Friday, August 03, 2012

Will More Mobile Facebook Ads Be Annoying Enough To Drive Users Away?


Facebook announced that ads for Facebook mobile apps are coming. Interesting, because as an avid user of Facebook on my Blackberry, I had almost forgotten about the absence of ads from my mobile app – compared with the obvious (and annoying) presence of the ads to the right of my Facebook website screen. Upon hearing the news, the first thought is where will the ads fit? It sounds like it will look ugly and take up too much real estate on an already small mobile screen.

Facebook appears to be doing this to appease/attract investors, but the move may alienate users (unless Facebook is able to do it in a way that is non-intrusive (though, then the effectiveness of the ad may be compromised.) Personally, I may be annoyed, but will most likely not necessarily leave. Perhaps this is what Facebook is banking on – the power and convenience of the mobile device itself as a shield against users turning away. If they left, how would they get there Facebook update while on the go? 


1 comment:

auerblog said...

Definitely. Period. The main problem with ads on mobile facebook is that there just isn't enough real estate space on the screen to allow for both optimal "facebooking" and ad placement. Given that, what's the alternative? Having a pop-up ad every other minute interrupt the session with click to cancel box? And with the surge in touchscreen phones, how many times is the user going to accidentally click on the ad, get redirected away from facebook, only to have to click back on the facebook app to get back to where s/he started. Unfortunately, we have been spoiled by facebook mobile by the purity of a clean interface on mobile. I can only envision pervasive disenchantment with the entire experience if ads were to someday be incorporated onto mobile.