Just last year, the largest social media introduced static ads into its chatting app. Of a truth, the static ads weren’t really intrusive like most ads that appear in regular apps on smartphones. But then, the current dispensation of video ads auto playing might not be met on the good side of the social media faithfuls. Expressing concerns about the user experience, this is what the Head of Facebook Messenger’s ads business, Stefanos Loukakos had to say to Recode: According to his statement, there’s a chance that negative feedbacks from users will cause the brand to oust the autoplay ads from the apps. Nonetheless, we have to note that video ads generate more revenues than the static ads. Prior to this, Facebook had voiced out about the lack of space to place ads in the Facebook app. This resulted in ads placement on Marketplace and Messenger. From here, we hope Facebook doesn’t see WhatsApp (Facebook owned service) as a potential candidate for autoplay ads. It’s one thing for DMs to have static ads, but once they autoplay, it’s an entirely different ball game. It might put users a little on the edge when sounds start playing from the ads during a chat. Loukakos also stated that the ads had started rolling out since Monday. So, it’s a matter of time for the ads to get to your Messenger if you haven’t seen it already. This drags out the question: Will users give a thumbs up or thumbs down to these autoplay ads? You can air your views about this in the comment section below.
