Facebook Users Will Soon Have More Control Over The Ads It Displays

Facebook announced it is making changes to the ads algorithm to improve the relevancy of ads in users’ news feeds. The algorithm determines what ads to show Facebook users.

What’s changing? The company says it is putting greater emphasis on feedback from users about the ads they see. When users report or hide ads, they’ll be less likely to see similar ads in their news feeds. This should give users more control over the types of ads that show up in their news feeds and mean that the ads are more relevant to their interests.

As an example, if a user always hides ads for electronics, Facebook will reduce the number of electronics they see.

What it means for marketers? Advertisers may see some “variation” in their ad serving in the coming weeks, according to the company. The idea is advertisers will be better served by the algorithm changes since they won’t be showing ads to users who have actively shown they aren’t interested in an advertisers’ types of services.

What’s not quite clear is if other criteria, besides product category, will come into play when determining ad relevancy.

As more advertisers gravitate to Facebook, it will be increasingly important for the company to make updates like the one announced today to keep ad fatigue by users low and advertiser ROI high.

A recent study by RBC Capital and Advertising Age found that about 74 percent of marketers polled reported buying ads on Facebook in September, up from 55 percent in July 2012. Over 40 percent of those marketers also reported seeing higher ROI from Facebook campaigns over the past 6 months.