Okay Geek Farm
Facebook Bans Google+ Advertisements (even from users)
Brandon Davenport
Facebook for a very long time has been one of the worlds most targeted and successful advertising networks, displaying relevent ads to users and their friends. In some cases, Facebook ads are purchased by users to show off cool things to friends and maybe a few other people who take notice — This is what happened when Michael Lee Johnson decided to buy advertising space to promote his new Google+ profile on Facebook.
Facebook, let me give you some money…
Facebook replied with this:
“Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.” — Love, Facebook
“I recently ran a Google+ advertisement on Facebook that got all of my campaigns suspended.” — Michael Lee Johnson
So, let’s break this down for you — Michael signed up for a Google+ account and dressed it up. Proud of his new online presence, he felt the urge to tell everyone he knew about his latest endevour into the world of social networks. Unable to persuade his friends to join him on Google+, Michael decided to head to where his friends were (Facebook), and catch their attention with a clever advertisement, and maybe catch a few new friends in the process — Facebook preceded to ban his account and shoot themselves in the foot (in that order).
Facebook team, you of all people…
When you think of it realisticly, Google+ is definately competing with Facebook (and aggressivly) and it would be insane for Facebook to promote Google+ in any way, but Facebook of all companies should be able to grasp the basic concept of “what you loose in the apples, you gain in oranges”.
Best case scenario — Facebook allows the ad to run and keeps quiet. Michael’s friends (and a few others) take note of the personal advertisement and maybe head over to Google+ to check it out. Facebook gets a few hundred bucks and nobody is really effected at all.
What Facebook did — Saw one of their user’s personal advertisements running, freaked out because it was for their Google+ profile and proceeded to stop the ad from running. The Facebook admins then went on to drink heavily for 4-7 hours and then ban the users account. No big deal right? Taken care of!
What comes from all of this?
Facebook may have stopped ads from running on a few pages within their website, but they sparked a user out-cry, demoted themselves as a company and gave Michael more followers than he could have ever dreamed. I mean Google has been getting more press than they could have ever dreamed — from Zuckerberg joining Google+ to this latest installment of controversy. Google+ is now the talk of the internet… and they haven’t had to lift a finger.
