Facebook deploys product ads to Ticker feed

Facebook's reluctance to incorporate advertisements within social content streams went out the window Monday when the networking giant expanded Sponsored Stories ad units to the Ticker feed.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes spoke of the Ticker update in a CNN Tech story:

"We recently made some changes to Facebook that help surface more engaging content, whether paid or organic, to people using Facebook. With these changes, people may see a varying number of ads or Sponsored Stories alongside organic content. In testing, we've found this leads to more engagement with for both paid and organic content."

"Sponsored Stories" allow brands to purchase additional exposure for interactions or mentions and are typically seen as less annoying than standard advertisements. Such ads dubbed the "next step in social advertising" have been appearing as news feed stories since 2010, generating a 46 per cent higher click through rate (CTR) than that of standard advertisements.

Expanding to the Ticker feed appears to be another step toward Gokul Rajaram's vision of a completely social advertising strategy. Facebook's ad guru plans to utilize social content or context within every ad on the site, in fact, the majority already do.

Twitter began rolling out similar ads this summer and, as with Facebook, reactions from users weren't as frantically negative as you might expect. But we all know how Facebook users traditionally respond to change. The Right Click will be sure to keep an eye on this latest development.