Facebook Wants to Keep News Feed and Mobile Ads Basic

Social media is where a lot of companies are advertising. These companies can catch the eye of a lot of people on Facebook. A lot of these companies would also like to push their advertising even further. According to Facebook, people want to see something that incorporates features like text or push notifications in real-time.

Facebook feels that while it is an interesting idea, they would rather focus on keeping mobile ads much simpler. Facebook thinks that the basic approach is still effective and the right route to take at this time.

Jeff Kanter, the News Feed product manager for Facebook, says, “A lot of people will talk about the holy grail of advertising where you’re walking down the street and your phone is buzzing with alerts about deals around you and a movie’s playing nearby. I think it’s an awesome vision and the world will get there, but at this point in time, mobile advertising is working really well because it’s where people are spending their time and it can achieve the same brand objectives that advertisers are trying to do elsewhere.”

I’m sure that everyone has noticed how many ads you see on a daily basis. You can no longer open a Web page without seeing a lot of ads on the right hand side. They will even follow you as you scroll down a long page. Facebook has noticed an increase in offline sales by a factor of more than eight times from News Feed ads. Facebook has been able to get 65 percent of advertisers to run ads in the feed and generate 23 percent of ad revenue from mobile in less than a year.

Kanter says, “I look forward to that world when mobile advertising is that integrated in a really targeted and relevant way. I think there are a lot of companies out there that are doing it, and all these companies including us will move in that direction, but in terms of where we are right now, we think of [mobile advertising] a lot of ways the same as digital on the web but on a smaller screen.”

Facebook’s strategy is to get more types of paid placements into the News Feed in a format that’s positive for users and advertisers. Facebook’s attitude according to Kanter is, “We’re really focused on getting the basic stuff that people are already doing and making them eligible for News Feed in a way that is not disruptive. We’re always exploring new things that we can do, but me personally and the teams that I work with have just been really focused on getting the basics right.”

The attitude is definitely correct. Get all of the basics working right first and then move ahead to something a little more complicated. Kanter says that improving current ad types and getting more existing desktop ads into the feed are Facebook’s main priorities. Giving advertisers more targeting capabilities and improving backend ad serving to get the right ad to the right user at the right time will also go a long way in making ads more effective for businesses and more welcome for users.

Facebook could eventually optimize the ads and show different ones to users. This could be based on whether you are at home or on the go. There could also be other factors that affect the likelihood to take a desired action, whether it’s downloading an app, watching a video or shopping on a third-party site.

Facebook is taking the slow and steady road, but they are definitely moving in the direction of mobile ads. As Facebook has said for the social network, which only got into the mobile ad business one year ago, it’s all about the basics first.