Ad-Blockers Are Not Facebook’s Biggest Problem

A few years ago small businesses wondered whether a Facebook business page could replace their websites. After efforts to do so, tales of regret began to emerge. It appeared that building a community fed by advertisements was not as easy as it seemed. 

The biggest stonewall to business owners on Facebook is that they have nominal control over their following. And there is heightened volatility. The rules of the game can be changed at any moment. Many are now consigned to the reality that “reach” is a function of “pay.” 

But that reality shouldn’t have come as a surprise. In the recent past Facebook has used advertising to fund a panoply of research activities and acquisitions. As a result, a user-championed countermovement has fomented that points to profound structural issues. 

Facebook and Advertising

Simply put, Facebook makes their money through advertising. The problem for Facebook and its customers is that users tune out most sponsored posts. Users do not read or want ads in any form and rely handily on ad-blockers to repress annoying marketing messages. 

This dynamic arose somewhat unexpectedly. In the movie, The Social Network, there was a notable conversation between Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg, wherein Mark Zuckerberg said: "Facebook is cool; you don't want to ruin it with ads because ads aren't cool." That’s odd in retrospect because as of last year, Facebook reached approximately 17.08 billion U.S. dollars in ad-revenue. 

The Ethics of Ad-Blockers

The dilemmas of ad-blocking are well documented. Major publishers traditionally made copious amounts of money from advertising contracts that leveraged their robust native readership. With the advent of ad-blockers, established publishers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal could soon face disruption. 

On the other hand, the user is justified in wanting to control their online experience. We are surrounded by more content now than we could ever read. The last thing we want is to be bombarded by ads or to click on a link to then be redirected to a whitelist that prompts us to allow ads before continuing. That just triggers users to hit the back button and never return. 

The elephant in the room is that the current system is broken. 

We can no longer judge the success of an online ad based on clicks and page views; these are generally regarded as meaningless metrics. Maybe the reason Procter & Gamble recently announced it was scaling back its ads on Facebook underscores the fundamental issue.

In a bid to protect its bottom line, the social network revealed that ad-blockers are now rendered useless on its platform in a blog post last week. Meanwhile, bystanders were entertained by Adblock Plus’ defeat of the restrictions within a few days.

Once again, our online habits and hatred of ads prevailed.

Facebook Vs. Ad-Blockers 

In one corner we have Facebook desperately trying to ease concerns stating that changes will give users more input into what kind of ad content they see. In the other corner, frustrated users are blocking ads for reasons Facebook patently cannot mitigate with their current model. 

Could Facebook potentially alienate a huge portion of its own users? 

From the users’ perspectives, online ads are treated with the same disdain as cold callers, junk mail, or unwanted salespeople knocking on their front door in the evening. Even businesses that have embraced Facebook advertising have found themselves in a world of fake clicks and followers. 

Non-intrusive and relevant marketing messages seem like the only sensible way forward. And yet, I cannot help but think that we are still not dealing with the bigger problem: that the current system is built on a fallacy. 

Advertisers continue to base their spending and judge the success of campaigns using outdated, irrelevant metrics. Clicks, views, and reach are ultimately meaningless compared to real engagement and retention. Advances in machine learning technology and sophisticated algorithms should usher in a new age of personalization rather than perpetuate a floundering model.

At base, our primary annoyance with advertising is their irrelevance and valuelessness.

In Sum

Only when companies begin treating people as unique individuals, serving them high-quality, personalized content will we start to see progress. There needs to be an industry-wide focus on tackling irrelevant ads and reporting methods. So, contrary to popular belief, the big problem isn't ad-blockers at all. That technology is symptomatic of a deeper issue.

The sooner we all wake up to this, the sooner tech titans will stop deploying topical and possibly divisive solutions.

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