It seems Facebook isn’t totally deaf to the cries of its unwashed masses. After a lot of complaining and some unfortunate lube-endorsing, Facebook users are finally seeing the death of the dreaded “Sponsored Stories”. In fact, Facebook is getting rid of quite a few of its many ad formats.
The current 27 flavours of marketing will be whittled down to a number about half that size. But the Sponsored Story, which made it seem to friends as though you were encouraging them to buy various cleaning products and/or hot singles in their area, is perhaps the most notable.
Your new, more uniform in line ads are going to look something like this:
But advertisers probably won’t be as happy about the shift as we are. Even though Facebook’s blog post on the change claims that this should make “the ad creation process” easier, chances are they’re going to see some losses. According to Business Insider, these types of ads were the most effective and a marketing company’s dream. You’re far more likely to click away on something you think is a post from a friend instead of a blatant advertisement. Meaning Facebook’s probably going to take a few hits, as well.
Regardless, this is great news for anyone who didn’t enjoy apparently hocking batteries and shampoo to their friends. And it means that, at least, they actually are kind of listening to us, maybe. [Facebook via Business Insider]