Facebook Might Turn Into a Full Advertising Platform in the Next Couple of Years

When Facebook was launched, it was intended to be a social platform where people could express themselves, make new friends, reconnect with people from their pasts, join groups of people with similar interests, and control the information that they share with others. The powers that be at Facebook also made the platform friendly for people who
wanted to interact with one another via chat, or games. Advertising, at least initially, played a minor role. However, this changed throughout the years. Even worse, it is continuing to change, and that change is coming faster and faster. It now seems as if it is an inevitability that Facebook will turn into a full advertising platform.

Why Facebook Users Should be Concerned About Advertising

Initially, advertising on Facebook was not intrusive. There were simply a few ads on the left side of the news feed. However, even back then Facebook was collecting data. Every connection, every like, every new piece of information added to your profile, the groups you join, and more gave Facebook the ability to determine which advertisements would be best for you. Today, they are collecting, even more, information. Think about the recent release of new reaction buttons. Now, instead of simply liking or scrolling by a post, you can express six distinct reactions using Facebook’s newly introduced emojis. The concern about using these to collect data for advertising purposes is large enough that the Belgian police have warned their citizens against using Facebook reactions.

In addition to data collection, there is also the issue of Facebook re-targeting. This is where Facebook partners with businesses to track your browsing habits in order to target you with a second layer of advertising. If you have ever paid a visit to an eCommerce website to research a particular product or service, and then later seen advertisements for that same product or service on your news-feed, that is re-targeting. Essentially, the eCommerce website has fed Facebook the information about your shopping habits, and the fact that you did not make a purchase. In return for this information and payment, Facebook pushes an ad into your news-feed that will hopefully get you primed to make that purchase.

Recommended:- Here Are The 20 Hot Posts Of This Week, You Must Read

In 2014, Facebook released its Audience Network Platform. This allows advertisers to purchase in-app ad space from any developer using the targeting data that Facebook collects and now provides to third parties. This means that not only does Facebook impact the advertisements you see in your news feed, it also impacts the advertisements you see when you are using apps. Worse, your personal information is being disseminated even more.

Most recently, Facebook is now allowing advertisers to use video ads on its Audience Network platform. These video ads will play in the stream. This means that there is no option to click play or not. The video advertisements will simply play either during, before or after videos that play within the apps that you use. These video ads will also be inserted into your newsfeed via brand’s that participate in Facebook Instant Articles. In other words, companies that were once feeding you news content can now feed you video ads as well.

Facebook users are also simply seeing more advertisements in their newsfeeds. Some of these are labeled as sponsored posts. This at least carries a bit of a warning label that a post is essentially a paid advertisement. Then, there are also suggested posts, suggested groups, and the ever expanding advertising on the right side of your newsfeed. If you are concerned that advertisements are encroaching on your Facebook experience, you should be. Just in terms of physical space on your screen, advertisements are taking over. Then there is the matter of constant exposure to advertising.

For some people, the initial reaction to all of this might be ‘so what?’ After all, what does it matter if some ads s