Want to Get Facebook's Attention? Speak Up (Rarely)!

Facebook is asking users to provide more feedback on its ads, and the best way to make sure your voice is heard is to speak up — rarely.

Confused? Here’s how it works: When users hide an ad from their News Feed, Facebook will now ask them why they’ve decided to hide that ad, and feedback from users who rarely provide it will be given the most weight, according to a company blog post. That means that if you rarely hide ads in News Feed, the one or two times you do will have a greater impact on what ads you’re shown in the future.

With the update, Facebook says its looking for more user feedback to provide more relevant ads. For example, hiding an ad because it’s not relevant to you will impact your News Feed, but hiding an ad because it’s offensive or inappropriate may mean Facebook will show that ad less frequently to other users, too. “We’ve learned that the reason why someone hides an ad can be just as important as the hide itself,” wrote Facebook product manager Max Eulenstein in a blog post.

Facebook tinkers with News Feed regularly to show content users actually want to see. User feedback — whether explicit or not — is usually the strongest indicator for what Facebook shows you. For example, users who watch videos on Facebook will see more videos, and users who Like or comment on a post from a specific friend will see more posts and comments from that friend.

Getting this balance to work for ads is important because ads are Facebook’s attempt to guess what you might like. With an influx of auto play video ads on the horizon, Facebook has a strong interest in showing users ads they want to see.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via