3x, the agency told Ad Week. 
• The sample size is very small, but Laundry Service CEO Jason Stein said the format is providing significantly increased view-through, shares and engagements rates compared to square video ads. 

​Dive Insight:

There has long been a debate over the best video format for mobile devices, and it appears that vertical video is winning the war over square video and the traditional 16:9 format. 

Snapchat was the first social media platform to actively adopt and promote vertical video for users. The format had long been derided as less than ideal on desktop compared to landscape or square video, but vertical works well on mobile devices, which are frequently vertically oriented. Snapchat is exclusively mobile, which allowed it to focus on a format that works so well for mobile but not desktop. 

Facebook is following suit: The social giant announced vertical video for its mobile news feed a week ago. Mobile has become a core piece of Facebook's business, with 85% of the company's ad revenue coming from the channel. 

For marketers, the different video formats represent a challenge to create ads that fit more than one standard. Ads now often have to be optimized for YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other outlets. If Facebook's metrics around vertical video ads hold up in a larger sample of data, mobile marketers who ensure their video ads work well in vertical formats should be rewarded with higher engagement rates.