Last year was a year of turmoil for Facebook. The social media giant was forced to respond to several critical news stories alleging bias, misinformation campaigns as well as general concerns over user privacy and proprietary data.
In the wake of growing customer backlash, Facebook made several changes to its business and advertising policies designed to protect users and advertisers alike.
"Over the last year, we have made changes to make ads more transparent and give people more control over the ads they see on Facebook," said Rob Goldman, Vice President, Ads for Facebook.
Here is a list of the more important changes they made--and what it means for marketers, going forward.
- Increased the information available to users and marketers. A new Info and Ads section was introduced to allow users to see what ads a company is running. It helps users see if they are being targeted for advertising, and it can help you see who your competitors are trying to reach.
- Provided more information on Pages, to help users identify potential fake news sites.
- Redesigned pages and changed ratings to recommendations to provide a more accurate depiction of the quality of businesses and services provided--putting an emphasis on the customer service you offer. It also makes it important to get customer reviews.
- They also made it more difficult for shady political ads to see the light of cyberspace. They updated that policy last week.
In addition, Facebook also unveiled new features designed to make it easier for marketers to tell the story of their brand and reach customers on mobile platforms.
The story archive feature, unveiled over the summer, makes it easier for you save and reference your good content, too.
Even with so many changes, Goldman said policies and features will continue to evolve.
"Our work isn’t done and we will continue to improve ads for people and businesses in 2019 and beyond," he said.
What did you think of the changes? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!