It is fair to say that online traffic is beginning to feel like a traffic jam on the highway. Ever since ‘digital marketing’ has hit the field there’s just too much to steer through.
Businesses, brands, local persona, celebrities, athletes, (you name it) are using the social media for ‘self-promotion’. Not that this is a bad thing, but not everyone is interested in what you have to say, but none the less their ads keep popping up everywhere.
Statistically, the no. 1 social media platform is Facebook and ads play a vital role in its existence. Due to the increase in the flow of ads, Facebook users are beginning to get annoyed when they inconveniently pop up all the time, even with Ad blockers! Facebook plans to go around the ad blocking tools and show ads on desktop computers even if people have installed software to prevent them.
In a recent blog, Facebook stated that “for the past few years at Facebook we’ve worked to better understand people’s concerns with online ads. What we’ve heard is that people don’t like to see ads that are irrelevant to them or that disrupt or break their experience. People also want to have control over the kinds of ads they see”.
As a result, Facebook has updated its ‘ad preferences’ and has made it easier to use, so you can stop seeing certain types of ads.
Facebook now offers the option to eliminate any category from your ad preferences.If you don’t want to see ads about a certain interest like sports or shoes, you can remove the interest from your ad preferences.
Facebook has also added tools for people to control how their data appears for online businesses and organizations. Some people are added to their customer lists by default. It’s annoying. Having said this, Facebook doesn’t think ‘its ads are that annoying’.
So how irritating are they really? Nearly half a billion people are now using ad-blocking technology on mobile devices, according to a survey from PageFair, an advertising startup that claims to offer ads that are less intrusive and annoying.
It’s all about business at the end. Everyone wants to make some dough. Website owners say they need to get paid somehow, and blocking ads cuts off one of the most important routes to big bucks. It’s basically a tug of war and no matter which side you’re on, one thing is for sure: There’s no such thing as an ad “free” website. Whether it’s a news or video site, companies need to use well-paying avenues to afford its staff, computers and internet connections, among many other items.
For instance, video streaming service Netflix, rely on subscriptions. Others, YouTube, focus on ads. Hulu, which used to offer free access to some of its shows, just made its service fully subscription based as well. Facebook works on ‘targeted ads’ by using your personal data. These ads help fuel the $17 billion in ad sales the company reported last year.
