The Meta company has begun conducting another marketing test: companies are given the opportunity to purchase advertising in notifications of the social network Facebook. However, the few users to whom it is shown cannot refuse it.
Experiment Details and User Experience
One of the Facebook users reported that advertising began to appear in the Android application, while the iPad client and the web interface of the social network were not affected by the experiment. On the notifications page, each advertisement has an icon and an image of three dots to display a context menu. One of its items offers to block this advertiser, but there is no option to refuse advertising in notifications. There is also a standard item, “Why am I seeing this ad?” but selecting it did not clarify why the system showed it to this user—it guessed correctly only one time out of four. None of the announcements were saved in the list of notifications.
Meta’s Stance and Future Plans
The Facebook Advertising Guide, a guide for those who want to serve ads to visitors to the social network, does not mention this format. However, Meta, the company that owns the platform, often tests new variants without warning the public. Advertising remains the company’s main source of income, and European users can opt out for €9.99 per month, notes NIX Solutions.
Meta confirmed that they are indeed testing the display of advertising in notifications with a small part of users but did not provide details. “We’re always working to help brands reach more customers and make it easier for people to find companies and products that match their interests. We’re doing some early limited testing of notification ads and hope to have more to say as we learn,” Meta spokesman Tom Channick said.
We’ll keep you updated on any further developments regarding this testing.