When I’m not reading an article about any one of various subjects or finding out what’s new with Google, I do what everyone else does in their free time; Facebook. That word that has two meanings, one a noun and the other a verb, is one that entitles the site that many people spend a good part of every day scanning. Well, not unlike those people, I was browsing the site and something caused it to intertwine with my internet marketing interests. As I looked to the side of the page to scan through the advertisements, I noticed something happening that I hadn’t seen before.
I was reading an ad, and regardless of how short the advertisement was, I didn’t get to finish reading. The advertisement disappeared and was replaced with another without my clicking of anything. In fact, my hands were no where near the computer. So, of course I was immediately curious as to what may have made it happen. Through a bit of research, I found that Facebook recently started a rotation process for advertisements within a single page, allowing for more room for advertising. Because of Facebook’s recent fallouts in the advertising community, they’ve been changing things left and right with their marketing methods, working toward the ideal set up.
So, as I sat there I watched the ads change from a Disney App advertisement, to a Wells Fargo ad, and then to something telling me I could win a Pet Health manual by Merck. They change every few minutes, so I told myself I was doing research and not wasting my time staring at the same screen for about 15 minutes. Anyway, Facebook’s decision to rotate their ads is definitely a good one for a few reasons, the most important being that they now allow for more ads to appear on their platform, bringing in more advertisers.
The fact is, an advertisement doesn’t have to appear on Facebook for hours at a time on the same page, because it only takes seconds for a potential customer to view it. If they’re interested, they aren’t going to wait a half hour to click on the ad or to become aware of the product, it will happen when they see it. So, since many Facebook users stay on the same page, their News Feed, for long periods at a time, this new rotation will give more than one advertiser the opportunity to have that spot.
This new feature may even get Facebook users to pay more attention to the advertising section on the side of their News Feeds. The only problem that it may present is that, since most people don’t know of the rotating ads, they may not notice that the ads have changed, pretty much screwing over the advertiser or company whose advertisement is featured second or third. Anyway, I’m sure we’ll continue to see Facebook improving upon its advertising techniques, regenerating a good reputation in the marketing world. This small change is just proof that there is more change to come with the world’s favorite social network.
