Few Facebook users notice ads on News Feed

The study, called “Face the Facts“, is an eye-tracking study investigating how Irish users interact with ads and media on Facebook.

It found that nearly three-quarters (71%) of Facebook users looked at ads on their Profile pages while ads on their News Feed page, or homepage, went largely unnoticed (31%).

It would seem that while News Pages are on the screen user attention is fully taken up with its content. In fact, the study found that users pay more attention to page updates in their News Feed than the ads displayed to the right of the Wall – 53% vs. 31%.

The good news for those with a Facebook presence is that once a user has “Liked” a Page, the owner can send updates to that user’s News Feed. If Mulley‘s conclusion is correct, you are more likely to get a larger share of eyeballs this way than via advertising.

Additional findings from the study include:

– 21% of users remember seeing adverts during testing of which half couldn’t remember what the advertising was about.

– Users remember seeing products in the past related to cosmetics, technology and computer products, holidays, weddings, weight-loss and dating.

– Only 3 out of 40 users have previously purchased a product they saw advertised on Facebook.

– Many users expressed dissatisfaction with the presence of advertising on Facebook.

– Different age groups spend the same amount of time on pages, but younger users spend less time reading page updates.

– No significant difference in behavior was observed between male and female users.