Facebook Overhauls and Limits Those Despised Right-Rail Ads

When Facebook rolled out its last desktop redesign last month, it left the right column — the home of many dodgy direct-response ads — alone. Now, however, it's gotten around to cleaning them up as well.

The company announced on Wednesday that it will roll out an updated design for right-column ads in the "coming months." The new units will have the same proportions as desktop news feed ads, which means they will be bigger. There will also be fewer of them.

"For advertisers, this means a simpler way to create ads and an enhanced visual creative canvas on the right-hand column of Facebook," the company wrote in a blog post. In addition, marketers can use the same image in the right-rail ads that they use in their news feed ads Read more...