Facebook’s updated “Ad Preferences” panel lets you opt out of ads related to a particular interest, like “travel” or “cats”, or those from a specific company or organization.
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The social network said on Tuesday that it will change the way advertising is loaded into its desktop website to make its ad units considerably more hard for ad blockers to detect.
So how does Facebook plan to circumvent your browser’s ad blocker? Many online publishers and media companies rely on third-party companies to help display ads on their webpages and services, which can make them more easily identifiable to blocking technologies. Facebook’s gamble? Force ads on users, but offer them more control over what they see. But with the rise of ad-blocking software, and the demand for accurately targeted ads, Facebook seems to be making a calculated choice. While it would be possible for ad blockers to get at these ads, it would likely slow down the page loading significantly, and keeping people from their news feed would likely cause backlash.
“This isn’t something that we need or are motivated to do for revenue, this is something that we really believe in”, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, Facebook’s ads chief tells Business Insider.
Major companies like Microsoft, Google and content farm Taboola have reportedly paid such fees to German software developer Eyeo, which runs the hugely popular service AdBlock Plus and operates a master whitelist contracted out to at least a handful of other ad blocking apps.
Enhancements are coming to ad preferences to give users greater control over the types of ads they want to see.
Facebook is able to completely ignore ad blocking software because they deliver their own ads to users.
Online advertisements stalk you online as you move from website to website, and are used to serve malware or redirect users to phishing websites with regularity. Facebook now garners 84% of its advertising revenue from mobile devices, which are less susceptible to ad blocking than desktop devices. “In addition, advertising is essential to the functioning of democratic capitalism; it is how consumers and citizens learn about better prices, better features, better job opportunities and even better political candidates”.
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Commenting on the changes, president and CEO of the Internet Advertising Bureau Randall Rothenberg said Facebook “should be applauded for its leadership on preserving a vibrant value exchange with its users”.
