Facebook’s recently introduced news ticker is soon going to feature ads, also known as sponsored stories. The news ticker presently features activities of users’ friends on the social networking site and a report in CNN confirms that the ticker will soon feature paid stories (ads) as well.
“We recently made some changes to Facebook that help surface more engaging content, whether paid or organic, to people using Facebook,” CNN quotes Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes as saying. “With these changes, people may see a varying number of ads or Sponsored Stories alongside organic content. In testing, we’ve found this leads to more engagement with for both paid and organic content.”
Facebook had launched the ticker in August this year. The ticker is placed on the top right of the homepage. According to reports, the sponsored stories are going to be similar to the advertisements on Twitter, which show ads relevant to a tweet by a user. The Facebook sponsored story is likely to be visible to the contacts of the users, increasing the scope of advertisement on the social networking site.
The sponsored stories feature was introduced earlier this year, but appeared only in the side bar of the homepage. By August, the sponsored stories started to appear in the ticker for certain apps and games. According to a TechCrunch report, the sponsored stories are quite effective as they have a 46 per cent greater click through rate than the conventional ads on the social networking sites.
It may be recalled that the news ticker had received a mixed response when a host of updates were announced by Facebook. The critics had then rebuked Facebook by describing its ticker as a distraction for the users. However, with the passage of time, criticism started to die, implying users have accustomed themselves to Facebook’s fast-scrolling tote board. But the inclusion of sponsored stories may irk many of its users again.
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