In response to the user and advertiser community, Facebook is rolling out stricter ad and landing page quality requirements over the next few months. While some genuine advertisers will find the need to make some adjustments, overall, this is going to be a good thing for everyone involved.
 
While it is not 'rampant', there is a small group of advertisers on Facebook that provide deceptive ad campaigns that do not deliver a good experience to users. While it is definitely a minority, the poor experience that these ads produce, result in a lack of trust by Facebook users who are then less likely to click on other, higher quality ads.
 
Facebook recently announced on their advertising blog that they would be rolling out increased enforcement of ad quality guidelines and policies over the coming months. They pointed to a number of specific concerns that they would be targeting:
 

• Large volumes of traffic being directed to pages with low amounts of content (e.g. pay or register to read more)
   
• Content intended to shock or sensationalise topics
   
• Adult content
   
• Pages that contain malicious or deceptive ads alongside content
   
• Pages that utilise pop-up or interstitial ads which disrupt the user experience.

 
For most advertisers, this can only be a good thing. It will mean your ads will no longer have to compete with these malicious, low-quality ads on Facebook. It also provides higher quality content to Facebook users who are then more likely to click and engage with companies who advertise.
 
Before you totally relax though, I recommend having a look at your social media landing pages and funnel pages for any issues that could potentially fall into these categories. Here are just a couple:
 

• Pop-up or div-overlay functionality
  There are some common uses of popup, or overlay techniques that are common to many websites. For example, notifying users that your website uses cookies, or recommending users sign up to your newsletter. While I am not suggesting Facebook would be against either of these specific functions, it is worth reviewing your execution of them so that they are not disruptive to your users.

 

• Banner/Display Ads on your pages
  Your pages and content may contain great quality, but remember that if you display ads via display network channels like Google Adsense (or your site is part of a publisher network), ads are being dynamically displayed on your pages, and you don't always control the quality of them. If you do display ads on your web pages, make sure you are using a reputable publisher network with stringent advertising guidelines, and be active in allowing and blocking specific advertisers, topics and themes on your website.

 

• User Generated Content
  If your website publishes user-generated content, especially articles or blog posts, make sure that editorial guidelines and checks are in place to ensure the quality and integrity of that content is suitable. An over-zealous content writer who wants more traffic may sensationalise a piece which your ads then promote, and you will find yourself in violation of Facebook advertising guidelines.

 

• Pay-walls
  A pay-wall on a web page is a situation where you are shown a small section of content, then required to register, subscribe or pay in some way to see all of it. A typical example is with some news outlets that require a subscription to read articles and stories. We may see a lot less of this type of content being promoted on Facebook in the coming weeks and months. 

While most of us agree that this change is fantastic for the Facebook user community and advertisers alike, you can see there are some cases where specific businesses or industries will need to modify how they operate and/or promote themselves if they want to continue to advertise on the network.
 
While adjustments will need to be made, this change will build more trust in content promoted on Facebook; more interaction from users with promoted content; and better engagement between advertisers and their audience. This is surely a good thing for everyone.



Does your company use Facebook Ads? What are your thoughts on the new guidelines? Let us know!