The Social Network

With over 1.94 billion active users worldwide, Facebook is certainly the world's leading social media platform. Just yesterday, the social network announced it would be implementing innovative tools that will allow brands and businesses to hold more control over where their ads will appear. These tools are aimed at providing advertisers with more transparency before campaigns go live on the site. Advertisers will be provided with a comprehensive list of of publishers upfront to illustrate where their ads might appear via Instant Articles, in-stream Facebook ads, and across the general Facebook Audience Network.

This shift in transparency signifies the first time advertisers will be able to see where their ads might appear ahead of time.  In addition to pre-campaign previews, Facebook will also allow advertisers to generate an "undesirable placement list" so the companies can prevent their ads from appearing in objectionable places.  This is done by blocking them at the account level. The idea behind this is to give advertisers more certainty that their ads wont show up alongside inadmissible content. Until now, Facebook would not disclose any publisher that would be eligible to place ads through Instant Article, in-stream content or other content partnerships. Facebook delivers ads through Instant Articles and other inside videos which are created by publishing partners and it splits revenue with the creator of the content. So, these publishing programs are meant to advocate for the highest quality content for premium partners, helping both ends generate some cash flow for their efforts.

Not only will Facebook authorize pre-campaign transparency and blocking of specific publishers, but they will also free up advertiser's control over video ad's placement and the format they will use (e.g. in-stream or native and interstitial).  

"It's really important to offer this degree of control to advertisers whenever we deliver an ad experience that's deeply linked with content around it"
-Michel Protti

Facebook's director of product marketing, Michel Protti, claims these innovative tools will present advertisers with more transparency when it comes to the placement of their ads, allowing them to preview the placement before hand, rather than only after.  This keeps people locked into Facebook while simultaneously opening the door for more ad inventory.

Check out Facebook's news page for a complete, in-depth list of Facebook's new policies in regards to ad control.