Facebook has been steadily growing the scope of its ads. The social network initially offered very few ads on its page but has eventually started offering them in many new ways, for instance by displaying sponsored ads within users feeds. Until now, these ads in the users’ news feeds were usually related to the pages he or his friends liked and visited.
However, all this does not suffice. Facebook is witnessing a quick and massive population tilt with millions of users moving over to the mobile platform. And so far, the social network seems to have failed in monetizing the mobile platform effectively enough.
Naturally on its mobile version, Facebook can’t display ads on side-bars since they will cramp the screens and disturb the user experience. Rather, Facebook has to rely on ads within user feeds, since they can easily be rolled out even to mobile users.
Now, the social network is trying to push forth a new dimension of its ads – displaying such sponsored ads in users’ news feeds which have nothing to do with user interests and the pages he likes. So while you are a vegetarian, you may get ads about the best chicken burgers in town.
According to a Facebook spokesperson, “We think this will make it easier for businesses to reach more people. We want to be thoughtful about how we introduce ads in news feed, so we have limits in place to ensure that people’s news feeds are not filled with advertising.”
Though Facebook is, indeed, under a lot of pressure to ramp up its profits, it also needs to maintain a certain standard and quality of user experience. Most of the users won’t find the experience of unrelated sponsored ads within their news feeds a good one. Related ads are also a nuisance but they are at least acceptable. Taking it even farther may damage Facebook itself in terms of user-engagement. Too many ads will eventually disgruntle Facebook users and they will inevitably find alternatives.
Courtesy: CNET
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