Facebook has come up with a new update that will prevent ad blocking software from being effective on the desktop site. This announcement was made on Tuesday.
Andrew Bosworth, the ad chief of Facebook, has come out to state that the decision to tweak its tech to prevent ad blocking software “isn’t something that we need or are doing for the sake of revenue”.
The decision to implement prevention of ad blockers is something that Facebook believes in. The have certain principles on how Facebook should deliver, and this is one of them. The service will not be useful on the mobile since most of the traffic there is from the Facebook app.
There has been some uproar about Facebook’s updates to bring in more ads to the program. Business Insider reported that when users sign up for Facebook they provide their details to the company. This data about their age and interests is available to Facebook advertisers.
The information on demographics and interests is effectively like a payment that the users make to Facebook so that they can avail the service for free. The advertisers take in this information and provide them with ads. The whole system is messed up when the ad blockers are brought in, and this is why the latest Facebook update has been incorporated.
Bosworth is aware that the Facebook users aren’t very happy with the Facebook update that prevents ad blockers. He said that Facebook is trying to come up with a plan that keeps the users happy while ensuring that advertisers can make the most of the situation.
Bosworth said that the Facebook update to prevent ad blocks would hopefully bring in a partnership between the users/consumers and the advertisers, whereby the users can provide information on the type of ads that they want to see and wouldn’t have to go for the ad blockers.
More than 97% of Facebook’s revenue is generated from the ads on the platform. When the consumers/ users get to choose which ads they want, they in fact help the advertisers.
It is more relevant to the advertisers when they know what the consumers want and what they don’t. The ads become more valuable when they are chosen by the users themselves than when they aren’t.
The number of people going for the ad blockers has gone up. This has got the industry to sit up and take notice. Facebook isn’t the only one who has been working on improving the situation.
Google has already been spearheading a campaign that will come out with a policy of acceptable ads. Even the US Interactive Advertising Bureau is coming up with suggestions to solve the ad blocker crisis.
This announcement by Facebook has caused its users to come up with a lot of queries. The first thing that they want to know is why Facebook would want to implement an update on its desktop site when it accounts for only 20% of its revenue?
The simplest answer to this query is that the ad blockers aren’t effective on the mobile. 84% of the revenue for Facebook is generated from mobile sites. Since Facebook doesn’t lose out on that share of the revenue, they tried to curb the problem where they are losing out on revenue.
Facebook understands the importance of advertisements for ad-supported business models. Media Post reported that Facebook is aware that there is more to be done in the field of user-friendly ads, and they are trying to expand the control given to the users to improve their experience with ads as well.