Facebook’s Social Context Ads Used by Big Brands

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Facebook has been pitching “social-context ads” to companies such as PepsiCo and Ford. Facebook is hoping to step up advertising efforts by using these ads, which focus on users’ friend list and their expressed interest in brands and organizations.

The companies are intrigued by these ads, which Facebook developed over a year ago. Advertisements appear on the right side of a user’s homepage, and include an image and headline of the advertiser’s choice. The user is able to see if any of their friends clicked on the “like” button, meaning they liked the brand or add. The user may “like” the ad as well.

Through Nielsen research, Facebook has found that by using a friend’s name along with an ad doubles brand awareness. For this reason, they have created their social-context ads. They hope that by doing so, they will further monetize the network that has grown to 500 million users.

But some users are wary. They have a hard time accepting the automatic opt-in of ads connecting to the items they post on theirs and their friends pages.

Will Facebook users benefit from social-context ads, or will this just be another privacy concern?