Facebook’s Zero Sum Fight

It’s even harder to fight this battle between user experience and monetization when it’s starting as a zero sum fight from right off the bat.

Mr. Cathcart acknowledges that maintaining the balance on news feed between ads and user-generated content is an ongoing challenge.

via Facebook on its Clutter Conundrum – Digits – WSJ.

And the way Facebook uses data to back up this tradeoff is the same way that most pubs use it.  These are vanity metrics because the (engagement) data presented does not truly capture the impact of ads.

According to Mr. Cathcart, the study showed a 2% drop in engagement for the group that saw the normal flow of ads versus the group that saw no ads. Any drop in engagement should upset Facebook, given its loftier mission of connecting the world on its platform. But all things considered, Mr. Cathcart said, it really wasn’t so bad.

About these ads

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