1. Facebook Kills
Sponsored
Stories
Hector Niel-Mee
30/01/2014
Background
Those of us that use Facebook on a regular basis would have experienced ads on our newsfeeds
revealing actions taken by our friends e.g. ‘Rachel likes Topshop’. For a male, this would probably
seem irrelevant and equally, having your own picture and name attached to an advert on a friend’s
newsfeed may be considered a breach of privacy.
Last Thursday, Facebook made an announcement which could see an end to these issues – by April
9th, the Sponsored stories ad format will be cut. This comes as part of an effort announced in June
last year to streamline Facebook’s ad functions. Previously, Sponsored stories and page post ads
were served separately; however, in future the best of both formats will be combined into one
single unit.
Details
Sponsored Stories have proved a problem
for Facebook in the past, eventually
leading to a $20 million class-action
lawsuit over the fact that users never
consented to their names and profile
pictures being featured on sponsored
stories. This may have induced the cut,
but officially Facebook are saying this
new ad format is simply a
continued streamlining of their
advertising offerings.
In actual fact, not all that much is going to change. Wherever possible, ads will continue to include
social context (your friend liked/commented on the post, or liked the page); the only difference
being that you will no longer be able to create an ad with social context as the sole purpose,
content will have to take center stage. Furthermore, users will be given full control over who sees
what activity, with the ability to unlike or delete the content at any time. In addition, there will be
the option to limit when stories about social actions are paired with ads shown to friends, using
the ‘ads and friends’ setting.
As part of these changes, Facebook has redefined its targeting functions as having four key areas
(locations, demographics, interests, behaviours). This organization creates more flexibility and
precision when reaching audiences in terms of the and/or logic between groups. Historically, for
example, if you selected “Parents”, “Photography”, “Photo uploader” within interests, the audience
constructed was for people that are Parents OR interested in Photography OR People who upload
[many] Photos. However, the intended audience was: “Parents that are interested in Photography
and upload Photos”. Now, the specific audience can be targeted as intended.
Summary/POV
The purging of Sponsored Stories comes as part of Facebook’s attempt to make advertising on its
platform more streamlined and relevant. Brands will importantly still be able to maintain social
context, but marketers will have to rely increasingly on content rather than using the sole power of
friend advocacy.