Adding insult to injury for many users, Facebook has introduced a new form of sponsored advertising to its already besieged news ticker feature.
As Peter Pachal wrote on mashable.com: “If you’re annoyed by the Facebook news ticker already, just you wait. Facebook confirmed that it has introduced sponsored stories, or ads, to the ticker.”
Facebook is allowing sponsored ads to be placed by advertisers via a self-service form. The ads appear within the Ticker’s news feed of events posted by friends, and although they are labeled “Sponsored,” the ads have the appearance of regular user content.
The Ticker appears to have been planted with the aim of introducing a more covert and subtle form of advertising. As Lauren Fisher reported on TheNextWeb.com, “This is the first time that we have seen Facebook integrate advertising so seamless into the organically created content on the site.”
The move, said Fisher, “is clearly an attempt to get more people clicking on ads, by ‘disguising’ them.”
A report on dailydot.com called the approach sneaky, while Emil Protalinski on ZDnet.com wrote that, “while Facebook will undoubtedly argue that the Sponsored label is there, the placement is still questionable.”
Many users already had a strong dislike for the news ticker, which was introduced in August. As Mashable’s Pachal wrote: “The new approach, and the ticker specifically, received tepid reviews from Facebook users, and some reacted with outright anger.”
Likewise, David Pogue in The New York Times wrote that the Facebook changes “have done more than ruffle a few feathers; they’ve practically plucked the chickens.”
Surveys by Mashable, Sodahead, and others showed that a large majority of Facebook’s user base, as high as 75% to 86%, strongly disliked the news ticker and other new features.
By introducing ads disguised as content to the news ticker, Facebook may be pouring gasoline on the fire. As Emil Protalinski remarked on ZDnet.com, “Facebook is playing a dangerous game. It could start to lose the trust of its users as its ads are increasingly integrated into the service.”