Just like any website or blog, Facebook relies on advertising to keep the site free. It wouldn’t be hard for Facebook to start charging for profiles. Charging for profiles would of course be the wrong route for Facebook to take as many users would just stop using Facebook all together, let’s face it: just like any site we use whether it be to read the news or perhaps view some funny pictures or a random and interesting article we rather not have to pay, sure you may complain about the annoying adverts that are posted on the page but for the most part they really aren’t that bad, it’s what keeps the internet free and is definitely a better alternative then having to charge users a fee to view the site, I think we can all agree there.
About Ads: Facebook
You probably signed into Facebook only to notice this small announcement that caught your eye. Ever wonder how Facebook makes money? I’m sure we have at one point but running a blog and website myself I understand that advertising runs any website small or large.
From the beginning, the people who built Facebook wanted it to be free for everyone. It now costs more than $1 billion per year to run Facebook, and delivering ads is how Facebook pays for this.
The page also stresses that advertisers choose what types of users should see their ads, and that users who find ads that don’t interest them can click the X to remove them.
As for the difference between Facebook ads and sponsored stories:
Facebook ads: A business creates an ad to promote its message. If you’ve liked that business’ page, the story about you liking the page (including your name or profile photo) may be paired with the ad your friends see.
Sponsored stories: A business pays Facebook to feature existing posts and activity that mention the business. Sponsored stories don’t include additional messaging from the sponsor. Like Facebook ads, they’re only visible to friends you’ve already shared this information with.
Great right? How does Facebook know what to display, and well all advertising for that matter? It’s true Facebook does use cookies to collect data from page to page even when you are not on Facebook. This has addressed a privacy concern as well as the Facebook Ticker Privacy that was mentioned earlier.
Here is an example: Suppose you visit a particular website or conduct a series of searches towards digital cameras, now returning to Facebook we are going to see advertisements for anything related to photography and even more specifically digital cameras. This is because Facebook was able to track where you went using cookies, a bit scary to think about but this is also done with all types of advertising. This is one way that websites are able to provide relevant ads to users while helping the business’ that serve these ads get the most out of what users actually see.
As you can see advertising is essential to any website, especially a large website like Facebook that receives billions and billions of pageviews. The cost to keep the servers running and employ people to make great changes such as the Facebook Timeline and much, much more. What is your opinion on ads? Feel free to share or discuss in the comment section below.
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