• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, June 9, 2015

Video is exploding on Facebook, whose1.3 billion users were viewing over four billion videos per day as of April, up from three billion per day just three months before. Advertisers are understandably eager to reach these ravenous hordes of video viewers, but many brands, smaller agencies, and local businesses don’t have the resources or facilities to produce suitable (non-embarrassing) video ads on their own.

To help close the gap SoMedia Networks has unveiled a new cloud-based video production service that allows clients to outsource the most demanding parts of video ad creation, the Vancouver-based company announced recently. Marketers across North America can use the SoMedia Facebook Video Ad Program to commission custom video ads with a two-week turnaround time, then distribute the ads on Facebook via SoMedia’s platform.

The platform offers advertisers the ability to reach niche audience segments based on Facebook’s ad targeting features. To sweeten the deal SoMedia is offering incentives including free videos and volume discounts, among other come-ons.

Although Facebook hasn’t provided specific figures for its video ad business (so far) Wall Street analysts estimate the total revenues from Facebook’s autoplay video ads could reach $700 million this year, compared to an estimated $1.55 billion for YouTube, still the dominant video ad platform. In fact Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein put the figure as high as $3.3 billion, provided Facebook is able to scale up its premium ad business, running at least one premium ad per day.

Facebook has also extended its reach with the introduction of a new embedded video player that allows publishers and advertisers to distribute video on third-party Web sites.