X
2011

FACEBOOK’S TICKER MIGHT STREAM ADS TOO

September 5, 2011 0

Facebook advertisers are getting a new ray to advertise their content as Facebook’s second News Feed, Ticker is being worked on to display these sponsored content. The option is being tested so that the sponsored content would be advertised on Ticker.

For a quick flashback, Ticker is a real-time stream which displays the status updates, likes, comments, photos and many other updates which are posted by one’s Facebook friends. The move from Facebook is quite interesting as Facebook has not yet come up with the rolling out of Ticker for everyone, but its in process of pushing it slowly to many more users.

Talking about the new advertising update, one might have noticed that usually the ads are display by Facebook on the right-hand side of the website and there are dedicated sections for the ads. Earlier this section was divided in two parts which had the first part labeled as Sponsored and the second part was labeled as Sponsored Stories. However, the latter has been axed and would no longer be available. The reason for the same was that the labeling was worded in a similar manner as like any other posting on Facebook.

Facebook yet again plans to label the ads on Ticker as Sponsored. The additional benefit one would get out of the ads which are posted here is that these ads would be meshed between the streaming updates which a Facebook user views on Ticker. Facebook even has an option to argue that the Sponsored label as it is was on that side, but still the way it is placing the ads, it can be a questionable point. This makes it clear that the social networking giant is slowly but steadily trying to blur out the line between organic and sponsored content.

For the advertisers, it is a really good thing as there would be more clicks on their ads and they would be able to make more customers via this kind of advertising. The click generation would even be higher as the ad would look more like an organic content and it is possible that one may click on it thinking that its just another update. This is a business tactic adopted by Facebook which is sure to increase the response for the advertisers, once it is out for everyone. Again, Facebook is a social network which is more of a free online service and these ads are what makes Facebook get more into the online world and get connected in I better and bigger way.

However, looking at the perspective of the users, there is a possible bad news. Some may consider it as a tricking option of Facebook to get more ad clicks. Additionally if the ads are promoting something valuable, relevant to the user and are clever enough, there is a cent percent chance of tricking the users. But if these three combinations are not met adequately, then an ad might not get the expected number of clicks.

On an overall prospective, this step can be lethal as Facebook can possibly lose the long earned trust of the users as the integration of ads are increasing on a regular basis on Facebook.