While 2015 may have been a big year for the number of eyeballs on native video, especially with Facebook, marketers that leveraged short-form missed the mark by not accurately monetizing this year. 

With the rise of short-form native video on Facebook and Twitter attracting a wide audience of consumers interested in engaging with it, marketers are attempting to implement tactics used on long-form platforms such as YouTube and Hulu, but the strategy just does not work here. Marketers need to focus on methods in engaging with users away from the typical interruption advertisement on this short medium. 

?Monetization of short form video was the losing player in 2015,? said Paul Berry, founder and CEO of RebelMouse. ?Everything in that world got murkier and more confusing in 2015. 

?The typical monetization tricks on video that have been mastered in YouTube, Hulu style environments like pre-roll, engagement units, etc. are never going to work in the Facebook and super short-form world,? he said. ?A lot of agencies are creating content under the Facebook Zero concept of no organic, which misses the picture of how promoted content should work on Facebook. 

?Media companies have uncertain rules right now for promoted content and monetization of that content from their own organic reach. Facebook will now need to tackle promoted posts from media companies, promoted Instant Articles etc to make monetizing on distributed fair and clear.?

The sheer number of views for native video took off this past year, with consumers flocking to various social media platforms for short video content while on mobile. Mobile has skyrocketed this format of video, as these devices promote a shorter and more relevant user experience. 

Publishers such as Buzzfeed have tapped into Facebook and Twitter with native video that users are excited to engage with and watch. This format of video requires completely different development, with the shorter and more compelling the story, the better. 

?We have never seen content reach audience at the scale and speed that we witnessed in 2015,? Mr. Berry said. ?Facebook flexed serious muscles training machine learning towards video views, but more importantly, the actual users and viewers are really enjoying and engaging with it. 

?Taking advantage of that opportunity required a totally different approach to video production and a new format to story telling that really did not exist at scale like it does now," he said. ?The Dodo, BuzzFeed, Now This are all excellent examples of break through successes with massive new audience reach in the right native video format.?

Next year, social media feeds are likely to be focused more primarily on video with still images falling to the wayside. Advertisers and publishers are likely to develop better practices with higher quality to better connect with consumers through this popular medium. 

Facebook?s Instant Articles offer a big opportunity to create an optimized video experience, with a greater story and broader reach. 

?Still images in the feed will become the exception rather then the rule,? Mr. Berry said. ?We will see beautiful integrations into Instant Articles that give more story and depth to a video and a distributed property. And probably most importantly, a clear roadmap to monetizing through promoted videos and articles.?