Facebook to Pay Users to Watch Ads

Last week Facebook launched a new platform that will reward users to watch certain advertisements on their site.  In order to improve the click-through rate for ads that appear on Facebook, the social networking site will actually pay Facebook users, in the form of Facebook credits, to watch the ads.

In what is predicted to become a major opportunity for advertisers to reach more users of the social media site, the introduction means that each of the selected ads watched would give the user one credit, which is equivalent to 10 cents.  Although earlier these credits could only be used to buy virtual goods, such as online games, users will now be able to redeem these credits in order to purchase goods from the real world. 

This breakthrough in social media engagement could only be made possible by an agreement between Facebook and game publishers such as CrowdStar and Zynga.  It has been reported that others, such as Sharethrough and Epic Media, will also be following suit.  A similar deal is also being forged with TrialPay, which will provide additional analytics for advertisers. 

The introduction of the scheme has had analysts at Pipon wondering what this will mean for the future of social media marketing.  Many people find online ads that are played against their will an annoying distraction – yet if users are rewarded to watch the ad they may pay more attention. 

Along with seeing what effect this will have on the click-through rate of ads on Facebook, it will also be interesting to where Facebook takes this idea.  Due to the game publishers that have signed up, it is clear that Facebook are currently targeting the online gaming community, who are more focused on interactive media and therefore less likely to click away from ads that could reward them with more games.  However the potential for this to expand into other industries, such as retail or music entertainment, are easy to see. 

As ever, you can join discussions on this topic on our blog.  What do you think of the idea?  Is this the future of social media marketing or is Facebook making a mistake?