❗Help close the gap: We still need to raise $40,000 by the end of March. Donate now
Codebreaker

You won’t believe what Facebook is going to try: MORE ADS

John Moe Aug 15, 2012

Shocker, right? Facebook? ADS? WhatEVER, dude. Yeah, the company is still scrambling for ways to generate mountains of cash to pay for a service that the whole world uses for free and to match Wall Street expectations in the process.

A test program will show users ads from companies directly in the news feed. So you’re checking your updates, seeing what friends are up to, dinking around, and then WHAMMO! AN AD FROM DEPENDS ADULT UNDERGARMENTS OR SOMETHING.

From Bloomberg:

Under the program, companies can place ads in users’ main feeds on smartphones and personal computers even if those members or their friends haven’t signaled they like the advertiser, said Annie Ta, a spokeswoman for Facebook. Until now, these types of ads only showed up on PCs to the right of the Facebook News Feed, which displays activities by friends and companies or groups a user has “Liked.”

These ads would show up on smartphones as well as on the web. Ignore this news as it relates to the web because this is all about mobile, which is the future of everything. Facebook has been trying to figure out how to make money in that space since, according to recent reports, 20% of users only look at Facebook on mobile. Big obnoxious display ads don’t work on mobile.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.