I Hid Every Ad on Facebook for 48 Hours. What Happened Next Will Blow Your Mind!

Byjoel

Facebook. The time suck of all time sucks.

A recent study revealed that the average American spends 40 minutes each day checking their Facebook news feed.

Since I work at home, I weave Facebook throughout my day in small bites. In between calls, when I am through checking email or while I am nibbling on a snack, Facebook is an easily accessible distraction.

And Facebook is making an absolute killing. Laced with advertisements, Facebook’s coffers are getting bigger and bigger.

Recently, a writer at Wired.com documented what happened when he liked everything he saw on Facebook for 48 hours. The result was that his feed turned into nothing but an ongoing stream of advertisements.

No big surprise. If you click like on everything, including ads, you become Facebook’s favorite target.

So I thought I would do a similar experiment. Only in my case, I would be hiding EVERY ad that displayed on my feed. Whether it appeared in the feed or in my sidebar, I would click “Hide all ads from ______”

I kept doing this every time I visited until there were no more ads to hide.

hide-ads

What happened next? Well, it’s not really mind-blowing. But with all the linkbait articles promising to blow your mind, I didn’t want to be left out.

Facebook stopped displaying ads on my feed. In the last 72 hours, I’ve seen zero ads on the right sidebar and only an occasional ad in my news feed. Naturally, I hide it.

So what happens down the road? Will I become the target for untargeted ads? It will be interesting to track. All I know is I don’t mind my feed consisting only of those I follow.

Oh, and that spammy title? Facebook is cracking down on these starting immediately according to their statement on Click-Baiting Headlines. So I guess this will be my first and last attempt at it.

As a Facebook user, do you like the advertisements you see? Would you rather have an ad-free Facebook experience? Feel free to post your comments below!

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31 Comments

  1. I don’t mind the ads too much, but I like your idea of hiding them. I just wish I knew I was really seeing everything in my newsfeed from the friends I follow. Not the most popular, not the happiest – just their updates! In the meantime, if you want to see if I might click on dog treats go ahead.

    1. I hide ads and I hide around 40 ads per day and have done for months and months.. last time I checked it said 12,789 ads hidden and yet I’m still hiding around 40 ads per day.. really annoying and when it says you’ll no longer see ads from this.. it’s all rubbish

  2. Joel – no BIG surprise the article didn’t live up to the headline (claim). Even so, I clicked on the email link and came across for a read which I haven’t done for a while so maybe those headlines (and link baiting in general) has it’s place?

    I have to say on Facebook I avoid those headlines because I know they are linkbait – and yet I was happy to be hooked in by email? Odd really.. something I’m sure someone could write a really great article about with a “mind-blowing” title to boot! 😉

    Anyhow, enjoyed the read.. I’m off!

    Neil

  3. Great post, Joel. I would rather see an ad-free Facebook, of course. I would rather see ad-free cable, ad-free newspapers and magazines — billboard-free highways.

    But…I also know that magazines without ads would cost roughly five-ten times as much per issue to purchase. Facebook couldn’t remain ad-free and…free.

    I think we’ve all been exposed to a new type of media to the extent that it’s disarming. Companies launch Websites and build traffic with great content and no ads…or great free services…until we’re used to them. Then they start to monetize it.

    Even CNN, in the early days of cable, had few sponsors. Ted Turner instead ran pay-per-response ads…essentially affiliate ads where he made money on each sale…until the sponsors came forward to pay up-front.

    In the “old days” of publishing, you wouldn’t dream of launching a magazine without first lining up some sponsors to run ads and help mitigate the cost. There are still costs online…but a lot of the per-copy, per-viewer cost is mitigated by the technology, allowing someone with enough funds to build the audience first.

    Does this make me like the ads any more? No. Does this mean no one over-does the ads-to-content ratio? Absolutely not. Just watch a few hours of TNT some time.

    It is a reality of life. If you want great content to consume, someone should be paid for providing it. Advertisers pay the bill for you or at least help reduce it. And I’m fine with that.

    Now…I’m gonna pop over to FB and start hiding all those ads while you can get away with it. 🙂

    1. Well said! While I do often hide overly spammy ads and those that get me to click, but then don’t deliver on their offer, I am perfectly fine with honest and up-front business ads. Thank you for helping to keep the internet and social media a free resource for the rest of us. 😀

  4. Interesting test Joel. I normally hide all ads from specific places. Some had come back (6-12 months), but I think that is because I originally liked the page. Still, my feed is pretty clean.

    What I have noticed is that my focus has changed when viewing any site. I target what I want and all the sidebar stuff is no longer visible. My mouse has a mind of its own and automatically clicks off any popups.

    There are times when I will look at a site further, but that depends on many things.

  5. I say this with love in my heart and not a trace of snark…weren’t you the guy who taught the world to monetize? A little title called The Adsense Code comes to mind.

    Seriously, though, this post does make me wonder when (or if) certain properties (Facebook included) will say “enough is enough” when it comes to advertisements.

    On the sites I build, I try to keep the advertising to a minimum, but that’s probably because they’re mostly hobby sites, and not really designed to create a full-time income. If I depended on my ad revenue to operate a multi-national powerhouse like Facebook, I’d monetize the everloving dogsnot out of them.

    Great title, btw. I clicked through from your email because I knew if you were laying the irony on that heavily, it had to be a good post. 🙂

  6. Interesting takeaway, i’ve never thought of taking action to get rid of the ads. Like many other users, over the years I just got accustomed to them being there and filtering them out. This is what sucks for those who do online marketing, you have to work harder to get attention of the user, because they’re so used to filtering out anything that looks like an ad.

    Heading over to Facebook now to start hiding all the ads I see 🙂

  8. Interesting experiment. But not something I want. As Larry mentioned before me… I wantz my fb ads so I can get good swipe material. I barely see any posts from people I follow anyway because fb throttles the number of posts that actually make it onto the news feed, so better to get some use out of my fb time…

  9. Interesting experiment! I’m ok with the right column adds, they can easily be ignored, but the adds showing up in my news feed – they are annoying and it would be nice to get rid of them.
    Same with tv – I’m fine with ads between programs, but the constant interruption is just to annoying to even bother! Same reason I hardly ever listen to radio any more … Looking forward to the follow up of your experiment.

  10. Yes I would like to see a FB with no adds.I would also like to see a FREE FB and a FREE Internet but reality tells me someone must pay for the service and that’s what the adds do.Besides some adds are funny,interesting and useful to someone,so until we find a better way it is what it is…Free.

  12. “Hiding Ads”…awsome clip Joel but REALLY…..? eh…
    Hiding Ads (to me) – Means equally to RAISE AD COSTS- Worse – TURN CPC campaigns into CPMS – ALL CPMS – at least by rasing them we know what we are dealign with before the bill right? Now, or – Then rather; Combine that with the real possibility of a Newly Provoked Paid Membership Model for those who’d rather not be near an ad -E-VER..but are okay with wasting 40 minutes every day for 40 bucks a month, and only now we think we have to be there each day whcih means we won’t – then we will also waste the 40 per month, each month. MUST I go on kids?

    I don’t want higher Ad costs – But I do want to keep learning and/or luaghing and learning from my all the good, and the bad, and the sheer ugly ADs I can see, in a daily education (which is free-still – i think) Plus by watching the ADS – we will raise competitors ad costs, in the only-so-best we can -regardless of any throttle posts ( check the history books on that one) Because-THAT kind of money breeds -greed before sheer value service to its customers as a priority)

    Perhaps a solution could be also ‘physically beneficial’ as in: To Excercise One’s Peripheral Muscles by NOT noticing the ADS on purpose (if they are there or not) I mean imagine the ladies if They could see you then!- “WOW what big Peripherals you got there TODD!” OOOhhhwa

    You see, there are all sorts of benefits now – JUST -for keeping them thar ads UP and live on the FEEDS there – as far as I can SEE it (pun intended) -with having NO ADS or a Paid mebership, and so on, there is really NO long term end goal positives for us dare I say “Non-Billionaires-(yet)”

    Why nto just left click and drag your browser over past your screen view to hide the ads and let them FEED in al their GLORY and costs? – This way ads costs will stay as down as they can, and we can still be entertained or educated or both – from the Brilliance or the Follies of creation.

    – TONY
    I Boast Not ~ Yet Post a Lot

  14. I can go either way. I learn much from the ads that I can use as I craft my own facebook ads. I do get a kick out of people that get so offended or feel their privacey in being invaded. Get over yourself – you are on the internet. You can always turn off your computer and go back to the old days and buy a newspaper. That way no one will know what you are reading.

  16. I rarely see ads anymore. I have plugged in several apps to my browsers that hide pretty much everything, including tracking and auto-video players. The only time I see any of that stuff is if I deliberately enable it or I am working on a website that I am putting adverts on.

  17. I did the very same thing months ago and received the same results with the side ads. I was sick and tired of seeing all those dating ads with scantily clad women, so I decided to remove everyone of them, and now no side ads show up on my page. Now that you brought this up, I’m going to repeat the process with my news feed ads.

  18. How do we hide the Amazon and Adsense Ads on this site? Is there an App we can use? 🙂 A touch hypocritical indeed.

    The same people blocking Ads will be the first to moan and groan when a Facebook or Twitter is looking for a monthly fee. If so many users didn’t block Ads we wouldn’t need to charge a fee. You get the idea.

    A lot of media we consume is either free or heavily discounted. Why? Because of advertising. Think about it…

  19. I use Ghostery to block everything except Google Ads, trackers and analytics. I use their services heavily (including a paid Docs account) so I am happy to pay the bill ans see and use their advertising.

    I have not seen ads on Facebook, but I spend 10-15 minutes a month there… so I suppose I am unobservant, or it is Ghostery. I may turn it off for a while and try your solution.

    PS. I notice your site is using Facebook, Google and Awebber beacons, trackers, analytics and widgets. The Google ones are working, the Facebook ones are not for me.

  20. I simply use the FB Purity Browser extension – it blocks all adverts from Facebook and makes life on Facebook much more pleasant – so for me the right hand pane that for others is full of adverts – is empty!

  21. I don’t like the ads much but what really irks me is friends who share 50+ pics/videos every day. I know some very nice people who do that and it’s annoying as hell. I tell them about it once, then I block them.

  23. I suspect that when Facebook has an advertiser of the sort that you haven’t blocked yet, you’ll see something. I say this because for months I aggressively removed ads for products that don’t interest me, but I left ads, and even clicked on them, if the product interested me. Now I often go for a week at time without seeing an ad, but then I’ll see some ads again for my “preferred” products. Fortunately they’re in the sidebar, not my newsfeed.

  24. That’s not all Joel. If you run a search on Google for houses for example, the next time you visit Facebook it will display advertisements about houses. Same thing for cars, mobile phones and even ad network ads to advertise with. Google might be sharing our searches with Facebook so it can deliver ads that we “like”.

  25. I don’t mind a few ads, especially ads for quality products that are targeted to me. What annoys me are the crappy products that are not relevant to me. I realize ads are necessary for a product I get to use for free – I just want a minimum threshold of quality and relevance.

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